A daily dip into the stacks, leading up to our 50th anniversary in October
Category: Arts & Culture
Posted inPerforming Arts Review
Good medicine
This take on Gaetano Donizetti’s 1832 comic opera, L’elisir d’amore, is a two-act antidote for our COVID-plagued reality. Cleverly directed by Daniel Slater and beautifully designed by Robert Innes Hopkins, it’s another one-set production, but what a set! In contrast to Macbeth’s interminable gray, this Elixir transports us to a sunny resort hotel in colorful […]
Posted inTheater Review
Thirteen Days that shook the world
There are different schools of thought on how the world avoided its own destruction during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. The case put forward in Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s memoir Thirteen Days (published posthumously in 1969), the basis for this original adaptation for the stage by Brian Pastor, is unambiguous. After an […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Destinos showcases local and international theater companies
By definition, futurology is the study of current trends, the findings of which can be used to forecast future developments. It’s also a schema that applies perfectly to this current, uncertain era of Chicago theater, and one that is the driving ethos behind Teatro Vista’s 30th season, the first to be helmed by the company’s […]
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“City on Fire: Chicago 1871”
From its humble beginnings as a settlement founded by the Haitian Afro-Frenchman Jean Baptiste Point du Sable in the late 18th century, Chicago experienced explosive growth in the 19th century to become a hub of American economic and industrial innovation and progress. As wars and the forcible removal of the region’s indigenous population opened up […]
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Open House Chicago
Open House Chicago (OHC), produced by the Chicago Architecture Center (CAC), is back this October, with a multitude of ways to discover the city’s greatest treasures. Enjoy behind-the-scenes access to architecturally, historically, and culturally significant sites in over 30 neighborhoods during this free festival on October 16-17. Explore sites across Chicago, in a diverse array […]
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Romanticism to ruin: The Garrick Theatre
The Wrightwood 659 exhibition “Romanticism to Ruin: Two Lost Works of Sullivan and Wright” explores two long-demolished architectural masterpieces: Louis Sullivan’s Garrick Theatre, which opened in Chicago in 1892, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Administration Building, which opened in Buffalo in 1904. The exhibition opens on September 24. The destruction of the Garrick Theatre (originally […]
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Romanticism to ruin: The Larkin Administration Building
The Wrightwood 659 exhibition “Romanticism to Ruin: Two Lost Works of Sullivan and Wright” explores two long-demolished architectural masterpieces, Louis Sullivan’s Garrick Theatre, which opened in Chicago in 1892, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Administration Building, which opened in Buffalo in 1904. The exhibition is open through November 27. Designed for the Larkin Soap Company, […]
Posted inGhost Light
More changes at the top for Chicago-area theaters
Goodman, Congo Square, and Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights all announce major changes at the top.
Posted inArts & Culture
The midwest, tweet by tweet
When Josh Lipnik answers the phone for our interview, he’s pulled over on a drive to Cleveland, on his way to take photos for his popular Midwest Modern Twitter account (62,500 followers and counting). Think of Midwest Modern like a photographic road trip through the region. Lipnik hunts out the hidden gems beyond the city […]
Posted inTheater Review
These girls are still golden
Hell in a Handbag’s Golden Girls parody sexes it up at the Leather Archives & Museum.
Posted inArts & Culture
When art and life are intertwined
“What kind of a community do you want to live in?” That question, which can be found on the Stockyard Institute’s home page, is at the core of the organization’s identity. Founded by Jim Duignan in 1995, the Stockyard Institute is part civics project, part art practice, and wholly an experiment in liberatory social practice […]
Posted inPerforming Arts Review
Risking all for opera
A Verdi classic, a twist on Bizet, and a doubleheader of new work kick off the opera season in Chicago.
Posted inArts & Culture
Our earth bodies, ourselves
“Humankind has always been very curious and driven to find out about life forms in outer space, but not so curious about life forms on the planet,” Giovanni Aloi remarked as he showed me each work of art included in “Earthly Observatory,” an exhibition that he curated with artist/scientist Andrew S. Yang. Over 30 artists […]