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Author Archives: Jack Helbig
Posted inArts & Culture
The Firestorm pulls its punches in its examination of white privilege
Our hero a racist? No sirree!
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Writers Theatre strips down A Number to its absorbing essentials
Robin Witt’s production takes a somber tone, downplaying the comic turns.
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Best for Winter undergoes a late thaw
A simple, elegant Shakespeare adaptation
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Mahalia Jackson: Moving Thru the Light sticks to the Black Ensemble Theatre formula
The music’s fabulous, but the story’s thin.
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Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde is incandescent theater
Jamie Bragg and Heather Smith embody the love that dares to speak its name.
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Act(s) of God provides no justification for its existence
Actor Kareem Bandealy’s playwriting debut overreaches.
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Louder Than a Bomb returns for its 19th season of slam poetry competitions
Young poets describe its explosive effect on their lives.
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Spoiler alert: Nothing is as it seems On Clover Road
Steven Dietz’s play sucker punches its audience again and again and again.
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Nina Simone: Four Women could use a lot more of her songs
Christina Ham’s play can’t decide whether it’s a jukebox musical revue or a dramatic stage bio.
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All Childish Things is what happens when Star Wars meets Ocean’s 11
Joe Zettelmaier’s heist comedy unfolds with the grace of a well-maintained droid.
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In Red Rex, Ike Holter’s Chicago Cycle gets meta
A play about a storefront theater playing in a storefront theater
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Family drama unfolds with Small Jokes About Monsters
So Godzilla, Mothra, and Gamera go to a funeral. . .
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The ten shows from 2018 our critics won’t soon forget
Witches, monsters, selkies, cosmic musings and family dramas, and, of course, the Golden Girls
Posted inArts & Culture
Isaac Gomez wanted to know more about the women who were abducted on their way to work in Juarez. So he wrote La Ruta.
The El Paso-born playwright’s newest work premieres this week at Steppenwolf.