Kimzyn Campbell, author at Chicago Reader

A woman in a short white dress and head covering hangs airborne, one hand clutching a silk rope. To her right and holding her other hand is a man in a dark tunic. His back is to the camera

Quixote goes airborne

by Kimzyn Campbell February 23, 2023February 23, 2023

Circus Quixotic, the winter circus production at The Actors Gymnasium, flips the story of Don Quixote into a modern retelling. Through metaphor and audience asides from the actors, director and adapter duo David and Kerry Catlin condense Miguel de Cervantes’s 1,072-page tome of misadventures into a family-friendly chunk of mayhem featuring the title character and […]

A red-headed woman in a pale checked dress and a brocade vest stands left, looking left. Next to her is a woman with dark hair in a long gray cloak who is holding a black-and-gold valise. The wall behind them is covered in old cursive writing resembling a letter.

Theater Review

Take that, Jane!

by Kimzyn Campbell February 23, 2023February 22, 2023

Lookingglass Theatre Company’s world premiere of Villette, a modern adaptation (written by Sara Gmitter and directed by Tracy Walsh) of Charlotte Brontë’s novel, explores the travails of a woman determined to stand on her own and not live in a fairy-tale world of romance. Graced with a rock-solid work ethic, Lucy Snowe is unwilling to […]

A woman in a black dress reclines in shadowy light. She is holding a puppet figure made of ice. She is barefoot, her feet covered with dirt.

Arts & Culture

Water, ice, shadows, and squirrels

by Kimzyn Campbell January 12, 2023January 12, 2023

For 12 days this month, Chicago will be home to fantastical puppets and artists from Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Norway, Japan, South Africa, Spain, and the United States. The shows in the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival (now in its fifth year) cover a diverse range of topics, from reimagining classic myths and […]

A Black actor in a toy soldier's costume stands center. Two people holding a long piece of rippling blue fabric stand in front of him. The orchestra is in the foreground. The scene is washed with green and blue lighting effects, as if they are underwater.

Theater Review

A Steadfast seasonal favorite

by Kimzyn Campbell November 23, 2022November 23, 2022

It begins festively enough with a giant advent calendar revealing hints of the story to come. Some symbols are cheering, like wreaths and a violin. But others are mysterious—why a giant fish and a wheelbarrow? In The Steadfast Tin Soldier, created and directed by Mary Zimmerman (from the story by Hans Christian Andersen), we soon […]

Arts & Culture

Exploring memory and loss with circus and clowning in Memorabilia

by Kimzyn Campbell November 17, 2022November 17, 2022

Like many of us, Salvador the inventor has a lot of gadgets. Instead of accessing TikTok with his smartphone, he has an admittedly more retro and cartoonlike system, featuring giant levers and light-bulb colander hats to go with his tape deck and phonographs. His aesthetic is steampunk hoarder melded with cottagecore quaintness, but the end […]

In the center we see a person in knee-length red boots and a costume vaguely suggestive of armor, standing with a sword upraised and mischievous grin on their face. They are surrounded by five other actors, who are all thrusting swords toward them. In the back is another person in a gold-and-red gown, standing with arms outstretched and looking excited by the action.

Theater Review

Bardfoolery

by Kimzyn Campbell November 15, 2022November 15, 2022

Reminiscent of Shakespeare’s first play The Two Gentlemen of Verona, the new Shakespeare-inspired comedy titled Malapert Love by first-time playwright Siah Berlatsky would make the bard proud. Letters and sonnets are written by servants, plagiarized to woo a fleeting infatuation. Identities are swapped, fools are poets and poets are fools, friends become lovers, and the […]

Mask of a face with blunt dark bangs is held up in the foreground by another figure wearing a mask that appears to be some sort of fantastical creature

Theater Review

Puppet peep show of horror

by Kimzyn Campbell October 19, 2022October 20, 2022

If you want to move beyond schlock and shock into an elevated horror experience this October, look no further than House of the Exquisite Corpse—A Haunted Puppet Anthology at Chopin Theater in Wicker Park. Created by the brilliant minds at Rough House Theater, this show is a Frankenstein of seven rooms and body parts stitched […]

Theater Review

Mystery train

by Kimzyn Campbell September 14, 2022September 14, 2022

It is 2022 still, so . . . a nostalgic romp through a bygone era with a whodunit twist? Bring it! Ken Ludwig transformed Agatha Christie’s novel into a riveting stage text. This timeless mystery is an examination of the limits of a justice system, which may account for its eternal appeal. I will say […]

Lit Feature

Printers Row Lit Fest embraces Chicago’s writers

by Kimzyn Campbell September 7, 2022September 7, 2022

Printers Row Lit Fest has been bringing all things literary to the streets of the Printers Row neighborhood for 37 years. The festivities return for the second weekend of September with a packed schedule of events. The festival is many things to many people: a homage to the publishing industry, a shopping spree for book […]

A diverse group of five actors stand embracing in front of a panel of purple lights.

Arts & Culture

Musical makeover

by Kimzyn Campbell June 9, 2022June 16, 2022

If you spend any time breathing, you may have noticed polarities everywhere these days, most emanating from a belief gulf that is exponentially widening between conservatives and liberals with every Twitter post. One polarity being heightened not just in social media, but also in government chambers and around dinner tables, is the divide between LGBTQ+ […]

Four people in folding chairs onstage enacting the Tea Party. The first two are men in suits with hats, then Alice in a white dress and black-and-white striped stockings, with a man in a pink and white pinafore at the far right. The men all have their hands raised in the air, while Alice looks on with delight.

Theater Review

Chess, circus, and the game of life

by Kimzyn Campbell May 19, 2022May 19, 2022

Here is a riddle for you: What do a game of chess and life have in common?* Inside the tidy, rule-driven universe of a chess board, seven-year-old Alice stumbles upon the inexplicable and absurd rules of a new world. Every fledgling chess player will empathize as Alice is met with surprise after surprise in this […]

Woman acrobat suspended by her ponytail in the air, sitting in lotuslike position

Arts & Culture

The business of circus

by Kimzyn Campbell March 30, 2022April 4, 2022

Balancing Acts: Unleashing the Power of Creativity in Your Life and Work (HarperCollins Leadership, January 2022, $28.99) by Daniel Lamarre is a book for those who need creative inspiration. Part business memoir and part self-help/motivational, the appeal of this book will land squarely on the aspiring businessman who needs an icon. It not only celebrates […]

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