Mark Larson, author at Chicago Reader

Frank Galati, an older balding white man with a full beard and glasses, is seated and photographed at a rehearsal. He is wearing a black shirt with the sleeves rolled above his elbows, and his arms are crossed over his chest. There is a big smile on his face.

In the room with Frank Galati

by Mark Larson January 17, 2023January 19, 2023

Actor, director, playwright, screenwriter, and professor Dr. Frank Galati died on January 2, 2023, but his impact on those he worked with and loved (they were one and the same) and his legacy are imperishable. He won two Tony Awards in 1990 for adapting and directing The Grapes of Wrath, and was a nominee in […]

Mark Larson seated left with notebook, talking to Richard Christiansen, seated right

Arts & Culture

A time that was wonderful

by Mark Larson February 14, 2022February 14, 2022

I didn’t meet the revered Chicago Tribune theater critic, Richard Christiansen, until 2016 when I started interviewing him for my book Ensemble: An Oral History of Chicago Theater. He was 84 years old and living at The Selfhelp Home, an assisted living facility for older Jewish adults where a caregiver he particularly liked would sit […]

Performing Arts Feature

It’s become a different world

by Mark Larson January 20, 2022January 20, 2022

We see a show and later learn that it had to close abruptly. We can empathize with the actors’ disappointment and distress because we can visualize their faces and recall their voices. But how has the pandemic impacted those we see only briefly in the lobby as we enter or don’t see at all? How […]

Arts & Culture

An actor who stayed

by Mark Larson December 17, 2021December 17, 2021

Editor’s note: William J. Norris, a veteran Chicago actor whose career included playing Scrooge for the Goodman production of A Christmas Carol for a dozen years and performing with the late Organic Theater in their legendary sci-fi serial, Warp!, died at his home in Iowa on November 30 at age 75. Mark Larson, author of […]

Arts & Culture

Forever Ed Asner

by Mark Larson September 8, 2021September 8, 2021

“Do you prefer I use Ed or Edward in my book about you? People always call you Ed, but when I see your name on the screen, it’s always Edward.” “The reason I use Edward in credits is because Ed is over too fast. It doesn’t maintain the screen or the page. So, I prefer […]

Arts & Culture

Southern Gothic gave Windy City Playhouse a blueprint for immersive theater

by Mark Larson January 22, 2020August 18, 2021

The author of Ensemble: An Oral History of Chicago Theater talks to the creators about how the long-running hit came to be.

Arts & Culture

How Jim Shiflett built the church of off-Loop theater

by Mark Larson December 30, 2019August 18, 2021

The founder of Body Politic died in December, but the seeds he planted 50 years ago played an immeasurable role in the growth of Chicago’s small theater scene.