Collette Pollard Archives - Chicago Reader

A woman with long blonde hair sits at a pub table next to a man with short brown hair. They both wear jeans and work shirts, with pints of beer in their hands.

A universe of privation

by Irene Hsiao February 21, 2023February 21, 2023

No wings close the expanse of earth that widens the Court Theatre stage to a landscape in Caryl Churchill’s Fen, directed by Vanessa Stalling, with scenic design by Collette Pollard. The terraced land, hemmed in scalloped edges by shining metal borders, looks like the ocean, diminished and immobilized in its crash against the massive concrete […]

A Black woman and a white man sit next to each other in a set piece resembling the front of a garbage truck. He is at the wheel, and she is smiling at him. They both wear greenish-gray coveralls and knit hats.

Theater Review

Trash talk

by Kerry Reid September 14, 2022September 14, 2022

Lindsay Joelle’s The Garbologists, now in a local premiere at Northlight under Cody Estle’s direction, is a slice-of-life two-hander about an odd-couple pair of New York sanitation workers. Marlowe (Tiffany Renee Johnson) is a Black woman with multiple degrees in art history from Columbia. Danny (Luigi Sottile) is a brash motormouth white man from Staten […]

Maria Von Trapp, in a beige dress and straw hat, leads the Von Trapp children in sailor suits in a dance.

Theater Review

Some favorite things

by Bridgette M. Redman April 28, 2022April 28, 2022

Banish all thoughts of Julie Andrews and the classic film The Sound of Music and take in the stage version at Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire. From top to bottom, from eldest to first-grader Reese Bella, the voices are stunning. Whether standards such as “My Favorite Things” or the lesser-known “How Can Love Survive,” the songs […]