Curious Theatre Branch Archives

Black-and-white image of a man and woman sittinmg and embracing, surrounded by sandbags like a World War I trench

‘We don’t want to get bigger. We want to get deeper.’

by Kerry Reid September 20, 2023September 21, 2023

This week, we’re kicking off a new occasional series, Stages of Survival, spotlighting theater companies that are, despite the pervasive gloom-and-doom narratives about the performing arts, still producing. The plan is to eventually encompass a broad range of companies: Equity and non-Equity, those that are itinerant and those that have their own spaces, and companies […]

A white man with thinning brown hair sits at left. On the other side of the table is a white woman with short brown hair. They are clutching the sides of the table and leaning in toward each other.

Theater Review

Moon at the Bottom of the Ocean explores artistic jealousy and romantic need

by Kerry Reid September 6, 2023September 7, 2023

It’s beginning to feel like we’re having a mini festival this year of plays about the romantic and professional conflicts facing artist (or academic) couples, between First Floor’s Hatefuck by Rehana Lew Mirza and Steppenwolf’s Another Marriage by Kate Arrington. Bryn Magnus’s latest comedy, Moon at the Bottom of the Ocean, perhaps completes the trifecta. […]

Performing Arts Feature

Rhino Fest comes charging back

by Kerry Reid May 31, 2023June 4, 2023

When you’ve been around for decades, paradoxically it’s sometimes easy to be overlooked. I’m reminded of this every time I hear someone ask why Chicago doesn’t have its own fringe theater festival and politely remind them that the Rhinoceros Theater Festival (more commonly known as Rhino Fest) is right there. First presented in 1988 as […]

Four people stand in a row onstage. A woman in a striped sweater and glasses is on the left. A woman in a green sweater is next to her on the right. The next woman is wearing a gray sweater and a red knit cap, clutching an old manual typewriter to her chest. A bald man stands at the right. The first two women and the man are all touching the woman in the red cap, as if asking her for something.

Theater Review

When a chair is a springboard

by Dmitry Samarov February 9, 2023February 9, 2023

Appropriation, wordplay, riffs on news headlines, improv skits, and a grab bag of absurdist tropes get thrown in a hat to very uneven ends in Curious Theatre Branch’s set of four half-hour plays responding to Caryl Churchill’s This Is a Chair. This Is Not a ChurchillThrough 2/25: Fri-Sat 8 PM, Facility Theatre, 1138 N. California, […]

Three women are standing together, shot from below. There is a gray background behind them. They are unsmiling, staring into the middle distance. The woman in the middle has her arms crossed over her chest.

Ghost Light

Caryl Churchill gets some love from Chicago theaters

by Kerry Reid February 3, 2023February 6, 2023

British playwright Caryl Churchill is having a bit of a moment this month in Chicago. Court Theatre opens her rarely produced 1983 play, Fen, under the direction of Vanessa Stalling on February 10. And Curious Theatre Branch opens This Is Not a Churchill—four plays inspired by her work—this weekend at the Facility Theatre in Humboldt […]

Agenda

Sounds & S’mores, Acid Nun, the Crooked Mouth, and more

by Micco Caporale, Salem Collo-Julin and Kerry Reid September 30, 2022September 30, 2022

Artist Khaaliq Haneef closes out his debut solo show, “The Devious Mind of Khaaliq Haneef” with Sounds & S’mores, an open mike at the Lawndale Pop-Up Spot (1408 S. Central Park). Hip-hop and R&B artist Khing Kwon will be master of ceremonies, and DJ Ramiro, who has a monthly night at Osito’s Tap in Little […]

Agenda

Youth art, Slo ’Mo, and more

by Micco Caporale and Kerry Reid August 12, 2022August 12, 2022

Summer is coming to a close, and Yollocalli Arts Reach, the free youth arts education program offered through the National Museum of Mexican Art, is looking back at another hot one in the city with an exhibition. See what mediums, styles, and ideas have been captivating Pilsen kids this season at Jardin Malinalli (2800 S. […]

Beau O'Reilly in front of Jimmy Beans Coffee

Music

Beau O’Reilly keeps the folk cabaret alive

by Mark Guarino April 13, 2022April 13, 2022

The email Paul Finkelman received last month from Beau O’Reilly read simply, “Can your car fit a piano? . . . Please advise.” The answer was obviously no. Finkelman owned a small hatchback—and besides, there was no way a piano would make it up the narrow stairs at Jimmy Beans Coffee, where he works as […]

Performing Arts Feature

Remembering Matt Rieger: ‘a good egg for the ages’

by Jenny Magnus, Beau O'Reilly and Julia Williams November 29, 2021November 29, 2021

Editor’s Note: Matt Rieger, managing director and ensemble member of the Curious Theatre Branch, died on October 27 at 50, following a recent cancer diagnosis. Rieger’s death led to an outpouring of tributes on social media, reminding many of how instrumental he had been in many roles onstage and off over his years as a […]