Ruth Page Center for the Arts (1016 N. Dearborn) offers its Fall Showcase 2022, the debut performance of the current Ruth Page Civic Ballet Training Company, tonight and tomorrow at 7 PM. The program includes Steady Going, a new piece by South Chicago Dance Theatre founder and artistic director Kia Smith; Dreaming With Ruth Page: […]
Tag: Destinos
Posted inTheater Review
Rich family fare
As someone whose older sisters are over a dozen years her senior, Sancocho (presented by Visión Latino Theatre Company as part of the fifth Destinos: Chicago International Latino Theater Festival) spoke directly to mi alma. Named for a type of beef stew, this show highlights the significance of familia for the best or otherwise. Peppered […]
Posted inPerforming Arts Feature
Ghosts of gentrification
As fall settles into Chicago, a ghostly chill raises the hackles of those attuned to a different kind of presence in the city’s streets. We live in a city of disappearances: from the original loss of home of Chicago’s many Native tribes, to the thousands of people disappeared by the Chicago Police Department into the […]
Posted inTheater Review
A life in song
The UrbanTheater Company’s performing space on Division Street is not small—I have seen them stage plays there just packed with actors—but it is really not large enough to contain all that Flaco Navaja brings to it in this tight little solo show. For 80 minutes, the New York-based chameleon poet, actor, and singer fills the […]
Posted inTheater Review
Whose life is it, anyway?
What is an artist’s relationship to their art? The complexities of that question form the central story in Franco-Uruguayan playwright Sergio Blanco’s Tebas Land, now appearing under the direction of Argentinean director Juan Parodi in its U.S premiere as part of the fifth Destinos: Chicago International Latino Theater Festival. Presented by the Chicago Latino Theater […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Two Destinos plays center women’s experiences
Two emotionally intense woman-centered productions are among the offerings at this fall’s fifth Destinos: Chicago International Latino Theater Festival, with the first focusing on the psychological pitfalls in a tested relationship, while the second delves into a brilliant, neurodiverse woman’s challenges and triumphs. Enough to Let the Light In Through 10/23: Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat […]
Posted inTheater Review
Stranger things
What if the person you love—the one you want to spend the rest of your life with—were to confess a secret so bizarre, so disturbing, that it makes you question whether you know them at all? How do you truly accept every part of a person when you can’t begin to understand one of their […]
Posted inTheater Review
High-rise havoc
On the rooftop of a high-rise, one of many in the forest of silhouettes that comprises our city’s skyline, a professor (Dan Hanrahan) and an automotive engineer (Juanjo López) have been locked out for six days, surviving on trickles of water sluiced out of the bottom of a trash can and bread crumbs that appear […]
Posted inAgenda
People’s Music Fest, Queen! at Ravinia, Podlasie reopening, and more
If you’re a fan of music and Reader staff writer Kelly Garcia’s Riot Fest coverage, this event is for you! From 2-8 PM, the all-ages People’s Music Fest, which calls attention to the impact of festivals on Douglass Park and its neighbors, is happening at Cermak and Marshall. Performers include Bussy Qween Power Trip, Ghost […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Some best bets for the fall harvest of performance
It’s impossible to summarize everything that’s happening onstage this season. (It’s also hard to tell you exactly what COVID-19 precautions are required at venues now; we suggest checking ahead and being prepared to show proof of vax, and wearing a mask as a courtesy to other patrons.) But here are ten offerings that promise to […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Season of the witch
Karla Galván fell in love with performing when she was five, appearing in a public celebration of a Mother’s Day performance her mother had put together. “She’s like, ‘OK, mija, you’re going to dance,’” Galván remembers. “And so I danced to this song and I’ll never forget the adrenaline of the nerves going on stage, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Remembering Myrna Salazar 1947-2022
Next month, the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance will present the fifth annual Destinos Chicago International Theater Festival. But it will be bittersweet; the woman most responsible for making the festival a reality, CLATA cofounder and executive director Myrna Salazar, won’t be there to see it. Salazar died on Wednesday, August 3, two weeks after celebrating […]
Posted inCity Life
Successful Failures, Destinos, Big Chill, and more
We’re in the middle of Hanukkah now and the post-Thanksgiving holiday melee of holiday shopping pop-ups and light festivals is underway, but there’s still a few non-holiday-themed activities out there. Here’s a few things to do in the next seven days that will help you embrace the season (or just plain enjoy December in Chicago). […]
Posted inTheater Review
Y Tu Abuela, Where is She? explores identity and family codependency
As part of this year’s Destinos: Chicago International Latino Theater Festival, Visión Latino Theatre Company presents the world premiere of Y Tu Abuela, Where is She? Written by Puerto Rican playwright Nelson Diaz-Marcano and directed by Xavier M. Custodio, Y Tu Abuela is not the writer’s first collaboration with VLTC, a company of Latinx artists […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Destinos showcases local and international theater companies
By definition, futurology is the study of current trends, the findings of which can be used to forecast future developments. It’s also a schema that applies perfectly to this current, uncertain era of Chicago theater, and one that is the driving ethos behind Teatro Vista’s 30th season, the first to be helmed by the company’s […]