Death is an often unwelcome teacher. It descends into our lives suddenly, without warning, or takes its sweet time. No matter when it finds us, Grief is right behind Death, bringing myriad reactions that we do not always see coming. Such is life for Jess in Emily Schwend’s A Mile in the Dark, when Jess […]
Tag: Georgette Verdin
Posted inAgenda
Readings from Remaking the Exceptional, Interrobang Theatre Project, and more
This summer, DePaul Art Museum hosted “Remaking the Exceptional,” a group exhibition curated by artist and activists Aaron Hughes and Amber Ginsburg that explored the similarities between survivors of torture at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp and survivors of police torture in Chicago. This evening, Ginsburg and fellow activists celebrate the release of Remaking the […]
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
Revolutionary abstractions
“Not that it matters, but most of what follows is true,” reads the supertitle projected over a stage sparsely set with stools. Enter a small conference of artists tasked with establishing a school to nurture and transmit their craft. Amid the heady debate over whether history and technique are still relevant in a new world […]
Posted inTheater Review
West Virginia woes
Williamson, West Virginia, is in the heart of Hatfield-McCoy history, but the conflict driving apart a family in Madison Fiedler’s Spay, now in a world premiere at Rivendell under Georgette Verdin’s direction, is rooted in opioids, not moonshine. Kindergarten teacher Harper (Krystel McNeil) has just brought home her half-sister Noah (Rae Gray) from the hospital, […]
Posted inTheater Review
This Wide Night offers a searing look at solitary confinement after prison
The walls of the grim and grimy London bedsit show faint outlines of the pictures that once hung upon them—a gallery of absence. It’s a simple but gut-punching reminder that the two women in Chloë Moss’s This Wide Night are defined mostly by what they don’t have. Namely, as recently paroled convicts, second chances—followed closely […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Out of Love traces the rocky path of the lifespan of a friendship
Elinor Cook’s drama gets a gritty and tender U.S. premiere from Interrobang Theatre Project.
Posted inArts & Culture
Utility shows the high cost of living in quiet desperation
Emily Schwend’s drama is a resonant portrait of life in the shadows of the American dream.
Posted inArts & Culture
American Hero, Into the Empty Sky, and eight more new theater reviews
“Sandwich artists” go rogue and nameless women go nowhere in two of this week’s notable stage shows.
Posted inArts & Culture
The Bardy Bunch, The Last Wife, A Walk in the Woods, and ten more new stage shows
A mashup of Shakespeare with The Partridge Family and The Brady Bunch is one of this week’s high- (or maybe lowlights).
Posted inArts & Culture
Making art out of Hurricane Katrina’s suffering
Ten years after the disaster in New Orleans, true stories of survival fill a pair of Chicago productions.