During 2020, my running joke was that, although there weren’t any plays happening, there was always plenty of drama to report on in Chicago theater. In fall of 2021, we started seeing some theater return, though the season was cut short by last December’s COVID surge. (Not to be confused with the one we’re currently […]
Tag: iO
Posted inArts & Culture
A tsunami of news and a new path for Actors’ Equity membership
Changes in faces, places, and union rules might carry harbingers of a shifting landscape in Chicago theater.
Posted inArts & Culture
Remembering John Michalski
John Michalski, onetime Chicago improv teacher and performer, never found great fame. But he embodied the art form at its purest.
Posted inArts & Culture
ComedySportz moves out of its Belmont Avenue venue
But the comedy games continue online; plus Raven announces a new-play development commission.
Posted inCity Life
Is your lovin’ worth two transfers?
What our listings coordinator is musing about this week
Posted inArts & Culture
iO past, present, and nonfuture
Remembering the comedy theater’s humble beginnings and reflecting on its dramatic end
Posted inArts & Culture
Improvising at a distance
Instructors adapt to online comedy and improv courses.
Posted inArts & Culture
Remembering Michael McCarthy
Tributes from actors, comedians, and friends of the Chicago comedy legend.
Posted inArts & Culture
Gina DeLuca walks the live lit line between funny and tragic
Her new monthly showcase at Duke of Perth creates a community for newbies and vets alike.
Posted inArts & Culture
Bare-knuckled theatrics
For 41 years, the Chicago Theatre Softball League has meant summertime camaraderie for the city’s troupes.
Posted inArts & Culture
Shannon Noll uses comedy to defy expectations and define themself
Comedian Shannon Noll is using their new webseries and photo project to subvert expectations of gender and sexuality.
Posted inBlogs
Indivisible Chicago’s Blue Wave Rave uses improv to mobilize political action
“Improv actors are like the best canvassers ever!”
Posted inArts & Culture
The two improv teams in Oh Hell Yeah demonstrate that timing is everything
In less time, Wet Bus covers more ground than Alterboyz.
Posted inArts & Culture
In CDC in 4-D, the Comedy Dance Collective indulges its oral fixation
It’s a show better consumed in a state of inebriation.
Posted inBlogs
Before Peele met Key or wanted to Get Out, he was onstage in Chicago
And his show, Two White Guys, which he performed with Rebecca Drysdale at ImprovOlympic, was pretty good.