Manual Cinema Archives - Chicago Reader

Black Arts Movement School, Looking for Jean-Luc, and more

by Micco Caporale, Kerry Reid and Salem Collo-Julin November 29, 2022November 29, 2022

It’s the final week to catch the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s “SAIC Faculty Sabbatical Triennial” exhibition, which features work produced by 38 faculty members who completed a sabbatical or a similar paid leave during the last three academic years. Not only does this show represent the breadth of ideas and creative practices […]

two performers and a band with a screen behind them

Arts & Culture

The theme is love at Pop-Up Magazine

by Sheri Flanders October 27, 2022October 27, 2022

On October 28, Pop-Up Magazine will be staged at the Athenaeum Center for Thought and Culture.

On a screen above the stage, we see the live projection of a young Black person with a puppet of a purple monster. On the stage, we see a table with projectors and other equipment. The actors and puppets are standing behind the table.

Theater Review

Monster mash-up

by Katie Powers September 14, 2022September 14, 2022

The Chicago Children’s Theatre’s 18th season kicks off with Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster, an innovative production from the Emmy Award-winning multimedia performance collective, Manual Cinema. Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster Through 10/16: Sat-Sun 9:30 and 11:30 AM, Chicago Children’s Theatre, 100 S. Racine, 312-374-8835, chicagochildrenstheatre.org, $25-$36 Based on […]

Arts & Culture

‘You have to respect the power of objects’

by Max Maller November 11, 2021November 11, 2021

In July, as COVID-19 restrictions began to lift and the Chicago performing arts geared themselves up to resurrect, the Rough House Theater Co. headquarters at coartistic directors Claire Saxe and Mike Oleon’s home in Humboldt Park morphed into a puppet rehearsal palace. Rough House’s anthology production House of the Exquisite Corpse wouldn’t be opening at […]

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Anthony McCoy in Candyman

Film

Nia DaCosta’s Candyman hooks into something new

by Sheri Flanders August 27, 2021August 31, 2021

The new Candyman film draws inspiration from the original from the very first scene of the opening credits. Just as the 1992 version began with a slow crawl along the highway, the 2021 version follows the path of the el tracks, then flips, traveling skyward and westward through downtown in a stunning, upside-down shot of […]