Balancing Acts: Unleashing the Power of Creativity in Your Life and Work (HarperCollins Leadership, January 2022, $28.99) by Daniel Lamarre is a book for those who need creative inspiration. Part business memoir and part self-help/motivational, the appeal of this book will land squarely on the aspiring businessman who needs an icon. It not only celebrates […]
Tag: Steppenwolf
Posted inTheater Review
Art and appropriation
Of the two plays exploring race that Steppenwolf has on stage right now—King James and WHITE—the latter definitely stands out for being not only funnier, but more complex and satisfying in its critique of race, privilege, and power. Written by James Ijames and directed by Ericka Ratcliff, Definition Theatre’s production is a delightfully silly yet […]
Posted inPerforming Arts Feature
It’s become a different world
We see a show and later learn that it had to close abruptly. We can empathize with the actors’ disappointment and distress because we can visualize their faces and recall their voices. But how has the pandemic impacted those we see only briefly in the lobby as we enter or don’t see at all? How […]
Posted inPerforming Arts Feature
Plays in a pandemic
By the time this year ends (it is gonna end, right?), Reader critics will, by my count, have reviewed 69 live theater and dance performances. That’s far less than in most years, but a veritable cornucopia after the onstage famine that began in March 2020. But just when we think it’s safe to go back […]
Posted inGhost Light
Digital theater options haven’t fallen away
With so many theaters opening their doors again for live performances (we have at least a half-dozen new reviews coming up next week, which is the most we’ve run since March 2020), it might be easy to overlook the ongoing digital drama produced by local companies. But there are still plenty of online shows to […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Map of Now provides an interactive guide to collaboration with a retro look
“The potential and the sadness and beauty of big empty spaces” inspires Lucky Plush’s The Map of Now.
Posted inArts & Culture
Sydney Chatman and Congo Square want to move past trauma porn
A Joyce Foundation grant paves the way for a community playmaking project at Congo Square focused on Black women and girls.
Posted inCity Life
Reopenings, discussions, and ¡WEPA!
Upcoming events and recommendations from our listings coordinator
Posted inArts & Culture
The Dining Room provides dramatic Possibilities
Possibilities produces a live Zoom version of The Dining Room, but Melody DeRogatis has post-pandemic plans for her company.
Posted inArts & Culture
Omer Abbas Salem is building his own canon
With Mosque4Mosque and other plays, MENA playwright and actor Omer Abbas Salem creates space for Muslim and Arab artists.
Posted inArts & Culture
Retail, resistance, and rebirth in Wally World and Kickback
Christmas Eve goes to 11 in Isaac Gómez’s workplace comedy; About Face celebrates Black queer lives, past and present.
Posted inMusic
Tawny Newsome and Bethany Thomas make thoughtful, soulful rock on Material Flats
Tawny Newsome and Bethany Thomas became friends in the 2000s, when they put in time as backup singers for a long list of forgotten bar bands, and in 2017 they both appeared on Jon Langford’s album Four Lost Souls. But it’d be a mistake to pigeonhole them as supporting players—their soulful voices have always commanded […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Bending the arc of theatrical liberation
Thinking about The Boys in the Band, Broadway, and Chicago
Posted inCity Life
The Reader’s stay-at-home chronicles: days 57 and 58
What we’re reading, watching, listening to, etc., to pass the time.
Posted inArts & Culture
Steppenwolf’s LookOut series opens its doors to younger companies
First Floor’s Plano and Definition’s White connect emerging companies and established artists.