TimeLine Theatre Archives - Chicago Reader

Beth Lacke as Heidi Schreck stands center in front of a podium. To her left is Raymond Fox as an American Legion member, seated ina. chair.

The state of our rights

by Kerry Reid May 24, 2023May 26, 2023

To say that Heidi Schreck’s 2017 Pulitzer-and-Tony-nominated play What the Constitution Means to Me hits differently in a post-Roe v. Wade world is a huge understatement. TimeLine’s current production (the first by a local company—Schreck’s piece, which she originally performed, has been seen here twice on tour, pre- and post-COVID shutdown), moves the show from […]

Hattie McDaniel (Gabrielle Lott-Rogers) stands left in front of a bar, in a vibrant blue gown, with a gardenia in her hair. Dottie (Mildred Marie Langford) stands right behind the bar, wearing a black-and-white maid's outfit. She is looking at a piece of paper containing a thank-you speech for the Oscars that the studio wrote for McDaniel.

Theater Review

#OscarsSoWhite

by Kerry Reid February 15, 2023February 15, 2023

This past fall, TimeLine offered a blistering revival of Alice Childress’s Trouble in Mind, in which a Black actress in a 1950s Broadway play about lynching (penned and directed by white men, naturally) takes a stand against the insulting stereotypes in the script and the microaggressions in the rehearsal room. They’ve followed that up with […]

In the foreground on the left, a white man in white shirt, suspenders, and tan trousers faces a Black woman in a 1950s-style blue dress. Behind them on the left we see a Black man, also in shirt, trousers, and suspenders, and a white woman in a brown suit dress, looking at the argument unfolding between the two characters in the foreground.

Theater Review

She sees you, white American theater

by Kerry Reid November 17, 2022November 30, 2022

Alice Childress’s Trouble in Mind made its off-Broadway debut in 1955, but it never made the leap to the Great White Way (emphasis most definitely on “White”). The white producers demanded that Childress give her story about racism in the American theater a happier ending depicting racial harmony. (Pause for irony.) Childress refused at first, […]

A white woman in a cloche hat and 1930s suit sits left at a round table covered with a white cloth. She is leaning in and talking to a white man in a gray suit who is seated left. His hat and two highball glasses sit on the table between them.

Theater Review

Screwball smear tactics

by Kerry Reid August 16, 2022August 26, 2022

Politics has always been a “smelly kitchen,” to borrow a phrase from Jean Anouilh’s version of Antigone. But in 1933, two new cooks entered that kitchen. And the recipes they came up with continue to befoul the air of American elections. Leone Baxter and Clem Whitaker (a widow and a married man who eventually became […]

Agenda

Jail support, political consultants, and The Bat

by Micco Caporale, Salem Collo-Julin and Kerry Reid August 1, 2022August 1, 2022

Chicago Community Jail Support, the volunteer mutual aid network that supports people recently released from Cook County Jail, hosts two teach-ins and volunteer training sessions on Zoom this month to guide people in how to lend a hand in meeting the needs of those who are recently incarcerated. Learn skills like setting up and breaking […]

Five dancers in red cloaks crouch in a semi-circle, their hands raised in fists before them.

Performing Arts Feature

Hot weather, hot shows

by Kerry Reid, Irene Hsiao and Deanna Isaacs June 22, 2022July 8, 2022

Summer is officially here, in case the sweat and lightning bugs weren’t enough of a clue. In addition to the shows and artists we profiled in our summer arts preview issue this week, we’ve got just a few suggestions for other offerings in theater, dance, and opera that look promising—whether you’re looking for a nice […]

An Asian man sits left, looking at a Chinese woman. Both are in what appears to be traditional Chinese clothing of the 19th century.

Theater Review

The price of exposure

by Sheri Flanders May 20, 2022June 7, 2022

In Viola Spolin’s seminal work Improvisation for the Theater, the very first exercise listed is named “exposure.” During this exercise, a group of actors are divided into halves and instructed to simply look at others and allow others to look at them. This deceptively difficult task often challenges new performers greatly; not only do they […]

City Life

These events ain’t for fools

by Salem Collo-Julin, Micco Caporale and Kerry Reid April 1, 2022April 1, 2022

Even though we’re posting this on April 1, we’re not foolin’: we think you’ll find something to enjoy in this week’s list of upcoming events. FRI 4/1 Chicago Repertory Ballet celebrates its tenth anniversary with a program called, appropriately enough, Ten. The lineup includes three world premieres: Transcending Quiet, a pas de deux and “study […]

Two Black women sit together in a chair. The woman on the left wears an evening dress, while the one on the right is in a less formal dress. They are looking at a book.

Theater Review

History is Relentless

by Kerry Reid February 2, 2022February 17, 2022

The year 1919 is having a theatrical moment this season in Chicago, even with Steppenwolf postponing the world premiere of Eve L. Ewing’s 1919 (which was originally slated to open this week as part of the Steppenwolf for Young Adults series) until fall of 2022. That watershed year in American history comes to complicated and […]

Arts & Culture

Tyla Abercrumbie is about more than The Chi

by Janaya Greene November 24, 2021November 24, 2021

Playwright, actor, director, and artist Tyla Abercrumbie remembers when she was called to theater as clear as day. Blue lights beamed from a ceiling as Alvin Ailey dancers weaved and flowed with silk fabrics, making grade school Tyla feel like she was swimming in an ocean as the company of dancers performed their “Wade in […]