Victory Gardens Archives - Chicago Reader

A group of six Black actors (three women, three men) crouch in a circle, their arms stretched out and supporting each other.

Looking back at some of the best productions and biggest stories of 2022

by Kerry Reid December 13, 2022December 28, 2022

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 […]

Painting of Susan Nussbaum, wearing a red shirt and blue pants, with a colorful shawl over her left shoulder. She is sitting on a balcony with a park and the lake behind her. Various objects float in the sky nearby, including a red pump shoe, a compact with her smiling face reflected, a pencil, a piece of paper, and a burning steering wheel.

Arts & Culture

Susan Nussbaum, 1953-2022

by Mike Ervin May 12, 2022May 12, 2022

Editor’s note: Chicago playwright, novelist, actor, director, and disability rights activist Susan Nussbaum died April 28 of pneumonia at 68. Playwright Mike Ervin, who collaborated with Nussbaum as cowriter on the comedy revue The Plucky and Spunky Show and whose 1999 play, The History of Bowling, was directed by Nussbaum, remembers his friend and mentor. […]

A man in blue nurse's scrubs is left. A woman seated, holding a baby wrapped in blankets, sits center. A woman in nurse's scrubs looks over her shoulder on the right.

Theater Review

Special needs

by Kerry Reid April 28, 2022April 27, 2022

Kristine Thatcher’s drama about a couple adopting (or not adopting, as it turns out) a child born with profound disabilities kickstarted Thatcher’s profile as a playwright in its 1996 Victory Gardens premiere. It’s back at City Lit, once again under Terry McCabe’s direction. And while some parts don’t hold up well, the production builds to […]

City Life

Visceral dance, free planets, and laugh therapy

by Salem Collo-Julin, Kerry Reid and Micco Caporale March 25, 2022March 25, 2022

Looking for some fun? We’ve got you covered for the next seven days, read on! FRI 3/25 It’s the tenth annual presentation of Jeezy’s Juke Joint: A Black Burly-Q Revue. Billed as the “only Black burlesque festival in the world,” this variety show celebrates a rich and diverse lineage of Black nightlife performers. In addition […]

Audrey Francis, a white woman in blue jeans and a black jacket, is standing left, and Glenn Davis, a Black man in dark trousers and shirt, is standing right in front of the empty new theater at Steppenwolf.

Performing Arts Feature

Plays in a pandemic

by Kerry Reid December 22, 2021January 6, 2022

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 […]

Arts & Culture

An actor who stayed

by Mark Larson December 17, 2021December 17, 2021

Editor’s note: William J. Norris, a veteran Chicago actor whose career included playing Scrooge for the Goodman production of A Christmas Carol for a dozen years and performing with the late Organic Theater in their legendary sci-fi serial, Warp!, died at his home in Iowa on November 30 at age 75. Mark Larson, author of […]

Theater Review

Bedford Falls is live in Chicago

by Kerry Reid December 8, 2021December 8, 2021

Who needs four ghosts to remind you of the meaning of life when one angel (second class) can do the job? Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life by now is right up there with A Christmas Carol as a holiday classic delivering lessons about the importance of love over money. (Well, a Sam Wainwright waiting […]