Labels on the clay-dusty wooden shelves organize her pieces: Peach bowls. Fish plates. Small glazed tiles. Picture frames. Her medium is clay imbued in its original state with colors from a peaceful palette of pale yellow, green, blue, violet. Most of her work is unglazed, the finish raw and immediate. Some pieces are delicate with […]
Tag: Vol. 20 No. 30
Issue of May. 9 – 15, 1991
Posted inArts & Culture
Off Off Loop Theater Festival: Wild Dogs/Dates Without Chicks/The Shirt
OFF OFF LOOP THEATER FESTIVAL WILD DOGS Mary-Arrchie Theatre DATES WITHOUT CHICKS Theatre of the Reconstruction THE SHIRT Chicago Actors Project These three plays, the Friday program of the Off Off Loop Theater Festival, could run under the heading “Misogynist’s Delight,” for all three involve male hostility toward women. And the third play takes misogyny […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Basically Bach
Before he became the master of oratorios, Handel was a purveyor of the Italianate opera. He wrote dozens, many of them tailored to the peculiarly voluptuous voices of the celebrated castrati of his day. Tolomeo, a flop when Handel produced it himself in 1728, doesn’t quite belong in the company of Orlando and other masterpieces, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Treasure of McHenry County
In Dallas, it’s oil, in LA it’s water. In McHenry County the stuff of wealth, power, and political intrigue is gravel.
Posted inFilm
Hollywood Unchained
SPARTACUS *** (A must-see) Directed by Stanley Kubrick Written by Dalton Trumbo With Kirk Douglas, Jean Simmons, Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, John Gavin, and John Ireland. “It has acres of dead people, more blood and gore than you ever saw in your whole life. “In the final scene, Spartacus’s mistress, carrying her illegitimate […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Bach Week in Evanston
In this bicentennial of the death of one great composer, another great composer seems vying for equal time–good old J.S. Bach. In one weekend-to-weekend stretch, the local Bach-analia–an annual tradition called Bach Week conceived by the folks at Saint Luke’s Church in Evanston–will offer a choice selection of the Baroque master’s choral, orchestral, and chamber […]
Posted inArts & Culture
In performance: 30 characters in search of something
We stumble down some steep steps and through a heavy door to reach the bowels of the Dance Center. My guide to this well-lit, overheated underworld starts gesticulating and talking as soon as we hit the basement floor. “You see?” says James Grigsby. “It’s just like Hollis Sigler’s other work–naive, with a hot use of […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Ethnic City: a gathering of Chicago poets
“The West ain’t what it used to be / and it’s getting ain’tier every day,” grumbles Chicago poet Carlos Cortez. “Colonel Sandhog and McDunghills / with authentically expensive / Indian curio shops. . . . and I can’t find a sack of Bull Durham / anywhere!” Sandra Cisneros, who makes her home in New Mexico, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Off Off Loop Theater Festival: High Fidelity/Mo’ Better Blue Velvet, or David Lynch Mob Mentality/Babes in Arms, Act I
OFF OFF LOOP THEATER FESTIVAL HIGH FIDELITY New Tuners Theatre MO’ BETTER BLUE VELVET, OR DAVID LYNCH MOB MENTALITY North Avenue Productions BABES IN ARMS, ACT I Musical Repertorie Theatre Company “A Matinee for Music and Laughter” is the title of the Off Off Loop Theater Festival’s Sunday-afternoon program. Music, yes–there’s reams of it, some […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Off Off Loop Theater Festival: Years Ago/La Petenera/Fragments From the Permanent Collection
OFF OFF LOOP THEATER FESTIVAL YEARS AGO Synergy Theatre Company’s Chrysalis Project LA PETENERA La Barraca ’90 FATTY TISSUE Theater by Design FRAGMENTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION Playwrights’ Center The basic idea of the Off Off Loop Theater Festival is a good one: showcase the work of a number of Chicago’s more interesting non-Equity theaters […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Secret Life of John Schmid/News Media Missing in Action
The Secret Life of John Schmid The pseudonymous author stands on shaky ground indeed in the straight-arrow fellowship of journalistic scriveners. The Reader’s own policy on pseudonyms is clear and unnegotiable: only when appropriate. It’s that way throughout the business. For instance, pseudonyms are common in the monthly journal Outlines and weekly entertainment guide Nightlines, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Is Dots All There Is?
MICHAEL BANICKI at the State of Illinois Art Gallery By painting charts that illustrate his own private rating systems, Michael Banicki emphasizes the subjective nature of all so-called objective forms of evaluation. At first glance, the visual repetition of Banicki’s charts makes this show seem bland and emotionless. We recall the boredom of looking through […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Department of Awfully Embarrassing Situations
To the editors: Here’s one more outraged respondent to Mary Shen Barnidge’s review of Anita Stenger’s Make Yer Bed and Lie in the March 15 issue. I missed the review in the paper–so a friend handed me a photocopy of it. That was no problem for him, since he was circulating them among friends and […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Dying Has Just Begun
Postwar Iraq, an eyewitness account: The fighting is over, the dying has just begun. A conversation with Louise Cainkar of the Human Rights Research Foundation.
Posted inNews & Politics
Billy Bull
To the editors: Buried deep in your story on the 46th Ward race [March 29] is an appalling attack on constitutional rights by Senator Billy Marovitz. The homeless have as much right to vote as anyone else, and courts have upheld that right. The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners put out a press release last […]