CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA at Orchestra Hall October 26 and November 3 Samuel Barber had the misfortune to peak early. In 1933, when he was barely 23 and fresh out of the Curtis Institute, the Philadelphia Orchestra introduced his very first orchestral score. Other premieres and honors soon followed, including a prestigious Prix de Rome that […]
Tag: Vol. 21 No. 5
Issue of Nov. 14 – 20, 1991
Posted inArts & Culture
One of the Greats
SUSANNE LINKE at the Harold Washington Library Theatre November 8 and 9 There’s a moment near the end of Susanne Linke’s Flut (“Flood”) when you realize that she can either dance the climactic feeling of this solo or let it be. She lets it be, abandoning the stage to the final chords of Gabriel Faure’s […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
The perception that some number combinations appear more frequently than others in the various state lotteries leads me to wonder: do all number combinations have equal probability, or is there some mathematical quirk that would allow certain number combinations to appear more often than others? –Douglas J. Stark, Houston What you want, Doug, is what […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Artistic Licenses: Are City Building Codes Unfair to Small Theatres?/Briar Street’s Nonprofit Plan/The Good Times Killed in New York/Christmas Battle of the Divas
Live Bait Theater’s John Ragir prepares his box office for the arrival of building inspectors. The city is threatening to crack down on code violations, which could make life very difficult for smaller companies.
Posted inArts & Culture
Mass
Seen at 20 years’ remove from the issues that prompted its writing–the Vietnam war, Kent State, waves of ghetto riots, and grief over the murders of John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.–Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Schwartz’s 1971 effort at a Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk emerges as much richer and more universal than it originally […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The City File
Purity: the impossible dream. Environmentalist Tom Kinder describes his family’s “awakening” to the ubiquity of plastics, in Greenkeeping (September/ October): “We looked around our house and saw the very chemicals that we had fought in hazardous waste dumps or chemical factories….We had to do something. So we piled all our plastics–okay, not quite all, we […]
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On Stage: fear and loathing in commedia dell’arte
John Cusack says he first encountered a modern version of commedia dell’arte–the satirical, seemingly improvisational form of entertainment popular in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries–several years ago in Los Angeles. “Me and my friend Jeremy Piven went to see the Actors’ Gang,” headed by actor Tim Robbins. “We were wowed by them, by […]
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On Exhibit: Rhea McLean’s work in ruins
Rhea McLean likes to sneak through abandoned buildings after dark, preferably industrial ruins in rough Chicago neighborhoods. She brings with her a camera, a tripod, a bag of supplies, and a sturdy human companion. Once inside, she moves by flashlight across dusty floors streaked with the thick shadows thrown by outside streetlights, carefully considering the […]
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The Dwarfs
THE DWARFS Feral Theater at Sheffield’s School Street Cafe Less than a year old, the Feral Theater has already carved out a niche for itself as a company that produces minor works by major playwrights. Their first production was Sam Shepard’s 4-H Club. This pointless, plotless fragment masquerading as a one-act hardly seems worth staging, […]
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Jennifer Monson and Yvonne Meier
JENNIFER MONSON AND YVONNE MEIER at Randolph Street Gallery November 8 and 9 I remember deciding to eat honey as a child, just to see how honey tasted by itself. I expected sweetness, but when I ate a spoonful it was so sweet it burned my throat. Honey’s burning sweetness has always been an emblem […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Field & Street
The great thing about Chicago’s weather is the drama. Of course standing on an icy corner in a howling gale waiting endlessly for a bus from the ZTA (“Zeno’s Transit Authority: We’re always almost there”), you might be pardoned for thinking “Drama, schmama, I’m moving to San Diego.” But think for a moment of what […]
Posted inNews & Politics
A Dumb Deal
How many Daley administration officials did it take to screw up the Commonwealth Edison contract? Can City Council undo the damage?
Posted inNews & Politics
Budget cuts threaten a user-friendly recourse for victims of discrimination
For two months last summer Annette McClinton and some of her six children lived out of a car because a south-side housing complex had denied them housing. The operators of the housing complex, Antioch Haven Homes, say they denied housing to McClinton because even their biggest three-bedroom apartments are too small for a family of […]
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The Chicago Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival
The 11th Chicago Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival continues from Friday, November 15, through Sunday, November 17, at Chicago Filmmakers, 1229 W. Belmont, and the University of Chicago Law School Auditorium, 1111 E. 60th St. Tickets ($4 for Most matinees, $6 for most evening shows) go on sale a half hour before the first […]