MOBY DICK at Cafe Voltaire, through August 27 Moby Dick. Icon of American literature, passion of high school English teachers, inspiration for 25-hour reading marathons on an old whaling ship in Connecticut. Those who haven’t read it may feel that fact somehow indicates they’re only half American, half educated, half literate. They might get a […]
Tag: Vol. 22 No. 42
Issue of Jul. 29 – Aug. 4, 1993
Posted inArts & Culture
Penrhyn Male Voice Choir
A century ago the Penrhyn Male Voice Choir visited Chicago as part of the Columbian Exposition. Now its artistic heirs are making their first return trip. Times have changed, as the current 70-man roster can attest. The Penrhyn traces its roots to the Penrhyn State Quarry in the northern Welsh village of Bethesda. Its first […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Lyric Opera Center for American Artists
Last summer at Grant Park the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists mounted a fairly successful revival of Peter Brook’s eccentric, abridged version of Bizet’s Carmen. The staging managed to make the most out of the conceit by focusing on the opera’s smouldering passion instead of its social observations; the ensemble singing, for the most […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Support Your Local Bookseller
To the editors: Don’t let these self-styled book “superstores” fool you [“Book Wars,” July 16]. In my recent experience, 100,000 titles don’t always mean true “depth” of selection. Four recent frustrating book searches account for my continuing loyalty to the independents. Story One. About a year and a half ago I received delayed notice that […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A Play on Words
A PLAY ON WORDS Writer’s Theatre-Chicago at Books on Vernon Produced by the Writer’s Theatre-Chicago, in (aptly enough) the back room of a bookstore, A Play on Words offers mostly words and very little play. Part of this is deliberate: the group’s mission statement stresses a minimalist approach, “to prevent interference with the text and […]
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Prospect
Little gets solved in this play, just like in real life; and the plot meanders even more than real life. But the funny/sad characters in Octavio Solis’s remarkable Prospect, each solidly written and wiser than words, generate interest that transcends mere plot machinations. In real life we’d cross the street to avoid these losers, but […]
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American Fabulous
One hundred and five minutes of spontaneous talk from a homosexual named Jeffrey Strouth, seated in the back of a 1957 Cadillac in Columbus, Ohio, may sound like thin fare for a feature, but Reno Dakota’s 1992 movie–a tribute to his wild and uninhibited friend, who subsequently died of AIDS–kept me mesmerized and entertained. Recounting […]
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Psycho Circus
Maybe you’ve always been curious about what that thing called “performance art” actually is. Or maybe you’ve been aching to know things you can never know–like what the future holds for you. Randolph Street Gallery, P-Form magazine, and a motley crew of Chicago artists are daring to attempt to satisfy your curiosity with Psycho Circus. […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Reader to Reader
Dear Reader: It was dusk, almost dark, and I was sitting on my bike at Bryn Mawr and Sheridan, waiting for the light to change. A middle-aged couple striding south hand in hand stepped off the curb and into the crosswalk. At that moment a small red car pulled up in the far lane a […]
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When the Swallows Homeward Fly
WHEN THE SWALLOWS HOMEWARD FLY One Day Short Theatre at Cafe Voltaire Seventy-five years ago, on July 16, 1918, the Bolsheviks, under orders from Lenin, put a bloody end to a bloody 300-year dynasty: in a basement of a house in Ekaterinburg guards shot the last of the Romanovs–Nicholas, Alexandra, their daughters Olga, Maria, and […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Why They Call It the Second City
A.J. Liebling and the Chicago He Knew and Hated
Posted inNews & Politics
The Sports Section
There’s a curious stillness about Bill Veeck Stadium these days. It looks as if the White Sox are going to lead the American League West going into August, as they led at the All-Star break, yet the crowds have been moderate–in both size and temperament. A solid ring of fans surrounds the field, in the […]
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Hey! Whoops! Bang!/Bang Bang
HEY! WHOOPS. BANG! Cardiff Giant at Shattered Globe Theatre For better or worse, Chicago is an improv town. While many companies clearly approach the form as a cheap way to perform, others have developed working methods that yield more entertaining results. Two established companies with two different approaches to improv are now offering shows that […]
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Art People: the education of Serena Niensted
Serena Niensted had already been painting for 40 years when she took some of her canvases to the Art Institute and asked if they would accept her as a student. “People come here to find out if they are artists,” was the response. “You’re already an artist. Find someone to sell your work.” Niensted had […]
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Story In May, Elk River, Minnesota, landlord Todd Plaisted reported that his tenant Kenneth Lane had fled the area, abandoning his rented farmhouse and leaving behind at least 400 tons of used carpeting, more than 10,000 plastic windows from Northwest Airlines planes, and rooms full of sofas, mattresses, and washing machines, among other things. […]