Offered as an adjunct to the annual summer Rhinoceros Theater and Performance Festival, this monthlong showcase of fringe entertainment features mostly new work by such ensembles and individuals as the Curious Theatre Branch, Dolphinback Theatre Company, Ira Glass, Frank Melcori, Theater Oobleck, Jamie O’Reilly, Michael Smith, the Saint Ed Theatre Company, and John Starrs, among […]
Tag: Vol. 26 No. 17
Issue of Jan. 30 – Feb. 5, 1997
Posted inArts & Culture
Testing Ground
Naked I–A Feast for the Senses at Bailiwick Arts Center, through February 9 By Carol Burbank The Naked I, curated by Jonathan Pitts, is a six-week performance festival loosely organized around the theme “a feast for the senses” and featuring local artists, actors, and dancers who are restaging, reworking, or premiering short pieces. A chance […]
Posted inMusic
More Than Words
Various Artists The Doo Wop Box II (Rhino) Crew-Cuts The Best of the Crew-Cuts Diamonds The Best of the Diamonds Del-Vikings The Best of the Del-Vikings Penguins The Best of the Penguins Danleers The Best of the Danleers (Mercury/Chronicles) By Peter Margasak In thumbnail sketches of the history of rock ‘n’ roll, doo-wop is typically […]
Posted inMusic
Charles Wilson
CHARLES WILSON Charles Wilson’s CD It’s Sweet on the Backstreet (Ecko) has been making inroads on contemporary blues-radio playlists since it came out in 1995; if not enough listeners are familiar with him, it may be because the cultural and commercial barriers that separate African-American blues audiences from their white counterparts remain as entrenched as […]
Posted inMusic
Albita
ALBITA When salsa singer Albita Rodriguez defected to the U.S. from Havana in 1993, much of the attention lavished on her in Miami was prompted by her unconventional appearance: she sported tailored, double-breasted suits and short, slicked-back hair. Popular Latina artists such as Celia Cruz and Celina Gonzalez have never fucked with gender, not even […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Exploring the Universal
Chicago’s Next Dance Festival at the Harold Washington Library, through February 1 By Mitchell Kupferberg This year’s incarnation of Chicago’s Next Dance Festival does more than entertain with lithe, athletic dancing and innovative multicultural choreography. The seven dances that comprised the festival’s first of two weekend programs challenge our very conception of dance and suggest […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Straight Dope
What’s the scoop on hemp? Is it true that in earlier days of our country over 90 percent of paper was made of hemp? Is it true hemp is one of the strongest fibers known to man? Why is it illegal to grow it, since it is only about 1 percent THC? In fact, it […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Rude Awakenings
The Young Man From Atlanta Goodman Theatre Sidney Bechet Killed a Man Victory Gardens Theater By Albert Williams Will Kidder and Phil Litwin have a lot in common. The protagonists of two high-profile new plays in town, they not only believe in the American dream but seem to embody it. Will, the central character in […]
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Lecture Notes: good guys were black
Like a lot of kids in the late 50s and early 60s, Art Burton grew up watching Gunsmoke and Rawhide and reading books about the western frontier. But as he got older, he realized that what was on TV and in books didn’t reflect reality. Contrary to white-dominated depictions of the west, the frontier was […]
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“The Otis Redding Story” (Try A Little Tenderness)
“The Otis Redding Story” (Try A Little Tenderness), Black Ensemble Theater. If you walk out of this production without having clapped your hands to or hummed along with some of Otis Redding’s tunes, you better take a moment to check your pulse. The artists celebrating “the messenger of soul” are so exuberant and joyful in […]
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Days of the Week
Friday 1/31 – Thursday 2/6 JANUARY By Cara Jepsen 31 FRIDAY Viennese composer Franz Schubert was only 31 when he died–and was in the ground nearly half a century before receiving recognition as one of the great “Schu’s” of classical music, with most of his compositions premiering well after his death. Tonight’s Franz Schubert’s 200th […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Freelancer Flight
To the editor: Michael Miner’s recent pieces [Hot Type, December 13 and January 10] on the Chicago Tribune’s troubles with freelance writers move me to comment. I head the contracts and electronic-rights campaign for the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA). Copyright and intellectual property rights are the issue of the decade in our […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Too Lewd For Larry
How the original Jerry Falwell ad parody was toned down for Hustler.
Posted inNews & Politics
The Great Divide
Myron Orfield’s maps tells us much about the gulf between the classes–maybe more than the MacArthur Foundation wants us to know.
Posted inArts & Culture
Confusions
CONFUSIONS, Pendulum Theatre Company, at the Athenaeum Studio Theatre. These five early (1974) Alan Ayckbourn one-acts betray his characteristic mix of caustic compassion and affectionate analysis, and Bill Redding’s staging, with its impeccable accents and reliable timing, revels in Ayckbourn’s round dance of loosely linked characters, lonely souls desperately trying to fend off chaos. In […]