Actor and playwright Kristine Thatcher added the title of artistic director to her name late in the summer with very little fanfare, at least very little here in Chicago. There was considerable fanfare in Lansing, MI, whence Ms. Thatcher hails and where she took over Sept. 1 as artistic director of the BoarsHead Theater. She succeeded long-Americanized Brit director Geoffrey Sherman, who became producing artistic director of the much larger Alabama Shakespeare Festival.

Thatcher’s new dominion was founded in 1966 by actor John Peakes as a summertime operation in nearby Grand Ledges, MI. It now is resident in a modern 250-seat house in the Lansing Center for the Arts. The BoarsHead produces six shows a year with a full-time staff of 10 (plus Thatcher). The company is both Equity and—seemingly odd for Lansing—IATSE.

Playwright Jeffrey Sweet and director Terry McCabe, both old friends of Thatcher from Chicago, are BoarsHead’s artistic associates. It will be interesting to see if the Chicago talent pool—including Thatcher’s fellow Playwrights’ Ensemble members at Victory Gardens—finds more work in Lansing with Thatcher in charge.

Oft-maligned theatre buff Tom Williams (he of the www.chicagocritic.com Web site controversy last year) has licked his wounds, done a “mea culpa” and has bounced back both online and with a new two-hour weekly theatre radio show on WJJG, 1530AM. “Chicago Stage Talk Radio” (Mondays, noon-2p.m.) offers interviews, feature stories, theatre promotions and reviews in various combinations, all linked with an affiliated Web site, ChicagoStageTalk.com. Williams is offering listings and promotions for free (although theatres also may purchase advertising time on the air), plus feature segments that may be done live in-studio or on location, or taped for later broadcast. With so little broadcast coverage of theatre (or any of the arts), Williams is providing a genuine service for local theatres and productions. For more information call 773/296-2831 or email info@chicagostagetalk.com.

Actor, teacher, director Dale Calandra has spent the last year in the national tour of Hairspray, as standby for the hefty diva role of Edna Turnblad. Dale will make a brief return to Chicago Dec. 6-18 when Hairspray makes its second stop at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. Better yet for Dale’s many friends and colleagues, he will be playing the lead role at three performances, filling in while star J.P. Dougherty takes a few personal days. Dale will appear as Edna Tuesday night, Dec. 13 and at the matinee and evening performances on Wednesday, Dec. 14. Break a leg, Dale, but don’t bust a bra strap!

When Naked Boys Singing opened at Bailiwick Repertory on Aug. 26, 2001, artistic director David Zak confided to me, “We’d have to be idiots not to be able to run this at least through New Year’s Eve.” Well, they are not idiots, and they are running NBS (as they shorthand it) through this Dec. 31, when it will close a four year, four month and five day run. Not bad for a cheeky (pardon the expression) musical revue. Talk about staying power, NBS must have taken Viagra. The show has had legs, among other notable appendages. Yet, Zak admits that the show is hard to cast. “You have to be a triple threat, so to speak.” For Bailiwick, it’s been a case of shakin’ your money-maker. Among the many firsts achieved by the show was a TV commercial targeted at suburban women. Zak said Bailiwick will likely come up with a new product to run in the spring and fall, catering to bridal showers. Zak directed Naked Boys Singing, with choreography by Andrew Delo and musical director Robert Ollis.

Maurice Rosenfield, who died Oct. 30 at 91, is not a household name among Chicago’s indigenous theatre troupes. The brilliant attorney (first career) and successful Hollywood and Broadway producer (second career) was born, raised and educated in Chicago, and lived here all his life, yet never chose to participate in local theatre as a producer, patron or board member. Turning to Hollywood, he produced Bang the Drum Slowly in 1971, the break-out film for Robert DeNiro. Setting his sights on Broadway musicals, he produced Barnum with Jim Dale and Glenn Glose in 1981, and Singing in the Rain in 1985, giving Twyla Tharp her first opportunity to direct and choreograph a Broadway show (with considerable debt to Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor). Rosenfield was one of a dying breed, what Harold Prince calls “a creative producer.” He took chances on shows in which he believed without a lot of syndicate second-guessing, and he followed his instincts for untested talent (DeNiro, Close, Tharp as a director). His lack of interest in local theatre surely was a mutual loss.

Each year there are more and more shows specific to the Holiday Season, and fewer and fewer shows willing to compete with them. In a nearly total capitulation to treacle and sugarplums this year, some 23 shows that opened in November and even early December—that’s 23—will close on Dec. 17 and 18. Excluding long-run commercial shows, you can count on the fingers of one hand—literally one hand—the non-holiday shows that will run through Christmas week. Only one show of significance opens after the second week in December, and that’s Much Ado About Nothing at Chicago Shakespeare, opening Dec. 19. Well, theatre critics need vacations, too. We used to get them in the summer, but not anymore. So we might as well take advantage of the three-week holiday recess and shut down our brains from mid-December until after the New Year. Don’t hate me if I have a golden tan next time you see me.

Self-proclaimed trivia wonk Joey Bland, of ComedySportz, made it all pay off on Halloween when he closed a three day appearance on TV’s “Jeopardy,” walking away with $50,200 in prize winnings. That’s $50.20 after taxes, with which Bland pledges to pay off student loans and finance a down payment on a home. Bland has performed at ComedySportz since 2002 and taught at the ComedySportz Training Center. Bland cites his improv training and ComedySportz experience as big assists in his “Jeopardy” audition, especially the ability to think fast. Bland isn’t sure if he’s the first funny man to blaze the quiz show trail, and he’s not. The celebrated Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez got his start appearing on You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx, and one time Evanstonian Jonathan Hadary (Tony Nominee, seen here in Angels in America and All Shook Up) won $10,000 on The $10,000 Pyramid, at a time when 10 Large was enough for Hadary to survive another year in New York.

Remember: Christmas follows fast on Thanksgiving’s leftovers.

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