11-10-06
Chicago Theatre: We’re Swimmin’ in it.
Those familiar with Josephine Tey’s old but delightful whodunit, Daughter of Time, will understand the reference if I say that I feel as if I were at sea in a tub. October ended in a nautical frenzy, with productions of Moby Dick at Building Stage, Argonautika at Lookingglass and The Pirate Queen at the Cadillac Palace opening on three successive nights. All three used oars and miniature ship models and yards of rope, and two of them – Moby Dick and Argonautika – had nearly-identical basic design concepts. All three were riddled with the terrors of the deep: whales, sea monsters, leviathans, nymphs and Englishmen. All three were vastly entertaining, if a bit on the salty side. I look forward to fresh water with the final Lake Michigan voyage of The Christmas Schooner at Bailiwick (opens Nov. 19).
Dan Zellner and his Studio Z have engineered a return Chicago visit for celebrated commedia dell’arte master performer and teacher, Antonio Fava, who will offer two performances of Pulcinella’s War, Saturday evening (Nov. 11) at Donny’s Skybox Stage and a Sunday matinee at Theatre Building Chicago. Maestro Fava plays Pulcinella, as have three generations of his family. Fava also will conduct two master classes in commedia techniques, noon-5p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 18-19. The classes are hosted by Studio Z and Piccolo Theatre (Evanston) and will be held at Piccolo Theatre. For more info: www.studioz.org/classes.html.
Veteran Chicago trouper Iris Lieberman asked for our assistance, which we are happy to give. She wants people to know about the improved Ray Lonergan Memorial Library, maintained by Actors’ Equity. The Library just celebrated its 20th Anniversary, and it’s a bit shocking to think that warmly-regarded actor Ray Lonergan has been gone that long (or that our hair is 20 years grayer). The Library now has a Web site with an online card catalogue so that one can search a title without coming down to the office. Log on to www.lonerganlibrary.com. The nucleus of the Library is Ray Lonergan’s extensive collection of over 2,000 scripts, books and sheet music editions, although the Library has tripled in size over the years with other donations, especially from Equity members Sidney Eden and Leonard Weiner, who recently contributed some 600-plus CDs and DVDs. “The Library is a great resource for actors and getting better all the time. I’d like everyone to know about it and have the opportunity to use it,” Ms. Lieberman concludes. She also invites volunteers – such as herself – to help maintain the collection, which is open to AEA members.
Think of The Three Musketeers. You know, “All for one, one for all!” Teatro Luna co-founder Tanya Saracho’s new play, Quita Mitos, is composed of three monologues. In an unusual example of alternate casting, Ms. Saracho will perform all three monologues as a solo work on Saturdays and Sundays of the Nov. 3-Dec. 17 run, while a cast of three will perform Quita Mitos on Thursdays and Fridays. The three non-Sarachos are Belinda Cervantes, Maritza Cervantes, and Isabel Quintero. Coya Paz is the director. Performances are at The Viaduct.
Last July, when Playbill and Chicago Footlights split the program turf abandoned by Chicagoplays, Playbill pledged to establish a Chicago editorial office and run Chicago-centric stories (something Footlights already did). Playbill president Philip S. Birsh told PerformInk publisher Carrie Kaufman that Playbill would be “100 percent Chicago – this is a Chicago-centric magazine. We will try diligently to have a cross section of articles throughout the year so that we’re covering the entire scene, and not just the usual suspects.”
The November Playbill is the fourth since the demise of Chicagoplays and “100 percent Chicago” has yet to emerge, although Playbill has come up with three distinct versions of its monthly book. One features the prominent yellow-and-black Playbill logo on the cover, another version has Chicagoplays as the title along with a much smaller Playbill logo, and the third is theatre-specific with a smaller Playbill logo.
In October, the yellow-logo version – used for Altar Boyz at the LaSalle Bank Theatre, The Pirate Queen at the Cadillac Palace, Argonautika at Lookingglass and other downtown shows – didn’t have one article about Chicago. Lookingglass audiences, for example, found stories about Nathan Lane and a Broadway publicist. The Chicagoplays version, used by Victory Gardens (Biograph and Greenhouse), has had Chicago-centric stories about Victory Gardens, Robert Falls, Blue Man Group and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which most observers would call “the usual suspects” since all are Playbill clients. The theatre-specific version, used by the Auditorium and Goodman theatres, has editorial content devoted exclusively to those houses, for which they pay Playbill for the otherwise free magazine since it replaces the magazine’s own “wrap” (the opening and closing pages that sandwich the show-specific content).
So PerformInk spoke with Philip Birsh again to ask what Playbill has in store. Once again he said, “All articles in all Chicago editions will be Chicago-centric,” using Chicago freelance writers under “a local person” as editor. He said Chicago content has been slow to come because the articles for September, October and November already had been assigned when the program transition period began in August. “There’s a sensitivity issue,” he added. “We didn’t want to come into town guns ablazing; we wanted to kind-of settle in.” Birsh said that “without fail” the December issues will be Chicago-specific.
When Playbill and Footlights split the old Chicagoplays market, Playbill cherry-picked the venues and companies it wished to add and left a far larger number to Footlights. Playbill’s short list receives the magazine for free, except as noted, for dedicated editorial content. “Having a free program is really what the community wanted and needed,” Birsh explained. “That’s hundreds of thousands of dollars those theatres now can put into their own pockets and productions.”
(Full disclosure: along with Lawrence Bommer and Myrna Petlicki, I am a contributing writer for Chicago Footlights.)
For the second year, SAG regional president Todd Hissong challenged the other artists’ unions to make a bloody-good show at the annual blood drive. Once again, Hissong laughs in triumph. Some 21 SAG members gave blood Oct. 30 vs. two AFTRA members and only one AEA member. Although some donors, Hissong admitted, are members of all three unions, each blood donor indicated which union he/she was representing. Said Hissong, “Chicago imports approximately 30 percent of its needed blood supply from outside regions. Every pint of blood collected here is another pint that can be directed to other areas of critical need. The talent of the Chicago professional acting community is already world renowned. Once again we have shown our compassion as well. I am SO proud.”