3-17-06
Scheduling Conflicts
The League of Chicago Theatres has confirmed to Behind the Curtain that its opening night master calendar still is functioning. We were in doubt when we saw the unbelievable logjam of openings this month, among them March 18 when Lookingglass and Court theatres go head-to-head with Sita Ram and The Glass Menagerie, respectively, on the same night (greasy joan also opens The Oresteia). Even worse, there are 17 openings squeezed into the March 23-28 six day period, with four on Saturday, March 25 and six on Sunday March 26. Hey, people: this is more than insanity; this is stOOpidity with a capital OO.
The conflict between Lookingglass and Court is especially annoying as it pits two companies of similar size and stature against each other. Both troupes have had Saturday night press performances for several years. Surely it’s Management 101 for the companies to consult with each other before finalizing their season schedules? Lookingglass didn’t hesitate to change a press performance last autumn solely for the convenience of Hedy Weiss and Chris Jones. Now they and Court are making all of the entertainment press choose between them.
The 17-show pile-up is even dicier, with Bailiwick, Goodman, Live Bait, Congo Square, Seanachai, Porchlight and Shattered Globe among the better-known companies opening productions that weekend, with another eight smaller or lesser-known troupes trailing in their wakes. Now, reality in Chicago is that the large commercial houses open when they want (although Broadway in Chicago did change one press night last year to accommodate Chicago Shakespeare Theatre), followed by the largest non-profits which also open pretty much as they please. Everyone else is fair game to be trampled, and trampled they are.
Seems to us that common sense says, “Hey, little theatre, if you want members of the press to attend your show, you should do your best not to open the same night as two or three or four other shows.” Further, common sense would say, “Hey, let’s call the League and check the calendar!” FYI: only League members can list on the master calendar, but non-members may access the information. Also FYI: there are no shows opening March 21 or 22 and only one show each opening March 28 and March 29. Bottom line: don’t bitch to the theatre editors of the Reader, New City, Time Out Chicago, the Windy City Times, the Onion, etc. or various Web sites or even the daily papers when they tell you there’s no way they can review your show. It’s not because they don’t want to review you; it’s because you’ve made it impossible.
John Mahoney has bounced back from a painful bout of pancreatitis that forced him to withdraw from the cast of Romance at Goodman Theatre. Behind the Curtain has reports of Mahoney sightings at restaurants, eating solid food again after a regimen of liquids and antibiotics. This is good news for many concerned fans and friends, and puts to rest rumors of far graver illness. Northlight Theatre says Mahoney has confirmed his May 10-June 18 appearance in The Retreat from Moscow, opposite his Steppenwolf Ensemble colleague Rondi Reed. Following that, Mahoney will return to the Steppenwolf stage for Bruce Norris’ The Unmentionables, June 29-August 27. Sure likes to keep busy, that one.
Speaking of Steppenwolf, did everyone catch Eric Simonson picking up an Oscar as producer of the outstanding documentary short subject? The announcer said it was his first win and second nomination in the category. We don’t know exactly how the dots connect, but director and occasional writer Simonson still is a Steppenwolf Ensemble member, although it’s been quite a long time since he’s mounted a project in town.
It seems long overdue, but The Second City finally has made its Denver debut. Second City Theatricals and Denver Center Attractions have remodeled the Center’s Garner Galleria Theatre as a near duplicate of the Chicago home venue, and are presenting a specially-constituted company in a four-month stand, Jan. 26-May 21. Second City Theatricals president Kelly Leonard explains that he put the six-person cast together by raiding Second City’s cruise ship troupes, National Touring Company, Congo Square Theatre and Boom Chicago in Amsterdam. They’re presenting an updated edition of Red Scare, first produced on the Chicago mainstage several revues ago. Kelly says the four-month stand is a tryout to see if there’s sufficient interest and audience for a permanent Mountain Time Second City. The multi-house Denver Center is home both to the Denver Center Theatre Company and also various Broadway tours.
Apple Tree Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Theatre at the Center and Writers’ Theatre are among 63 theatres nationwide named as recipients of 2005-2006 grants from the Actors’ Equity Foundation, which are given annually to not-for-profit theatres that show an ongoing commitment to producing and enhancing employment opportunities for actors and stage managers. While the grants are modest—the 63 troupes split just under $55,000—they have prestige.
Other grant recipients in the Central Region are American Players Theatre, Arkansas Repertory Theater, Boarshead Theatre (where Kristine Thatcher now is artistic director), Detroit Repertory Theatre, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Human Race Theatre, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, New Harmony Theatre, Penumbra Theatre, Purple Rose Theatre, Stage One: Louisville Children’s Theatre, Stages St. Louis, St. Louis Black Repertory and the Unicorn Theatre.
The mysterious members of the Orgie Theatre Awards Committee (might they really be Lord Voldemort’s Death Eaters?) have pronounced their first winners:
Richard Cotovsky, artistic director of Mary-Arrchie for creating an arena where new or offbeat Chicago talent has the freedom to explore wild theatrical ideas; K.K. Dodds, actor, for AmeriKafka, Trap Door Theatre; Zygmunt Dyrkacz, producer, for bringing Poland’s Teatr Cogitatur to Chopin Theatre; Joseph Fosco, sound design, for The Conversation, Pyewacket Theatre; Sean Graney, director, for 4.48 Psychosis, The Hypocrites; Tracy Letts, director, for People Annihilation or My Liver is Senseless, Trap Door Theatre; Stacy Stoltz, actor, 4.48 Psychosis, The Hypocrites; and Rob Whitaker, set design, Him, The Viaduct. Each recipient has received a certificate and a hundred bucks.
The winners are worthy, most are veterans and several of them work in styles or venues not likely to win Jefferson Committee hearts (or not Jeff eligible). Still, the awards mostly fall within a narrow universe of North Side, non-union, small theatres known for their avant-garde edge or European orientation. The Orgies are new, and we’ll wait and see. But the initial awards do not seem to fulfill the Committee’s declaration of covering theatre of all types throughout the Chicago area. Also, the absence of an Orgie Award to a writer seems an odd omission in a city that does as much new work as Chicago.