12-19-08
The Season of Begging
One final round-up of news and notes to leave under the tree before we head off to a mid-winter break.
Auld acquaintance hasn’t been forgotten at Steppenwolf, where William Petersen has become the 42nd ensemble member, on the heels of his performance as the soused undertaker in Conor McPherson’s A Dublin Carol. (John Mahoney currently plays another dipsomaniacal sod at Steppenwolf in McPherson’s The Seafarer.) Petersen joins his former Remains Theatre buds, Gary Cole and Carol director Amy Morton, as a Halsted Street Irregular, though his next local appearance will be in July at Victory Gardens in the local premiere of David Harrower’s Blackbird.
As the economic meltdown continues, small and midsize theatres in particular feel the crunch. The House Theatre of Chicago sent a begging letter penned by board member Peter Sagal (host of NPR’s “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!”), suggesting that the company’s next show, The Rose and the Rime, is in danger of cancellation without additional financial support. House artistic director Nathan Allen confirms that, though the show is still slated for a February opening at the Chopin, the company is experiencing cash-flow problems deriving in part from losing their arrangement with the Viaduct. “We had a lot of potential subscribers [after the long run of The Sparrow] and then we had no space to bring them back to.” The company also suffered sluggish ticket sales this fall for the remount of Dave DaVinci Saves the Universe. Allen says that the response to the emergency fundraising appeal has been encouraging and that the company is meeting their current week-to-week goals, but Rose and the Rime may still face cancellation if there isn’t enough money in the kitty.
But not all companies are pulling back. Some are even moving forward with plans for new spaces. Rivendell Theatre Ensemble announces that they are opening a brand-new 55-seat venue on Ridge Avenue in Edgewater. The troupe, dedicated to expanding opportunities for women playwrights and artists, opens their next show at the Raven on Jan. 7. It’s Melanie Marnich’s These Shining Lives, based on the real stories of women at the Radium Dial Company in Ottawa, Illinois, whose jobs (painting watch faces) left them battling radium poisoning. Edgewater seems to be the hot new place for companies to put down roots—in addition to Rivendell, Steep Theatre moved there this past year and Griffin Theatre Company is moving forward with their plans to renovate an old police station on Foster Ave.
One victim of financial stress is War With the Newts, Next’s world premiere adaptation of Czech writer Karel Capek’s satirical sci-fi novel by former Next artistic director Jason Loewith and Justin D.M. Palmer. Loewith felt that the project, which took himself, puppet designer Michael Montenegro, and dramaturg Celise Kalke to the Czech Republic on a research trip this past fall, needed “more financial support than we can provide in this fiscal year.” Newts, which does have some tidy funding from the NEA on board, will most likely show up under a new title in November 2009 at Next. Meantime, Loewith returns from his new base in Washington, DC, to direct the replacement show: the local premiere of Christopher Shinn’s Pulitzer-nominated Iraq War drama, Dying City. It runs Feb. 5-March 8.
“Too big to fail” is the new shudder-inducing parlance in the business world, but many of us suspect that the theatre companies who will ride out this crisis the best are those who know how to deliver on the cheap—year in and year out. The Neo-Futurists turn 20 this year and celebrate with a special New Year’s Eve performance of “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind.” In a departure from their usual no-reservations policy, the company requires advance reservations for the show, which begins at 11 p.m. and which will cost $40—regular “Too Much Light” entrance fees go up in 2009 to $9 plus the roll of the dice. We remember running into Neo founder Greg Allen post-election 1992, and he was elated that the company had outlived the Bush administration. (For you young’uns, he meant the father of the soon-to-be ex-president.) Congrats to everybody involved in keeping this “Baby” alive and kicking for so long. For New Year’s Eve tix, call 773/275-5255 or visit www.neofuturists.org.
Short plays created quickly are a “Too Much Light” trademark, but Infamous Commonwealth Theatre likes ’em, too. The company’s fourth annual “24 Hour Project” brings together a group of artists with four different playwrights to create four entirely new plays on the theme of “nature” (the topic for Infamous Commonwealth’s current season) to be written, performed, and produced in 24 hours. You can see the end results on Jan. 10 at the Vittum Theatre, 1012 N. Noble Street. Tickets are $20 at 312/458-9780.
Thirteen Pocket introduces solo artist Anthony Nikolchev’s Look, What I Don’t Understand, opening Jan. 8 at the Athenaeum. Based on the true story of Nikolchev’s family and their flight from totalitarian oppression in Bulgaria to detainment in America in the 1960s, the piece’s development included “a dance choreographer, film director, writer and Obama field organizer,” none of whom saw each other’s work during the two-month rehearsal process. “Unification director” (isn’t that an Obama cabinet post?) Yuriy Kordonskiy put it all together. The show runs through Feb. 1.
The Athenaeum also houses the world premiere of The Rotogravure, written by Roell Schmidt. The multi-media performance begins with the line “Helen was rarely asked to dinner parties,” and in order to build support for the project, the production team held “Roto” dinner parties at private homes, which were filmed by Mark Kenseth of Sipsitter Films. The final production includes black-and-white digital film projections as “the real world,” while the onstage action—filled with color, just like the old “rotogravure” pictorials in newspapers of yore—stands in for the fantasy lives of the characters. For information (and to see some footage), visit www.therotogravure.com.
Tympanic Theatre seeks submissions for its third production of 2009, slated for the summer. If you’ve got something in the trunk, visit www.tympanictheatre.org. Two submissions per playwright only—either a full-length/one-act and a 10-minute piece, or two 10-minute plays. Deadline is March 1.
Finally, we’d like to extend our congratulations to Randy Gener, senior editor at American Theatre Magazine and a 2008 inductee for the 15th annual Chicago Filipino American Hall of Fame. In addition to being a fine arts journalist, critic, and editor, Gener is also a playwright and dramaturg, and the creator of the touring photo/oral history installation about Filipino immigration, “Positively No Filipinos Allowed.” Gener receives the honor on Dec. 27 at a benefit black-tie dinner-dance at the Regency Ballroom of the Hyatt Regency sponsored by Chicago Philippine Reports TV and VIA Times newsmagazine, which will raise money for the TAHANAN Philippine Museum, the Bantay Bata Foundation for homeless children in the Philippines and the Pilipino American Social Service for Seniors. For more information and reservations, send an e-mail to viatimes@sbcglobal.net.
Send your news of the New Year to kerryreid@comcast.net.