9-12-08
A Season Starting Curtain
Well, the new season is upon us in full force. Perhaps you noticed! If you haven't already bookmarked the Chicago Theatre Database (http://www.chicagotheatredb.com/), hop to it! Major props to proprietors Dan Granata and Nick Keenan for creating this gem of a tool.
We love ambition here at Behind the Curtain, so a few quick shout-outs to some things that caught our eye this season. First, the side project devotes their entire season to one-acts in a year that they're heralding as Cut to the Quick. Locals Sean Graney, Laura Jacqmin, and Mark Young, used-to-be local Brett Neveu, New Yorkers Crystal Skillman, Matthew Ira Swaye, and Daniel Talbott, and Michael John Garces, artistic director of L.A.'s acclaimed Cornerstone Theatre, are just some of the scribes participating in this celebration of the glories of brevity. The idea is to run two different programs of shorts (none over an hour) in two different rep programs for a breathtaking total of 40 plays that will stretch over eight evenings of theatre. Whew! The first program kicks off on Nov. 16.
Meanwhile, the Museum of Contemporary Art hosted a sneak peek on Sept. 3 for their upcoming performance season, and it's a doozy. Celebrated monologist Mike Daisey makes his local premiere in If You See Something, Say Something, his acerbic look at the Department of Homeland Security, Oct. 10-12. Decidedly NOT cutting to the quick, New York's Elevator Repair Service offers up GATZ, their seven-hour version of the entire text of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Nov. 14-16. Both are likely to sell out quickly, so get your reservations in now.
There's always room for newcomers in the Chicago theatre pool. Stage 33, a flexible 25-seat space at 3657 N. Kedzie in Irving Park, is the brainchild of artistic director Eleanor Berman, who has worked with 20% Theatre Company, Stage Left, and Timeline, among others, and managing director Sara Ostrander, a "civilian" with the CTA by day, arts advocate by night. Filmmaker Christin Baker rounds out the triumvirate. The space, which is available for gallery shows, band rehearsal, and plays, opens with a new outfit, Sandhill Theatre Company, which is run by former Goodman publicity associate Brandon Hayes and Lauren Platt Baker. Sandhill focuses on telling Midwest stories (so don't pull that Cheeveresque tale of uptight--and just plain tight--WASPS out of your trunk on their account). Their maiden voyage is a double header, Questioning the Dead, featuring Nathaniel Wright's Pushing Daisies (previously seen in the Bailiwick Directors Festival) and David Alex's The Visitors, opening Oct. 9.
More New York plaudits for Chicago shows! Love is Dead: A NecRomantic Musical, which had a long run at the Annoyance last year, earned a citation for Best Music and Lyrics at the New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC) for co-creators James Asmus (who, as pointed out by Kris Vire of Time Out Chicago and the blog "Storefront Rebellion," was amusingly identified as "Lames" by TheatreMania.com), Andrew Hobgood, and Julie Nichols.
On Sept. 13, the 2008 Ruth Page Award will be presented at Ravinia's Ruth Page Festival of Dance, during the River North Chicago Dance Company performance. Mayfair Academy founder and tap master Tommy Sutton will be honored posthumously, along with his daughter and current director Peggy Sutton, for Mayfair's half-century of training young dancers at their South Side venue.
Hasn't this guy had enough honors already? Tracy Letts picks up more hardware at the annual Illinois Arts Alliance Gala on Sept. 25. Sandra Guthman, chair and CEO of Polk Bros. Foundation, will also be honored, along with Chicago Shakespeare.
There's a new head Monkey. Luke Hatton assumes the post of permanent artistic director for Barrel of Monkeys, and Maggie Fullilove-Nugent comes aboard as part-time company manager, just as the youth-oriented troupe enters the preadolescent years--they're turning 11 this season. Former artistic director Halena Kays is off to pursue an MFA at University of Texas-Austin, while interim AD and company member Laura Grey can also be seen in Second City etc's Campaign Supernova! Or How Many Democrats Does It Take To Lose An Election? (We hope and pray the answer to that is "none!")
American Theatre Company also completes the turnover of the names at the top by appointing Michael Thomas Newberry as executive director. Newberry logged three years as deputy director at Chicago Shakespeare. (I hope that title means he got to arrest people who don't turn off their cellphones and crinkle cellophane wrappers!) He joins artistic director P.J. Paparelli, whose first full season with ATC has kicked off with The People's Temple, Leigh Fondakowski's docuplay on the Jonestown massacre originally created for Tectonic Theatre. Julie Saltzman, who has been the general manager of ATC for the past two years, now handles more day-to-day duties as producing director.
In the wake of hurricanes on the Gulf Coast and floods in India, Strawdog Theatre Company uses the theme "Coping With Disaster" for their season. The company already dealt with one potential scheduling disaster. Because of the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons (yeah, the one with Katie Holmes) previewing on Sept. 18, the 'dogs couldn't get rights for their own planned production. (Perhaps the powers-that-be worried that people might get confused because Strawdog is also on "Broadway.") Instead, the second slot in the season goes to Curt Columbus' translation of Cherry Orchard, previously seen at Steppenwolf under Tina Landau's direction in 2004. Alex Goodman moves from part- to full-time managing director at Strawdog so he can head any more disasters off at the pass.
City Lit Theatre Company, which was facing a significant deficit a few years ago, boasts that it has, for the fourth year in a row, posted a modest budget surplus. Single ticket sales accounted for the bulk of that, according to managing director Brian Pastor, who notes that the company has grown its surplus while also adding a production to its subscription season since 2005-06. Those numbers should increase even more after the season opener of Mike Nussbaum's Dashiell Hamlet, a remount of a Shakespearean noir originally produced by long-gone Commons Theatre Company that starts this Friday.
Two great film genres come together Sunday, Sept. 14 at 1 p.m. at the Chicago Cultural Center in Red Heroine, a silent kung fu film from 1929. Seriously. Silent. Kung Fu. Film. What else do you need to know--except that the screening includes a new original score performed live by Boston's Devil Music Ensemble--and it's free!
Finally, some good news to close out this column: our friend Mary Shen Barnidge reports that she saw beloved thesp Dan Proctor at a performance of Belle Barth during the Stages Festival of new musicals at the Theatre Building last month. Proctor, who was shot in the head by an unknown assailant in 2005 and has been undergoing intensive rehabilitation, was walking by himself with the assistance of a cane and looking grand, according to Barnidge. We're extremely happy to hear this, and send our best wishes for his continued improvement.
You all be safe, too.
Send items to kerryreid@comcast.net.