3-13-09
Reconfiguring Seasons
As reported elsewhere in this issue, About Face’s current financial woes have forced the company to postpone this spring’s world premiere of Ann Marie Healy’s What Once We Felt. Other companies are also switching things up to deal with the economic downturn. House Theatre of Chicago managed, after a much-publicized fundraising drive a couple months ago, to open their latest fantasia, Rose and the Rime. However, their April-June production of Alan Infinitum, which is being developed by Northwestern’s American Music Theatre Project, won’t rock the House until fall. And Chicago Children’s Theatre has pushed off Ralph Covert and G. Riley Mills’ musical, Hundred Dresses, based on the Eleanor Estes book, until the fall. In an item on Chris Jones’ “Theater Loop” blog at the Tribune, CCT artistic director Jacqueline Russell cited the need for a better venue than the Museum of Science and Industry, which hasn’t worked out for the company in terms of ticketing services and signage.
Black Ensemble Theatre is still moving ahead with their plans for the new theatre in Uptown, but they are reducing the budget from $20 million to $15 million. Meantime, the BET production of I Gotcha (The Story of Joe Tex and the Soul Clan) has extended through April 26.
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago artistic director Jim Vincent steps down after nearly nine years in the post to take the same job at Nederlands Dans Theater in the Hague, where, according to a Sid Smith item in the Tribune, he’ll work with his mentor, choreographer Jiri Kylian. Vincent danced with Hubbard Street from 1978-1990. A search committee is seeking his successor. In other dance news, Joffrey Ballet announces the formation of the Gerald Arpino Foundation, which will lease the rights to ballets created by Arpino, who died in October, and Robert Joffrey, who died 20 years earlier.
Five companies are finalists for the League of Chicago Theatre’s Emerging Theatre Award. They are: Adventure Stage Chicago, Chicago Children’s Theatre, Dog and Pony Theatre Company, the Side Project, and TUTA Theatre Chicago. The winner will be honored at the League’s annual “Showtime Gala” in May, and receives $5,000 and marketing support, including a full-page ad in the Tribune. Meantime, Windy City Times seeks nominations for its “30 Under 30 Awards,” which honors outstanding GLBT individuals in arts, activism, athletics, journalism, academics and other movers and shakers who are still young enough to be trusted. The nomination deadline is April 24. Send nominations to Andrew Davis, andrew@windycitymediagroup.com, or fax to his attention at 773/871-7609.
Tom Arvetis, the founder and producing director of Adventure Stage Chicago, has already scored a feather in his cap: he is a 2009 recipient of the Ann Shaw Fellowship from Theatre for Young Audiences/USA, which enables him to travel and observe other youth-based theatre programs and ensembles. Arvetis is particularly interested in developing new work with an ensemble, such as that done by Childsplay in Tempe, Arizona.
Speaking of youth: if you know young playwrights (high school, college, or recent grads), you might want to steer them toward YouthPlays.com, a national coalition formed by Jonathan Dorf, Matt Buchanan, and Ed Shockley that functions as a “green” publisher and online clearing house for new scripts focused on “the vocabulary of young actors and audiences.” They are also seeking interns for the program who will receive mentoring with their own writing. For information, contact info@youthplays.com, attn: internship. Include a current CV or bio.
Big congrats to American Theatre senior editor Randy Gener, recipient of this year’s George Jean Nathan Award, the most sought-after prize in American theatre criticism (other than angry phone calls at home from Bob Falls, that is). Gener receives $10,000 and joins the august company of former winners, including one-time Chicago Reader theatre editor Albert Williams.
As reported last issue, American Theater Company has postponed Yeast Nation (the triumph of life) until fall. However, co-creator and composer Mark Hollmann, who shared a Tony with his creative partner and former fellow member of Chicago comedy troupe Cardiff Giant, Greg Kotis, for Urinetown: the Musical!, appears at Theatre Building Chicago on Monday, March 23 at 7 p.m. Hollmann is an alum of the TBC New Tuners workshop (now the Musical Theatre Writer’s Workshop). The talk is free, but reservations suggested at 773/327-5252. And fans of Lifeline Theatre’s current production, an adaptation of Ron Hansen’s nun-centric mystery, “Mariette in Ecstasy,” can meet Hansen in person at a book signing event at the theatre on March 14, 7-8 p.m. He’ll stick around for a post-show discussion, too. Call 773/761-4477 for info.
Drury Lane Oakbrook snagged the local premiere of Fred Ebb and John Kander’s final musical, Curtains, and the opening night reception on March 26 benefits one of our own: actor Daniel J. Proctor, who was shot in the head by an unknown assailant in 2005. For information on the show and benefit, call the Drury Lane box office at 630/530-0111. And Apple Tree Theatre’s current production of the musical Wings (through April 5), based on the Arthur Kopit play about a stroke victim suffering from aphasia, will also benefit Proctor, who suffers from the condition. Wednesdays in March are industry nights, with all the proceeds from the $10 tickets benefiting Proctor. (More info on Proctor is at www.danieljproctor.com.) On Fridays during the run, Apple Tree offers post-show discussions on aphasia with staff from the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Call 847/432-4335
Local playwright/actor John Green will be working the room for the L.A. opening in April of The Honeysting, produced by Top Dog Films, which recently contracted with Green to write a screenplay based on his play Twilight Serenade. And playwright Jill Elaine Hughes recently had three one-acts produced in NYC with Love Creek Productions, while her erotic-romance-writer alter ego, “Jamaica Layne,” has been doing strong business with Market for Love (she warns that “it’s RACY!”).
Onetime Chicago playwright and Emmy winner Rick Cleveland (vet of “The West Wing” and “Six Feet Under,” among other marquee gigs) is back in town for a little while. Tomorrow at 8 p.m., at the Royal George Theater, he presents a public reading of his newest monologue, Ricky and Dick, as a benefit for Chicago Dramatists. He then presents a seminar at Dramatists on Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Call 312/633-0630 for information on both.
In honor of Women’s History Month, the Women’s Media Group presents a radio show, “Sex: Let’s Get Real. Choices. Challenges. Changing Times,” to be recorded at SPACE in Evanston on March 23, 7-9 p.m. WMG executive producer Maya Friedler and creative director Jamie O’Reilly host a panel that includes Linda Bubon of Women and Children First bookstore, Dr. Melissa Gilliam of University of Chicago Hospitals, film journalist and critic Jan Lisa Huttner, and Chicago Women’s Health Center counselor Angelique Grandone. Audience participation is strongly encouraged. For information, call 312/458-0822.
Finally, those hardworking, long-suffering folks in the front of the house at Victory Gardens get to take the spotlight in Desperate House Managers: The Cabaret Show on Sunday, March 22, 7:30 p.m. at thirty-one sixty bar, located at (of course) 3160 N. Clark St. Matt Conlon, Scott Gryder, and Sarah Wurz (with Nick Sula on the ivories) belt out the blues for a mere $10 suggested donation. For once, you can stop bugging them and find your own damn seat!
Send harbingers of spring and gladsome tidings to kerryreid@comcast.net.