3-27-09
Comings and Goings
Ron Silver, who served as president of Actors Equity Association from 1991-2000, died of esophageal cancer at age 62 on March 15. In addition to his many screen and stage credits, including lauded portrayals of real-life controversial figures such as Henry Kissinger, Bobby Riggs and Alan Dershowitz, and a 1988 Tony Award-winning turn in David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow, Silver, whose support for both Democrats and Republicans confounded easy political categorization, should also be remembered for co-founding the Creative Coalition, dedicated to First Amendment rights and public support for arts and education. AEA executive director John P. Connolly said in a public statement “We’ve lost a lion in his prime.”
Links Hall executive director CJ Mitchell departs the dance and performance venue for a post across the pond: he’ll be the deputy director of the Live Art Development Agency in London. During his five-year tenure, Links doubled both its audience and budget numbers and implemented a 5-year strategic plan to continue the venue’s vital role as a creative laboratory and presenter of experimental work. A search is now underway for Mitchell’s replacement. Interested applicants should visit www.linkshall.org.
Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago has a new head honcho as well. Gregg Gustafson takes the reins as executive director from Ben Hodge (though Hodge will stay on board as ED for this year’s Jazz Dance World Congress in July). Gustafson brings a ton of management experience with symphony orchestras to his new post, including stints with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra, and the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.
In the “No Surprise” category, Brian Dennehy has been named a member of the Goodman Theatre’s artistic collective, joining Frank Galati, Henry Godinez, Steve Scott, Chuck Smith, Regina Taylor (whose Magnolia is now at the Albert under Anna D. Shapiro’s direction), and Mary Zimmerman. After reprising his role in Robert Falls’ Desire Under the Elms on Broadway (previews begin April 14 at the St. James Theatre), Dennehy returns to the Goodman and Eugene O’Neill in another Broadway-bound bill of Hughie and Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape next January.
Two plays that originated in Chicago are finalists for the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, which recognizes the best plays of the year produced outside of New York City. Tracy Letts got a nod for his August: Osage County follow-up, Superior Donuts at Steppenwolf, and Yussef El Guindi scored recognition for his play about Muslim-Americans in a post-9/11 world, Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat, which premiered with Silk Road Theatre Project. The winner will be announced April 4 at the Humana Festival in Louisville, and receives a $25,000 cash prize (each nominee takes home $7,500).
Speaking of August: Osage County, set designer Todd Rosenthal added a couple more feathers to his cap to join his Tony Award. Rosenthal won the only Olivier Award given to the London production, and he is also this year’s honoree for the Merritt Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration, named in honor of the late designer, Michael Merritt. Rosenthal shares the award night—held April 27th at the Steppenwolf Garage as part of the third annual “Theater Design Expo” of student designers—with Keith Parham, a company member with TUTA and a lighting designer with many credits, including Next’s acclaimed Adding Machine (and the subsequent off-Broadway run). Parham takes home this year’s Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award, named in honor of the late director.
Quelle Horreur! Chicago actor Aaron Christensen of Wildclaw Theatre has chills, and they’re multiplyin’. His anthology of horror-film reviews, Horror 101, has been nominated as the “best book of 2008” by the Seventh Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards, recognizing “the best in monster research, creativity, and genre appreciation.”
Solo performer Anthony Nikolchev has been invited to bring his piece Look, What I Don’t Understand, based on his family’s experiences under communism in Bulgaria, to ArmMONO Solo Performance Festival in Yerevan, Armenia, in April. The piece premiered locally with Thirteen Pocket Theatre Company in January.
In light of so many companies canceling or postponing shows, it’s nice to see Theatre Seven of Chicago take a chance on a remount. The company moves to the Greenhouse Theatre main stage with Marisa Wegrzyn’s play-in-monologues, Diversey Harbor, which follows a quartet of twentysomethings in Chicago in the aftermath of a tragedy. The 2007 production ended up on many best-of-the-year lists, including the one compiled by this writer. It runs April 7-May 10, and reservations can be made at 773/404-7336.
Two Chicago productions—Don’t Dress for Dinner, currently at the Royal George, and Million Dollar Quartet, which moved to the Apollo after a blockbusting rental run at the Goodman’s Owen Theatre in fall of 2008—could be heading to New York and London, respectively, according to an item in Chris Jones’ “Theater Loop” blog on March 12. Producers confirm that they are seeking Broadway and West End homes for the shows, which have turned into recession-proof hits here. Meantime, you can assuage the pain of Tax Day (or spend part of your refund) at Don’t Dress for Dinner on April 15 with a pay-what-you-like performance. The show’s cast now includes Gene Weygandt, Bethany Caputo, and Katherine Keberlein.
The New Colony continues its successful first year in Chicago with Frat, Evan Linder’s comedy based in part on his experiences in a southern fraternity, which is winning raves in its run at the Dank Haus in Lincoln Square (through April 4). The company also experiments with online-only programs by introducing ePlaybill, which allows audiences to download the playbill, short films inspired by the show, and press photos, instead of using dead-tree versions of the program. Check it out at www.thenewcolony.org/frat.
Windy City Media Group also announces a new online innovation with QueerTVNetwork.com, a video channel devoted to providing unique content about the city’s LGBT community. WCMG also has new blogs created by WindyCityQueercast.com hosts Alexandra Billings and Stephen Rader. You can check out all the updates at www.windycitymediagroup.com.
Free Street Theater premieres Skeptics, a film based on the teen ensemble’s 2002 stage show of the same title, at the Gene Siskel Film Center tomorrow at 11:30a.m. Tickets are $10 at 773/772-7248. This is the company’s first full-length feature, and the screening will be followed by a discussion with the cast, director Ron Bieganski, and cinematographer Anita Evans.
A correction from last issue: Rick Cleveland had to push back his public reading of his new solo play, Ricky and Dick, to Saturday, April 18th, 8p.m., at the Vittum Theater. Ticket sales still benefit Chicago Dramatists. And Cleveland’s previously announced playwrights’ seminar will now take place at Dramatists on Sunday, April 19th, from noon-5p.m. Call 312/633-0630 for information and reservations on both events or drop a line to newplays@chicagodramatists.org.
Longtime solo favorite Jenny Magnus, who premiered snippets of new work at the Big Goddess Pow-Wow at Rhino Fest last month, opens a full run with a new full-length, Nowhere But Up, at Prop Thtr, running March 29-April 25. Reservations at 773/267-6742.
Finally, we move from goddesses to divas: Hell in a Handbag Productions presents Dueling Divas: Round One, pitting Joan Crawford (a.k.a. Handbag artistic director David Cerda) vs. Gloria Swanson (a.k.a. former SNL cast member and occasional Big Goddess Nora Dunn) in a cat fight par excellence. Cerda’s “Mildred Pierce” gets the first shot on Friday, April 10, at Hydrate Nightclub, 3458 N. Halsted, and Dunn’s “Norma Desmond” gets ready for her close-up at the same venue on April 17. Tickets are $25 for each, and the proceeds benefit Handbag’s June remount of POSEIDON! An Upside Down Musical at the Chopin. Info at 312/409-4357 or www.handbagproductions.org.
Toss life preservers and tidbits to kerryreid@comcast.net.