4-24-09
A Potpourri of News
Spring has sprung, the grass is riz. If you’re wondering where de Babes With Blades is, they’re on the wing with their production of Macbeth (directed by Performink columnist Kevin Heckman) from the previously-announced venue (Dream Theatre in Pilsen) to La Costa Theatre at 3931 N. Elston. They’re still swinging the broadswords April 27-May 30. Half the proceeds from the show on May 29 will benefit Will Schutz in his ongoing fight against pancreatic cancer sans health insurance. Call 773/880-0016. Signal Ensemble’s current production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie downstairs at the Chopin also hosts a benefit performance for Schutz on May 9. Call 773/347-1350.
The Babes also gave some love to a Dude: Arthur M. Jolly won the troupe’s annual Joining Sword and Pen playwriting competition with his entry Tjurjaga. (We’re told it’s pronounced “Tyoor-YAH-gah” and that it’s Russian slang for “jail.”) Jolly, whose winning play is set in a 1949 Soviet gulag, received $1,000 and will get a full production by the company in spring 2010.
Yussef El Guindi won the American Theatre Critics Association’s Osborn Award for Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat, which premiered last year with Silk Road Theatre Project. El Guindi was also a finalist for the Steinberg/ATCA new play award, which went to E.M. Lewis for Song of Extinction, which premiered at Moving Arts in Hollywood. Tracy Letts and Lee Blessing took home $7,500 apiece as “citation” winners for the Steinberg with Superior Donuts and Great Falls, respectively.
More women’s playwriting news: Stockyards Theatre Project announces the Stockyards Women’s Histories Contest, which, in keeping with their moniker, seeks original one-acts about women who worked at the old Chicago stockyards (nearly half the employees there, according to the company, were female). Submission deadline is Sept. 1—more information at www.stockyardstheatreproject.org. And n.u.f.a.n. ensemble seeks 10-minute scripts for the fourth annual “Seven Plays in Seven Days” event. Deadline is May 31. Visit www.nufanensemble.com for details.
Steppenwolf announced its lineup for the annual “First Look Repertory of New Work,” which includes ensemble member Eric Simonson, Lookingglass ensemble member Laura Eason, and last year’s winner of the first Wasserstein prize, Laura Jacqmin. The festival runs July 22-Aug. 9. In other Wolfie news, the company received a three-year, $300,000 challenge grant from the Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust, designed to help them get the maximum bang for the buck from individual donors.
The Side Project has been producing loads of new work on a minuscule budget for many years in Rogers Park, but they just got a boost: the League of Chicago Theatres named the company, headed by artistic director Adam Webster, as the recipient of this year’s Broadway in Chicago Emerging Theater Award, which carries a $5,000 purse and marketing support from BiC, as well as an advertising package from the Tribune and Time Out Chicago (assuming neither publication goes under, that is!) Meantime, the first winner of this prize, House Theatre of Chicago, has extended their production of Rose and the Rime (which was launched with the help of a much-discussed fundraising letter from board member and WBEZ personality Peter Sagal) through May 9 upstairs at the Chopin.
The Silverman Group celebrates a decade in the PR world by giving 10 local nonprofits pro bono counsel for month-long projects. The arts groups benefitting from this gesture are Hedwig Dances and ShawChicago.
Allison Cain is the new managing director at Lifeline Theatre, which means she’ll be handling all the “non-artistic” functions, including operations, finance, marketing, strategic planning, and overseeing development and fundraising. (Hopefully someone else handles custodial duties!) Cain was previously the ED at Factory Theatre from 2001-2008, and she is still an ensemble member there. Lifeline rolls out its newest installment in their Dorothy L. Sayers adaptations with Busman’s Honeymoon, created by Frances Limoncelli and directed by Paul Holmquist, on May 1.
Meantime, Luna Negra Dance Theatre is in the market for a new artistic director. Company founder Eduardo Vilaro is leaving after 10 years at the helm to become the artistic director of the prestigious Ballet Hispanico in New York, effective Aug. 1. Rehearsal director and choreographer Michelle Manzanales fills in as interim AD for Luna Negra while the company launches an international search.
Ready for a “Spring Fling?” Check out Adventure Stage Chicago’s annual benefit of that name on April 25 (tomorrow!), which boasts a New Orleans theme in keeping with the company’s current production of Katrina: The Girl Who Wanted Her Name Back. The entertainment includes the show, live jazz by Jazz Institute of Chicago’s Jazz Links, food by Dixie Kitchen, and a host of Mardi Gras family activities (yeah, that sounds like an oxymoron to me, too). Tickets are $50 adult/$25 kids in advance or $60 adult/$30 kids at the door, and a raffle during the benefit also raises money for the Red Cross of Greater Chicago. Call 773/342-4141 or visit www.adventurestage.org.
Infamous Commonwealth Theatre presents its seventh annual “Infamous Idol” karaoke contest/benefit on May 5 at the Spot, 4437 N. Broadway. The grand prize includes a two-night getaway in Saugatuck, Michigan. Each contestant and attendee pays $15 at the door (open 8:30-10p.m.; contest begins at 11p.m.), which includes the inevitable open bar. (Does anyone do karaoke sober?) Call 312/458-9780 or visit www.infamouscommonwealth.org for information. The company also just opened their production of Frank Galati’s adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath at the Raven.
If singing isn’t your thing, but you know how to spin a yarn, check out the auditions for WNEP’s annual SKALD storytelling competition, also on May 5. The categories include KidSKALD for youngsters 8-14; Maelstrom, which requires being able to improvise a three-minute story on the spot; and original SKALD, which features performing a three-minute story—either original or previously published. You can find more info and schedule an audition at www.wneptheater.org.
Finally, in the “Wish We’d Seen That!” category, Jeff committee member Jody Greenspan tells us that on her recent trip to New York, she was toddling around the theatre district when she was startled to see a ginormous rock formation sprouting near the St. James Theatre. She had, of course, come across the set load-in for the Broadway transfer of the Goodman’s hotly debated, Bob Falls-directed production of Desire Under the Elms—which featured no elms, but plenty o’ rocks, in a move that seemed to aggravate O’Neill purists. (Really people—it’s not about the trees!) Now, if only we can figure out how the Statue of Liberty got buried in all that sand!
Send spring bouquets and brickbats to kerryreid@comcast.net.