10-27-06
Throughlines
Appointments
Producer Tony DeSantis has named William Osetek as artistic director of Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace Theatre. Osetek has been associated with the Drury Lane family for over 15 years, assisting former artistic directors Travis Stockley, Gary Griffin and Ray Frewen (whom Osetek succeeds). A graduate of Loyola University of Chicago, Osetek received his MFA in Directing from Illinois State University in 2002. In Chicago, he’s directed at the Prologue and Marriott theatres as well as at Drury Lane, where The Mousetrap, Camelot, Beauty and the Beast, The Pirates of Penzance and Of Thee I Sing are among his credits. Osetek will stage Drury Lane’s upcoming production of The King and I, Dec. 28-March 4, 2007.
The Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire has promoted Aaron Thielen and Andy Hite from associate artistic directors to artistic directors, reporting to executive producer Terry James. Thielen has been connected with the Marriott Theatre for 11 years, Hite for four years. Both were named associate artistic directors in 2005, and since that time have served as lead artistic officer on alternate productions.
Brandon Hayes is the new press relations associate at the Goodman Theatre, reporting to Denise Garrity. Hayes succeeds Jennifer Dobby, who has returned to school (Northwestern) to study writing. Hayes came on board over the summer during the Latino Theatre Festival.
Lifeline Theatre has announced three new ensemble members. The addition of Paul S. Holmquist, Katie McLean and Phil Timberlake brings the ensemble up to 20. Actor/director/writer Holmquist has extensive credits with the Lifeline, TimeLine, Shattered Globe, Caffeine and Factory theatre companies. Chiefly, however, he’s been associated with the Griffin Theatre, where he will retain his company membership. McLean is an actor/director with credits at Bailiwick, greasy joan, the Hypocrites, Shakespeare’s Motley Crew and Zebra Crossing, in addition to Lifeline. She’s also writing a novel. Timberlake is an actor and dialect coach who’s worked with Apple Tree, City Lit, First Folio Shakespeare, New World Repertory, ShawChicago and Signal theatre companies, among others. He’s also an assistant professor at The Theatre School, DePaul.
Remy Bumppo Theatre Company named Charlie Beck to the role of ex-President Hockstader in The Best Man, replacing the late Gene Janson, for whom Beck was understudy. The remainder of the run (through Nov. 5) has been dedicated to Janson.
Awards and Honors
The United States Department of State, through its Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, has awarded $188,000 to Pegasus Players in support of Pegasus’ Global Voices Initiative. The funds will allow Pegasus to partner with elementary and secondary schools in Casablanca, Morocco and Amman, Jordan in a playwriting and production program based on the Pegasus Players’ Young Playwrights Festival. The program includes a swap of plays written by the Moroccan and Jordanian students and their counterparts in Chicago. Pegasus has received State Department grants previously for touring programs to the Middle East.
The Illinois Arts Council has awarded $16,500 to the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights for presenters’ development. The grant – what might be called a stabilization grant by the National Endowment for the Arts – recognizes the increased institutional strength and broadened programming of the Metropolis Centre since converting to non-profit operation in 2002.
The New York unit of the Neo-Futurists took home honors for Performance Art Production at the second annual Innovative Theatre Awards for Off-Off-Broadway, at Sept. 18 ceremonies that boasted Martha Plimpton, Adam Rapp, Lanford Wilson and Charles Busch – all folks with Chicago connections – among the presenters. The New York Neo-Futurists won for – what else? – Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind.
Steppenwolf-affiliated playwright Bruce Norris will take home $5,000 as Honorable Mention for the Kesselring Prize for Emerging Playwrights. Norris was cited for The Pain and the Itch, which recently opened Off-Broadway to favorable notices after its Steppenwolf world premiere last season. The somewhat-quixotic-but-remunerative Kesselring Prize is given by the National Arts Club, which otherwise has little truck with theatre, and is named after (and was endowed by) noted American dramatist Joseph Kesselring. What? You never heard of Joseph Kesselring? Can you say Arsenic and Old Lace?
The Chicago Center on Dance and Performance has announced recipients of its second round of grants, designed to promote public conversation on dance and other genres of physical performance. The recipients are Luna Negra Dance Theater, the Dance COLEctive and Julia Antonick and Anna Drozdowski. Luna Negra will use the grant to help underwrite its Antojito Series, a sampling of free public events that invite the community to have a personal and close interaction with dance. The two most recent Antojito Series programs were Oct. 4 at the Old Town School of Folk Music and Oct. 13, at the University of Chicago International House. The Dance COLEctive grant will underwrite In Your Space, a series of site-specific works in three public downtown Chicago venues during November and December. Antonick and Drozdowski will present a five-hour workshop at Moksha Yoga Center, using yoga shala to introduce the public to ideas of dance improvisation and movement principles from contemporary dance, contact improvisation, yoga and other somatic influences.
Passages
Des Plaines-based actor Edward T. Westfall passed away Oct. 1 of leukemia. He was 63. Westfall began pursuing acting in earnest about a decade ago after a 30-year career as an executive recruiter. His credits included work with Collaboraction and Serendipity theatre companies, indie films, several commercials and many productions with community theatres in the northwest suburbs.
Friends of Keyhole Theatre artistic director Frank Merle, Jr. are mourning the death of his father, Frank Merle, Sr., in September. Because of the unexpected passing, Keyhole postponed the opening of When She Was God by several days.