12-22-06
Comings and Goings for the Month
Final Exits
John C. Crewdson, 71, husband of Pegasus Players’ founding/executive director Arlene Crewdson, passed away suddenly Nov. 25. The Crewdsons were married for 42 years. A lifelong resident of Hyde Park, Crewdson was in the printing industry by profession, but maintained a wide range of interests, including handball, fly-casting (he was a multiple National Champion fly-caster), international travel and community involvement. With Arlene, he frequently traveled to the Middle East, where he helped establish educational programs linking students in Chicago to their peers around the world. Regular first-nighters at Pegasus Players could count on his presence and his friendly conversation. Burial was at the family plot in Brooklyn, New York. A celebration of life will be held Dec. 22 at the University of Chicago Quadrangle Club. Memorial donations can be made to the John Crewdson Memorial Fund at Pegasus Players.
Director, choreographer and teacher Mike Malone, 63, died Dec. 4 at his home in Washington, D.C. Malone, a professor of musical theatre at Howard University, was the man who rediscovered Black Nativity, the work by Langston Hughes, first produced in 1961. Malone’s reinvigoration of the work in 1979 as a major gospel music and dance piece has led to numerous productions across the country, many of which are repeated annually at Christmas time. Malone came to Chicago in 2004 to create a Black Nativity production for Congo Square Theatre Company and returned in 2005 and just last month to restage it at Congo Square. Malone’s additional credits were wide and extensive, ranging from directing over a dozen episodes of the TV series “Fame” to Broadway choreography to serving as artistic director of Cleveland’s historic African-American theatre troupe, Karamu House. Congo Square has dedicated the run of Black Nativity to Malone (through Dec. 31 at the Duncan YMCA Chernin Center for the Arts).
Appointments
The Neo-Futurists have inducted two new ensemble members, Mary Fons and Jessica Anne. Fons, who also is part of the Gift Theatre ensemble, is the poetry coordinator for the Bucktown Arts Fest and is a noted poetry slammer. She’s appeared in Live Bait’s Filet of Solo festival and at the Chicago Improv Festival among other credits. Anne also is a writer and solo performer. She studied at the Young Actors Studio, the Chicago Academy for the Arts and Northern Illinois University.
Disappointments
Northlight Theatre has announced that managing director Phillip J. Santora is leaving the company at the end of January to become managing director of TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, CA. TheatreWorks is a LORT company with an annual budget of $8 million and a reputation for developing new musicals. A Northlight board committee will conduct a national search for Santora’s successor. Northlight board president Trimmy Stamell said, “Northlight is a stronger organization as a result of Phil’s tenure with us. We say goodbye with enormous gratitude.”
During Santora’s tenure at Northlight, partnering with artistic director BJ Jones, the company co-produced shows with the Arizona Theatre Company and GEVA Theatre, staged several world premieres, including Studs Terkel’s “The Good War” and A Marvelous Party: The Noel Coward Celebration, initiated the Interplay Reading Series for new works and set box office records with the 2005 production of Pride and Prejudice. Santora helped stabilize Northlight’s donor base, enlarge the board of directors and found a corporate giving program. Santora is a member of the League of Chicago Theatres’ executive committee.
Awards and Honors
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC) choreographer Jorma Elo and Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) Mead Composer-in-Residence Mark-Anthony Turnage are recipients of the 2006 Prince Prize for Commissioning Original Work. The Prince Charitable Trusts will award HSDC and the CSO $75,000 each to support the development of From All Sides, composed by Turnage and set by Elo upon HSDC dancers. The work will receive its world premiere Jan. 25-28 at Symphony Center, with Esa-Pekka Salonen leading the CSO. The performances mark the fourth consecutive year of collaboration between HSDC and the CSO.
Kara Lee Cothron is the 2006 winner of the Theodore Ward Prize for African-American Playwrights. She was cited for Like a Cow or An Elephant. The Ward Prize is sponsored by Columbia College Chicago and facilitated by Chuck Smith. In a new fillip this year, Cothron’s play will receive a full production at The Theatre School, DePaul University, to conclude the school’s 2006-2007 season. Smith’s staging of the play will run next May 18-27. East Coast-based Kara Lee Cothron is a graduate of the Julliard School and a multiple prize winner for various plays.
You’ve heard it before: 50 is the new 40 and 60 is the new 50. That’s a good thing to keep in mind when considering the Meier Achievement Awards, which recognize gifted artists in mid-career. Recipients of the very first Meier Achievement Awards are: Remy Bumppo Theatre Company founding artistic director James Bohnen; Redmoon Theater co-founder and artistic director Jim Lasko; and Music Theatre Workshop founder and artistic director Meade Palidofsky. Each will receive a $16,000 grant from the Tim Meier and Helen Coburn Meier Foundation, itself the creation of the husband and wife artists after whom it is named. They felt the current granting system favors groups over individuals, and perceived a lack of awards to encourage individuals in mid-career. Tim Meier is a painter and Helen Coburn Meier is an actor.
New Shops
Actor Bob Bills has gone into the teaching business full time, opening a boutique studio in Chicago. “I will not offer classes in every corner of the acting school universe,” says Bills. “Just in those areas with which I have a deep sense of connection.”
Stork Deliveries
Chris Joelle Boynton-Henderson, born 9/16/06, is the new arrival at the home of Chicago Shakespeare Theater honchos Chris Henderson and Rick Boynton. As Boynton announced in accepting his recent Jeff Award, she goes by the nickname Chloe. Congrats!