Jon Tai's intimate take on magic and storytelling comes (virtually) to A Red Orchid. Jon Tai is something of an antimagician. Tricking you, he says, isn't exactl…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 02:00PMThis year's Bechdel Fest realigns online. Alison Bechdel’s iconic eponymous Bechdel Test isn't the same exam it was when the award-winning graphic writer (Fun …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 01:05PMFleetwood-Jourdain spearheads a new collaboration "Celebrating Life, Community and the Arts." Shortly after the pandemic shut down the theaters, Fleetwood-Jourda…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 01:15PMMelissa Leilani Larson and Lavina Jadhwani reimagine a classic for BIPOC voices. More than 30 years into this gig, I've lost track of how many times I've seen Ja…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 11:15AMWith a trio of walkabout podcasts, Chicago Children’s Theatre urges kids to go take a hike. Aztec deities. Sistine Chapel replicas.…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 10:00AMThe crafty, supernatural queen hosts the webseries Knitting’s A Drag. The queendom of drag is vast and diverse: There are comedy queens and look queens and ins…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 03:40PMRandom Acts, Unwell, and PlayMakers Laboratory create scary stories to share (online) in the dark. Exal Iraheta grew up listening to tales from Central American …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 08:15PMThe Neo-Futurists create short digital plays about the often-overlooked women in the White House. Time was when the future looked rather grim indeed for the late…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:45PMFire, break-ins, and COVID: the Motor Row drag palace has had a bumpy first year. Like many drag queens, Chicago’s Tori Sass has been through it this year. It …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 02:30PMTheir annual festival is on pandemic pause, but CLATA still celebrates the diversity of local theater companies. When Myrna Salazar founded the Chicago Latino Th…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 01:40PMEmmanuel Neal joins CHRP as interim managing director, but the founder's comments on Black Lives Matter spark outrage. Add the Chicago Human Rhythm Project (CHRP…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 01:30PMThe 88-year-old musical theater icon talks about staying home—and coming out. Back in early March, Broadway icon Joel Grey, 88, was finalizing his plans to vis…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 12:20PMZoom past the COVID doldrums with these August workshops. Shadow and light. Wood and paper.…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 03:45PMThe Drag Race all-star challenges racism both onstage and off. To describe the driving ethos of Chicago’s drag house Maison Couleé, you need look no further t…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 02:40PMThis year, queer performers dismantle digital boundaries while creating their own spaces. As Pride Month unfurls amid plague and long-overdue global upheaval, yo…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 10:30AMRestructuring at the top causes an exodus—again. Friday’s resignation of seven playwrights from Chicago’s Tony-winning, 46-year-old Victory Gardens Theater…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 03:00PMThe company's interest in the marginalized led them to Mask-er-Aid. Since founding Uprising Theater Company in 2014, Iymen Chehade and Maren Rosenberg have worke…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:00PMHer show at Steppenwolf is off for now, but the 'difficult' SNL vet still has plenty to say. Two weeks ago, Saturday Night Live alum and west-side native Nora Du…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:10PMJames Ijames puts the audience on trial in this TimeLine production. Of all the inescapable truths that James Ijames bombards his audience with in Kill Move Para…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 03:15PMUnderscore Theatre Company survives in a challenging landscape for new-works festivals. New musicals are inherently fragile. Festivals devoted to them, exponenti…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00PMThe Duke Ellington revue is pure fire and joy. I'm no fan of imperatives, but on occasion one simply must make an exception. To wit: Stop reading this.…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:30PMLisa Loomer's docudrama examines the landmark abortion rights case. In 1984, my roommate drove across two states so she could get a legal abortion. It took a wee…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 05:25PMJason Narducy and Brett Neveu's portrait of a 1983 teen punk band needs more edge. The opening tune Jason Narducy penned for his autobiographically inspired musi…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 04:45PMTrent James lights up Wednesdays at the Chicago Magic Lounge. The intersection of comedy and magic has ballooned since the art form's vaudevillian heyday. Case i…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 12:10PMLookingglass produces the first in J. Nicole Brooks's planned quartet of Chicago plays. Playwright-actor-director J. Nicole Brooks wasn't yet in kindergarten whe…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:00PMLucas Hnath's drama feels overheated but undercooked at Redtwist. Toward the back end of Lucas Hnath's 90-minute series of overheated monologues, Todd, a nursing…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:30PMEli Newell's self-directed holiday play at Raven asks us to suspend too much disbelief. If there's a workable drama within the rambling, under-rehearsed confines…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:05PMA contemporary gender-flipped take on the Greek tragedy blames everyone else. In Aaron Mark's one-man, 90-minute Another Medea, Marcus—a gay, cis male contempo…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:20PMThe longtime cabaret producer turns her own children's book about a lonely rag doll into a new holiday musical. Some artists hone their craft at college or conse…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 05:50PMThe biography is prosaic, but this touring bio musical captures the dark harmonies of the folk-rock superstars. Even when it's as jubilant as the pots-and-pans p…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:15PMSugarplums, sparkle, and a stellar cast can't quite overcome a treacly script. In commercializing Jane Austen's enduring appeal, playwrights Margot Melcon and La…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:08PM
