275 stories by "Nina Metz"
Jason R. Chin, a longtime improv performer, director and instructor at iO Theater, was reported dead late Thursday.
The Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival returns Thursday for its 14th year, spotlighting a mammoth selection of scripted comedy from groups from the Chicago area and parts elsewhere. The fest is …
If improv shows reveal what's in a performer's subconscious, the audience suggestions that kick everything off can be just as revealing about what's in the zeitgeist at any given moment.
I was fully charmed by this small-scale collection of original short plays from Step Up Productions. The stories at hand are not necessarily Christmas-focused, but they all share the holiday…
The mystery at hand is a thin one, but maybe that's the point. Sherlock Holmes never seemed like a man particularly swayed by the holiday season; surely he would look for any excuse or busyw…
Beloved as it is, "Waiting for Guffman" didn't even crack $3 million at the box office when it came out in 1997. The comedy is probably best watched on the small screen anyway, where you can…
The tropes of old-school grindhouse flicks are transferred to the stage with enthusiastic fidelity at Strawdog Theater, and when actor Joe Mack makes his first entrance " wearing mirrored su…
"Waiting for Guffman" didn't even crack $3 million at the box office when it came out in 1997. The comedy is probably best watched on the small screen anyway, where you can rewind the funnie…
Prior to his appearance at the Mission Theater (at iO) Wednesday afternoon in front of sold-out crowd of improv students and performers, John Cleese turned to me and said, "Don't be alarmed!…
"Women at War"Â
Outside of "Private Benjamin" and "G.I. Jane," pop culture hasn't really given much thought to women who serve in the military. The more prosaic reality " the day-to-day of what it means to …
Created by a group of friends from Highland Park High School, the party game Cards Against Humanity incorporates the non-sequitur silliness of Mad Libs with a blazingly simple premise wherei…
In a zombie story that never actually uses the word "zombie" " one of the more realistic decisions made here " playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury sticks a handful of survivors in an abandoned …
Once, when I was a young teenager and my parents were out of town, the baby sitter staying at our home looking after me " and, by extension, looking after Missy, our sweet if somewhat daffy …
My experience with the plays of Chicago writer Jon Steinhagen has been mixed. He can be such a funny writer, and he has a real instinct for throwing groups of lousy-but-endearing idiots toge…
A young, gay playwright " a self-described "white dude" " writes a script about an "alcoholic black mother and her cardsharp son trying to get out of the projects" and submits it to the stor…
Ugly people doing ugly things to one another isn't a bad premise for a black comedy. In her rarely produced first play from 1972, Caryl Churchill juices that premise with a kind of manic, la…
Lillian Hellman's call to arms, cloaked in a light drawing-room comedy that morphs into something far more serious, debuted on Broadway in 1941. It was about eight months before the U.S. ent…
Mark Bolan, one of the founding ensemble members the Chicago outpost of ComedySportz, was killed in a car accident early Monday morning, the improv theater has confirmed.
Grief, in all its complexity and shifting emotional topography, is a difficult thing to dramatize. In the world premiere of "Another Bone" at Redtwist Theatre, playwright Cathy Earnest relie…
A formidable cast including Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau fills out 1964 Cold War thriller "Fail-Safe," adapted from the 1962 novel of the same name, about a technical glitch that mistakenl…
"The Coward"
"Mnemonic"
Longtime Chicago theater actress Molly Glynn is in critical condition Saturday morning at NorthShore Evanston Hospital, a spokeswoman for the hospital confirmed. According to sources, Glynn …
Thirty-two years ago Charna Halpern approached Del Close with an offer. He was already a renowned director in the world of comedy, and working at Second City. She had just launched the Impro…
