If you enjoy the loose vibe at Second City shows—the cocktail-lounge atmosphere, the audience-performer interaction—then you might just love the shows being produced in a Pilsen backyard by the Southside Ignoramus Quartet (SIQ) on June 25, July 9 and July 16. SIQ offers all the trappings of a great North Side show—special guest comedians, improv sets based on audience suggestion and sketch comedy—from the backyard of the South Side, in the comfort of a fully equipped and air-conditioned tent.

Founder David Pintor, a Pilsen native, discovered at the Second City Conservatory that South Side humor “didn’t always fit in with what you see with groups on the North Side.” His fellow students were often unsure how to react to characters drawn from the people of his neighborhood. In response, Pintor says, “I started training people and started my own group here.” Inspired by his father’s stories of traveling theaters in Mexico, he scraped together the money for a tent and equipment, he and his father built the stage and SIQ saw its first performance in June 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the press release from Saint Sebastian Players:

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE:
SAINT SEBASTIAN PLAYERS ANNOUNCE 31ST SEASON
CHICAGO—For its 31st season, the Saint Sebastian Players presents a moving drama, an original adaptation of a well-known author’s works and a farcical comedy. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the press release from House Theatre:

The House Theatre of Chicago celebrates its 10th year with a season of unbelievable new plays!

CHICAGO, IL—The House Theatre of Chicago has been creating Amazing Feats of Storytelling for 10 years! Today, The House is thrilled to announce its most exciting season to date. The season begins with Cyrano. This new adaptation of the classic story of the world’s greatest poet-swordsman, Cyrano De Bergerac, is written and directed by 4-time Jeff Award Winning director Matt Hawkins. Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

Playwright Jose Rivera once studied with author Gabriel Garcia Marquez and it shows; “Marisol” is saturated with the magical realism Marquez is famous for. Rivera’s serio-comic poetry makes terrifying celestial warfare just as believable as the cruelty New Yorkers inflicted on each other in the early nineties.

Marisol (Marta Evans) struggles in a pre-apocalyptic Bronx, New York. Her guardian angel (Leslie Ann Sheppard) informs her that a heavenly battle approaches; revolting angels plan to replace the current dying god and restore earth. As the war commences, Marisol struggles to find co-worker June (Kristin Collins), encountering bizarre obstacles on the way.

Director John Mossman makes creative use of Aaron Menninga’s graffitied set; the performances are broad but the script demands it. Evans’ wide-eyed fear and plucky bravery is affecting, while Collins and Brandon Thompson nail the comic relief. The piece wallows a bit too long in degradation, but leaves room for hope. (Lisa Buscani)

At The Artistic Home, 3914 North Clark, (866)811-4111. Through July 31.

Joseph Anthony Foronda and David Rhee/Photo: Michael Brosilow

RECOMMENDED

I recently heard the author Stuart Dybek address a small assemblage at the Energy BBDO ad agency, where he spoke at length about the labeling of narrative, and said that he was at work on a “fictional memoir.” The stories he was including really happened, at least as he recalls, but the label “fiction” gives him license to serve the narrative rather than to adhere to some idea of objective truth. This came to mind watching the captivating and hilarious production of David Henry Hwang’s “Yellow Face,” now in its Chicago premiere at Silk Road Theatre Project (in association with Goodman Theatre, which is working with the playwright on the world premiere of “Chinglish”). In “Yellow Face,” the playwright makes himself the central character, “processing” a decade or so of dramatic developments in his life and seemingly stymied career as a playwright in the wake of his breakout success with “M. Butterfly.” He takes us into his outspoken protest of the casting of a white actor, Jonathan Pryce, as an Asian character in “Miss Saigon,” and through Hwang’s folllow-up to “Butterfly,” the Broadway flop “Face Value.” Soon, Washington in the late nineties seemed to be undertaking a McCarthyish witch hunt for Chinese Americans, and Hwang’s father, a successful immigrant banker who’d been a walking billboard for the American dream, was being dragged down. Through all of this, a running exploration of the nature of race, and “face,” is being explored in ways both overt and subtle, as well as a subtextual exploration of the nature of objective truth. Read the rest of this entry »

Chance Bone, Nora Fiffer/Photo: Sean Williams

RECOMMENDED

Time and adversity can easily destroy culture; witness the pillaging of Iraqi museums at the beginning of the current war. Lookingglass’ latest is a tender look at one woman’s struggle with her past and her efforts to honor her heritage.

Lilith (Marilyn Dodds Frank) is an octogenarian living in clutter with her new caregiver (Usman Ally). Haunted by the specter of an old love, street performer Ben Ari (Chance Bone), Lilith drifts between present day and visions of her life as a young girl in wartime Poland.

David Kersnar’s staging guides the piece seamlessly between realities. Jacqueline and Richard Penrod’s set and Tracy Otwell’s design ingeniously illustrate the toy theater aesthetic popular in the 1930s. Bone is an appealing, versatile storyteller and the relationship with sheltered Lilka (Nora Fiffer) is charming yet vulnerable. Frank and Ally’s clever, sarcastic banter belies a grudging respect. It’s a story about stories that’s enchanting. (Lisa Buscani)

“The Last Act of Lilka Kadison,” Lookingglass Theatre, 821 North Michigan, (312)337-0665. Through July 24.

Benjamin Sprunger and Patrick Andrews/Photo: Jonathan L. Green

RECOMMENDED

Working backwards in time from 2010 to 2000 in two-year increments bracketed by time-specific pop songs, this moving world premiere by Chicago playwright Philip Dawkins follows the evolution of a shy Iowan, Evan (Patrick Andrews), and the interrelationships between his tight-knit group of friends as he makes his way in the big city, learning what it means to be a homosexual in the twenty-first century. Dawkins’ characters are fully formed and the impeccable cast imbues them all with intricate and relatable personalities. Over the course of a decade, with equal parts laugh-out-loud comedy and unforced drama, Dawkins’ script (under careful direction by Bonnie Metzgar) openly examines a number of weighty gay themes. More importantly (and impressively), “The Homosexuals” actively seeks out the meaning of friendship, personal discovery and the transcending of stereotypes by fully embracing one’s own identity. In short, it’s a show everyone, even “breeders,” can (and should) enjoy. (Zach Freeman)

About Face Theatre at Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 North Lincoln, (773)871-3000. Through August 14.

Bobby Costanzo

Jim Geoghan’s 1988 play reminds us that comedians—those purveyors of laffs, those kings of the one-liner—are, for all their clownishness, underneath it all tortured, miserable souls with giant chips on their shoulders who are just as much about the “business” as the “show.” Emergent Theatre calls in a ringer or two to land this funny, somewhat demented first production.

The play concerns Jackie Dwayne, an aging Catskills comedian who hasn’t seen the limelight since the days of Ed Sullivan, and a young, up-and-coming comedy duo, all of whom dream of performing on the Buddy King Show. Not so much plot driven for its first act, the show attempts an examination of the psychological and emotional terms of a life in comedy.

Veteran actor Bobby Costanzo brings some delightful old-school talent to the stage as Dwayne, and Jim Saltouros and A.J. Miller as the comedy team on the verge commend themselves well (although Saltouros is too old to be a young comic). Eustace Allen and Ken Bradley round out this solid cast, who really kill when they get on a roll riffing and bouncing. However, the play takes an unfortunate misstep when it forsakes the edgy comedy and devolves into a typical backstage farce, and the late 1980s misogyny can occasionally grate. (Neal Ryan Shaw)

Emergent Theatre at the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, 777 North Green, (312)733-6000. Through July 10.

Brandon Ward, Quinn Gasaway, Mikey Renan

Milk-plus. Droogs. A bit of the old ultraviolence. Beethoven’s Ninth. These things are recognizable to anyone who has either read Anthony Burgess’ classic dystopian 1962 novel or seen Stanley Kubrick’s memorable film adaptation. If you’re a member of the uninitiated, DreamLogic’s promenade-style production of Burgess’ own adaptation might make you wish you were more familiar with the tale of Alex, a rebellious teenager put through the ringer by an uncaring futuristic bureaucracy. If some story elements remain obscure, however, the peripatetic show manages to keep the audience engaged for most of its duration. Director Scott McKinsey uses the eerily evocative futurist Rotunda building to full effect—the show’s overall design recalls a 1960s sci-fi film without necessarily conjuring Kubrick’s. The show moves briskly around the circular structure between set pieces, some of which recall art installations, and interactions are smooth enough that you never feel like you’re in the way or discouraged from moving around for the best viewing angle. In such a cavernous, sometimes echoey space, though, the show wants for more sophisticated, polished performances from its cast. Barring that, you might be shocked by “Clockwork”‘s provocations, more than moved to reflect on man’s role in society. But that doesn’t mean you didn’t have a good time. (Neal Ryan Shaw)

Dreamlogic Theatreworks at the Rotunda, 1603 Orrington, Evanston. Through July 2.

"Raven"/Photo: Anna Lee Campbell

A large canvas curtain pressed with black feathers cordons off a section of clean white gallery space. Holes are rent throughout the curtain, inviting visitors to step close and peer through. What they see is a large nest—or perhaps island—of earth, twigs and feathers and strewn atop the angular limbs of artists Eiko and Koma. The viewer may enter the dimly lit space behind the curtain and witness the quiet drama of the two naked bodies, reclined but activated, moving constantly though near-imperceptibly, in a silent dance that evokes meditations on death and the eternal.

The performance is entitled “Naked: a living installation” and comes to the MCA as part of a touring retrospective on the career of Japanese-born, New York-based dance artists Eiko and Koma. The couple has been creating work about subjects that, as they put it, matter to them (and indeed matter to us all) for forty years. Trained by Kazuo Ohno, one of the two founders of the slow, detailed, bleak and infinitely rich dance style butoh, Eiko and Koma draw attention to our perceptions of time and space and our physical places within them. “Naked,” as the full title suggests, is a durational piece, performed nonstop during museum hours. Visitors may sit and watch the piece evolve for as long as they please—an invitation to notice more, to experience the intimacy of the space, to become more absorbed in the moment. Read the rest of this entry »