DV&D, Lux/Photo: Phil Knott

In just five years, the Chicago Dancing Festival has grown from a one-night showcase at the Pritzker Pavilion to a five-day multi-venue event encompassing performance, film and lecture. Like Lollapalooza, Dancing Festival tickets are snapped up shortly after they’re released. One difference being that, instead of $190 a pop, it’s all free.

Celebrated New York choreographer and Chicago native Lar Lubovitch along with dancer Jay Franke curate programs that include renowned companies from across the country, giving us the unique opportunity to see Martha Graham’s, Merce Cunningham’s and Mr. Lubovitch’s companies all in the same evening. I spoke with Jay Franke about the birth, growth and future of the festival.

How did you conceive of the festival?

Lar and I danced together at Hubbard Street and I danced in his company in New York later. We both felt there was a need for a dance festival in Chicago. We felt if we were able to give an audience access to the best that was out there, we would attract and grow a new audience for dance. We had our eye on the Pritzker—it’s a very grand performance space and democratic. We had 8,500 people show up to our first performance, so we felt we had an overnight hit on our hands. Read the rest of this entry »

Catalina Cuervo

RECOMMENDED

Here’s something you won’t see at Lyric Opera, and not likely even at Chicago Opera Theater: a tango opera. We tend to think of the tango as largely an instrumental genre and of its greatest exponent, Argentine composer and bandoneón virtuoso Ástor Piazzolla, as the master of the genre.

In 1968, however, Piazzolla wrote an opera with Argentine poet Horacio Ferrer since, as Piazzolla remarked when they first met, “You are doing in your poetry what I am doing in my music.”

The end result, “María de Buenos Aires,” is a large-scale work that is to the tango what Johann Strauss II’s “Die Fledermaus” is to the waltz: not a mere pastiche of one sung dance after another, but a cohesive narrative told via tango, in this case incorporating various types of tango, including traditional, romance, song, modern, milonga and yes, even waltz, along with folk music from the Pampas. Read the rest of this entry »

Caroline Neff, Walter Briggs, Kendra Thulin/Photo: Lee Miller

RECOMMENDED

At first, the title of Simon Stephens’ play seems misleading. While “Pornography” features two transgressive sexual relationships—a heartbreaking incestuous one between a brother and sister, and a warped relationship of power between a teacher and former student—it’s less a spectacle of sex than a study of profound alienation and its manifestations both personal and political. And yet the concept of pornography turns out to be profoundly important to the disturbing themes of the play; while it’s famously hard to define what pornography is, it is almost always the displacement of bodily arousal—pure affect—for intimacy. And it’s that loss of human connection that unites stories as disparate as the vignettes that comprise the show, which ultimately asks truly provocative questions about terrorism, culpability and what humanism might mean now. Read the rest of this entry »

“No wimps at F.S.” reads one of many doodles on the wall of Free Street Theater’s rehearsal space in the attic of the Pulaski Park Field House. This bold, unofficial statement of intent summarizes Free Street Theater’s formal mission: to teach “acting and writing skills to youth so they can open their potential to be creative, active participants in their own lives.” Its latest production, “You Ain’t Seen This,” which the website calls an exploration of “reflection, identity and choice,” is soon coming to an end; after two months of writing, rehearsal and performances in spaces all over the city, they are re-blocking the show for its final indoor performances. These will take place today  and Wednesday in the new space of mixed-media theater company Collaboraction, whose creative director, Sam Porretta, co-directed the piece. “It’s becoming a new show,” says co-director Ashley Winston, former ensemble member and arts educator. They describe the whole Summer Intensive program as “down and dirty”; the ensemble auditioned the week before the writing began, and the “whole piece is generated from their work.” Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the press release from Light Opera Works:

LIGHT OPERA WORKS’ 2011 Season continues in October

Evanston, IL: Light Opera Works’ 2011 season continues in the fall with RODGERS & HART: A CELEBRATION (October 2-November 6) on the Second Stage, and Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon’s THE SECRET GARDEN (December 26-January 1) on the mainstage. To purchase tickets call (847) 869-6300 or order online at www.LightOperaWorks.com Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the press release from ShawChicago:

SHAWCHICAGO ANNOUNCES 2011-2012 SEASON

CLASSIC THEATER FEATURING
STRONG WOMEN AND VACILLATING MEN
NOEL COWARD IN TWO KEYS,
AND TWO WORKS BY GEORGE BERNARD SHAW:
ANDROCLES AND THE LION,
AND MRS. WARREN’S PROFESSION Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the press release from Oak Park Festival Theatre:

Oak Park Festival Theatre Announces
2011-2012 Season

OAK PARK, IL-Oak Park Festival Theatre announces its 2011-2012 performance season. Following last year’s successful four-play season, there will be two productions indoors, in addition to the two outdoors in Austin Gardens.

In the fall of 2011, OPFT will produce Tennessee Williams’ American classic The Glass Menagerie, directed by Kevin Theis, in the studio space at the Madison Street Theatre. A spring production of Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones, directed by David Mink and starring Alan Ruck and OPFT Artistic Director Jack Hickey, will play in the same location. The summer season in Austin Gardens will be two highly charged political masterpieces: Lawrence and Lee’s Inherit the Wind, directed by Steve Pickering, and Shakespeare’s Richard III, directed by Belinda Bremner.  Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the press release from Links Hall:

Links Hall Announces its Fall 2011 Performance Series.

Chicago, IL – Links Hall is pleased to announce its Fall 2011 performance series featuring works from many returning artists, as well as new presentations from up and coming artists. Nasty Brutish & Short, presented by Links Hall and curated by Seth Bockley and Julia Miller returns for two more performances after a successful run in the Winter 2011 season. The Striding Lion Performance Group premiers their latest works in November, featuring a collaborative effort with another Chicago dance, theatre, or performing artist each night, culminating in a unique program for every audience. Links Hall’s 2011 Lisa Dershin LinkUP Artists Justin Cabrillos and Ni’Ja Whitson debut their brand new works in September as a result of a six-month residency at Links Hall, a highly anticipated performance. As we close out the year, December brings an annual favorite, the Winter Solstice Percussion Concerts, playing for their 21st year at dawn. For more information call 773.281.0824, or purchase tickets online at www.LinksHall.org. Read the rest of this entry »

George Zerante, Cyd Blakewell, Jessica London-Shields, Cody Proctor/Photo: Amanda Clifford

RECOMMENDED

Chicago’s a tough town but it’s good for a story. Theatre Seven takes a handful of our anecdotes and brings them alive with performances and staging that evoke the joyous aggravation of urban life.

The narratives run the gamut, from the universal (baseball frustration, unusual train conversations) to the highly personal (kidney-stone pain, the end of relationships). The show’s eight contributors capture the city’s effects on its citizens in poignant, powerful ways. You don’t move into Chicago, we’re told, Chicago moves into you. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Anna C. Bahow

RECOMMENDED

The best plays break down easily to the basics: characters, conflict and the truth. the side project’s site-specific latest is light on frills, but heavy on what’s important: the basics.

Artistic director Adam Webster’s creative tribute to Jarvis Square, the group’s home for the last ten years, “Cut to the Quick” places six short plays in local storefronts. Sometimes it works; “Ceremony” uses Charmer’s coffee shop effectively, detailing the efforts of newly minted stepbrothers Cory (baby-faced Ty Baumann) and James (a frat-a-licious yet truly creepy Dillon Kelleher) to bond. Read the rest of this entry »