Photo: Manny Ortiz

In our hyperkinetic, digital world, it’s no wonder that we’re turning desperately to Don Draper & Co. to sate our nostalgia for simpler times. At first blush, it’s that kind of longing that Jordan Harrison’s play studies. But while “Mad Men” has a naturalistic model that subtly uncovers the realities of the mid-twentieth century, the play mainly traffics in broad statements about race and sexuality that aren’t so much explored as presented without question. A discontented modern woman decides to join a small group (one might say cult) that reproduces the society of 1955. Read the rest of this entry »

Liz Lerman Dance Exchange performing "The Matter of Origins"/Photo: Jaclyn Borowski.

By Sharon Hoyer

The terms investigation, exploration and research show up a lot in artist statements and program notes these days, but few artists use the words as comprehensively as Liz Lerman, former artistic director of the DC-based Dance Exchange. Lerman’s enthusiastic curiosity has led her to collaborate with numerous minds in the fields of science and academics as well as the arts, creating performances around topics as diverse as genetics, immigration, death, spirituality, Reaganomics, the Nuremberg Trials and the Underground Railroad. Lerman’s talent for uncovering how specialized fields intersect in dance springs from a very direct inclusiveness in her work that takes in the five generations of dancers represented in Dance Exchange and, particularly in the case of “The Matter of Origins” (playing as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival), her audiences.

“The Matter of Origins” explores physics and human theories about the beginning of time in two acts: the first is a traditional stage performance that includes massive projections of images like Marie Curie’s lab and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN; the second is a tea party with chocolate cake (Lerman got Edith Warner’s recipe, the woman who served lunch to J. Robert Oppenheimer and the scientists at Los Alamos while they were developing the nuclear bomb). The audience sits at round tables with local scientists and “provocateurs,” who help guide the conversation. Read the rest of this entry »

Jessica Wolfram

RECOMMENDED

The centerpiece of River North’s fall program is Daniel Ezralow’s taut, gritty, high-octane “SUPER STRAIGHT is coming down,” a fifteen-minute piece inspired by a series of terse photos by Robert Longo entitled “Men in Cities.” The social pressure cooker of urban existence is given shape by ramrod limbs, whirling partnering and an industrial score by Dutch composer Thom Willems.

Frank Chaves, River North’s Artistic Director, was in the original cast (the piece was first set on Hubbard Street in 1989) and with the help of Sandi Cooksey, another original cast member, set it on his company. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Steven Caras

As the name professes, this all-male ensemble has street cred aplenty, especially on the major thoroughfares of Broadway and Hollywood Boulevard. Flashy moves and flawless technique have earned the Bad Boys accolades from across the high-profile entertainment spectrum, from competitive TV dance shows to Carnegie Hall, sharing bills with the likes of Lady Gaga and Elton John. Read the rest of this entry »