Photo: Micilin O'Donaghue

The Anatomy Collective, an experimental performance group, is emerging from the underground to bring its current endeavor, “Unintended Structures,” to Chicago’s first Fringe Festival, which kicks off on September 1 for a five-day run (www.chicagofringe.org).

“We’ve been pretty underground for a long time, performing in warehouses, small galleries, hidden spaces,” Stephanie Acosta, Anatomy Collective’s co-founder says. “We thought, what happens if we bring ourselves up to the surface?” The Fringe Fest “seemed like the right avenue.”

The festival is not a juried event; rather each performer or company is put through a controlled lottery. “It’s sort of a wonderfully democratic way of choosing things,” Acosta says. “Particularly for the first Fringe, I liked the potential for madness.” Read the rest of this entry »

Here are the details from a Lyric Opera press release issued earlier today:

William “Bill” Mason, Lyric Opera of Chicago’s general director since 1997, announced today that he will retire when his contract expires at the conclusion of the company’s 2011-12 season.

Mason, 68, has led the world-renowned Chicago-based opera company since 1997 and has been with Lyric Opera for more than four decades.

“I think two years from now will be the right time to turn the reins over to a new general director,” says Mason, “and I look forward to working with the Board on finding a successor to lead this great company. Read the rest of this entry »

Demian Krentz

Admit it. When the Civil War comes to mind, you immediately think, “big laughs.” No? Well the creative minds behind “Shoot Faster, Dear Brother, I’m Dying! (a Civil War Comedy),” which takes the stage this week at the Apollo Studio Theater, 2540 North Lincoln, aim to change that.

This idea to write a comedy based on the time of The War Between the States came from an unprovoked email exchange between writer-performer Demian Krentz and writer-performer Joe Anderson. “At the time I was living in Lansing, Michigan. Joe and I had worked on a couple of plays in Michigan and I just decided to write him an email as if I was talking to my brother in a field in a war,” Krentz says. “He wrote me back in the same form and we realized it was turning into a funny idea.”

Krentz explains that the play, about two brothers who live in Virginia while one of them is fighting in the war and its aftermath, is a condensed version of a book they were going to write until they both agreed it would be better acted out. “It’s a ridiculous take on life back then,” Krentz says. “I’m a history nerd; it’s always great to imagine what people who lived before us did.” If you, too, would like to explore the funny side of The Late Unpleasantness, visit shootfaster.com or call (773)935-6100. (Ashley Abramowicz)

This weekend’s first annual Hope Through Dance Festival, in honor of Laura Maceika, a Chicago Dance Crash member at the time of her death last year, consists of people who were connected to Laura—people she danced with, choreographers who worked with her, as well as students she taught.

The festival was created by her mother, Jeri Pulver, the founder of the Laura Twirls Foundation, which she started when she realized there was not a lot of support systems for the family victims of suicide. “I didn’t find this support and there’s not a lot out there period for suicide. No one wants to talk about it,” says Pulver.

The goals of Laura Twirls are to provide dance scholarships as well as financial support to mental health facilities focusing on assisting the survivors of suicide. “It is a reality. Mental illness, like other diseases, can result in death. I want to educate people and remove the stigma.” Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Andrew Collings

This summer, the Neo-Futurists will once again produce their annual staged-reading series of terrible films. This year, “Film Fest IX: The Perils of the Neo-Futurarium,” was put together by Bilal Dardai and Megan Mercier.

“We try not to engage in any overt mockery but really just to show the script for what it is,” Dardai says, explaining that he doesn’t want the performance to be trying too hard but rather just to expose the humor that already exists within the script.

“The fact that it’s the ninth year is a testament to the festival’s success,” he says. “We never just perform the movie verbatim; the point is what we can do with it on stage.” Read the rest of this entry »

Lisa Pederson's hoot of a Halloween costume, a year after mastectomy

For thirty years, ever since she was a teenager, Lisa Pedersen has been told that she should do comedy. After surviving cancer, she finally decided to give it a shot and started performing at the “Your Sunday Best” open-mic at Schubas.

“I’m trying to spread the word about cancer,” she says. Pedersen wants people to remember that it’s out there but if we remain positive things will get better. “I had a lot of surgeries and pain but I always maintained my sense of humor,” she says.

Starting June 5 at 11pm and running Saturday nights through June 26, Pederson will be performing her one-hour standup-comedy act “Laughing in the Face of Cancer” at Gorilla Tango Theatre, 1919 North Milwaukee. Pedersen plans to donate her proceeds from the $10 tickets to the shows to Imerman Angels, an organization that connects cancer fighters with cancer survivors.

Cancer is a sensitive subject; Pedersen hopes her act will help people feel more comfortable asking questions.

“I expected someone to say that’s inappropriate and wrong but that’s not been the case,” she says of her show. “People who are struggling want to be laughing and enjoying life,” Pedersen says. “Things happen but we have to keep moving forward.”

This is not just a show for cancer survivors: Pederson promises that everybody will be able to appreciate her humor because everyone’s life has been touched by cancer in one way or another.

“The humor will hopefully remind people that they are not alone and it’s okay to laugh—it’s okay to laugh at yourself.” (Ashley Abramowicz)

EP's "Baal"

Why have there been so many productions of “Baal” this year?  “So many” in this case means two, but that’s two more than anyone might expect of Brecht’s juvenile obscure drama, and it’s a question that’s been raised all year by various critics. “Baal” is Brecht’s first play, written in 1918, before he beame a Marxist, before epic theater and it’s full of the kind of unfocused passion and anger you’d expect of a young playwright. Its plot is difficult to follow, no matter how strong the production (and I thought both Chicago shows this year were fairly strong); there’s no real dramatic arc, just a number of violent and tragic episodes concerning antihero Baal and the lives he destroys in his all-consuming desires. The show’s misogyny is striking—women only exist to fall in love with and then be rejected or even murdered by Baal.

Baal is very much a young poet’s play about youthful bohemianism. Its production history is patchy and strange; Brecht rewrote it several times in the twenties for various productions, and each time it changed to match a different political agenda. The most famous production is perhaps David Bowie’s made-for-TV movie (he released songs from the play as an EP), and Baal has most often been made into a rock-star figure, with his own peculiar hard-living—sex, drugs, alcohol and, oddly, nature—and ballads about himself. However, both EP Theater and TUTA’s productions this season have turned Baal into a kind of contemporary hipster figure, and I think it’s this reinvention that might help to explain why this show seems to be speaking to theater companies at this moment. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Joel Wanek

“I want this to be the nicest storefront theater in town,” Theater Wit artistic director Jeremy Wechsler recently told the Chicago Tribune’s Chris Jones. After taking a look around last week through the remodeled three-theater complex that used to house the Bailiwick, I’d say Wechsler has succeeded, and then some.

The old Bailiwick building had been something of a dump for years. We’re used to that in Chicago. Storefront theaters aren’t meant to be especially comfortable or designed with acoustics in mind. I wouldn’t say that’s part of the charm, but it certainly gives fringe theater a grittiness that feels distinctively Chicago.

Wechsler has gone in an entirely different direction, and I think it’s a real boon to the theater landscape as a whole. (In the fall, Shattered Globe, Stage Left and BoHo will also take up residence.)  Mike Daisey recently railed against theaters that he feels are more concerned with building physical structures than focusing on the art that goes on inside—but plays need to be performed somewhere, and this city is lacking in mid-sized, moderately priced venues to fill the void between rough-and-ready storefronts and pricey downtown real estate. The Theater Wit space should go a long way to remedy that. Read the rest of this entry »

David Zak, executive director of the newly formed Pride Films and Plays, is hopeful about the progress that’s been made toward the public’s perception about the gay community. He is, however, also fully aware that more work needs to be done. “There seem to be so many things that are still issues,” says Zak who, until last year, served as artistic director of the financially beleagured Bailiwick Repertory Theatre for more than two decades. “Despite the fact that there’s more entertainment things that are gay friendly when you deal with, say, the political world and the sports world, the country still needs to take time to discuss these issues.” Pride Films and Plays, in an effort to educate and inspire the theater community and general public, is kicking off its inaugural event, “Five Decades of Great Gay Theater,” on May 9. For five straight weeks, the group will pull together local talent for staged readings of some of the better-known gay plays. The series begins with 1968’s “The Boys in the Band,” and will be directed by Michael Lasswell and hosted by Dean Richards of WGN TV & Radio. Each week moves up a decade until the final reading of 2003’s “Take Me Out,” which will be directed by Zak himself. “The works we tried to pick are things that audiences can still relate to,” says Zak. In conjunction with the reading series, the group will curate the “Great Gay Screenplay Contest.” Entries will be accepted from May 1-August 1, and five finalists will have their scripts performed as staged readings during Reeling 2010. “We want to get rid of all those little asterisks in our head,” says Zak about the idea of gay theater versus theater. “I hope the label becomes unnecessary.” (Peter Cavanaugh)

Here is the press release from the Dance Center:

DANCE CENTER MARKS 10 YEARS AT 1306 S. MICHIGAN WITH FREE CELEBRATION

2010–11 Season Features Emily Johnson, Yasuko Yokoshi, Joe Goode, Robert Moses, Reggie Wilson and Sankai Juku Presented with the Harris Theater and MCA Stage
CHICAGO—Having pioneered what is now a thriving South Loop culture and entertainment destination, The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago marks 10 years at its current location, 1306 S. Michigan Avenue, with its 2010–11 season. Opening the season is a free, daylong celebration of the 10th anniversary, followed by Emily Johnson/Catalyst Dance, Yasuko Yokoshi, Joe Goode Performance Group, Robert Moses’ Kin, Same Planet Different World and Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group. In addition, The Dance Center, the Harris Theater and MCA Stage present Sankai Juku, marking the first collaboration between these three leading Chicago dance presenters, taking place at the Harris Theater. Single tickets go on sale July 1 at The Dance Center, 1306 S. Michigan Avenue, 312-369-8330 and online at colum.edu/dancecenter. Read the rest of this entry »