Here’s the press release from City Lit:
CITY LIT THEATER ANNOUNCES 2010-2011 SEASON
31st SEASON WILL FEATURE WORLD PREMIERE SHERLOCK HOLMES ADAPTATION, REMOUNT OF 2009 HIT THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, FIRST SHOW IN FIVE-YEAR CIVIL WAR SERIES, PLUS WORKS BY BRIAN FRIEL, WASHINGTON IRVING AND BEN JONSON
Less than two weeks before what would have been a marquee show featuring two all-time legends of stand-up comedy, Mort Sahl and Dick Gregory, Lakeshore Theater surprised the arts community by announcing its imminent closure this evening.
Here’s the text of the press release: we’re assuming it’s not an April Fool’s joke, though we wish it was.
CHICAGO, IL | April 1, 2010 – The Lakeshore Theater announced today that operations at the venue will cease on April 10th.
Lakeshore co-owner and Executive Producer Chris Ritter said “It saddens me deeply to announce the closing of the Lakeshore. While revenues have continued to grow over the last three years and the Lakeshore brand of comedy, music and good times has successfully taken hold, current revenues are simply insufficient to fund ongoing operations as well as much needed plant repairs and improvements needed to take the company to the next level of success.” Read the rest of this entry »
Mick Napier has directed plenty of shows at Annoyance Theatre, none of which however, have been sketch comedy. This is the same Napier who founded Annoyance Theatre, directed more than fifteen sketch revues at Second City, directed David Sedaris’ “One Woman Shoe” and directed “Exit 57” for Comedy Central. This is why his mates at Annoyance are so excited that Napier is premiering his newest sketch show, “The Swear Jar,” at his home base, so to speak. “It’s very dirty,” half-laughs managing director Tyler Wolff-Ormes. “And he’s definitely taking advantage of the no-holds-barred attitude of Annoyance.” With musical direction by Lisa McQueen and a cast featuring Vanessa Bayer, Aidy Bryant, Angela Dawe, Colleen Murray, Andrew Peyton, Conner O’ Malley, Brian Wilson and Chris Witaske, Wolff-Ormes expects great things. “I’m really excited about the cast,” he says. “It’s a powerhouse cast.” The show, $15, opens March 27 and runs through May 1. (Peter Cavanaugh)
Late Saturday morning the theater district is a dead zone; matinee crowds have yet to flood Argo Tea and Borders, killing time before the 2pm performances of “Billy Elliott” and “Jersey Boys.” A freak snowstorm whips the few solitary pedestrians with slop, a reminder that this is the true first day of Chicago spring. The severe mood grows thicker in the atrium of the Cadillac Palace Theatre, where b-boys, hip-hoppers, fresh-faced jazz dancers and one be-necktied hoofer gaze floorward as they mark out their routines in dimly lit, ornate corners. The pride of their studios, the talk of the clubs, these young dancers take their three-minute turns on stage, then walk, panting, downstage center for the verdict, delivered by three brightly-lit judges seated in plush swivel chairs on a platform above the orchestra seats.
“Adam, did that have the ‘wow’ factor for you?”
“More like the ‘ow’ factor.”
A video camera on a boom swoops from above the stage to below; a handheld operator stands a row in front of adoring parents, zooming in for reaction shots. These are the callbacks for “So You Think You Can Dance,” and the standards are brutal. Every triple pirouette is flawless, every windmill exited with precision, but something always seems lacking—poor use of the floor, repetitive phrasing, not enough smiling. A breakdancer is asked if he’s done any ballroom. By season seven the standards of the immensely popular amateur competition have become extraordinarily high—contestants must master every style of pop dance and deliver moves with the pizzazz of a Broadway veteran. Out of the ten dancers who audition in the course of an hour, only one makes the cut. (Sharon Hoyer)
Here’s the press release from Writers’:
Writers’ Theatre announces 2010-11 Season
Season to feature world premieres by Keith Huff and Brett Neveu,
Shaw’s Heartbreak House and Masteroff,
Bock and Harnick’s She Loves Me
Artistic Director Michael Halberstam,
William Brown and Gary Griffin slated to direct
Glencoe, IL—Writers’ Theatre Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Executive Director Kathryn M. Lipuma announce the company’s 19th season, which includes Joe Masteroff, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s She Loves Me, directed by Michael Halberstam with an all-star Chicago cast; the world premiere of Brett Neveu’s Do The Hustle, directed by William Brown; and George Bernard Shaw’s Heartbreak House, directed by William Brown. As a limited engagement, currently available only to Writers’ Theatre Subscribers and Members, Gary Griffin will direct the world premiere of Keith Huff’s The Detective’s Wife. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s the press release from Porchlight:
Porchlight Music Theatre
Announces its 2010–2011 Season Featuring
Sunday in the Park with George, Meet John Doe, The King and I
and Miracle on 34th Street Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s the press release from Bailiwick:
Bailiwick Chicago Announces Details of 2010 Spring / Summer Season
Chicago, Illinois – March 10, 2010 – Bailiwick Chicago’s Executive Director Kevin Mayes announced the final details for the theater company’s 2010 Spring / Summer Season., which includes a concert reading of a new musical entitled BLOOM to be performed at the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts on April 16th and 17th; FUCKING MEN*, the Chicago premiere of a new play written by Joe DiPietro which will begin previews on June 18th at Theatre Building Chicago; and Elton John and Tim Rice’s AIDA, which will begin previews on July 1st at American Theatre Company. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s the press release from Steppenwolf:
Steppenwolf Theatre Company Announces
2010-2011 Subscription Season
CHICAGO (March 10, 2010) – Steppenwolf Theatre Company is pleased to announce its 2010-2011 Subscription Season, exploring the theme of public/private self. Season subscriptions go on-sale to the public on Wednesday, March 10 at 11 a.m.
Detroit
a new play by Lisa D’Amour
featuring ensemble members Kate Arrington and Robert Breuler
Edward Albee’s
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
directed by Pam MacKinnon
featuring ensemble members Tracy Letts and Amy Morton
Sex with Strangers
by Laura Eason, directed by associate artist Jessica Thebus
featuring ensemble member Sally Murphy with Stephen Louis Grush
The Hot L Baltimore
by Lanford Wilson, directed by ensemble member Tina Landau
featuring ensemble members Alana Arenas, K. Todd Freeman and Yasen Peyankov
Middletown
a new play by Will Eno, directed by Les Waters
featuring ensemble member Alana Arenas Read the rest of this entry »
Photo: Jane Nicholl Sahlins
By Dennis Polkow
“If Aristophanes were alive today,” says an elderly but still twinkling Bernard Sahlins, “he would be on cable television.” It may a seem a long way from the satirical ancient Greek playwright to the Second City some two-and-a-half millennia later, but Sahlins, a founder of Chicago’s legendary comedy troupe who is directing a production of “Lysistrata” this weekend, puts the timeframe in perspective: “Long before Second City, when I was directing ‘straight’ plays, including the Greek tragedies, Claudia Cassidy [then Chicago Tribune critic] wrote that I had directed the worst production in 2,000 years.” Well, she ought to know.
Sahlins says that he has always been interested in Greek drama, a love that was in part fostered by his time studying the classics at the University of Chicago, where he graduated in 1943. “A University of Chicago education was once described as ‘Casting imaginary pearls before real swine.’ But don’t use that.
“You know, the high point of Greek drama only lasted for about eighty-six years. The period of Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus and Aristophanes passed quickly and then there was nothing except street theater until the Middle Ages and the development of church plays. The era of the playwright, the individual dramatist, did not emerge again until the Renaissance and the phenomenon of the playwright as we think of it is a fairly modern phenomenon that really fully came about in the nineteenth century.” Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s the press release from the Goodman:
MARY ZIMMERMAN REIMAGINES BERNSTEIN’S CANDIDE IN A MAJOR FALL MUSICAL EVENT;
ROBERT FALLS RE-EXAMINES CHEKHOV’S THE SEAGULL; PLUS NEW WORKS BY SARAH RUHL,
REGINA TAYLOR AND THOMAS BRADSHAW HEADLINE GOODMAN THEATRE’S 2010/2011 SEASON
***THE GOODMAN CELEBRATES A DECADE OF ACHIEVEMENTS AS ANCHOR OF THE NORTH LOOP
THEATRE DISTRICT, STARTING WITH A SEPT. 27 EVENT AT THE ART INSTITUTE’S MODERN WING*** Read the rest of this entry »