RECOMMENDED

The group of short plays, lumped under the broad heading “New American Fable,” at the annual “Sketchbook” festival at Collaboraction, makes first and foremost one of the most engaged and skilled uses of theatrical space I’ve seen this year at theatrical performances in general, let alone short-play festivals, which usually resemble staged readings. The seven plays I saw (there are fourteen total, with a different order every night) play gorgeously with multimedia projections and surveillance cameras, harnesses, puppets and the amphitheater-style bleachers surrounding the room. Artwork connected thematically to the plays fills the walls. In short, the experience is rich even before the shows themselves are considered. Of the plays themselves there’s an obvious unevenness in focus and accomplishment, with no cohesion of theme and style that’s obviously the result of no curatorial ordering—other than that the showstopper piece, Dean Evans’ “Spacelab 2030,” ended up saved for last on this night. Read the rest of this entry »

By William Scott

“With this new reality we thought it would be important to make sure arts organizations weren’t becoming isolated, burrowing in, attempting to go it alone in meeting their financial and operational challenges,” shares Peter Kuntz, executive director of the Arts & Business Council of Chicago. Last month his organization, along with the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Illinois Arts Alliance, hosted a forum titled “Break on Through: The Creative Response to Tough Times.”  The objective was to get the arts community to jumpstart a dialogue that might lead to innovation in product and infrastructure.  Though Chicago has not escaped the quake of the economic landscape, the creative vitality that has distinguished the city’s art makers for so long may lead the way out of the financial muck.

“We are a receptor,” says Kuntz, “a community of common experiences, a collective resource if and when we want to be that.”  His sentiments echo the larger conversations currently facing our nation. Our new administration’s mission to restore transparency and encourage bold action may create trickle-down inspiration that gives some Chicago groups the optimism to make it out alive.

“I firmly believe that Barack Obama plus the economic crisis does equal a revolution and it is one we needed badly,” says Anthony Moseley, executive artistic director of Collaboraction, a multidisciplinary performing arts organization that is best known for the Sketchbook Festival of short performances. Moseley’s unusual title positions him in charge of the creative and administrative strata of the company.  A concept he believes to be integral to weathering financially turbulent times ahead.

“I think it is finally time to dissolve the imaginary line between the business and art sides of our company.  It does not exist so stop pretending it does,” asserts Moseley.  “We need more creative thinking in the business meetings and more savvy business smarts in our creative meetings. Ideas are our currency.”

Collaboraction has seen creativity turn directly into dollars by developing a profit center based on existing assets.  The company calls it Experience Design.  Event conceptualization, design, casting and management form the bones of this project that has already proven to be a profitable venture.  The program follows a similar path to Redmoon Theater’s event work, work that is transitioning to a primary focus for the company. This year will see an annual calendar of public events for Redmoon.  Less emphasis on producing shows in their space. Both Collaboration and Redmoon see public engagement as critical steps to ensuring long-term viability and maintaining importance within the community.

In addition to strategic creative moves, companies are also faced with establishing infrastructure that can withstand the turbulence.  As belts tighten, individual giving will decrease and the hunt for foundation, corporate and government money will become increasingly competitive. For the past eleven years, Timeline Theatre has operated with a cash surplus, a record the Timeline staff intends to carry on despite these difficult conditions.  The staff believes transparency is vital to establishing resiliency.

“You can’t avoid it.  It wouldn’t be prudent to not talk about it,” tells Timeline director of marketing Lara Goetsch.  “We created ‘Inside Story’ for people we consider to be investors.  This document gives the supporters an honest assessment of what is going on.”

“Inside Story” is a brief newsletter, financial report and call to arms.  The document will be published quarterly throughout 2009 as a way to keep the general perception of this smaller mid-sized company accurate.  With Timeline’s fortunate economic situation and consistently high quality of production, it would be easy for patrons to turn their attentions elsewhere when making contributions.  Timeline wishes to make it abundantly clear that sustained growth is only possible with the continued support of such individuals.  This and other strategies recently garnered the company the Richard Goodman Strategic Planning Award in the nonprofit category by the Association for Strategic Planning.

“Timeline has always been a calculated risk taker,” says Goetsch. “We don’t want to pare down. We want to be smart and do things we hope stand out. At the end of the day we aren’t being safe, we are being realistic and planning carefully so that we are in good shape.”

In the coming weeks, months and perhaps years, stories of arts organizations scaling back, merging or shutting down will be told. However, stories of nimble, creative problem solving, like the ones above, will also surface.  It is this creativity that will prove Chicago organizations are properly suited up with realistic optimism that will define the city’s cultural DNA into the future.  (William Scott)

Lone Prince

Prague Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Guy Roberts’ love affair with Shakespeare began many years ago. “When I was 15,” shares Roberts, “I thought I was going to be a painter and follow in my grandfather’s footsteps. Then I watched Laurence Olivier’s ‘Hamlet’ and was blown away. Hamlet had great clothes, a great sword fight, and he got to kiss two beautiful women. What more could you want?” On February 6, Roberts debuts his one-man Hamlet at Gorilla Tango Theatre. “I wanted to premiere this show in Chicago,” explains Roberts, “because I kept hearing that Chicago was the place to be.” Roberts tackles eighteen characters in his ninety-minute Hamlet adaptation that includes only the scenes the prince is privy to. ”Since it is a very long play with many different subplots you kind of forget what Hamlet knows,” says Roberts. “Seeing and hearing only what Hamlet does, you understand in a much clearer, sharper way the reasons behind the choices he makes.”

Stay Gold

Beginning February 3 at The Building Stage, Walkabout Theater Company and Collaboraction present “Goldbrick,” the story of an immigrant in Chicago told through the music and lyrics of Jon Langford (pictured). “I am really impressed by the quality of the acting,” Langford says of the production. “Tawny [Newsome] and Larry [Yando] do an incredible job. It was nice to hear other people singing my songs. It was like hearing songs for the first time. It renewed my interest in those songs and made them seem new and different even though I know them well.” Loren Crawford, co-creator and writer of the production, hopes to supplement an ongoing discussion circling around America’s perpetually tumultuous relationship with immigrants. “I was watching the inauguration and I was dumbstruck by just how relevant our project is to the times we are experiencing,” she says. “I am humbled and inspired by the realization that our voices are part of a growing chorus that sees and embraces a different future for America, one that includes us all.” 

What makes Chicago’s theater world special? We picked up the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly for clues. In the cover story, “CSI” star William Petersen explains his decision to leave his role as one of the top paid actors in television, earning a rumored $600,000 an episode, to move back to Chicago and Chicago theater: “It was too safe for me at this point. So I needed to try and break that, and the way to do that, for me, is the theater.” EW went on to credit Petersen for much of the show’s success, notably bringing a theatrical ensemble philosophy to play in its production. Or consider the runaway success of Steppenwolf’s “August: Osage County,” which transferred to Broadway,  receiving critical acclaim and multiple Tony Awards, not by shaking it up with Broadway “names” but instead by virtually transferring the Steppenwolf production intact, with the addition of lead producer and fellow Chicagoan Steve Traxler. What makes Chicago theater—or for that matter, Chicago dance or any other form of performance practiced on our stages—special? We’d contend it’s the power of the ensemble, the spirit of collaboration that champions artistic risk-taking and subordinates the commercial. And so, in that spirit, the critical ensemble responsible for Newcity’s ongoing stage coverage presents our take on the most influential people on and offstage in Chicago. Read the rest of this entry »

Top 5 Shows

“Caroline, or Change,” Court Theatre

“A House with No Walls,” Timeline Theatre

“The Glass Menagerie,” Steppenwolf Theatre

“No Darkness Round My Stone,” Trap Door Theatre

“The Birthday Party,” Signal Theater

—Monica Westin

Top 5 Shows

“Jon,” Collaboraction

“A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant,” A Red Orchid

“Be More Chill,” Griffin Theatre

“Men of Tortuga,” Profiles

“Picked Up,” Neo-Futurists

—Nina Metz

Top 5 Theatrical Experiences

“Caroline, or Change,” Court Theatre

“Columnibus,” Raven Theatre

“As You Like It,” Writers’ Theatre

“The Comedy of Errors,” Chicago Shakespeare Theater

“Romeo y Julieta” (Staged Reading), Chicago Shakespeare Theater/Shakespeare in Español

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

Top 5 Guilty Pleasures

“Jarred: A Hoodoo Comedy” by Tanya Saracho, Teatro Luna

“Speech and Debate” by Stephen Karam, ATC

“Dead Man’s Cell Phone” by Sarah Ruhl, Steppenwolf

“The Little Dog Laughed” by Douglas Carter Beane, About Face Theatre

“After Ashley” by Gina Gionfriddo, Stage Left Theatre

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

Top 5 New Plays

“Kita y Fernanda” by Tanya Saracho, 16^th Street Theater

“The U.N. Inspector” by David Farr and James Sherman, Next Theatre

“Dead Man’s Cell Phone” by Sarah Ruhl, Steppenwolf Theatre

“Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat” by Yussef El Guindi, Silk Road Theatre Project

“Superior Donuts” by Tracy Letts, Steppenwolf Theatre

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

Top 5 Revivals

“The Maids,” Writers’ Theatre

“The Lion in Winter,” Writers’ Theatre

“Requiem for a Heavyweight,” Shattered Globe

“Plaza Suite,” Eclipse Theatre Company

“The Birthday Party,” Signal Ensemble Theatre

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

Top 5 Play Revivals

“Our Town,” Hypocrites

“The Lion in Winter,” Writers Theatre

“Requiem for a Heavyweight,” Shattered Globe

“Journey’s End,” Griffin

“M Butterfly,” BoHo

—Dennis Polkow

Top 5 Memorable Productions by a Smaller Theatre Troupe

“Multi-Purpose Doom,” Sandbox Theatre Project

“The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler,” Dog & Pony

“Termen Vox Machina,” Oracle Productions

“On My Parents’ 100^th Wedding Anniversary,” Side Project

“The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” (original mounting), Gift Theatre

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

Top 5 Directors

Ann Filmer for “Kita y Fernanda,” 16^th Street Theater

Charles Newell for “Caroline, or Change,” Court Theatre

Sean Graney for “Edward II,” Chicago Shakespeare Theater

William Brown for “As You Like It,” Writers’ Theatre

Greg Kolack for “Columbinus,” Raven Theatre

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

Top 5 Musicals

“Caroline, or Change,” Court Theatre

“Grey Gardens,” Northlight Theatre

“Tell Me On A Sunday,” Bailiwick Theater

“The Full Monty,” Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre

“All Shook Up,” Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

Top 5 New Musicals

“Caroline, or Change,” Court Theatre

“Grey Gardens,” Northlight Theatre

“Songs for a New World,” Porchlight

“The Ballad of Emmett Till,” Goodman Theatre

“I Am Who I Am: The Story of Teddy Pendergrass,” Black Ensemble Theater

—Dennis Polkow

Top 5 Musical Revivals

“Tell Me on a Sunday,” Bailiwick Theater

“Sweet Charity,” Drury Lane Oakbrook

“1776,” Signal Ensemble

“Jacques Brel’s Lonesome Lovers of the Night,” Theo Ubique

“Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” Circle Theatre

—Dennis Polkow

Top 5 Worst Musicals

“Shout! The Mod Musical,” Drury Lane Water Tower

“Avenue Q,” Broadway in Chicago

“Dirty Dancing,” Broadway in Chicago

“Russian on the Side,” Royal George Theater

“Gutenberg! The Musical,” Royal George Theater

—Dennis Polkow

Top 5 Worst Musicals

“Dirty Dancing,” Broadway in Chicago

“The Kid from Brooklyn,” Mercury Theater

“Gutenberg! The Musical!,” Royal George Theatre

“Jekyll & Hyde—The Musical,” Bohemian Theatre Ensemble

“Sweeney Todd,” Broadway in Chicago

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

Top 5 Operas

“Manon,” Lyric Opera

“The Abduction From the Seraglio,” Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ravinia

“Lulu,” Lyric Opera

“Porgy and Bess,” Lyric Opera (second cast)

“Don Giovanni,” Chicago Opera Theater

—Dennis Polkow

Top 5 Productions of Shakespeare

“As You Like It,” Writers Theatre

“Comedy of Errors,” Chicago Shakespeare

“Much Ado About Nothing,” First Folio

“Merchant of Venice,” Boho

“Twelfth Night,” City Lit

—Dennis Polkow

Top 5 Touring Shows

“Saint Joan,” Shaw Festival Canada, Chicago Shakespeare

“Cirque du Soleil: Kooza,” United Center

“The Drowsy Chaperone,” Broadway in Chicago

“My Fair Lady,” National Theatre London, Broadway in Chicago

“Jesus Christ Superstar,” Broadway in Chicago

—Dennis Polkow

Top 5 Holiday Shows

“The Christmas Schooner,” Bailiwick Theater

“A Dublin Carol,” Steppenwolf Theatre

“A Christmas Carol,” Writers Theatre

“Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular,” Rosemont Theatre

“The Seafarer,” Steppenwolf Theatre

—Dennis Polkow

Top 5 Comedy Shows

“Impress These Apes,” Blewt!

“Shatter,” Pat O’Brien’s solo show at Second City e.t.c.

“Steve and Jordan, Respectively” i.O. Theater

“Brother, Can You Spare Some Change?” Second City e.t.c.

“PennyBear: A Collection of Miniature Plays and Curious Diversions,” Apollo Theater Studio

—Nina Metz

Top 5 Female Performances

Janet Ulrich Brooks, “Golda’s Balcony,” Pegasus Players

Christina Anthony, “Brother, Can You Spare Some Change?” Second City e.t.c.

Erin Barlow, “Red Angel,” LiveWire

Sarah Goeden, “13 Dead Husbands,” Sansculottes Theater

Rachel Quinn, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” Circle Theatre

—Nina Metz

Top 5 Male Performances

David Cromer, “Our Town,” The Hypocrites

Usman Ally, “Celebrity Row,” American Theater Company

Steve Wilson, “Red Angel,” LiveWire

Edward Thomas-Herrera, “The Last Days of Beast,” Live Bait’s Fillet of Solo Festival

Daniel Behrendt, “Beggars in the House of Plenty,” Mary-Arrchie

—Nina Metz

Top 5 Out-of-the-Box Performances

“Inner Space,” Joffrey Ballet’s American Moderns

“Walking Mad,” Hubbard Street Dance Winter Series

“The Young Ladies Of…,” About Face Theatre

“Dr. Egg and the Man With No Ear,” Redmoon Theater

“One on One,” Hubbard Street Dance Winter Series

—William Rogers

Top 5 Dance Shows by Chicago Companies

“The Sky Hangs Down Too Close,” Lucky Plush Productions

“Nuevo Folk,” Luna Negra Dance Theater

“De-Evolution of Mudwoman,” Breakbone DanceCo

“Vintage Modern,” Same Planet Different World Dance

“American Moderns,” Joffrey Ballet

—Sharon Hoyer

Top 5 Overrated Productions

“Dave DaVinci Saves the Universe,” House Theatre

“Dirty Dancing,” Broadway in Chicago

“Shining City,” Goodman Theatre

“The Glass Menagerie,” Shattered Globe Theatre

“Scenes from the Big Picture,” Seanachai Theatre

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

Top 5 Theatrical Disappointments

“Dirty Dancing,” Broadway in Chicago

“Les Miserables,” Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre

“Yohen,” Silk Road Theatre Project

“Richard III,” Strawdog Theatre

“Macbeth,” Greasy Joan & Co.

—Fabrizio O. Almeida

 

RECOMMENDED

I loved this short story when the New Yorker ran it in 2003, in part because it seemed so un-New Yorkerish—supremely modern and anti-literary, told from the point of view of a teenager fully immersed in pop culture. Hip, satiric and heartbreaking, it’s science fiction of the best sort—a link between contemporary touchstones (soda, video games, brand-name clothing; we are what we consume) and legitimate questions about how we think and what matters most.

George Saunders is the author, and he created a hilariously skewed syntax for this stylized world of perpetual focus groups peopled by teenage tastemakers who live together in an office park somewhere, existing only to assess the latest in material goods. These kids feel special because they know no other way to feel. Drugged and pandered to, they are dressed in the coolest threads, their brains filled with images and text from a bazillion commercials. Slowly—and then very quickly—the status quo collapses for a couple named Jon and Carolyn, who envision leaving this place forever.

Adapting the story for the stage (in a production for Collaboraction), director Seth Bockley adheres to Saunders’ strange-seeming dialogue and high-concept narrative. Saunders is fascinated with the limits of communication and what constitutes an actual experience. When we reference music lyrics and movie moments and advertising images, is it merely another way to express emotions—or a substitute for original, individual thought? Ultimately, words can have only so much meaning—actions seal the deal, especially where love is concerned.

Bockley has made small changes to the original, but the bulk of it remains the same, including the hilarious passage that opens the story, with Jon talking about the sex-ed video that changed everything. “Back in the time of which I am speaking, due to our Coordinators had mandated us, we had all seen that educational video of ‘It’s Yours to Do with What you Like!’ in which teens like ourselfs speak on the healthy benefits of getting off by oneself and doing what one feels like in terms of self-touching, which what we learned from that video was, there is nothing wrong with self-touching, because love is a mystery but the mechanics of love need not be, so go off alone, see what is up, with you and your relation to your own gonads, and the main thing is, just have fun, feeling no shame!”

That kind of thing tends to read better on the page. Spoken aloud it can sound strenuous and arch, and the effort to create an alternate reality sometimes robs the words of their doofy lyricism. It’s the only serious drawback of the adaptation—reading the story is a more satisfying experience, but the play should be taken on its own terms, and there is a lot here to like, especially Lucas Neff’s performance as Jon, the good-looking preppy surfer dude. His eyes are blank because Jon’s inner life is limited; Neff believably inhabits the skin of a human, but the soul of something else—a proto-human. Bockley has the right instincts when it comes to the show’s comedic moments, and Mikhail Fiksel’s sound design (corporate melodic doodles) and Mike Tutaj’s videos (advert flashes that simulate sensory overload) help establish the plasticy aesthetic.

Jon and his fellow assessors are overseen by a staff of middle-manager types, forever clutching coffee mugs like Lumbergh in “Office Space.” Guy Massey plays the supervisor who begins to question their tactics and he is terrific as the only employee who wonders if it’s all worth it. Kelly O’Sullivan is Carolyn, the girl with more backbone than anyone expected, and she brings a grounded intensity to the role. When you catch a glimpse of her through the back doors of the theater—Bockley borrows a trick from Mary Zimmerman, literally bringing the outside in—suddenly the show sheds its intentional artificiality and offers something real and concrete. (Nina Metz)

At the Building Stage, 412 N. Carpenter St., 312-226-9633 or www.collaboraction.org. Thur-Sat 8p, Sun 7p. $15-$25. Through Dec. 20.

Monica Westin

“Jon,” the creepy and beautiful short story by George Saunders about corporate-owned trendsetters living in a bubble of product-testing and commercial-producing, has its world premiere as an adaptation for stage by Collaboraction theater company. I spoke to Saunders—critically acclaimed American short story writer, recent winner of a MacArthur genius grant, and Chicago native—about watching his story take life.

You’ve had a few of your short stories adapted for the stage now, although “Jon” is the first show in Chicago that I know of. You’re also known for being a famous revisionist. Can you tell me about how the adaptation process worked and your experience being part of a collaborating team that adapted the story?

This is the third time I’ve had my work produced, and I love it. Since I don’t do theater regularly, it’s a treat for me. I’m kind of an obsessive story writer, so its nice to have a break and let somebody else in another area lead the way, and all my experiences have been positive. I’ve done some screenwriting and it’s the same thing—I can relax. What’s interesting is, “Pastoralia” was done in New York, and the end production didn’t seem like something I had done. When I work with theater companies adapting my work, I’m involved in just the play script part, which often comes down to just reading drafts. With “Jon” in particular, there are a lot of “voicey” things going on, so if there’s some kind of action that gets written in that needed his voice, I could do that. For example, how do you show onstage a sentence like “over the next six months the relationship went downhill.” To be literally faithful to story you’d have to do pages of explanation, but you can create parallel action to get you there more quickly.

You’re obviously most famous for your short stories, which you’ve compared to jokes in that they’re “risky” enterprises that can quickly fall on their faces—in other words, it’s immediately and painfully obvious when they work and when they don’t. What do you make of theatrical enterprises as risks, and the relationship between narrative and play script?

To be honest, theater is still a kind of a mystery to me, but the whole model of storytelling works in a similar way. I have to keep it really simply for myself, but what I think it is: In the first line of the story, the first motion of a play, you instantly generate out of 360 degrees of possibility a single expectation. The success of the next beat is how well you fulfill that expectation, and it always comes down to a matter of modulating future events. For me, whether it’s a play or a story, the key is to keep in the crazy space where you’re with me, and I go just a little faster than you thought I was gonna go, and to sustain that pace, so right away one thing I realized is that I don’t know how to do that in theater. The surface tension has to be kept, to put it a different way, with different tensions as you transfer from word to stage.

“Jon” is often seen as a kind of “poster child” Saunders story-this totally hilarious and biting satire about consumerism, corporate culture, pop culture, branding. I was intrigued that “Jon” was recently chosen by Jeffrey Eugenides for a selection of “love stories.” What do you make of that?

I actually thought that was just right. For me its funny, I don’t really care that much about the consumer-criticism stuff—I’m not a Luddite; I’m of two minds about it. I just see it as a feature of my culture, both sort of horrible and sort of wonderful. But for me it’s honestly really easy to generate that stuff—I could make up commercials for the rest of my life. When I was growing up, I saw literature as something very distinct from my life, and one day I realized, well if I can just do this kind of writing at will, maybe that’s not a bad thing. But it’s not the point, rather just more generative. Under the surface of this language of consumer culture the other, more interesting things are going on. With “Jon,” I found out early something else has to happen to make it a story. “Jon” as well as other love stories in that book [My Mistresses’ Sparrow is Dead] get talked about as critiques of American pop culture, but for me the love stories is what they’re all about.

The moments I remember best in the story are when the main character, Jon/Randy, is trying to describe the girl he loves, but is unable to do so because he lacks the language, the vocabulary. Hearing him try to articulate is so moving because of that sense that he’s stunted by this linguistic determinism.

Exactly, and that’s the paradox. Despite the world he lives in, his emotion is not stunted, although his language is. He feels, but his lens, his speaker is too small, and it doesn’t mean he’s not feeling. That experience, for me, is somehow where we are as a culture. More than ever, forces are conspiring to make us stunted at communication. If you’re bombarded by inarticulateness long enough, after you go a long time without real communication, after time your emotions start to change. That is the frightening thing to me—that the inability to express yourself results ultimately in the inability to feel. I’ve certainly found in my own life that when I’m stunted in my expression, I shrink emotionally. Conversely, when you can express higher concepts, something in your heart expands. I suppose that’s part of what makes me so delighted to help adapt my work for stage. I worry all the time about my ability to communicate with a wide audience, and seeing young actors find emotion in it brings me a huge amount of comfort—that’s relatable, as they say in Hollywood.

“Jon” opens October 30 and runs through December 14. At the Building Stage, 412 North Carpenter, (312)226-9633.

RECOMMENDED

The key to happiness, as rendered in Daniel Janoff’s romantic comedy (in a world premiere from Collaboraction), requires a belief in the unbelievable. Or rather, a belief in the suspension of disbelief. Sure, why not. A play this likable can get away with a lot, even an overarching message tie-dyed with clichés. Like, say, romantic love that arrives on your doorstep like the package you never ordered.

Meet Sunshine (a terrific Wendi Weber, wearing a look of outraged panic), a serial debunker who attaches little meaning to the sweet fictions of life. She returns to her childhood home where she intends to dig up the truth about a man who once claimed superhero status after saving a woman stranded in a car. There is a mystery to be uncovered, and Sunshine’s no-nonsense bitchiness (the irony of her name is less bothersome than it sounds) stands in contrast to the townies she encounters—specifically the laidback charms of Rhett (Peter DeFaria, using a half smile to his best advantage), who impressively procures some beers by calling out to a passing car: “Set me up with a couple!” He’s that guy.

They flirt, unevenly and awkwardly, and gradually it progresses once Sunshine gets a makeover—literally—and tosses off her wet blanket once and for all. (Tracy Otwell’s pivoting set, a beauty salon that transforms into a bar, is the most ambitious design I’ve seen squeezed into the Theatre Building.) The show might not have anything new to say (or a new way to say it), but director Anthony Moseley’s easygoing vibe is enormous fun and it hearkens back to Collaboraction’s first major hit in 2001, “The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild.” (Nina Metz)

At the Theatre Building, 1225 W. Belmont, (773)327-5252 or www.collaboraction.org. Wed-Sat 7:30p, Sun 3p. $18-$25. Through Sep. 21.

Scott Lucas from Local H ascends the pulpit. Saints bedeck the walls behind him. He pulls out a leather bible, opens the cracked binding and breaks into the opening verse of “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.”
Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

Rolin Jones’ play from 2005 might be the only finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in drama that includes the line, “Fuck you too, Mr. Arm.” So it has that going for it. Also, it is a bona fide digital-age comedy, with a script that traffics in the syntax of emails and instant messaging. (The show is currently in athletic and buoyant production directed by Cecilie Keenan for Collaboraction at Chicago Dramatists.) The emailer in question is science wiz Jennifer Marcus (an empathetic and fruitfully manic Jennifer Shin), whose pertinent details come out in a non-stop, rapid-fire tumble of words. Agoraphobic. California. Twenty-two. Gated community. Adopted from China. She is a gyrating tomboy with the attention span of a fidgety 7-year-old, and she is the epitome of all Hollywood techno-geek clichés. Her workaholic mom (Laura T. Fisher) is suffering through failed-parent syndrome because her kid can’t leave the house, while dad, an amiable, non-confrontational type (Ron Butts), is content to hang out on the roof with a pair of binoculars looking for brushfires. Meanwhile, up in her room, Jennifer is hunched over the computer tracking down info on her birth mother. Unable to jet to China herself—damn that agoraphobia—Jennifer builds an android doppelganger instead. Jenny Chow is her creation (played with blank-eyed wit by Mia Park), whereby Jennifer is transformed into Dr. Frankenstein in hipster gear and ultra-short bangs. She has no idea what (or who) she has created. Read the rest of this entry »