With our criteria shifted back to artistic accomplishment in theater, dance, comedy and opera this year, our task got infinitely tougher. Because while the number of performing venues grows at a steady rate, the increase in the number of noteworthy artists seems to grow exponentially. For everyone we name on the list below, we had to leave off five, an embarrassment of riches for Chicago. We made a conscious effort to introduce a meaningful number of new faces to the list this year; the necessary absences should not be construed as a loss of worthiness as a consequence. We often find trends when we do the research these lists require; this year we’re starting to see a more meaningful effort to redefine performance itself in the internet age, from the runaway success of StarKids, to the more calculated endeavors of Silk Road. So what defines a “player”? Consider it some complex stew of career achievement, recent “heat” and, in some cases, rising stardom.

Written by Zach Freeman, Brian Hieggelke, Sharon Hoyer and Dennis Polkow

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Remy Bumppo’s latest is like day-old champagne: light, sweet and a little flat. It’s missing the energy and inflection, the quick intrigue and the perfectly timed deception that make French farces so much fun.

Silvia (Alana Arenas) is in love with Harlequin (Nicolas Gamboa) but is abducted by the Prince (Steve Wojtas), who tries to win her away. The Prince’s loyal servant Flaminia (Linda Gillum) concocts a plan to drive the lovers apart and give everyone what they (unknowingly) want. Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

It’s telling that this 210-minute Gordon Edelstein adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s “Mourning Becomes Electra” (itself an update of a Greek myth) is marketed as “shortened” on Remy Bumppo’s website—a three-and-a-half-hour show can scare audiences off (at least it’s not five-and-a-half!). But split into three acts (each around an hour long) this gutsy debut by incoming artistic director Timothy Douglas is fast-paced and compelling throughout.

There’s not much by way of a set—a few chairs, some columns and a giant portrait—but this somewhat-blank slate serves as an ideal setting for the thick emotional backdrop the powerhouse cast manages to construct with the potent dialogue. Read the rest of this entry »

Some say rhetoric is a dying art, but Timothy Douglas is committed to reminding Chicagoans of the power of language. As the new artistic director of Remy Bumppo Theatre Company, Douglas has a unique opportunity to bring great language to the city’s attention, and he isn’t wasting any time in doing so. On July 3—two days after he is installed as artistic director—the Declaration of Independence will take center stage at Grant Park Music Festival in a reading organized by Douglas.

Douglas drew inspiration from yearly readings at Shakespeare & Company of Lenox, Massachusetts, and began searching for Chicagoans to participate. “We started with us, the Remy Bumppo family,” Douglas says, “and then it was important to me to identify leaders in the field—first artists and then community and civic leaders, and we targeted artistic companies who had community outreach and education programs.” Almost a hundred members of Chicago’s arts community will be reading on Sunday, including Peter Sagal, Regina Taylor and Andrew White.

Douglas hopes the event will appeal to all Chicagoans: “Regardless of your political affiliation, there’s something on the DNA level of Americans that responds to this document, but it’s only there when people hear the document, not read it off the page. My intention is not to make this a political event, but a visceral one. Who knows what the resonances will be in Chicago on Sunday, and I’m most excited to see that.” (Erin Kelsey)

The reading takes place on July 3 at 5:30pm at Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion, 201 East Randolph. Free. Details here.

Here’s the press release from Remy Bumppo:

REMY BUMPPO THEATRE COMPANY ANNOUNCES INAUGURAL SEASON FOR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR DOUGLAS

CHICAGO-Remy Bumppo Theatre Company announces the premiere season lineup for incoming Artistic Director Timothy Douglas. The 2011/2012 season opens Sept. 21 – Oct. 30 with Eugene O’Neill’s epic drama Mourning Becomes Electra in the Midwest premiere of an adaptation from Gordon Edelstein. The season continues Nov. 23, 2011 – Jan. 8, 2012 with the Marivaux comedy Changes of Heart translated by Stephen Wadsworth, and concludes March 28 – May 6, 2012 with the Chicago premiere of Lee Blessing’s Chesapeake, a tour de force solo performance featuring Remy Bumppo Artistic Associate Greg Matthew Anderson. All three productions will be directed by Douglas, and presented at the Greenhouse Theater Center at 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. Subscriptions range from $70 for previews to $165 for opening night and are on sale now at www.remybumppo.org or by calling the Greenhouse Theater box office at 773-404-7336. Single tickets go on sale Aug. 3, 2011.  Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

Oscar Wilde, who himself was condemned for leading a double life as a married man and a homosexual, criticized his detractors in a time when one’s public image was of the utmost consequence. In “Earnest,”  a hilarious yet scathing indictment of the hypocrisy of Victorian society, Jack and Algernon, two London gentlemen fond of assuming alternate identities to hide their indiscretions are caught in a sticky web of lies when they both show up at Jack’s country manor pretending to be Jack’s brother Earnest.

The play is ably handled by director Shawn Douglass and his cast, all of whom attack Wilde’s brilliant dialogue with aplomb. Greg Matthew Anderson’s Algernon is a loveable cad. Paul Hurley’s Jack is a sympathetic fop. Linda Gillum, as Gwendolen, and Kelsey Brennan, as Cecily, are both delightful as the two ladies in love with “Earnest.”  David Darlow’s traditional drag turn as the authoritarian Lady Bracknell is sensational. This revival is a little more lighthearted than caustic, but Wilde’s witticisms alone are worth the price of admission.  (Neal Ryan Shaw)

Remy Bumppo Theatre Company at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 North Lincoln, (773)404-7336, through January 9.

By Fabrizio O. Almeida

“Angels in America, Part I”: An angel appears accompanied by a flash of light so bright you have to block your eyes. An aural cluster of classical compositions (Stravinsky, Verdi) blasts while the incessant sound of fluttering wings catches up to your heartbeat, an experience akin to the THX Dolby Digital surround sound in a movie theater that vibrates from up and under your chair and into your body.

“Adding Machine”: A visual journey into an expressionistic world of chiaroscuro lighting effects and dark sensibilities.

“Picnic”: You enter the theater and are enveloped in a world of live tree branches and gorgeous green grass.

“Our Town”: A fugue of smells—the aroma of coffee percolating and bacon sizzling—from a kitchen so real you could move in yesterday.

These are David Cromer moments. Read the rest of this entry »

This show exemplifies the limitations of what even the most gifted directors and actors can accomplish with an outdated playscript; Fugard’s 1960′s South African anti-apartheid play is quintessential political art that doesn’t stand the test of time. “The Island” refers to the infamous Robben Island prison (that held Nelson Mandela, among others), where two cellmates perform hard labor during the day and rehearse “Antigone” at night for a prison talent show. The parallels between the two stories (Antigone, of course, is sentenced to life) is just as heavy-handed as the dialogue, which is full of frankly hackneyed lines about liberation: when one learns he has only a matter of months left on his sentence and counts the days on his fingers, the other shouts “I’m jealous of your freedom—I also want to count!” The show ends with their short DIY production of the Sophocles, which is both funny and surprisingly compelling, but the first ninety minutes of the show really drag from predictability. Very few lines hit home, despite masterful acting by La Shawn Banks and Kamal Angelo Bolden, who manage to draw out the comedy of the production while lending it a sense of nobility. It’s a shame that the writing simply doesn’t stand up to the thought that’s obviously gone into this production; even the set, minimalist and reticent, says more about the power of invention and imagination as instruments of freedom than the play itself. Director James Bohnen adds  interest by highlighting the sisyphian and mind-numbing nature of their work in a gorgeous drawn-out first scene of each digging holes in the sand that the other fills in with a wheelbarrow, so that we feel as much relief as the characters when the whistle blows. (Monica Westin)

At The Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln, (773)404-7336. Through March 7.

Annoyance Theatre
Coed Prison Sluts: $64,000, 5,380 people

The Artistic Home
Peer Gynt: $19,044 box office, 1,200 people

Chicago Dramatists
A Steady Rain: $21,000 box office,1,500 people at CD, 10,000 at Royal George Theatre
Cadillac: $23,000 box office,1,600 people at CD, 1,500 at Theatre on the Lake

Collaboraction
The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, $150,000 box office, 6,500 people Read the rest of this entry »

Annoyance Theatre (founded 1987)
“We don’t really have a regular operating budget—just plan as we go along.”
—Jennifer Estlin, President, Annoyance Theatre

The Artistic Home (founded 1998)
End of nineties: $62,000
End of zeroes: $164,500

Bailiwick Chicago (founded 2009)
End of nineties: N/A (Bailiwick Repertory is now defunct)
End of zeroes: $120,000 projected 2010

Chicago Dramatists (founded 1979)
End of nineties: $171,000
End of zeroes: $550,000

Collaboraction (founded 1996)
End of nineties: $50,000
End of zeroes: $500,000

Court Theatre (founded 1955)
End of nineties: $2.6 million
End of zeroes: $3.2 million Read the rest of this entry »