A frustrated painter replaces his aging muse with an Eastern European mail-order bride from a catalogue his washed-up DJ roommate masturbates to. If this show could hit all the notes of dark comedy it attempts, it would be a terrifically acerbic twist on its indulgent trope on the artist and the muse. As it is, “The Artist Needs a Wife” isn’t quite controlled or consistent enough to make it clear how seriously we’re supposed to take the production. Jesse Weaver’s play reels between sincere, moving conversations about aging and regret and hysterical screaming matches and cheesy choreographed fight scenes that make the show occasionally seem like a farce. The problem seems to lie in the writing—is it impossible for playwrights to address art-making without some immoderation?—and not in the acting, which is remarkable. Allison Caine in particular transcends her role as “Whore,” the rejected and vengeful first muse, digging deep for a performance of powerlessness that’s far more mature than the story. (Monica Westin)

At the side project, 1439 W. Jarvis, (773)973-2150. Through February 14.

By Emily Torem

Jesse Weaver’s “The Artist Needs a Wife,” slated for its world premiere at the side project theatre this week, is not a play to see if you’re feeling low. It’s about “trying to imagine what life would be like if you were a complete and utter failure,” says the Virginia-born playwright whose career is anything but—his last production at the side project, where he is an ensemble member, “On My Parents’ One Hundredth Wedding Anniversary,” drew critical raves. The plot of “Artist” centers on “fairly fucking old” washed-up artists: Mott, a DJ and Freud, a painter, along with Freud’s discarded muse, known only as “Whore.” The characters live in a futuristic world of Weaver’s imagination. “When I started writing it, I didn’t know much about DJing. It looked so cool and so hip. I was wondering: this art form seems so new and so uniquely of our time, what is it going to be like in 50 years? Are these guys going to be mixing in old folks homes in 2070?” We chatted with Weaver over the phone and via email from Virginia—he’s currently living in Ireland, where an earlier version of this play appeared at the Dublin Fringe Fest—to get some insight into his work.

What inspired you to write a play about failure?
I was in my mid-twenties [when I started writing it]. Living in my friend’s basement apartment—especially when you’re working in Chicago theater where everyone has to have a day job—there’s this feeling of, “Oh my god, I’m going to be 50 and doing [this] the rest of my life. In your mid-twenties, you’ve been sort of written a blank check. [You’ve been told] you’re very talented and you’re very cool and the world’s going to fall at your feet, and then you [learn] it’s not going to and you start to feel sorry for yourself and are going to end up this crusty old man in the basement—that was a personal feeling that sort of stoked the play. I started sharing these thoughts and found I wasn’t the only one with those feelings. Read the rest of this entry »

Peter DeFaria and Randy Steinmeyer in "A Steady Rain" at Chicago Dramatists

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 »

The 2006/07 season brought the grand opening of the new Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, following more than $11 million in renovations

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 »

Pizza? Theater Oobleck's "Strauss at Midnight"

As part of this story, we sent a few questions to leaders of the theater community in Chicago and received about forty written responses. Here are excerpts from some of their answers. The full text will also soon be published online.

Any observations or thoughts about Chicago theater in the last decade?

“When one theater has a hit show, its not just a hit for that show, it’s a hit for Chicago.”
—Deb Clapp, Executive Director, League of Chicago Theatres

“I love the shake-ups that are happening as a result of management changes, economic pressures, and influx of new artists. It’s exciting to see the landscape shifting so dramatically, the new work that is being created as a result, and the new artists and management teams that are getting a chance at bat.”
— Kevin Mayes, Executive Director, Bailiwick Chicago

“The first SKETCHBOOK was produced in January 2000 and has gone on to create 135 world premiere short plays with over 1000 different artists for over 30,000 audience members and launching numerous careers.”
— Anthony Moseley, Executive and Artistic Director, Collaboraction Read the rest of this entry »

2000

Milestones

500 Clown, Steep Theatre, the side project and Teatro Luna are founded

Broadway In Chicago launches as a joint venture between Live Nation and the Nederlander Organization

Goodman departs its original home in the Art Institute of Chicago and moves into $51 million new digs in the North Loop

Chicago Shakespeare moves into a $24 million theater on Navy Pier

Collaboraction produces its first Sketchbook

The City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs opens The Storefront Theater

Passings

Michael Maggio, Goodman Theatre Associate Artistic Director and Dean of The Theatre School at DePaul University Read the rest of this entry »

As part of our decade retrospective, we surveyed more than forty theater companies for their observations to a couple of questions. What follows are their formatted but unedited responses.

Deb Clapp
Executive Director, League of Chicago Theatres (founded 1979)

Any observations or thoughts about Chicago theater in the last decade?
Over the last decade, Chicago has seen the downtown theater district grow and thrive, Goodman moved downtown and several theaters were re-furbished. Lookingglass moved into their new digs on Michigan Avenue and theater has flourished. Several exciting new companies have been established including The House Theatre of Chicago, Silk Road Theatre Project, New Leaf Theatre and Rasaka, among many others.

Is there a “Chicago style” anymore (if there ever was) and has it changed? What, today, distinguishes Chicago theater from anywhere else?
A number of unique characteristics distinguish Chicago theater. We have a unique ecology encompassing a wide range of theater artistry, from spectacle to culturally specific, horror to improv, houses with thousands of seats to houses with 18 seats. Our community is very collegial and collaborative, sharing ideas and resources. When one theater has a hit show, its not just a hit for that show, it’s a hit for Chicago. Our directors, authors, actors, stagehands, producers, all are Chicagoans and all create for a Chicago audience.

Outside of your own company, who or what excites you most about local theater right now?
Chicago is the best place to see and to make theater in the world. A lot of attention from other parts of the country and the world is being paid to Chicago theater right now and while that is wonderful and will inevitably lead us to greater things, what continues to happen every night in Chicago theater brings me joy. Telling our stories and the stories of others, bringing the world on stage every night, that’s what excites me most. Read the rest of this entry »

Zack Buell, Chip Davis and Cyd Blakewell

Full disclosure: I booked playwright Laura Eason’s band, Tart, back in the nineties for a gig. We had a good time. And that’s what’s missing from her account of a nineties rock band: the joy and fun that keeps musicians coming back. Eason’s chosen to dramatize the most tedious parts of a music career:  business decisions, political backstabbing and creative disappointment.

The performers succeed in playing the intention and nuance the piece’s construction requires: Chip Davis captures the disappointment of Jim, the band’s tortured genius; Zack Buell’s passive-aggressive machinations as drummer Noah are painful to watch; Cyd Blakewell’s Elisha is alt rock’s Lady Macbeth. Director Anna Bahow’s staging is well paced and makes the most of limited space. Annette Vargas’ Smart Bar /Lounge Ax set is a study in nostalgia; 90s-era concert posters cover graffiti-sprayed walls. It’s an accurate, interesting picture; we just don’t know why everyone’s there in the first place. (Lisa Buscani)

“Rewind” plays at the side project theatre company, 1439 W. Jarvis, (773)973-2150, through December 20.

Here’s the press release from the side project:

Three new works – and a new mission – premiere at the side project in 2009-10

The side project, founded in 2001 in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood by
Artistic Director Adam Webster, will present three world-premiere plays in
its 2009-2010 season – its first under a new mission which will take the
company into its second decade. All three productions – beginning with the
November world premiere of Laura Eason’s REWIND – bring into sharp focus
the company’s refined mission statement and vision. Read the rest of this entry »

The Ruckus Theater's world-premiere production of "Heist Play" by Mitch Vermeersch, directed by Allison Shoemaker. Left to right: Byron Melton, Melissa Pryor and Joshua Davis/Photo: Irma Hapsari-Ahadiah

By Ilana Kowarski

For the Ruckus Theater Company, the move to Chicago from Kalamazoo was a long time in coming but, according to Artistic Director Allison Shoemaker, it was “always the plan.” When brushing her teeth three years ago, Shoemaker had a revelation, and realized that she wanted to form a new-work theater company in Chicago. A Midwesterner, Shoemaker felt that she had “uniquely Midwestern stories to tell,” and that Chicago would be a place that would be receptive to those kinds of stories. Shoemaker also thought Chicago was unique because of its “community of supportive artists that challenge each other to be better.”

But she didn’t want to leave her friends at Western Michigan University behind. Shoemaker had enjoyed her student experience at the play-development lab, and thought that she and her fellow students “worked really well together.” “For the first time the theater I was making was the kind I wanted to make,” Shoemaker emphasizes. Because she wanted to continue that positive experience and thought that her friends shared her commitment to new-play development she recruited them to join her company in Kalamazoo, planning to move the theater to Chicago when everyone was ready to go. Logistically, arranging the move proved difficult, and took longer than expected. As Managing Director and Resident Playwright Ryan Dolley explains, “For a long time, we were scattered, but eventually we all settled down here.” Read the rest of this entry »