chicago theater
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Speak on It! Fannie Lou Hamer's Legacy Takes the Chicago Stage With a 9-Venue Outdoor Run—and a Voting Drive
To vote or not to vote this November seems a fairly absurd question to many of us facing what is likely the most crucial election of our lifetimes. But if you’re still on the fence about participating in our (admittedly problematic) electoral process at this point, may I, in all irony, quote the Oompa Loompa-in-Chief…
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Home Theater: One of the Most Anticipated Plays of the Chicago Theatrical Season Premieres Online
As the COVID-19 epidemic has derailed all of our lives, it has done unimaginable damage to the live entertainment industry, as festival season, concerts and theatrical productions have been unceremoniously postponed or canceled outright, leaving performers, directors, production crews and the venues themselves with gaping holes in their projected incomes. But as they say in…
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Translating Trauma: With a Pair of Powerful Plays, Director Wardell Julius Clark Explores the PTSD of Police Killings
“I like things that subvert the audience’s expectations,” actor/director Wardell Julius Clark told The Root when asked why he gravitates to certain narratives. “We’re going to the theater for a visceral emotional experience; to learn something about ourselves and about humanity.” Clark is at the helm of two very visceral and emotional productions making their…
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Surviving the Last Supper: The First Deep Breath Is a Family Drama That Hits Home
For every family who revels in reuniting with each other this time of year, there is another for whom the holidays feel more like survival than a celebration—painful truths are choked down with the meal, and more words are eaten than leftovers. Such a family is the Jones clan of Lee Edward Colston II’s The…
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In a New Revival of Oedipus Rex, Ancient Greek Gets a Relevant Refresh
It’s been a year full of revivals in Chicago, and in an era where the Greek chorus has been replaced by the legions on Black Twitter, some might wonder what relevance a revival of Sophocles’ circa-429 B.C. tragedy, Oedipus Rex, holds for contemporary audiences. But as a new production at the University of Chicago-based Court…
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In Love and War: Jiréh Breon Holder’s Too Heavy for Your Pocket Weighs the Price of Freedom
It’s funny how the more things change, the more they say the same. Friday, May 17, marked 65 years to the day of the Brown v. the Board of Education ruling—a bittersweet anniversary, as civil and human rights continue to be rolled back across America and deep inequities for black and brown people persist with…
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Behind Picket Fences: In Sam Kebede’s EthiopianAmerica, the American Dream Masks a Common Nightmare
There is palpable energy prior to a theatrical production; a current of excitement that buzzes through an audience anticipating new work on the stage. At the press night for EthiopianAmerica, the newest production from the Chicago-based Definition Theatre Company staged at Victory Gardens, there was also a profound feeling of family, as several members of…
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African, American: Danai Gurira Hits Home with Her Latest Play, Familiar
An elegantly appointed middle class living room in Minnesota, punctuated with poinsettias and a wreath to celebrate the holidays—plus the rare (and oft-disappearing) piece of African art. Frankly, it could’ve been my childhood home in the same Midwestern state, but instead, it is the setting of Danai Gurira’s Familiar, an emotional family dramedy that explores…
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A Hero’s Journey: Father Comes Home From the Wars Is a Reckoning with American History
A war. A hero. A conflict. A journey. These are the components of any timeless tale, dating as far back as the ancient Greeks. In fact, they are the prototypical “hero’s journey,” as epitomized by the second-oldest known Western text in history, well-known to many high school and college literature students as Homer’s The Odyssey.…
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Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters Return, More Relevant Than Ever
Respect your elders. I don’t know a child who wasn’t raised with that admonition, which in my household was often accompanied by a swat on the butt or a swift side-eye when due respect wasn’t paid. But it’s generally far later in life when most of us learn the value of also listening to our…