Remy Bumppo: Listen Up

James Bohnen, artistic director of Remy Bumppo Theatre, is a nice guy. So nice he winces at even the blandest questions about what makes his award-winning theater company unique, "I don't want it to sound like we think we're better than other people."

So instead, I asked about the name. While Remy Bumppo has spent the last.... Read More

Chestnuts Playing On An Open Stage

'Tis, once again, the season. Time for toys, time for cheer, as Alvin and the Chipmunks would say. 'Tis also, once again, time for all your favorite holiday-themed plays to start showing at theatres around Chicago: A Christmas Carol, The Christmas Schooner, It's A Wonderful Life, The Nutcracker, etc. (I'm assuming these are some of your favorite plays..... Read More

Designers In Chicago: Lindsay Jones

Lindsay Jones is not your typical...anything. As a Sound Designer and/or Composer for an average of 40 shows a year, he might be the busiest person in professional theatre. Although he technically lives in Los Angeles with his wife and children, Lindsay also considers Chicago and New York "home" - and has three addresses and local phone numbers.... Read More

The Mammals - Rehearsing the Dark Stuff

"When I first started doing theater I realized that I was mostly interested in the really dark stuff, the out-there stuff: Pinter, Beckett, Classic Expressionism, Greek drama," Bob Fisher leans over his teacup when he gets excited, and he's excited now with good reason. He's talking about the founding of Chicago's longest running theater company dealing with horror,.... Read More

The History Boys take top honors at Jeff Awards

At the 41st Annual Jeff Equity Awards TimeLine Theatre's much-extended production of "The History Boys" took top honors in the midsize theatre Play category and walked off with 5 statues, the most of any production honored at the festive ceremony held at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie..... Read More

Spotlight on Horror, WildClaw Theatre

Some plays make you laugh, some plays make you cry, but WildCaw Theatre is a young company dedicated to scaring the hell out of you. Founded in 2007, WildClaw Theatre has produced three full-scale plays and two festivals of new ten-minute radio plays all united around the single, but deceptively multi-faceted, world of horror.

"Horror can mean all.... Read More

Oh, the Horror!

What are actors, really, but people who play dress-up for a living? (This is not an insult. Wouldn't you love to play dress-up for a living?) So it should come as a small surprise that actors, and theatre people in general, love Halloween. That campiest of holidays provides a good excuse to really cut loose.... Read More

Special Jeff Award to Honor William Pullinsi's 50 Years in Theatre

A Special Jeff Award will be presented to director/producer William Pullinsi at the Jeff Awards Ceremony, October 19th, in recognition of his 50 years in theatre. The Second City will receive a Tribute Award in honor of their 50th Anniversary. "Our ceremony will include highlights of Second City's unique brand of humor over the years and performances by.... Read More

Caffeine Theatre Thinks You're Smart

In 2006 Caffeine Theatre's artistic director Jennifer Shook approached the board with a proposal. "I told them I wanted to do T.S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party and that it might be the last show we ever do.  That I didn't think anyone would come, and that I wasn't even sure I understood it."  The board.... Read More

Lookingglass Theatre presents premiere of Fedra: Queen of Haiti

Lookingglass Theatre Company presents the wickedly dark comedy Fedra: Queen of Haiti, written by Ensemble Member J. Nicole Brooks and directed by Ensemble Member Laura Eason. The Lookingglass Original runs September 30 - November 15, 2009 at Lookingglass Theatre Company, located inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 .... Read More

Profiles Theatre opens its 21st Season with The Mercy Seat

Profiles Theatre opens its 21st Anniversary Season with the Midwest premiere of the drama The Mercy Seat by Neil LaBute, directed by Artistic Director Joe Jahraus.  The production runs September 25- November 15, 2009, at Profiles Theatre, 4147 N. Broadway. 

In a time of national tragedy, the world changes overnight.  On September 12, 2001,.... Read More

The Plagiarists Steal This Stage

The Plagiarists are a theater group galvanized by an aesthetic; that they can't exactly agree on what it is, has never yet seemed particularly important.  To try to get a better sense of what the Plagiarists are, I asked as many of the members as I could gather what the ideal Plagiarist show would.... Read More

Cirque du Soleil announces brand new show - Banana Shpeel

Cirque du Soleil and MSG Entertainment unveiled the brand new theatrical production, Banana Shpeel, at The Chicago Theatre. The show will perform for the first time ever at the theatre for a limited engagement from November 19, 2009 through January 3, 2010. Following Chicago, the show will premiere in New York at.... Read More

Oh, What A Run - Jersey Boys To Take Final Bow In Chicago

The Chicago Company of Jersey Boys will say "Bye, Bye Baby" to the Windy City on January 10, 2010, after an incredible run of over two years at the Bank of America Theatre.  Jersey Boys, the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, premiered in Chicago initially as a limited engagement on.... Read More

Animal Crackers coming to Goodman Theatre

Goodman Theatre launches its new 2009/2010 Season with tap dancing, acrobatics, tumbling, guitar- and ukulele-playing in an original take on the rarely-produced Marx Brothers classic musical Animal Crackers, written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, with music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. For the Goodman's revival of this family-friendly.... Read More

Broadway In Chicago Announces 2010 Season Series

Broadway In Chicago has announced the complete 2010 Broadway In Chicago Season Series. The shows included in the 2010 Season Series are Billy Elliot the Musical, Shrek The Musical, August: Osage County, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and The 39 Steps; the selection of shows continue to emphasize Broadway In Chicago's long-standing commitment.... Read More

South Pacific heading to Rosemont Theatre

Lincoln Center Theater will present a new production of Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein's prize-winning musical South Pacific which will premiere in Chicago November 24 - 29, 2009 at the Rosemont Theatre, 5400 N. River Road.

Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific swept the 2008 Tony Awards, winning seven honors including Best Musical Revival and Best Director for.... Read More

New Leaf Theatre Begins Again, and Again...

When you sit in the theater and watch a New Leaf show, the sounds you hear are likely thanks to resident artist and sound designer Nick Keenan, the lights were probably designed by resident artist Jared Moore, and the person calling the shots in the back of the house could be either of the company's two resident.... Read More

Nominees for the 41st Annual Jeff Awards Announced

The Jeff Awards announced 179 nominations in 35 categories for Chicago Equity theatrical productions which opened between August 1, 2008, and July 31, 2009. The Jeff Awards sent judges to the opening nights of 141 productions offered by 57 producing organizations. From these openings, 98 Equity productions were "Jeff Recommended," which made them .... Read More

Dael Orlandersmith Brings Eleven Characters from the Stoop to the Stage

Dael Orlandersmith takes Chicago audiences on an electrifying journey through the spirit and soul of Harlem in her explosive solo piece Stoop Stories at Goodman Theatre. Hailed a "triumph" in its world premiere at Washington, D.C.'s Studio Theatre this past spring, Stoop Stories comes to Chicago directed by Obie Award-winner Jo Bonney. Orlandersmith.... Read More