Eric Roach and Anderson Lawfer, curators and founders of the insider Chicago Theatre blog Reviews You Can Iews! and writers for TheatreInChicago, will be hosting a "Red Carpet" style event from the Park West Theater at the 38th annual Joseph Jefferson Awards on June 6th, 2011 that will be streamed live and can be seen right here at.... Read More

In Alan Bennett's big-cast historical drama, The Madness of George III, the stage picture often resembles (to our yankee eyes, anyway) portraits of our nation's Founding Fathers—aka "old men in white wigs". The primary reason for this déjà vu is the play's setting in late 18th century England, when fashionable members of the royal court habitually sported.... Read More

If you need some lighting design in this town, there are only a few places to look. One of the leading artists in this field is the beautiful and luxurious Heather Gilbert. We had a chance to talk to her about lighting, prom, and listen to some great war stories from the past! She joined us on the.... Read More

The purchase of a ticket to a live theatrical production (or any entertainment event, for that matter) is a largely anonymous ritual: you go online, select a ticket that you want at a price arbitrarily set by a producer you never see, present that ticket at the box office, and hope that you haven't wasted your money. It's.... Read More

Richard Adams' Watership Down is an epic saga of a community driven from their land and forced to explore unknown territories in search of a new home. After a journey fraught with danger and uncertainty as they encounter a diversity of strangers, some friendly and some hostile, our pilgrims discover their opportunity to make a fresh start,.... Read More

The Jeff Awards announced 106 nominations in 23 categories for Non-Equity Jeff Awards, which honor excellence in Chicago theatres not under a union contract, for productions that opened between April 1, 2010, and March 31, 2011. The Jeff Awards judged the opening nights of 146 productions offered by 62 non-Equity producing organizations and recommended 62 shows.... Read More

A huge hit when it opened at Theater Wit as a vibrnat world premiere by Caitlin Montayne Parrish, "A Twist of Water" has made a major move. This just triumph reopens at Lakeview's Mercury Theater on May 1 to deliver even more shocks of recognition to appreciative audiences. The biggest one is that cities and families.... Read More

When your theatre company gets serious about growing and being the best, you look for the best Managing Director you can find. One woman has proved herself TWICE (Victory Gardens and TimeLine) to be the best and her name is Elizabeth Auman. We invited her to our new home and pill factory in the basement of an old.... Read More

There are basically two kinds of scenic disorder: the jumble representing accumulated clutter, usually applied by crew members during intermission (as employed in True West, for example), and the chaos created right before our eyes when characters give way to grief, anger or frustration with an old-fashioned temper tantrum.

Pandemonium can be generated cheaply by knocking over furniture, pulling.... Read More

Artistic Directors Joe Jahraus and Darrell W. Cox announce Profiles Theatre's 2011 - 2012 Season. Profiles, one of Chicago's longest-running storefront theatres, presents its 23rd season of new and challenging works, including the Midwest premiere of the Broadway hit A Behanding in Spokane by Martin McDonagh, directed by Steppenwolf ensemble member Rick Snyder; the Midwest premiere of.... Read More

There is an irony to actors' favorite roles being non-human ones. But who wouldn't relish playing creatures unshackled by socialized behavior, propelled by ego surpassing even the amorality of babies and cave-dwellers? How better for an artist to display their individual creativity?

Bryce Wissel's Ephemera, currently in production by the Polarity Ensemble, recounts the adventures aboard.... Read More

The Chicago Park District's 59th annual Theater on the Lake season features reprisals of eight artistically diverse Chicago theater companies June 15 - Aug. 7, 2011. The season opens with The Improvised Shakespeare Company (June 15-19) and continues with popular productions by Infamous Commonwealth Theatre (June 22-26); At Play Productions in association with Chicago Dramatists (June.... Read More

This interview was one of our best. We were SUPPOSED to meet Ele Matelan, House Theatre Ensemble Member and member of the Jeff A/T Committee, in the Heart O' Chicago Hotel for a nice talk and maybe some sodas, but Eric had to try some Angel Dust our neighbor was throwing out. At least we THOUGHT he was.... Read More

Bibliophiles whose homes are filled with reading matter are accustomed to visitors asking, "Have you read all these books?"-as opposed to lining the rooms with them as a cheap source of building insulation, presumably. But the question inevitably raised when a stage setting incorporates floor-to-ceiling shelves of weighty tomes is "Are those books all real?"

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Sometimes, being an actor is hard on a relationship. You usually have a day job, and then add 40 hours a week of another job on top of it, and it can make things stressful for your love life, because you spend so much time apart. Eric and Andy decided to investigate how hard it is when BOTH.... Read More

Lookingglass Theatre Company has announced its 2011-2012 season, featuring three productions about three moments in American history-The Great Fire that razed Chicago, Jackie Robinson's game-changing signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the 1915 Chicago tragedy of the sinking of The Eastland. This upcoming season, Lookingglass will tell the stories of those who, whether famous or.... Read More

Broadway In Chicago has announced that three-time Tony Award - winner including the award for Best Musical Revival, La Cage Aux Folles, is coming to the Bank of America Theatre (18 W. Monroe) Dec. 20, 2011 - Jan. 1, 2012. This hilarious new production of La Cage Aux Folles was the biggest hit of the 2010 Broadway.... Read More

Bringing young children to see live theatre is often a tricky proposition, for various and obvious reasons. In fact, I was just at a show the other night where I was somehow fortunate enough to sit directly in front of a family who decided to bring their (literally) infant child along with them. And no, he/she was not.... Read More

Heroes move fast. We know this to be true, and one hero that moves the fastest is longtime Chicago storefront director Louis Contey. Winner of every Jeff Award over the last 15 years, this titan has brought his A-Game since day one. He now brings his prodigious talents to Strawdog Theatre's production of The Master and Margarita..... Read More

If you have ever wanted to experience live hippieness up close and personal, and were either too young or too scared Back In The Day, then you will want to read further. Because for two weeks only starting March 8, the national touring production of Hair will be coming to the Ford Center for the Performing Arts.... Read More