City Lit Spotlights Faith and Females in the Book of J.B.
“Meet you at the ‘old broad’ play,” my plus one said. We, being crones ourselves, and veterans of all-female companies Babes With Blades and Footsteps, were looking forward to a […]
Karin McKie is a Chicago freelance writer, cultural factotum and activism concierge. She jams econo.
ATC Plumbs Entrenched Racism in Welcome to Jesus
Will Davis directs Janine Nabers’ world premiere Welcome to Jesus at American Theater Company. It’s an oddball dissection of Texas Christianity and their other state religion, football, all driving toward the […]
Specter of Housing Insecurity Exorcised in Theater Oobleck’s A Memory Palace of Fear
Rust Belt Chicago’s editor/writer Martha Bayne and artist Andrea Jablonski co-curate Theater Oobleck’s unique haunted house, tapping into fears about housing insecurity. A rainy, raw fall day was an apt […]
Writers Theatre Morphs Page to Stage in Quixote: On the Conquest of Self
We are the authors of our own lives, mostly figuratively, but exceedingly literally in Writers Theatre’s energetic production of Mónica Hoth and Claudio Valdés Kuri’s Quixote: On the Conquest of Self, translated […]
All-Female Suffragist Shakespeare Shines in The Taming of the Shrew
How do you address the ever-problematic female groveling speeches in Shakespeare’s sexist play? Chicago Shakespeare Theatre throws a powerhouse, A-list, all-female cast at old Will’s The Taming of The Shrew, […]
Dance Down the Highway to Hell in Lyric’s Orphée et Eurydice
Opening night of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 2017/18 season kicked off with Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice (Paris version), and included a first-time collaboration with the Joffrey Ballet. […]
Honest Abe’s Spiritual Awakening in The Heavens Are Hung in Black
Shattered Globe Theatre presents the first in its all-Chicago premiere season, Pulitzer-nominee James Still’s The Heavens are Hung in Black, at Theater Wit through October 21, and directed by Louis […]
GWARrior Pustulus Maximus Testifies Before Riot Fest 2017
Intergalactic shredder Pustulus Maximus is the avatar of Brent Purgason, GWAR’s lead guitarist and backing vocalist since 2012. GWAR will maraud Chicago’s Riot Fest on Sunday, September 17, from 7:15-8 […]
Mellencamp’s Melodic Mélange in Sad Clowns and Hillbillies
Bloomington, Indiana’s most famous son shakes the snow globe of American music to mix up a melodic mélange of Motown, 12-bar blues, country and heartland rock in the soulful, riveting […]
Cheese and Cheesecake in Hell in a Handbag’s Golden Girls: The Lost Episodes
Fresh off receiving a Non-Equity Special Jeff Award for theatrical and charitable contributions, Hell in a Handbag co-founder and Artistic Director David Cerda presents Golden Girls: The Lost Episodes, his latest […]
Film Review: Brillo Box (3¢ Off) Follows a Warhol Classic in the Modern Art Market
Lisanne Skyler weaves memoir with pop art in the quirky, whimsical and affectionate documentary short, Brillo Box (3¢ Off). Skyler’s middle-class parents, Martin and Rita, collected pop art in New […]
Photo Shows on Poverty, Joan of Arc, and Commercialized Beauty Now on Display @ LUMA
The Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA) offers a plethora of photographs on display this summer, featuring three exhibitions: Jeffrey Wolin’s Pigeon Hill: Then and Now; Michelle Murphy’s Responsive Beauty; and Susan Aurinko’s Searching for Jehanne, […]