Dialogs: We Examine the Short Story with George Saunders and Four Russian Masters in CHF Event
As if to prove his versatility as a writer and creator, George Saunders’ latest book, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, is not a work of his own […]
Nancy S. Bishop is publisher and Stages editor of Third Coast Review. She’s a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and a 2014 Fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. You can read her personal writing on pop culture at nancybishopsjournal.com, and follow her on Twitter @nsbishop. She also writes about film, books, art, architecture and design.
Review: Another Day’s Begun Recasts Thornton Wilder’s Our Town as a Play That Speaks to Our Time
Another Day’s Begun: Thornton Wilder’s Our Town in the 21st CenturyBy Howard ShermanMetheun Drama, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Like most theater critics and theater lovers, I’ve seen Thornton Wilder’s Our Town […]
Dialogs: The Pentagon Papers 50 Years Later with Geoffrey Stone and Guests in CHF Event
Fifty years ago, Daniel Ellsberg, an economist and military analyst, created a national controversy that resulted in a landmark press freedom decision by the US Supreme Court. He did it […]
Review: Strawdog’s How Do We Navigate Space? Choreographs Chicagoans in Pandemic Living
Strawdog Theatre’s final entry in their season of resilience celebrates Chicagoans and how they are blundering through and surviving a raging pandemic. How Do We Navigate Space? is a series […]
The Plague Year: We’d Rather Not Celebrate This Anniversary
Everyone is observing this one-year anniversary of the day our world changed. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced a stay-at-home order to take effect at 5pm on Saturday, March 21, 2020. […]
Review: Steppenwolf’s Duchess! Duchess! Duchess! Skirts Issues in Favor of Entertainment
Many Americans seem to have a British-Royals obsession that has never made sense to me. Steppenwolf Theatre’s newest online production in its Steppenwolf NOW streaming series plays on that royals […]
Review: Lauren Gunderson’s The Catastrophist Dramatizes Viruses and a Scientist’s Life
The Catastrophist, by Lauren M. Gunderson, succeeds as a story that informs us about science and tears at our hearts about love, death and grieving. It soars from the scientific […]
Previews: Chicago Theaters Schedule New Works and Classics for Streamed Performances
Chicago theater companies are scheduling new virtual experiences as we approach the first anniversary of pandemic theater. Some are live streamed and some filmed—all will be available from your living […]
Review: Cabinet of Curiosity Creates The Cabinet, an Old Time Radio Drama With Modern Twists
“What evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows….” “The Shadow” was a midcentury radio mystery that sometimes kept a little girl from sleeping. My mother finally tried […]
Review: Missed Connections Is Virtual Magic and Mind-Bending Tricks With a Few New Friends
Missed Connections, Jon Tai’s magic and mystery show, is a cozy hour of entertainment laced with his stories of, yes, actual missed connections. Tai and his co-creator, Alex Gruhin, offer […]
Poem for Winter
An homage to Lou Rawls and to the St. Louis poet who became a Brit. February is the cruelest month. Where did T.S. Eliot get that April business? […]
Essay: The Rise (and Fall) of a Charismatic Leader in a Post-Truth Era
Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president. Historian Timothy Snyder characterizes our past president and describes his followers vividly in his essay, “The American Abyss: Trump, the […]