On the Road: Theater and Architecture in Wisconsin
Spring Green is an arts center in nearby south central Wisconsin that’s easily accessible to Chicagoans interested in theater and the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. In a long weekend, […]
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 Bluesky at @nancyb.bsky.social. She also writes about film, books, art, architecture and design.
In Red Theater’s Brutal Sickle, Four Village Women Try to Survive the Ukrainian Genocide
One of the missions of theater is to tell untold stories, as Elizabeth Lovelady points out in her director’s note for Sickle, the new production at Red Theater. The story […]
Support Group for Men: A Knowing, Poignant Comedy About Male and Human Issues
Ellen Fairey knows Chicago. She knows and replicates its sights, sounds and cultural wrinkles in Support Group for Men at the Goodman Theatre, directed by Kimberly Senior. For 95 minutes, Fairey […]
Sideshow Theatre’s Tilikum: A Bleak Fantasy, Ripped From the Headlines
“Tilikum, the infamous SeaWorld killer whale, has died.” That was the headline in the Orlando Sentinel on January 6, 2017. Sideshow Theatre’s world premiere production of Tilikum takes the story of that […]
Monty Cole’s Direction of Hamlet at the Gift Theatre Focuses on the Power of Language
Sometimes you see a familiar play, one that you’ve seen many times, and it gains new power because of the casting and staging or the mood created by the director. […]
What’s Cooking at Third Coast: Lemon Butter Angel Hair Pasta, Quick and Delicious
You have to love a pasta dish that’s quick and delicious. I recently discovered Lemon Butter Angel Hair Pasta on Food52.com and I’ve made it several times. In fact, I […]
Review: Pressing On: The Letterpress Film Documents the Glory of Letterpress Printing and Handset Type
Writing this review is a labor of love for me, just as making this film must have been for the filmmakers and the cast. Pressing On is the story of how […]
AstonRep’s The Laramie Project Is a Stirring 20th Anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s Death
This is the 20th anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death at the hands of two young thugs in Laramie, Wyoming. There was a great outpouring of sympathy and support for Shepard […]
At Victory Gardens, Mies Julie Scorches With the Tensions of Another Racist Culture
Mies Julie is a scorchingly sexy, shockingly violent adaptation of August Strindberg’s Miss Julie, transported from 1888 Sweden to 2012 South Africa. Incidents that may or may not happen offstage […]
Review: Trap Door’s Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman Dazzles With Gender Questions
Trap Door Theatre takes on the contemporary issue of gender identity with the story of a famous soldier, diplomat and spy in 18th century France. Chevalier Charles-Genevieve-Louise-Auguste-Andre-Thimothee d’Eon had a distinguished […]
Weekend Theater Picks: Eight Plays You Might Want to See
Thinking about going to the theater this weekend? The world on stage never really slows down in Chicago. Here are eight plays we’ve reviewed recently. Take a look at our […]
Sandburg’s “Skyscraper” to Be Featured on PBS Program, Poetry in America
Hog butcher to the world. City of the big shoulders. Those familiar Chicago phrases are part of Carl Sandburg’s famous poem, “Chicago,” written in 1916. The PBS series, “Poetry in […]