Trap Door Theatre’s latest production is the enchantingly titled Lipstick Lobotomy by playwright Krista Knight, directed by Kate Hendrickson. It’s a half-true, half-imagined story of friendship between John F. Kennedy’s younger sister Rosemary (Abby Blankenship) and the playwright’s great aunt…
The Boys in the Band was revolutionary when it was first performed off Broadway in April 1968, in its portrayal of the lives and loves of gay men. The producers had difficulty finding actors who were willing to play gay…
In the last few months, I’ve seen a lot of plays about racism, sexual identity, immigration, crime, anger and angst. So it was a nice change of pace to see Do You Feel Anger? at A Red Orchid Theatre because…
Alabaster is a city in northern Alabama (a suburb of Birmingham actually). It’s also a soft stone, a form of gypsum, that’s translucent, easily carved and often used for decorative objects. After seeing a moving production of Audrey Cefaly’s Alabaster,…
Bug starts out like a Sam Shepard play. Two lost souls in a seedy Oklahoma motel room. Fools for love. Agnes (Carrie Coon) is a waitress who’s dreading her ex-husband’s release from prison. She meets a drifter named Peter (Namir…
If I told you I saw a play about the Latin American debt crisis and it was fabulously entertaining, would you think I was crazy? Well I did and you shouldn’t. In Latin America, it was La Década Perdida, the…
How to Defend Yourself by Liliana Padilla takes an important topic—how women can defend themselves in a rape culture—and treats it with some sincerity about woman using their bodies to fend off attackers and men being allies. But it also…
Honest. Crude. Raw. Those are some of the words that came to me as I walked away from Steep Theatre after experiencing The Leopard Play or sad songs for lost boys. I say “experiencing” because Isaac Gomez does not allow…
Here’s this week’s podcast for Playtime with Bill Turck and Kerri Kendall, our radio arts partner. Third Coast Review news and reviews are highlighted and our writers sometimes appear on the Sunday afternoon arts radio show. Playtime broadcasts on WCGO, 1590AM…
Indivisible Chicago will stage True Blue Revue, the group’s 2020 campaign kickoff and free live show, Monday, February 3, at the Athenaeum Theatre’s mainstage, 2936 N. Southport Ave. Doors open at 5:30pm and the show starts at 7pm. Tickets are…
The old rock trope says that punk music is “three chords and the truth.” That holds true for the fact-based story about a kid punk band from Evanston in the 1980s, which just opened in a world premiere by House…
Alton Sterling. Laquan McDonald. Walter Scott. Michael Brown. Greg Gunn. Philando Castile. Some of those names might come to mind as you watch the tense, even-handed police thriller, Sheepdog, by Kevin Artigue. Shattered Globe Theatre’s new production, crisply directed by…
Two women on a fishing boat in the Alabama Delta. One casts and sometimes reels in…nothing. The other alternately suns, dozes and reads. It’s late afternoon on a hot, humid day. Kendra and Betty are southern women, together for six…
Rose Valley Theatre Group, Chicago’s newest theater company, makes its debut with the first English language production of Sunday Evening, a play by Zachary Karabashliev, a Bulgarian playwright. You might worry that a new company would stumble a bit in…
Here’s this week’s podcast for Playtime with Bill Turck and Kerri Kendall, our radio arts partner. Third Coast Review news and reviews are highlighted and our writers sometimes appear on the Sunday afternoon arts radio show. Playtime broadcasts on WCGO, 1590AM…
Winter seems to be the season for stage fests in Chicago (Rhinofest, Musical Theater Festival, Pegasus’ Young Playwrights Festival, Fillet of Solo) and Gift Theatre, one of our fine storefront companies, adds to the wealth with its TEN 2020, a…
The 23rd Annual Fillet of Solo Festival, running January 10–26, celebrates Chicago’s storytelling and live lit scene at Lifeline Theatre and the Teal Room in Rogers Park. The festival, organized by former Lifeline artistic director Dorothy Milne and former Live Bait Theater artistic…
There is dancing in Dance Nation, now at Steppenwolf Theatre. It’s sometimes clumsy, sometimes graceful, and generally amateurish. Clare Barron’s play is about a crew of 13-year-old girls (and a token boy) from Liverpool, Ohio, who are competing in regional…
Working transforms Studs Terkel’s iconic 1974 book of interviews with American workers of all stripes into a musical revue that pays homage to the value of work and the pride we take in it. Throughout the show, we hear an…
Here’s this week’s podcast for Playtime with Bill Turck and Kerri Kendall, our radio arts partner. Third Coast Review news and reviews are highlighted and our writers sometimes appear on the Sunday afternoon arts radio show. Playtime broadcasts on WCGO, 1590AM…
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