To begin, an embarrassing admission: this was my first ever Ian’s Party. I’ve seen the stacked lineups every year for this Ian’s Party, a weekend festival that showcases the best […]

Schubas Tavern was yet again graced by the presence of Diane Coffee to ring in the New Year, who spent 2017’s Eve as well as December 30th in the cozy […]

I interviewed director Elizabeth Streb about her upcoming show SEA (Singular Extreme Actions) at Harris Theater. Streb’s work as a choreographer is groundbreaking (sometimes literally). I asked her what distinguishes […]

When artist Mason Cosmo Pott found out he had histoplasmosis, a life-threatening infection affecting the immune system, he didn’t let it detour his life as an artist. After undergoing rigorous treatment […]

One of the last films I watched in 2016 (and it managed to crack my Top 20 of the year in the process) was South Korean horror thrill ride Train […]

One of my favorite documentaries of 2016 was also about one of my personal heroes from way back. The film is director Steven Okazaki’s Mifune: The Last Samurai about the […]

Much like the memoir that inspired it, Notes on Blindness (from co-directors James Spinney and Peter Middleton) attempts the seemingly impossible, especially for a visual art form: to capture the […]

There are children’s films, and then there are films with children in them that seem more geared toward adults. Spanish-born director J.A. Bayona seems to specialize in the latter, with […]

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese has spent most of his career presenting us with characters who, in any other movie, might be looked upon as the bad guys. But he gets us […]

The 2nd annual Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival is about to be unleashed upon Chicago just in time to distract us from the deep freeze of winter. Playing at multiple […]

2016 is over and we hope you’ve had a chance to read the Best-of-2016 posts that our writers and editors have created on each page: Stages, Screens, Music, Art, Lit, […]

Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art attempts to counter the emboldened pussy-grabbing culture with its Riot Grrrls installation. Male artists are disproportionately presented and compensated so the MCA borrowed from the […]