FIVE CHOREOGRAPHERS, FIVE PREMIERES Winning Works gives emerging dancemakers a coveted professional stage"and a glimpse of dance's next generation The Joffrey Ballet's Winning Works initiati…
A legacy program celebrating Joffrey's founders while showcasing the company's present vitality A richly performed evening where history fuels a thrilling, forward-looking repertory Preterna…
CHICAGO TEENS DELIVER THE GOODS WITH ORIGINAL ONE-ACTS Pegasus Theatre Chicago's Young Playwrights Festival proves "again"that fresh voices can write with candor, wit, and bite. For the last…
FROM FRIDA TO FUNK, MATTERS OF THE HEART THRILLS When words fall short of capturing the fullness and depth of life's experience, there is dance"or more broadly, art itself. That truth was ma…
PLAYING THE CARDS YOU'RE DEALT: THE PILON SHUFFLES LOVE, VALUE, AND IDENTITY Sometimes theater takes you places you never expected " or even wanted " to find yourself. For some, Red Theater'…
CELEBRATING THE INDESPENSIBILITY OF CHICAGO'S CREATIVES Glowing cultural vibrancy and great world cities are so often intertwined they are effectively one. Scan the globe and nearly every ci…
ST. SEBASTIAN PLAYERS HONORS SHIRLEY JACKSON'S EERIE INTELLECT There are more than a few reasons to head over to Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood and catch the St. Sebastian Player's (SSP…
Redtwist's Smashing New Play Rattles the Status Quo with Laughter and Wisdom Are there limits to happiness? Can any one of us remotely comprehend the countless forms it can take? Those two q…
NOW SERVING LEGS, LEAPS, AND LIFE: AN EVENING THAT OFFERS PIROUETTES WITH A PURPOSE Dance for Life, the exuberant gala of dance created in 1992 to help address the impact of AIDS on a beleag…
BIG TOP, BIGGER DREAMS: ETHIOPIA FLIPS THE SCRIPT AT NAVY PIER (OR "GRAVITY? NEVER HEARD OF IT!") Despite their being a part of nearly everyone's lives, dreams hold a never-ending fascinatio…
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO BAGHDAD: COMEDY BUMPS INTO HISTORY TO CREATE A MASTERPIECE We sometimes forget how much the theatrical stage can be a place of true discovery"until we st…
TO KNOW HYMN IS TO LOVE HYMN It's not unusual to hear creatives, especially Black creatives, quote Toni Morrison when talking about what inspires them to write, paint or compose. "If there's…
UNCONVENTIONAL SPIN, DARING THEATER, CAUTIOUSLY RECOMMENDED There are sequels and there are sequels. Few can be considered as aspirational or as pioneering as Taylor Mac's Gary, a continuati…
Red Theater's Kairos Makes Us Look at Time and Life from an Unexpected Perspective Chance encounters rarely end this interestingly. In Lisa Sanaye Dring's new play Kairos"premiering now at T…
MAMET'S HENRY JOHNSON PROVES A DIFFICULT PROTAGONIST Along with blazingly rapid dialog, there's something aggressively determined about David Mamet plays"like Glengarry Glen Ross now being r…
JOYOUSLY, GUYS & DOLLS HAS IT ALL Still touted as one of the greatest Broadway musicals of all time, Guys and Dolls turns 75 in November. You'd never know it based on Music Theater Works…
JOFFREY ADDS SURPRISE TO A PROGRAM ALREADY BRIMMING WITH EXCELLENT DANCE Joffrey Ballet certainly must be conscious of its earth shifting habits. More likely, its propensity for greatly b…
THE PERPETUATION OF LEGACY Once a year we're reminded of the unique space Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) occupies in the global dance sphere. And every year we're also reminded h…
Titus Andronicus brings prejudice and the politics of revenge to the forefront in Shakespeare's bloodiest script. Foreign wars have left the country divided, an impulsive leader stokes resen…
Frida…A Self Portrait Enlightens and Beguiles with Impressive Force You'd have to go a long way to find someone with as potent a life force as Frida Kahlo's. She left this branch of existe…
A BRILLIANTLY BRACING LOOK AT LOVE'S OTHER SIDE Romantic love is rarely easy. Even when a relationship progresses from first attraction to full commitment to picture-perfect nuptials, there …
Steep Theatre Company's A Slow Air: An Astonishing Journey Into Forbidden Territory "Estrangement" is an unfriendly word that carries with it all kinds of negative connotations"hostility, al…
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE FUN HOME One of the first penetrating statements Alanna Chavez makes very early as Alison Bechdel in Porchlight's Fun Home, now playing at the Ruth Page Center for the …
AN UNFORGETTABLE LAUGHTER-ETCHED LESSON ON LIFE BY WALKING IN SOMEONE ELSE'S SHOES There are two things to know about Jocelyn Bioh, playwright of Jaja's African Hair Braiding, the theatrical…
EXCAVATING THE PAST TO SOLVE PUZZLES ABOUT THE PRESENT Family is so integral to our identity that it's difficult not to be enthralled by them. A complicated source of delight, distress, curi…