One of our objectives is to write occasional feature articles on theatre, theatres, and theatre people. You’ll find them archived here.
By Beverly Friend, PHD, Member American Theatre Critics Assn. While I certainly miss seeing plays, I miss reviewing them even more: the excitement of opening night, the thrill as the house lights dim and the curtain goes up, the responsibility of writing a valid assessment of the production which will benefit readers by giving — […]
“I know someone like you understands the importance—the all-consuming social importance of live theater.” — Mark Lew, from Teenage Dick As the coronavirus crisis worsens and states, including Illinois, are instituting “shelter-at-home” proclamations, Americans are having to learn how to deal with a social and cultural situation they have never faced before. Quarantines are adversely […]
This article is by Karen Topham, ChicagoOnstage, member American Theatre Critics Association, in response to Raven Theatre’s production of A Doll’s House. It isn’t technically a review, though there is a review incorporated within it. It’s more of an extended explanation of why I reacted the way I did to this production despite the clear […]
A long time ago, a young man in a play I was directing was having great difficulties finding his character and was growing supremely frustrated. “It was so natural with my last role,” he told me. “I found a way to climb inside his head and really felt what he was feeling. I just don’t […]
“The stage is a magic circle where only the most real things happen, a neutral territory outside the jurisdiction of Fate where stars may be crossed with impunity. A truer and more real place does not exist in all the universe.”― P.S. Baber, Cassie Draws the Universe The City of Chicago proclaimed the year 2019 […]
Article by Joe DeRosa; Photo by Cheryl Mann If things keep going the way they’ve been going for Ashley Wheater and the world-renowned Joffrey Ballet, Cathy Marston’s adaptation of the 19th-century classic novel Jane Eyre will turn out to be the perfect choice to open the 2019-20 season. Since his appointment in 2007 as the […]
When Joey Cranford’s wife jokingly bought him a magic kit they had seen at Walgreens as a Christmas present, she had no idea what she had unleashed. “There was an especially good trick in there,” he says, one that spurred the research-oriented Cranford to begin exploring what magic is and eventually led him to discover […]
Kevin Tuerff (left) and Andrew Samonsky, who portrayed him in the original Broadway cast of “Come From Away” “It’s a very American and Canadian story,” said Kevin Tuerff about what happened in Gander, Newfoundland, on Sept. 11, 2001. That story—which includes Tuerff’s experiences—forms the basis for the landmark musical Come From Away, which just finished […]
By Beverly Friend, American Theatre Critics Association member It was April 1 when I heard the news. I hoped it was not true – only an April Fool’s spoof. The delightful Broward Stage Door Theatre was closing. Why, after 25 highly successful years in South Florida? The first, and most obvious guess is that they […]
It’s not exactly a secret that the right wing of this country despises transgender people. Since Trump came to power, as a matter of fact, the National Center for Transgender Equality has counted more than thirty separate actions from his administration targeting LGBTQ people and especially transgender people, whom he is trying to “erase” by […]