Author: Vickie Moore

Mercury Theatre
Theater

Mercury Theatre Mounts Online Video Series, “Backstage Stories”

Vickie Moore , 

L. Walter Stearns, executive director of Mercury Theater Chicago, recently announced an ongoing lineup of three video series featuring past and present Mercury talent, to include actors, musicians and members of several creative teams. The three series of videos will be entitled “Backstage Stories,” “On the Air with Mercury Theater Chicago,” and “On the Road to Priscilla,” and will be posted on an ongoing basis on the theater’s social media pages. The theater will also be coordinating a city-wide initiative video entitled “Stay Home Chicago” in response to the stay-at-home orders following the COVID-19 crisis, featuring performers from previous Mercury Theater Chicago productions.

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Theater

Chicago Children’s Theatre Launches At-Home Initiative with Hope-Affirming Window Installation

Vickie Moore

Artists have transformed Chicago Children’s Theatre, 100 S. Racine Ave. in the West Loop, into a bright new beacon of hope.
Stroll by the former Chicago police station at Monroe and Racine any evening and you’ll see a gorgeous new window installation that changes the colors of the rainbow around the life-affirming message “Everything will be okay.”

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Theater

Goodman Theatre Postpones Balance of 2019-20 Season

Vickie Moore , 

As shelter-in-place due to COVID-19 continues in Illinois, Goodman Theatre has announced its intention to postpone the four remaining 2019-2020 Season productions to the upcoming 2020-2021 Season. These four shows include School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play by Jocelyn Bioh, directed by Lili-Anne Brown; Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel, directed by Robert Falls; American Mariachi by José Cruz González, directed by Henry Godinez; and the world-premiere musical adaptation of The Outsiders based on the novel by S.E. Hinton and Francis Ford Coppola’s motion picture, book by Adam Rapp, music and lyrics by Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance) and Justin Levine, music supervision, arrangements and orchestration by Justin Levine, choreography by Lorin Latarro, directed by Liesl Tommy. The complete 2020-2021 Season and additional details to be announced.

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Governor-JB-Pritzker
Arts

Arts for Illinois Awards Over $3.3M to Artists and Arts Organizations

Vickie Moore ,  ,  ,  , 

This week, the Arts for Illinois Relief Fund announced that more than $3.3 million dollars has been awarded to 906 artists and 166 cultural organizations across the state, which is expected to reach recipients in the coming weeks. The Fund’s application portals will reopen today, after a temporary pause to fundraise and process initial applications, and will remain open through May 11 for a second round of submissions.

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Isolated-by-Actors-Gymnasium
Theater

Actors Gymnasium to Present New Work, Isolated, Amid COVID-19 Closure

Vickie Moore , 

Actors Gym has announced “Isolated,” its annual Spring Youth Circus, which has been devised through an innovative online rehearsal process. It features 28 of its top youth performers working under the direction of Kasey Foster and the company’s artistic director, Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi. The show will be screened online on May 16 and 23 at 7:30 p.m.

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Spektral-Quartet
Classical MusicMusic

Spektral Quartet Posptones Summer World Premiere of Solar Eclipse Inspired Work ENIGMA at Adler Planetarium

Vickie Moore , 

Out of an abundance of caution, and prioritizing the safety and wellbeing of its artists and guests, the Grammy-nominated Spektral Quartet has postponed its world premiere of the multimedia work ENIGMA, in partnership with the Adler Planetarium. The work was to be presented June 11 and 12 in the Adler’s Grainger Sky Theater. A new premiere date will be announced later this year.

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Audrey-Francis-Steppenwolf-Ensemble-Member
Society CalendarTheater

Steppenwolf Announces Pants Optional: A Steppenwolf Soirée

Vickie Moore

Steppenwolf Theatre Company replaces its 2020 Gala with a special online event, Pants Optional: A Steppenwolf Soirée, celebrating the power of theater and raising vital funds to keep it alive during a time of necessary social-distancing. Ensemble member Audrey Francis emcees this festive virtual gathering on Saturday, May 9, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. CST, with special appearances by Steppenwolf ensemble members Joan Allen, Gary Cole, John Malkovich, Sandra Marquez and Laurie Metcalf, along with celebrity guests who will be announced on Steppenwolf’s social media channels and website.

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Chicago-Artists-Coalition-Exhibition
Art

Chicago Artists Coalition Enhances Unrestricted Funding to Artists

Vickie Moore

Chicago Artists Coalition (CAC) recently unveiled the 25 awardees of its annual SPARK Grant program, along with two recipients of the MAKER Grant and one recipient of the Coney Family Fund Award. Now in its second cycle of grantmaking, the SPARK Grant program supports the creative endeavors of visual artists who identify as ALAANA (African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, Native American), an artist with acute financial need, an artist with a disability, or as a self-taught artist whose art practice is a primary vocation.

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Leonard-Bernstein-Mass-at-Ravinia
Classical MusicMusic

Ravinia’s Acclaimed Bernstein Mass Performance to Receive Broadcast Premiere on “Great Performances”

Vickie Moore ,  ,  ,  , 

When Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman and Chief Conductor and Curator Marin Alsop presented Leonard Bernstein’s little-seen music theater masterwork Mass as the centerpiece of Ravinia’s 2018 celebration of the iconic conductor and composer’s centennial, the Chicago Tribune declared it one of the best concerts of 2018, and audiences clamored for a repeat performance. Ravinia obliged, reuniting more than 200 onstage artists—including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Vocality, a cast of “Street Singers,” and even the local high school marching band—for a single 2019 encore that Ravinia arranged to have filmed.

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