There’s something quite fascinating about a historical figure whose life’s work has transcended generations. When that figure is someone who’s motivations and movements were shrouded in mystery, their work bears even more scrutiny. Their works take on even more meaning. A new exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago seeks to unveil the mystery behind one such master by examining the works he left behind.
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Even though it may be closed to visitors, the Shedd Aquarium has invited new guests to the institution in an effort to further its important conservation efforts this spring. Joining with Tennessee Aquarium earlier this year, Shedd launched a new effort to safeguard the endangered Barrens Topminnow (Fundulus julisia) from extinction. Welcoming six individual fish from the species, Shedd began a head-start program for the fish, listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in October 2019. In the short time since its launch, the effort has already marked an important milestone.
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“It’s extraordinary that our world should have been turned upside down in such a short amount of time,” sighs Anthony Freud, Lyric Opera’s general director and CEO as he recounts the days before and after having to cancel the Lyric’s much anticipated Ring Cycle. “But we always have to remember that this is a national and a global tragedy in which we, Lyric Opera, are a tiny microcosm.”
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Victory Gardens Theater has announced the lineup for the 2020 IGNITION Festival of New Plays, including Black Like Me by Monty Cole, North Star by Georgette Kelly, Last Hermanos by Exal Iraheta, and Pivot by Alex Lubischer. The annual festival of new plays, now online for Summer 2020, will run from mid-June to mid-July with free readings of four new plays from Chicago playwrights on Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. Each reading will be followed by a “Coffee with the Creators” chat at noon the following day.
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Chicago’s Porchlight Music Theatre present Sondheim @90 Roundtable, created and hosted by Porchlight’s artistic director, Michael Weber and special guests celebrating theater icon Stephen Sondheim’s 90th birthday this year. The series runs every Saturday at 7 p.m. (CST) via Porchlight’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/PorchlightMusicTheatre/). Upcoming guests of the series include, Klea Blackhurst, David H. Bell, E. Faye Butler, Jim Corti, David Girolmo, Gary Griffin, James Earl Jones II, Sean Allan Krill, Hollis Resnik, Marc Robin and Tony Award-winner Jessie Mueller and David Cromer.
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Red Clay Dance Company (RCDC), a nonprofit dance company that creates and performs a diverse repertoire of Afro-contemporary dance, is stepping up in the fight against the threat of COVID-19 in its community with the Dance Pamoja Challenge, a 12-month project beginning June 1 that focuses on controlling blood pressure, building resilience, and preventing death from COVID-19 among African-American families living on Chicago’s South Side.
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Chicago prepares for its next phase of recovery without a firm date for resuming indoor performing arts events, The Neo-Futurist Theater has pioneered a new model of operation. Rather than sharing content from past productions, the company has moved its flagship show The Infinite Wrench to a digital platform, now called The Infinite Wrench Goes Viral, presenting 30 digital plays in 60 minutes each week. The Neo-Futurist ensemble of writer-performers continue to work from home and produce new plays weekly, which are then filmed and shared with patrons who subscribe via the Patreon platform.
Since its launch in late March, the new digital theater-making model has proven successful, with The Infinite Wrench Goes Viral currently bringing in 50% of the production’s pre-COVID-19 revenue. The production has more than 650 weekly subscribers from Chicago and across the country, significantly more patrons than The Neo-Futurists’ 147-seat theater can normally accommodate over a performance weekend. As a result of the success of this digital theater platform, The Neo-Futurists’ ensemble members, contracted artists and staff continue to receive payment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are overjoyed by the response thus far, and thrilled to be sharing our uniquely personal, non-illusory theater with a broader audience,” said Artistic Director Kirsten Riiber. “For 31 years, The Neo-Futurists have provided a space for audiences to come together and see their experience reflected to them with honesty; and this is one of those times where staying present with our audiences, who we’ve never been able to do our work without, is vital. We chose the low price point to make our work as inclusive as possible. Accessibility is central to our mission and we know many people are struggling financially right now.”
The Neo-Futurists are the creators of Chicago’s longest-running late night show and normally perform live 50 weeks per year. For The Infinite Wrench Goes Viral, the Neo-Futurist ensemble continues to produce personal, of-the-moment content that speaks to the performers’ lives in isolation and other current events. Recent digital plays span from the humorous to the insightful, and have included topics such as murder hornets, singing from balconies, penguins exploring new environments, socially distanced Olympic training, and early retirement.
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EXPO Chicago, The International Exposition of Contemporary and Modern Art, recently announced that it will present its ninth edition from
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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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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.”