Live at The Book Cellar IN THE FORMER BOOKMAN’S ALLEY SPACE AT 1712 SHERMAN AVE, EVANSTON Amanda Foody Jane Solomon 224.999.7722 “King of Fools” in conversation “The Dictionary of Difficult Words” Our Featured Authors at the with Amelia Brunskill in conversation with Rachel Hinton Fifth Annual Evanston Literary Festival, May 11-19 May 2, 7pm May 16, 7pm Monday, 5/13 6 pm Story Time with Miss Jamie Tallgrass Writers Guild Lorene Cary, author of the bestselling memoir Black Ice, talks about her new book Ladysitting: My Year With Nana at the End of Her Century May 3, 11:30am presents “The Sun is Shining, Spring Has Sprung at Last” Tuesday, 5/14 6 pm Lorraine Devon Wilke May 17, 7pm Northwestern Professor Shalini Shankar discusses Beeline: What Spelling Bees Reveal about Generation Z’s New Path to Success “The Alchemy of Noise” Essay Fiesta! May 3, 7pm Thursday, 5/16 6 pm May 20, 7pm Elizabeth Cobbs, bestselling author of The Hamilton Affair, Kim Dower introduces her new novel The Tubman Command, about how Nancy Doyle “Sunbathing on Tyrone Harriet Tubman led a Union raid to free 750 slaves Power’s Grave” “Manage Your Financial Life: Friday, 5/17 6 pm May 4, 5:30pm Just Starting Out” May 22, 7pm Northwestern Professor Hollis Clayson talks about her book The Kates! Comedy Night Illuminated Paris: Essays on Art and Lighting in the Belle Époque Julie Dobrow May 10 and May 25, 7pm See the Whole ELF Schedule Online at www.evanstonlit.org “After Emily” Tell Me a French Story! May 23, 7pm For more information, visit Storytime WWW.BOOKENDSANDBEGINNINGS.COM Arvin Ahmadi May 11, 10:30am “Girl Gone Viral” Thomas Burke May 30, 7pm “Eastbound into the Cosmos” Tribute to Tony Hoagland May 11, 6pm “The Art of Voice” Local Author Night May 31, 7pm featuring Tammy Letherer and Maureen Muldoon May 15, 7pm Go to our website for event details, book clubs and more! Your Independent Book Store in Lincoln Square! 4736-38 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago 773.293.2665 • bookcellarinc.com Lights, Camera, Action. The Hangar. A prime location for your next event or production. For more info or quotes email [email protected]
LIT TOP 5 perfectly pitched to be read over twenty-four-hour news cycle. summer—but it’s not frothy and, Yet within “Documents,” the debut 1 Juan Felipe Herrera and Young like your last novel, contains collection by local poet Jan-Henry Poet Laureates. Poetry Foundation. An evening of poetry with the United States’ pointed observations about Gray, the plight of the undocumented first Latinx poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, author of “Half of the World in gender, sex, media and workplace gains voice and agency, as poem Light: New and Selected Poems” and sabotage. How do you walk the after poem moves readers through “187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross The Border: Undocuments 1971–2007.” tightrope of seemingly effortless the love, loss and labor of a Opening the reading are young laureates (I know it’s not!) writing with population whose survival, sadly, from Chicago and the United Kingdom: Aisling Fahey, Caleb Femi, Rachel Long, weighty subject matter? Many relies on invisibility and impermanence. Natalie Richardson, Kara Jackson and Patricia Frazier. May 8 edits? Or do you research then As a Filipino-American conscious of 2 Writing in Exile: Jennifer Egan. do a very solid draft? How do his multiple identities and the trove of VenueSIX10 Feinberg Theater. Pulitzer Prize winner and Chicago-born you work? experiences and external forces that writer Jennifer Egan discusses with Aleksandar Hemon what it takes to secure shaped him, Gray uses the unfettered space and freedom to write, as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival thirtieth This might sound crazy, but after I landscape of poetry to release himself anniversary celebration. May 4 breathe a certain amount of life in and others from the limitations that 3 Frank Waln and Tanaya Winder. American Writers Museum. Lakota the characters on the page, they just aggrieve undocumented immigrants. hip-hop artist Frank Waln and author, poet and singer/songwriter Tanaya Winder of take over. I let them lead the way, Gray offers readers an artful bouquet Southern Ute, Pyramid Lake Paiute, Diné and Duckwater Shoshone Nations perform tell their story. I’m not a fan of “info of eye-catching poems grown out of and discuss their writing and storytelling process and healing work. May 9 dumps” and never want a reader to the carefully calibrated yet woefully 4 Esmé Weijun Wang: The Coll- feel my hand behind the words. I like conscripted lives of immigrants. Their ected Schizophrenias. Women and Children First. Esmé Weijun Wang to make the storyline and characters legal status, born out of necessity, reads from and discusses her award- winning collection on mental illness, with feel organic. I want people to get desperation and material lack, has acclaimed essayist Eula Biss. May 17 swept up in the story and hopefully tossed them into a topsy-turvy world 5 Rachel DeWoskin: Someday We Will Fly. Seminary Co-Op Bookstore. along the way, certain messages where legal documentation such as Rachel DeWoskin reads from and discusses her fifth novel “Someday We Will Fly,” with and themes will resonate with them. birth certificates and identification author Rachel Cohen. May 1 cards hold the power to emancipate. 52 As for process, I tend to write in The Pacific Ocean is transformed layers. My first draft is really just me into a repository of loss and gain. telling myself the story. I’ll write twenty “Documents” contains a cycle of or thirty drafts, adding more texture poems about maids that provides an with each layer. I’m also very good unobstruct- at writing myself into 20,000-word ed view into corners that I end up trashing— the daily toil all part of the process. of these women, their What are you working on now? attempts to bond with Right now I’m working on a new fellow imm- novel, “The Social Graces,” which igrants and tells the story of Mrs. Astor and Alva their efforts Vanderbilt vying for control of New to forge a York society during the Gilded Age. path toward I wrote about Chicago’s Gilded Age safety, stabil- in “What the Lady Wants,” and it’s ity and pros- great fun to return to that period. perity for This one comes out in January 2021. their families. The maid becomes Gray’s stark “Park Avenue Summer” by Renée symbol of the undocumented, and Rosen, Berkley, 368 pages, $16 he lavishes these poems with the lion’s share of his poetic riches. Renée Rosen launches “Park Avenue “Documents,” which won the A. Poulin Poetry Prize, presents a new, Summer” at 7pm on April 30 at confident poet endowed with The Book Cellar, 4736-38 North Lincoln, (773)293-2665. Lake Forest abundant skill. His ability to wend his Bookstore hosts an author luncheon way between forms, motifs and images captures the reader’s attention, at 1130am on May 1 at the Deer yet a more focused approach would Path Inn, 255 East Illinois, Lake have made this a more cohesive Forest, and at 630pm at The Book collection. “Documents” is a brilliant Stall, 811 Elm, Winnetka. yet unwieldy collection. Gray’s poems Review are affecting, laying to bear the sorrow and paranoia (well-founded) among Newcity MAY 2019 immigrants who have fallen through Documents the cracks of American bureaucracy The nexus between identity, art and or had good reason to skirt the red tape in a mad dash for survival. Yet the zeitgeist has always roused the Gray makes it clear that borders, public’s passions. In the last few binaries and bureaucracies cannot years, this overlap has animated public discourse and shaped public define or contain the self. (Jarrett Neal) policy, as heartbreaking reports of the inhumane treatment of undocument- “Documents” by Jan-Henry Gray, ed immigrants jolted the nation’s BOA Editions, 96 pages, $17
A RI A N A CHILDISH TWENTY ØNE THE GRANDE GAMBINO P I L T S STROKES TA M E FLUME CHAINTSHMEOKERS J B A LV I N IMPALA KACEY MUSGRAVES • LIL WAYNE • JANELLE MONÁE • MEEK MILL • HOZIER RÜFÜS DU SOL• GARY CLARK JR.• TENACIOUS D• 21 SAVAGE• DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE THE REVIVALISTS • H.E.R. • MAGGIE ROGERS • PERRY FARRELL’S KIND HEAVEN ORCHESTRA ALESSO • GUD VIBRATIONS VS SLUGZ MUSIC • LOUIS THE CHILD • RL GRIME • 6LACK • NF SLASH FEAT. MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS • LIL BABY • GUNNA • KING PRINCESS MADEON • GRYFFIN • SAN HOLO • SNAILS • FITZ AND THE TANTRUMS • JUDAH & THE LION SHECK WES • SMINO • FISHER • LAUREN DAIGLE • ROSALíA • MITSKI • BRING ME THE HORIZON J.I.D • CHEVELLE • FKJ • AJR • LIL SKIES • BOOMBOX CARTEL • MATOMA • DEORRO • MANIC FOCUS WHETHAN • RICH THE KID • SABA • NORMANI • BISHOP BRIGGS • HAYLEY KIYOKO • DENZEL CURRY PARTY FAVOR • LOUD LUXURY • JAPANESE BREAKFAST • LANE 8 • JOJI • LENNON STELLA • SHARON VAN ETTEN FRANCIS AND THE LIGHTS • CHELSEA CUTLER • YAEJI • IDLES • CONAN GRAY • SIGRID • DEAN LEWIS • MASEGO HOBO JOHNSON & THE LOVEMAKERS • HONNE • DIESEL (SHAQUILLE O’NEAL) • BAD SUNS • OMAR APOLLO TIERRA WHACK • JEREMY ZUCKER • (SANDY) ALEX G • CALPURNIA • ALEC BENJAMIN • STILL WOOZY • BOY PABLO CAUTIOUS CLAY • GHOSTEMANE • PINK SWEAT$ • SHALLOU • JADE BIRD • SAID THE SKY • CAMELPHAT • JONAS BLUE CLOZEE • MONDO COZMO • MAGIC CITY HIPPIES • THE BAND CAMINO • EMILY KING • MEN I TRUST • CALBOY YUNG GRAVY • GOTHBOICLIQUE • YBN CORDAE • SVDDEN DEATH • ELEPHANTE • OPIUO • DUCKY (LIVE) FANTASTIC NEGRITO • THE NUDE PARTY • G FLIP • BEA MILLER • HALF•ALIVE • RUSTON KELLY • ROY BLAIR PICTURE THIS • BAYNK • SLOW HOLLOWS • TYLA YAWEH • RYAN BEATTY • KILLY • SLENDERBODIES • WILDERADO CRIZZLY • YULTRON • CRAY • WHIPPED CREAM • MAX FROST • BAYONNE • DREAMERS • HOUSES • SHAED • SAM FENDER GG MAGREE • BORN DIRTY • DIABLO • BEACH BUNNY • ARKELLS • HARRY HUDSON • COUSIN STIZZ • ROLE MODEL NOTHING,NOWHERE. • CHARLESTHEFIRST • SHLUMP • WITT LOWRY • DES ROCS • BÜLOW • MALU TRAVEJO • WIN AND WOO
Music Newcity MAY 2019 Mahalia Jackson The first great concert film is Ben Stern’s “Jazz On a Summer’s LJaekreuMsailcehmigoann Day,” released in 1960—a full eight years before “Monterey Pop.” Chicago’s Birthright Claim To It documents a single day at the Gospel Music Festival 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, and it’s a color-soaked, exuberant, wildly By Robert Rodi high-spirited affair, with a cast of heavyweights that includes Theloni- 54 ous Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Sonny Stitt and Louis Armstrong. But none has the impact of the closer—Chicago’s Mahalia Jackson, introduced as “the world’s greatest gospel singer,” who strides onstage resplendent in white lace, and with minimal accompani- ment gets the crowd on its feet for two roof-raising numbers. In “Walk All Over God’s Heaven,” she growls, purrs and roars while exhorting both the wise (“When we get to heaven gonna put on our robes”) and the wicked (“Everybody talking ’bout heaven ain’t goin’ there”). She follows with the Old Testament-in- spired foot-stomper, “Didn’t It Rain,” which she delivers with duly apoca- lyptic fierceness (“Knock at the window, a knock at the door / Crying, ‘Brother Noah, can’t you take on more?’ / Noah cried, ‘No, you’re full of sin / God got the key and you can’t get in’”). At one point Jackson wanders away from the mic, but her voice continues to barrel out over the assembly, as if to prove she doesn’t need any scrawny electronic crutch to reach whoever’s there to hear her testify. When she’s called back for her encore, a stillness descends so suddenly it seems to have literally dropped from above; then she brings the festival to a close with an exquisitely measured reading of “The Lord’s Prayer.” Stern’s camera passes over the faces of the audience, capturing a collective mood somewhere between raptness and rapture. Jackson was not a jazz singer, but at the time there wasn’t any real incongruity about slotting a gospel singer as the finale to a jazz festival. Mid-century America wasn’t as culturally stratified as our own era (Chuck Berry makes a memorable appearance in the film as well), and it wasn’t unusual for primetime TV shows and the covers of news- weeklies to feature bel canto belters and bebop brahmins. Music was music; period, full stop. These days gospel is a niche genre, which means that—with the occa- sional exception of crossover artists like Sir the Baptist at Lollapalooza— it’s not going to make a significant showing at any festival that’s not exclusively gospel-dedicated. Fortunately for Chicago, the gold standard
in that regard occurs annually on music. (Its chief money-earner was MUSIC TOP 5 our lakefront. This year’s Gospel the phenomenally popular “Just a Music Festival—the thirty-fourth— Closer Walk with Thee.”) 1 Lizzo. Riviera Theatre. With her brings the passion and praise to both exuberant self-empowerment single the Chicago Cultural Center (May 31) Which brings us back to Mahalia “Juice,” the irrepressible singer-rapper- and Millennium Park (May 31, June 1). Jackson—another of the Great flautist positions herself as one of 2019’s At press time, the roster of performers Migration’s gifts to Chicago. She was defining voices. May 3-4 had yet to be announced, but the the first bona fide gospel superstar, festival’s website made a point of performing at Carnegie Hall in 1950 Lizzo establishing our home-field advan- and at President John F. Kennedy’s tage, declaring gospel “the music inaugural ball a decade later. She sang 2 George Clinton. Aragon Ballroom. MAY 2019 Newcity genre born in this city.” at Selma and the March on Washing- After five decades, the Funkmaster ton, and then at Martin Luther King’s General is calling it quits, and his farewell tour That may be an overstatement; but funeral, forging a bond between is all the send-off you could wish for, with only a slight one. Like most musical gospel and the Civil Rights movement P-Funk and other guests on hand. May 31 styles, gospel’s nativity was a matter that is indissoluble to this day. of multiple influences (notably hymns, 3 The Who. Hollywood Casino spirituals, blues and jazz) coalescing She’s still referred to as the Queen Amphitheatre. You’ll tell your into something sui generis. By the of Gospel; and again, there’s a grandchildren you saw them. In fact, if time it reached the ears of Thomas corollary… and again, it’s a native you’re one of the band’s original fans, you’ll A. Dorsey, a Georgia native who son. The Rev. James Cleveland probably tell them the next day. May 21 arrived in Chicago in 1919 as part began singing at Pilgrim Baptist of the Great Migration of southern under Dorsey, though he was more 4 Jamila Woods. Thalia Hall. The African Americans, the music was rootless than his predecessors, commanding Chicago soul diva nearly fully formed. But it was Dorsey leaving Chicago to serve for a time as celebrates her new album, “Legacy! who gave it a name—“gospel songs,” the music director of a Detroit church Legacy!,” a riveting, wide-ranging call- he christened them—and in giving before ultimately landing in Los out to her principal influences and it a name, gave it a destiny. Angeles, where he earned his King antecedents. May 26 of Gospel crown by bringing soul and It was a destiny Dorsey himself largely R&B influences into the genre. For a 5 Robbie Fulks. Evanston History charted, as the composer of what twenty-first-century reader, however, Center. Native son Fulks takes a rare became the earliest songbook of his most immediate legacy might be detour from his own oeuvre to pay tribute gospel standards, which included his mentoring of a pastor’s young to the life and legend of Doc Watson, the “(There’ll Be) Peace In the Valley (for daughter during his stay in Detroit; singer-songwriter who conquered nearly Me)” and “Take My Hand, Precious years later, he reconnected with every American genre. May 19 Lord.” The latter tune in particular the young woman when he produced illustrates the sharp division between her Grammy-winning album— gospel and the blues; Dorsey wrote Aretha Franklin’s “Amazing Grace.” it after his wife Nettie died in childbirth while he was away on a revival If Chicago required any further tour—with the baby dying two days cementing of its status as (in the later. A bluesman would have turned words of gospel music scholar the tragedy into a gut-wrenching Anthony Heilbut) “the Vatican and twelve-bar catharsis; Dorsey instead Mecca” of gospel music, we’ll soon crafted a shimmering musical have it, in the form of the National staircase to carry him beyond grief. Museum of Gospel Music, planned “When the darkness appears and the for the site of the reconstructed night draws near / And the day is past Pilgrim Baptist Church. But, in fact, and gone / At the river I stand / Guide the real mark of our centrality to my feet, hold my hand.” gospel is the festival, which showcas- es the genre’s glittering present— Dorsey co-founded the first gospel which now incorporates a range of choir in Chicago in 1931 at Ebenezer influences from hip-hop to electronica, Baptist Church, which was instru- and a diversity of talent that assures mental in popularizing both his own that gospel’s evolution is ongoing. songs and the wider gospel genre. He remained active on the gospel At that long-ago 1958 Newport choral scene until his death in 1993, festival, Mahalia Jackson told the by which time he was universally adoring audience, “You make me feel known as the Father of Gospel Music. like a star.” Each spring in Chicago, her successors can’t but feel the And he wasn’t a single parent. same; all of them stars, and under Sallie Martin, who began singing a single heaven. with Dorsey in 1929, earned the title Mother of Gospel by the wide-ranging Chicago Gospel Music Festival avenues of her advocacy, which on Friday, May 31, noon–4pm at included not merely performing the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 East music, but persuading Dorsey to Washington; and on Friday, May 31, publish and market his songs 5:30–9:30pm and Saturday, June 1, nationwide. She also founded a 11am–9:30pm at Millennium Park, publishing house of her own, exclu- 201 East Randolph. The full festival sively dedicated to gospel sheet schedule is forthcoming. 55
Stage Newcity MAY 2019Spring/ Summer Writer and actor Sandra Delgado, creator of her hitTheater production “La Havana Madrid,” returns thisPreview summer in a collaboration between Teatro Vista2019 EDITION and Collaboraction/Photo: Joel Maisonet By Kevin Green When it comes to theater, Killed A Man (Joking) Single Black Female Wolves: A Predatory the spring and summer (First Floor Theater in Fairy Tale months in Chicago are collaboration with The Sound) (Congo Square Theatre Company) A pitch-black comedy about A two-woman show that (Exit 63 Theatre) underrated. The dedicated violence, justice, and what it really explores the lives of African A “deconstruction” of the Little find ways to creatively fold means to be a ride-or-die friend. American middle-class women Red Riding Hood story as a darkly their theatrical inclinations April 30-May 8 as they search for love, clothes comic, predatory fairytale for into warm-weather activities: and dignity in a world that fails adults that explores the conflation International Voices Project to recognize them amid a parade of sex and fear in modern culture, outdoor performances, (Instituto Cervantes) of stereotypical images. the comfort of lava lamps, and site-specific work and so on. The annual festival celebrates May 6-19 the dangers of a handy axe. the voices of international May 16-June 2 Still, for an art form that playwrights, with eight premiere Killing Game turns on a semester-like concert-style readings. The Adventures dyad—split between the thrill May 2-June 4 (A Red Orchid Theatre) of Augie March of the fall and the commit- Ionesco’s piercing and frighten- ment of the winter—it’s Parched: Stories of Water, ingly funny look at how the (Court Theatre) possible to overlook what Pollution, and Theft function of language and the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright can, and frequently does, (Free Street Theater) panic surrounding social crisis David Auburn adapts Saul Bellow’s amount to some of the best The youth at Free Street sends a community into a classic novel on the life and times work of the season, as expose injustices while reflecting chaotic state of paranoia, of perhaps the most memorable evidenced by this selection on the beauty, power, and hypocrisy and opportunism. of fictional Chicagoans. of openings and events. privilege of water. May 11-June 23 May 18-June 9 From genre-bending world May 6-25 premieres to adaptations of ETHIOPIANAMERICA Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein classic novels, the interna- Mad Beat Hip & Gone tional connoisseur, humble (Promethean Theatre Ensemble) (Definition Theatre Company) (Lookingglass Theatre Company) local, and, most crucially, Midwest premiere from Steven In a tense and sharply-drawn Resurrected for the bicentennial everyone in between will find Dietz considers fifties America, family drama, playwright Sam of its publication, the Year of something to delight their when magnificent poets roamed Kebede mines the immigrant “Frankenstein” will be officially open highways, accompanied by experience and asks how far retired with an adaptation by sun-dappled senses. jukebox jazz. each of us will go to find a “Lookingglass Alice” creator May 4-June 1 place we can call home. David Catlin. So go see a show May 14-June 9 May 19-August 4 before hitting that new The Secret of the rooftop bar or between sets Biological Clock Six Pivot Arts Festival at Lolla. It may be the best (Eclectic Full Contact Theatre) A ten-day celebration of thing you do all year. Join a former teen detective (Chicago Shakespeare Theater) contemporary performance returning home to deal with Divorced, beheaded, died, in dance, theater, music and Editor’s note: questions of family, motherhood, divorced, beheaded, survived: the genre-defying works. and being a child prodigy at forty. ex-wives of Henry VIII join forces May 31-June 9 all events listed are subject May 4-June 2 for an electrifying pop-concert spectacle and an exuberant Fighting Words Festival to change. Please check celebration of twenty-first- (Babes With Blades century female empowerment. Theatre Company) each company’s website for May 14-June 30 details and confirmation. 56
The second iteration of this from celebrities and iconic eighties all-female STAGE TOP 5 festival showcases three public officials into the rock band The Go-Go’s. new works that place story of anonymous July 6-August 25 1 Too Heavy for Your Pocket. women at the center of the activists and punk-rock TimeLine Theatre Company. With story as well as the action. icons Pussy Riot. Staging the the opportunity to become a Freedom Stans Festival Rider, a young man leaves his June 1 & 2 June 7-July 6 obligations as a husband and friend (Silk Road Rising) behind to join the fight against racism Desire in a Grace, or the Art A festival of staged in the Deep South. Opens May 1 Tinier House of Climbing readings by playwrights from the “Stans”: (Pride Films and Plays) (Brown Paper Box Co.) the nation-states, and 2 The Undeniable Sound of Local playwright Ryan This Midwest premiere former Soviet Republics, Right Now. Raven Theatre. Oliveira’s new play and Kilroys List honorable of Kazakhstan and The proprietor of a legendary Chicago explores the challenges mention charts the Uzbekistan, and the rock club must battle the rising tide of of maintaining loving journey of a young woman Autonomous Republic The Next Big Thing as it threatens to gay relationships amid suspended between of Tartarstan in Russia. destroy his legacy and fracture his societal forces that love and loss, strength July 12-15 family in this local premiere by Laura attack such relationships. and fear, fathers and Eason. Opens May 6 daughters, and the ardor Wolf Play June 3-29 and grace of being human. (The Gift Theatre) Ms. Blakk June 9-July 8 Hansol Jung’s messy, 3 La Havana Madrid. Teatro for President funny and disturbing Vista & Collaboraction. Back The Ballad of theatrical experience by popular demand, Teatro Vista and (Steppenwolf Lefty & Crabbe grapples with a wolf, a Collaboraction ensemble member puppet and a very prickly Sandra Delgado’s immersive docu- Theatre Company) (Underscore Theatre problem of what a family is. mentary theater experience (complete Inspired by the true story Company) July 15-August 18 with live music) tells the true story of of America’s first black Set at the death of the 1960s Chicago nightclub of the drag queen presidential vaudeville and the rise Pomona same name. Opens May 17 candidate, this new play of Hollywood, this new from Tarell Alvin McCraney musical tracks the (Steep Theatre) and Tina Landau takes journey of an ultra- Part thriller, part fantastical us into the heart and sharp but down-on- puzzle, Alistair McDowall’s mind of one of Chicago’s their-luck comedy duo play twists and turns its most radical and as they navigate the way into the dark heart influential citizens. rapidly changing world of a world built on pain June 3-July 14 of entertainment. and suffering to ask the question: Is it even possible Columbinus June 11-July 14 to be good anymore? July 18-August 24 (Random Acts Chicago) Something Clean 4 Life on Paper. Jackalope This docu-theater Kiss Theatre. A brilliant mathema- masterpiece weaves (Rivendell Theatre tician’s knack for devaluing lives has together excerpts from (Haven Theatre) made him the darling of the insurance discussions with parents, Ensemble & Sideshow Monty Cole directs and companies, but what will he do when survivors and community performs in a bold theatrical the wrongful death of a billionaire leaders in Littleton, Theatre Company) experience that asks, “If philanthropist crosses his desk and Colorado, as well as Inspired by today’s art is a tool for empathy, the future of a small town hangs in the diaries and home video headlines, playwright what are the limits?” balance? Opens May 21 footage to shed light on Selina Fillinger’s July 23-August 11 the dark recesses of breathtaking new drama American adolescence. follows one woman’s Ignition Festival struggle to make sense of June 5-14 her own grief, intimacy, (Victory Gardens Theater) culpability and consent. A national annual festival June 16-July 21 devoted to fostering a community of support Sweet Texas Ada and the Engine for the development Reckoning of outstanding new plays while nurturing (Artemisia Theatre) (The Artistic Home) relationships with 5 Queen of the Mist. Firebrand Ellie, a lonely, bigoted A music-laced story of emerging and estab- Theatre. A new musical based alcoholic, is eager to wed love, friendship, and lished playwrights. on the astounding and outrageous true her daughter Kate off to the edgiest dreams of August 2-4 story of Anna (Annie) Edson Taylor, who, Alan John, Kate’s the future. Jane Austen in 1901, set out to be the first person childhood sweetheart. meets Steve Jobs in Into the Woods to go over the Niagara Falls in a barrel Imagine Ellie’s surprise this poignant pre-tech of her own design. Opens May 28 when Kate visits with her romance heralding (Writers Theatre) beautiful, African-American the computer age. With its celebrated score, wife, Samantha. stirring script and an June 23-August 4 extraordinary team of artists bringing it all to June 7-30 Head Over Heels life, Sondheim’s musical MAY 2019 Newcity launches Writers Theatre’s We Are Pussy Riot (or) (Kokandy Productions) 2019-20 season. Everything is P.R. From the visionaries that August 21-September 22 rocked Broadway with (Red Tape Theatre) “Hedwig and the Angry An anarchic play from Inch,” “Avenue Q” and Barbara Hammond “Spring Awakening,” this weaves trial transcripts, laugh-out-loud love story letters, interviews, media is set to the music of coverage and statements 57
Newcity MAY 2019 Life is BeautifulBy David Alvarado 58
Logan Center Family Saturday: Fotographic Families Sat, May 4 2- 4:30pm FREE Say “cheese!” Photography is the universal language of this generation. Join us for Family Saturday as we celebrate important photographers and learn how to capture the essence of your family members to savor the moments that matter. arts.uchicago.edu/familysaturdays Logan Center Appropriate for families with 773.702.ARTS for the Arts children ages 2-12. Registration is 915 E 60th St encouraged. Free parking in lot at LoganCenterCommunityArts 60th and Drexel.
MAY 5-2 THU–SAT, 7:30PM AND SUN, 2 PM 5-9 THU–SAT, 7:30PM AND SUN, 2 PM Adrienne Truscott, THIS. Photo courtesy of the artist. 5-3 Performance: Adrienne Truscott, THIS 5-10 Performance: Manuela Infante, 5-4 5-11 Estado Vegetal MCACHICAGO.ORG/LOOK 5-5 5-12 #MCAMadeYouLook Free for youth 18 and under Truth and fiction collide in 5-11 SAT, 11 AM–3 PM Open until 9 PM Tuesdays and Fridays Adrienne Truscott’s new perfor- Family Day: Sugar Rush manceTHIS. Part narrative and Last Family Day of the season! Museum of part autobiography, Truscott Contemporary Art bends genre in a piece that is both 5-12 SUN, 10 AM–2:30 PM Chicago truly original and all too familiar. Marisol Mother’s Day Brunch includes admission to the MCA. Make reservations at marisolchicago.com.
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