CHICAGO’S FREE WEEKLY SINCE | MARCH
Spring Theater and Dance Issue The homegrown Chicago-style circus Max Maller 16 Puppet renaissance man Dan Jakes 18 Links Hall celebrates 40 years Irene Hsiao 26 The weirdos and visionaries of Prop Thtr KT Hawbaker 28 2 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll CHICAGO READER | MARCH | VOLUME NUMBER THIS WEEK
NOTE FROM AN EDITOR T R - IT WOULD HAVE been easy to begin this letter and Links Hall, which has nurtured the dance in Chicago takes place not under a big top, but @ by writing “Chicago is a theater town,” but community for 40 years. They met Lily Be, who in industrial lofts and deconsecrated churches. also stupid because everybody knows that, has turned her life into a series of hilarious All this and reviews of 10 new plays, includ- P even people who don’t live here: Steppen- stories, and Blair Thomas, creator of ingenious ing the fi rst production of a new company and T B wolf, Second City, City Hall, blah blah blah. puppets and architect of glorious spectacles. the last production of an old company! Never I E C We respect you, dear readers, and so we’re They went back in time to 1933 to revisit the think that we don’t love you. S K K H D E K S not going to insult you by fi lling this special dance partnership of Ruth Page and Katherine There’s plenty of other drama in this issue, C L SK Spring Theater and Dance Issue with stu you Dunham, and to 1992 because for some reason starting with the history of local LGBTQ poli- D P J R C E AL already know about and have probably seen. playwrights find it a fascinating backdrop tics and continuing with some dramatic ques- M E P M Instead, we asked our writers and one for drama. They looked ahead to some of the tions: What does the city treasurer do exactly? A E J L S W D I photographer to go out and learn more about spring’s most exciting new productions and an Who is C.H.E.W.? Is Us a worthy follow-up BJ MS places and performers that fascinated them. open mike for women of color. They went in- to Get Out? Will Chicagoans finally learn to S W M D L G G D D C They went behind the scenes at Prop Thtr, side theaters to see what they look like when no appreciate the Coney Island hot dog? Read on S M E B W the Avondale hub for experimental theater, one is there. And they went to the circus, which and fi nd out. —A L M L C S C -J F L C P F T A E C S C N B D C D C L C N LC IN THIS ISSUE C C M DL C S F I G A G KTH JH J H 36 Review Ntozake Shange’s I H D J M K S choreopoem for colored girls K M M B M JRN M O L O Y remains a stunner P L P K S K R 36 Plays of note ShawChicago BS D S A W goes out with The Doctor’s ------Dilemma Landladies explores the D D JD D P E &P power dynamic between renters K K and owners and Sweat shows how O M SN L SPRING THEATER Trump’s America came to be ADVERTISING 39 Coming Attractions Lottery -- - @ CITY LIFE & DANCE Day Cambodian Rock Band Next 52 Secret History of Chicago C @ 04 Public Service 14 Comic Return to cosplay a to Normal and more Music Blues royalty and Muddy S M P F Announcement Free ways to dispatch from C E 41 Comedy Lemonade Stand makes Waters bassist Calvin “Fuzz” Jones V P S work your body and stretch out 16 Circus Step right up to the a safe space for women of color to 55 Early Warnings Duff McKagan A M magical the thrilling the Chicago be funny Dawn Ray’d Chai Tulani and more S A R J L NEWS & POLITICS style circus! justannounced concerts A R 05 Joravsky | Politics 18 Puppets Blair Thomas wants to 55 Gossip Wolf Tara Terra front LM -H Progressives? Lori and Toni haven’t make Chicago the center of a new woman Emily Blue drops a solo C R M TP been on the front lines of protest world of puppetry synthpop EP and more N A 07 Dukmasova | Politics What 21 Dance What did as ballet V M G --- the hell does the city treasurer say about interracial mixing and CLASSIFIEDS JL SB even do? cultural appropriation in modernist 57 Jobs 10 Politics A timeline of winning Chicago? 57 Apartments & Spaces ------LGBTQ candidates in the Chicago 26 Dance Links Hall celebrates 57 Marketplace D C [email protected] area years of being whatever the -- Chicago dance community needs OPINION STM READER LLC it to be FILM 56 Savage Love Dan Savage off ers B P D RL 28 Theater Prop Thtr’s gang of 42 Review We have met the enemy advice on sad boys and vaginal T E R misfi ts weirdos and visionaries and they are Us design S J S A- S V enters the spotlight 43 Movies of note The Bra is a 30 Live Lit How Lily Be made the refreshing dialoguefree comedy COMICS C C EB local storytelling scene look more Emma Peeters bursts at the seams 58 Serials Indie stars John ------like Chicago with witty humor and hope and Porcellino Melissa Mendes and R ISSN- 31 Preview Three plays bring Starfi sh is a solitary story of survival Mike Centeno return STMR LLC SM SC IL defi ance and derringdo to -- Chicago stages this spring MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE 32 Theater Jackalope and Raven 46 Galil | Feature C H E W take a C ©C R P C IL FOOD & DRINK take audiences back to bite out of hardcore O P M A C R R 12 Restaurant Review Lola’s Coney 33 Photos The ghost light a single 50 Shows of note Little Big City S F S ’ RR T ® Island stands for Detroit bulb in an empty theater is for Girls Mott the Hoople and more safetyand superstition shows this week ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 3 S C D N W C C Y T C curvychickyoga.com southchicagodancetheatre. nothingwithoutacompany.org CITY LIFE com
PUBLIC SERVICE South Chicago Dance Theatre has been ANNOUNCEMENT offering free community workshops on first Fridays. The next workshop concentrates on If you like to work it, modern dance techniques. You can join them Friday, April 5, from 6-7:30 PM at the Dorches- work it ter Arts + Housing Collaborative, 1456 E. 70th How to stretch out and fi nd Street. All ages welcome. your inner Aunt Viv right now. Participants can take in the wonderful vista of Lake Michigan during free yoga at Berg- er Park in Edgewater. Classes are coordinat- ed by Nothing Without a Company, a local CHICAGO RESIDENTS AND visitors who performance organization. All levels (with or like to “work it work it” show up in droves to without yoga mats) are welcome at these out- the justifiably popular, city-sponsored Sum- door (weather permitting) classes. Meet up merdance series in Grant Park. Live bands every Saturday at 10:30 AM outside of the and DJs, and a fi rst hour of dance instruction, Berger Park Cultural Center, 6205 N. Sheri- make for a lively and free night out in down- dan Road. Homiey, a coworking space at 3455 town. Unfortunately, Summerdance doesn’t W. North Ave. in Humboldt Park, also offers kick off this year until June 27. But there are a monthly free yoga class taught by Angel- some other free ways to work your body, ica of Curvy Chick Yoga. Let’s get physical stretch out, and discover your inner Aunt Viv now so we can show off our moves in June. before June. —S C -J Angelica K. Lewis, owner of Curvy Chick Yoga, leads class. JINDUELUEZE
Chicago Reader & Lumpen Radio — Election Party
Live Marz election Community coverage Brewing by Co the Reader’s 3630 Ben S Joravsky Iron & St Maya Dukmasova & special guests
all-vinyl jams by DJ Sadie Woods Tuesday April 2 / 6:00–9:00pm — Free
4 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll ENGAGEMENT RINGS WEDDING BANDS NEWS & POLITICS
ENGAGEMENT RINGS WEDDING BANDS
ENGAGEMENT RINGS WEDDING BANDS
Lori Lightfoot DOUGMCGOLDRICK Toni Preckwinkle ERIKDAVIS IS ISIS POLITICS Missing in action It’s hard to call Lori or Toni a progressive because they were not on the front lines of protest during the Rahm years. By BJ
or the past few days, I’ve been bar- that a lot of progressives feel compelled to raged with calls and e-mails from make good on the endorsement gamble they friends of the progressive persua- probably should have thought twice about sion, extolling the virtues of Lori making in the fi rst place. Lightfoot or Toni Preckwinkle. I get all that. FAnd if positive arguments don’t work, they But as for one candidate clearly being more fall back on bashing the opposition. “progressive” than the other? That’s a di er- It’s as though the great Harold Washington ent story. had magically reappeared in the person they With Preckwinkle you have a pragmatic and support or their opponent had been taken cautious Democratic Party chieftain who rose over by one of those sewer-dwelling, scissor- to the top by cutting deals with the Daleys and wielding creatures in Jordan Peele’s Us. Burke and Berrios. Donald Strzepek Great fl ick, by the way—run, don’t walk, to And in Lightfoot we have a classic Dem— Proprietor, community member see it. sort of like Chicago’s own Hillary Clinton. A Look, I understand we’ve entered the fren- corporate lawyer from a downtown fi rm who JEWELRYDonald FOR ALL Strzepek OCCASIONS zied fi nal moments of a campaign, where folks makes a killing representing the 1 percent. 5 S. Wabash, ste 507 Proprietor, community member 312.263.3315 are losing their collective minds with the urge I’m not saying there’s anything intrinsically Chicago, IL 60603 [email protected] to glorify the home team and demonize the op- wrong with either type. Hell, I’ve voted for JEWELRY FOR ALL OCCASIONS position. And I know that if you can’t convince candidates similar to Lori and Toni many 5 S. Wabash, ste 507 312.263.3315 the voters of your candidate’s virtues, the next times over the years. It’s a big world out there, Chicago, IL 60603 [email protected] best thing is to scare them with a distorted people. Not everyone’s like me. caricature of your opponent. And I also know So you got to learn to get along with all J ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 5 Donald Strzepek Proprietor, community member JEWELRY FOR ALL OCCASIONS 5 S. Wabash, ste 507 312.263.3315 Chicago, IL 60603 [email protected] NEWS & POLITICS continued from 5 self to endorse Chuy Garcia, one of her closest I must note that since round one of the elec- Board president to rally opposition when kinds of di erent people. allies on the board. tions, some of Rahm’s backers have donated the matter recently came before the Joint I must admit that in the past, when forced to And Lori? She was on Team Rahm back to Lightfoot’s campaign. Not sure what that Review Board. Instead, the county’s repre- choose, I’ve been known to favor the Machine then—the Chuy race was right before she means in regard to how a Mayor Lightfoot sentative didn’t show up to the Joint Review creature. After all, I’m the guy who proudly became Rahm’s Police Board appointee. She would slice that old economic-development Board meeting when Lincoln Yards was cast my vote for the guy in a coma—John wouldn’t have touched that election front line pie, but it’s not exactly reassuring. approved. Stroger—over Forrest Claypool in 2006. There with a ten-foot pole. As for Preckwinkle, she’s hardly Eugene There’s still one last hurdle Lincoln Yards are some north-siders who will never forgive For me, the fundamental issue over the last Debs, people. Since taking over as president must clear before we’re on the hook for shov- me for that transgression. 20 years has been how to slice up the pie. of the County Board, she’s never stood up to eling $1.3 billion in property tax dollars over But, please, don’t try to tell me that Light- In the Rahm years, the biggest slices went to a TIF deal, even though they divert property to Sterling Bay, the developer of the project. In foot or Preckwinkle is a champion of progres- the folks who needed it least, as Mayor Rahm taxes from the county. April, the lame duck City Council, under a lame sivity. Man, I can’t think of one showdown resorted to more regressive forms of taxation As the Fourth Ward alderman back in 2007, duck mayor, will vote on whether to create the issue of the Rahm era in which either candi- while dishing out more economic develop- she was one of the biggest flag-wavers for actual Tax Increment Financing district that date stood on the front lines. ment dollars to relatively wealthy gentrifying Mayor Daley’s Olympic boondoggle, including will fund Lincoln Yards. And there were a lot of front lines that could communities. spending $91 million for Michael Reese Hos- Here’s hoping that whoever wins—either have used some high-profi le standing in on. There’s no strong indication that either pital. The city was going to build the Olympic Mayor-elect Lightfoot or Preckwinkle—shows Mental health clinic closings? Nope. Teach- candidate will break from the Rahm/Daley Village there—now, it’s a big chunk of vacant up to strongly urge aldermen to defer the mat- ers’ strike? Nada. School closings? Unh-uh. positions of using property taxes to fuel gen- land. ter until she at least has a chance to study the Marriott/DePaul basketball arena in the south trification and starve our city of the money In recent years Preckwinkle backed Mayor deal. After all, that $1.3 billion is money our loop? Don’t make me laugh. Demanding that it needs for everything from mental health Rahm and former Governor Rauner in their next mayor won’t be able to spend on progres- Rahm release the Laquan McDonald video? clinics to schools. e ort to woo Amazon—which would have cost sive things the city really needs. Yeah, right. Lightfoot says all the right things about at least $2.2 billion. It’s not too late for Lori or Toni to finally The mayoral election of 2015? Man, not only reforming the TIF program. But I can’t say Only lately has she started speaking up take their place on the front lines. v wouldn’t Toni run—even though progressives for certain that she’d back up her talk, as she’s against the Lincoln Yards deal. And even begged her—but she couldn’t even bring her- never served in o¦ ce. She has no track record. then, she didn’t use her position as County @bennyjshow
6 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll NEWS & POLITICS
the elected head who’ll make minute decisions from private investors to offer low-interest but rather the experts (hopefully) they hire— business loans in struggling communities. The that’s what Belsky’s joke is getting at. fund, however, has yet to make a single loan; Still, Belsky says there’s a benefit to the its slow birth could be due to political tension city when the treasurer takes a more public between Mayor Rahm Emanuel (who’s sup- role, even if it’s mostly symbolic. “It’s a city- posed to appoint the board that would manage wide elected o¦ cial and the job is fi nancial in the fund) and Summers. Progressive critics nature,” he says. “It certainly is a value to tax- like 35th Ward alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa payers to have someone who is willing to sug- and 32nd Ward alderman Scott Waguespack gest ideas, engage in the debate on the city’s have also been skeptical of the idea because, fi nances. It’s really up to the person who’s in they’ve said, no mechanisms were put in place the o¦ ce: They could just simply sit there and to actually guarantee investments in under- follow the statutes and go to pension fund served areas and prevent confl icts of interest meetings and vote. Or they could come up between appointed fund managers, their po- with creative ways to use the city’s dollars to litical backers, and loan recipients. promote economic development, promote The skepticism may be warranted, since Melissa Conyears-Ervin ANTONIODICKEY Ameya Pawar DOUGMCGOLDRICK fi nancial literacy.” the treasurer’s o¦ ce has for many years been In recent years, current treasurer Kurt a site of political wrangling and politicized Summers has embraced this way of leading decision-making. The current election is the POLITICS the o¦ ce. The city treasurer has undertaken first time since 1999 that the city has had a various personal finance education efforts contested race for treasurer. And it’s the fi rst and promotes resources for small business time in decades that voters can choose be- More money no problems development. Summers also developed the tween two new candidates, neither of whom idea of a “Catalyst Fund,” which would use are already a mayoral appointee to the o¦ ce. For the fi rst time in decades, Chicago has a say in who its treasurer $100 million in city funds generated through Between 1979 and 1989 the o¦ ce was held by will be. But what the hell does the treasurer even do? investment returns and matching dollars Cecil Partee. Upon the election of Mayor J By M D
here’s a joke among municipal block grants and other appropriations). The government nerds that goes some- treasurer makes sure there’s money behind thing like this: A guy’s running for the checks the city cuts to pay salaries, work- treasurer and he goes to lunch with ers’ comp, or legal settlements. The treasurer is honored to welcome a bunch of business people who ask also makes sure city money doesn’t sit idle Valerie Jarrett, Thim all sorts of questions about how he’ll in- while not in the process of being paid out. This the longest-serving Senior vest pension funds and manage the city’s cash requires managing relationships with “munic- Adviser to Barack Obama, fl ow. He says, “Wait a minute, I’m running for ipal depositories”—the 17 private banks where for an intimate conversation treasurer, not deputy treasurer!” municipal funds are kept—and overseeing This was recently relayed to me with a investments so that cash can generate returns. devoted to her new memoir, chuckle by Michael Belsky, executive director Finally, the treasurer sits on the boards of the Finding My Voice: of the Center for Municipal Finance at the four city worker pension funds—for police University of Chicago. He’s a local government o¦ cers, fi refi ghters, laborers, and municipal My Journey to the expert who’s pleased to see the city treasurer’s office workers. While on those boards, the office in an unusual spotlight this election treasurer can infl uence investment decisions West Wing and the cycle. The April 2 runo is between 47th Ward and help negotiate the fees fi nancial institu- alderman Ameya Pawar and 10th District State tions charge to manage the tens of billions of Path Forward Rep Melissa Conyears-Ervin; their campaigns dollars pooled between the pension funds. have brought the role of the treasurer out of Compared to other municipal government This event will include a reading decades-long electoral obscurity. executives, the treasurer’s o¦ ce has relatively and moderated conversation So what does the treasurer do? In Chicago, little power. Historically this o¦ ce hasn’t been with Susan Sher, followed by FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 7 PM this is one of three elected executives, along a bastion for patronage, since there are fewer a book signing. Each ticket Event takes place at with the mayor and city clerk (but is the low- than 40 employees and their jobs require some includes a copy of the book! Everybody’s Coffee - Wilson Abbey, est paid of the three, with a salary of about fi nancial expertise. The treasurer’s discretion 935 W. Wilson Ave. $134,000). The treasurer’s job is to manage about investments is narrowly circumscribed the city’s roughly $8 billion cash fl ow (which by state and city laws governing how taxpay- Tickets at includes revenue from property and sales er dollars can be used to generate revenue. https://valeriejarrett. taxes, fees like city tickets, and transfers from Investments have to be safe and adhere to a brownpapertickets.com/ the state and federal governments through slew of other proscriptions. Plus, it’s not really ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 7 NEWS & POLITICS continued from 7 Now that the voters finally get to choose, I’m going to work on is to bring in the CEOs of PAC had given to other candidates over the Richard M. Daley, Partee was appointed to Conyears-Ervin and Pawar are trying to con- financial institutions and we’re gonna make last six months but wouldn’t say which ones, replace him as Cook County State’s Attorney. vince them it’s a choice worth considering certain that we speak to them and I expect and the state has no records of donations to Daley’s handpicked replacement, Miriam seriously. a plan for the unbanked and underbanked anyone but Conyears-Ervin. Santos, was the fi rst Latinx politician to hold a population.” Many have attributed Conyears-Ervin’s citywide elected o¦ ce in Chicago. onyears-Ervin, who has a bachelor’s de- The state rep wants credit unions to be political rise to her marriage. She says it’s fair Santos, too, was the treasurer for a decade, gree and an MBA in fi nance, is a relative included as municipal depositories. “Credit to ask about her relationship with Ervin, but continuing to win elections even after her rela- Cnewcomer to politics. She was fi rst elect- unions are more inclined to provide capital denied it’s the reason for her success. She also tionship with Daley soured when she sounded ed to represent the 10th State House district and fi nancing in underserved communities,” hinted that there’s something sexist about the the alarm on the city’s mismanagement of pen- on the west side in 2016, after more than a she noted. “A couple of million dollars to a scrutiny. “I do believe there’s some questions sion funds in the early 1990s. Indeed, she even decade of working for Allstate. credit union [would] help provide capital and asked of me that’s not asked of the male can- won reelection while under federal indictment In her time as a legislator she’s sponsored fi nancing to residents” for starting businesses didate in the race,” she said, bringing up the for mail fraud and attempted extortion in 1999. more than a dozen social welfare bills, in- or buying homes. She’s also proposing to move fact that Pawar’s wife, Charna Epstein, used to A few months later, she was convicted and was cluding a reduction of state sales taxes on the City Council’s O¦ ce of Financial Analysis work as his chief of sta . forced to resign. Daley appointed a short-lived condoms, diapers, and baby wipes; bolstering under the auspices of the treasurer to be a On the way to a campaign appearance with replacement, Barbara Lumpkin—short-lived teachers’ collective bargaining rights; and fi nancial watchdog over Chicago’s legislators, the striking Chicago Symphony Orchestra because Santos’s conviction was overturned, expanding food stamp access for the elderly, and to create new auditing powers for the musicians last week, Pawar took o ense to the which allowed her to leave prison after four homeless, and people with disabilities. She’s treasurer to analyze city and CPS fi nances. insinuation that there was something improp- months and reclaim her elected position with also introduced a bill creating a new crime Conyears-Ervin’s biggest donors are labor er about Epstein’s work with his office. “We back pay. She had to re-resign six months later called “streetgang member loitering” which, if unions and their associated PACs as well as went to grad school together, wrote a book after pleading guilty to a single count of mail passed, could disproportionately criminalize political committees tied to her husband, 28th together, we’ve worked together . . . she’s my fraud rather than face retrial. Santos got time black and brown youth. (A similar city law was Ward alderman Jason Ervin, and other west best friend,” Pawar said, claiming that their served and retired from public life. struck down by the state Supreme Court as side elected officials. Among those who’ve romantic relationship developed after she left “The mayor has wanted to control who the unconstitutional in the 90s.) given heavily to her campaign co ers (which the job in the early months of 2014. (The two treasurer is because the treasurer has access After an uncontested reelection last Novem- now tally more than $920,000) is Leaders for were married in December of that year.) The to financial information that could be em- ber, Conyears-Ervin, 43, has been propelled in Tomorrow, which is an unregistered PAC led alderman also expressed disappointment that barrassing to the mayor,” says University of the treasurer’s race by politicians including by Cornelius Griggs, the president of GMA his opponent has repeatedly emphasized that Illinois at Chicago political science professor Dorothy Brown, Willie Wilson, and all of the Construction Group. GMA is one of the AECOM she’s the only candidate born and raised in and former 44th Ward alderman Dick Simp- area’s black U.S. representatives, and a slew subcontractors that was awarded the contract Chicago, saying that such statements are part son, referencing the feuds between Daley and of labor groups including the rare combi- for the controversial new police and fi re train- of a “coded language” that’s “playing on the Santos. “The treasurer’s o¦ ce is rather limit- nation of the Chicago Teachers Union and ing academy in Conyears-Ervin’s district. existing black and brown divide.” ed but it also has the potential to either help Fraternal Order of Police. She’s campaigned Though unregistered PACs can be fi ned by “I was born and raised in Rogers Park,” he promote the kind of policies that the mayor on her educational background in fi nance, her the State Board of Elections, accepting money added. “We moved to the suburbs because wants or [the treasurer can] go out on their understanding of the needs and challenges of from them doesn’t constitute a violation for a no one would sell my parents a house at the own.” Chicago’s black neighborhoods, and her plans candidate. A spokesman said that the Board time.” Pawar’s parents are immigrants from Daley’s next pick for the job was trusted ally to pressure the banks where the city parks its is working with the group to “straighten out” India. After graduating from Maine East High Judith Rice, who sailed through an uncontest- money—such as JP Morgan Chase and Bank of the registration issue. Griggs said he wasn’t School in Park Ridge, Pawar attended college ed election in 2003 and unexpectedly resigned America—to eradicate banking deserts. aware that the PAC was unregistered and that in Missouri but came back for three master’s in 2006. After that, Daley appointed Stephanie “It’s important that we leverage the o¦ ce Leaders for Tomorrow consists of dozens of degrees at IIT and the University of Chicago. Neely, who left the job for the private sector of city treasurer to help working families,” “individuals under 40” looking to back pro- “I’ve served this city for the last ten years, in 2014. Emanuel picked Summers as her Conyears-Ervin said on the phone from gressive candidates supporting minority- and but even if I wasn’t born here what di erence successor. Springfi eld last week. “One of the fi rst things women-owned small businesses. He added the would that make? Why does that matter?”
8 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll NEWS & POLITICS
Thirty-eight-year-old Pawar, who was loans and affordable housing.” He also cited fi rst elected in 2011 and is abiding by a self- endorsements from U.S. Representatives imposed two-term limit, is proposing changes Jan Schakowsky, Mike Quigley, and Jesus to state and local laws that would allow the “Chuy” Garcia, both the Tribune and Sun- creation of a public bank. He discounts the Times, United Working Families, and several notion that private banks can be convinced progressive-leaning aldermen. or regulated into serving neglected commu- Asked what he’d do as treasurer based on nities. “People have been trying to bank the the powers and capacities the o¦ ce currently unbanked by putting pressure on the banks has, Pawar promised to disinvest city money for two decades—there hasn’t been a major from fossil fuels and move “immediately” to change in how those banks behave,” he says. publish a report on how much the city pays in Indeed, the federal Community Reinvestment fees to the private banks that hold and man- Act, which was passed in 1977 to force private age its money. He said he’d push the pension banks to remedy the effects of racist redlin- fund boards to do the same, so that taxpayers ing policies and discriminatory lending, has know how much large financial institutions fallen short on many fronts. “We’re one of the profit off managing taxpayers’ dollars. “One biggest actors in the market, we can take our thing that often doesn’t get talked about is a money and investment power and launch our lot of these investment vehicles charge you own vehicle to invest in each other,” Pawar 1 percent a year in fees—that’s 1 percent of said of the city’s purse. principal whether you’re up or down. Over ten In Pawar’s vision a Chicago public bank, years that’s compounded.” He favors a Warren capitalized by investment returns as well Bu et-style investment approach that would as money from the pension funds and state put city money behind index funds (like the deposits, would refi nance student loans, lend kinds most people’s retirement accounts are to small businesses, and finance affordable pegged to), which deliver steady long-term housing development and infrastructure returns. projects. Currently, only North Dakota has a Whatever the outcome of this election, the public bank, which doesn’t lend directly to chances that the city treasurer will revolu- consumers and businesses. But there’s a grow- tionize anything about anything are slim. The ing movement across the country to establish person holding that o¦ ce can be an advocate public banks, which were relatively common for bold new ideas, and help push other exec- at the state level in the 19th century. utives and legislators in a progressive direc- Pawar’s critics say a public bank would put tion. Or they can do none of that and still be taxpayers’ money at too great of a risk. Some e ective in their duties. write the idea o as a fl ashy, progressive pro- The bottom line, Belsky said, is that the posal and are skeptical of Pawar’s ability to treasurer’s o¦ ce “has to have a high level of follow through. He’s backed many pro-labor integrity and honesty because this is an o¦ ce measures in City Council and was the chief where you are handling taxpayers’ dollars sponsor of the ordinance that created an Of- and you don’t want to put those at risk and fice of Labor Standards to enforce the city’s be dishonest about how they’re performing.” minimum wage and sick leave laws. However, Simpson, meanwhile, recommended that to be he’s been criticized for a too-cozy relationship e ective as treasurer “you want to be friendly with Rahm Emanuel (who recently asked him with the mayor.” In other words, this isn’t to lead a task force exploring a universal basic exactly a great spot for those seeking to climb income program for 1,000 Chicagoans) and for higher up the political ladder. If the treasurer missing half of the City Council meetings in his is seen as a threat by the mayor—the way second term, during which he also ran for gov- Summers, a protege of Toni Preckwinkle, was ernor. Though his biggest campaign donors seen by Emanuel as several sources contend- are service and construction workers’ unions, ed—their initiatives aren’t likely to get far. Pawar’s other financiers include high-speed Both Conyears-Ervin and Pawar have vowed trading tycoon William Hobert and billionaire to fi nally get Summers’s Catalyst Fund o the asset manager/Emanuel’s top donor Michael ground, but that will depend on their working Sacks (and relatives of both men). His cam- relationship with the new occupant of the fi fth paign war chest stands at about $520,000. floor of City Hall. Neither candidate would The alderman denies that these ties dis- speculate on the pros and cons of working credit his progessive bona fides, and said with either Preckwinkle or Lori Lightfoot. v that his relationship with Sacks developed “because we see eye to eye on student @mdoukmas ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 9 12 March 27, 2019 WINDY CITY TIMES THE ROAD TO VICTORY A timeline of historic moments in LGBTQ elected history in the Chicago area
Tim Drake Tom Chiola Sebastian Patti Nancy Katz Sherry Pethers
Marc Loveless Larry McKeon Joanne Trapani Tom Tunney Debra Shore
1980: Tim activist Chuck 1994: Tom of openly when a north- 1997: Joanne mayor. Also that as an associate re-election 2006: Debra Drake was the Renslow ran Chiola became LGBTQ judges side district Trapani became year, an openly judge of the campaigns ever Shore made first openly gay as an Edward the first openly in the country, elected him to the first open gay man, Ray Cook County since. history by being Chicagoan to Kennedy gay person according to the House of lesbian elected Johnson, won a Circuit Court. the first open win an election, delegate. to win major the Alliance of Representatives. to office in trustee post in 2004: Sherry lesbian elected as convention public office in Illinois Judges. Illinois, as a Oak Park. Pethers became to a countywide delegate for 1993: Marc Illinois, when 1996: member of 2003: Tom the first open seat as a John Anderson’s Loveless, he won a seat 1996: Larry Sebastian Patti the Oak Park Tunney was lesbian elected commissioner of presidential an African- on the bench McKeon became became a judge, Village Board, 1999: Nancy appointed to a judgeship the Metropolitan bid. Drake was American gay of the Cook the state’s first and in 2009 he and in 2001 Katz was the the city’s first when she won Water a Republican man, won a County Circuit openly gay took his seat as she became first open openly gay a tight race in Reclamation activist at local school Court. Cook (and openly the first openly Village Board lesbian judge in alderman, Cook County. District. the time. Gay council post. County has one HIV-positive) gay appellate president—the the state, after and he has businessman of the highest state legislator, court justice. state’s first being appointed run successful and Democratic concentrations openly lesbian
JUDICIAL PRIDE BEHIND THE LAVENDER DOOR
There is a large and historic concentration of openly LGBTQ people who have Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865): Rumors Lilia Delgado: While served or who are currently serving on the bench in Illinois. Charter members abound about the orientation of the 16th not fully out of the of the LGBTQ group Alliance of Illinois Judges are: Hon. Eileen Brewer (Ret); president of the U.S. But some historians closet, Delgado Hon. Cheryl D. Cesario (Ret); Hon. Tom Chiola (Ret.); Hon. Sophia H. Hall; believe he was either gay or bisexual. (See was known in the Hon. Nancy J. Katz (Ret.); Hon. Stuart Katz; Hon. Norene Love (Ret); C.A. Tripp’s 2005 book, The Intimate World community. Mayor Hon. Mike McHale; Hon. Sandra R. Otaka (deceased); Hon. Sebastian T. of Abraham Lincoln.) Harold Washington Patti; Hon. Sherry Pethers (Ret); Hon. Mary Colleen Roberts; Hon. James Pearl M. Hart (1890– knew she was gay Snyder (first openly gay president of the Illinois Judges Association); Hon. 1975): Studs Terkel when he appointed Colleen Sheehan; and Hon. Lori M Wolfson (Ret). Also of note: In 2012, managed one of her her to the city’s Cable Mary M. Rowland was sworn in as Federal Magistrate Judge, U.S. District failed attempts for Commission. She ran Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She is one of very few out LGBT a City Council seat for Cook County Board people to be appointed to serve as a federal judge in the country. (she ran in 1947 and of Commissioners in 1951), then she twice 1987, coming within 5,000 votes of one of Above: Hon. ran unsuccessfully for the ten seats (at the time, Chicago board Mary M. Rowland. judge. She is in the seats were elected citywide). Below (L-R): Chicago LGBT Hall of Hon. James Fame. Judy Rice, who Snyder; Hon. Eddie Rosewell (1927– is now a Cook Norene Love; 1999): The Cook County County judge, Hon. Mike treasurer’s career ended was the Chicago McHale. in disgrace when he city treasurer hired a former window 2000–2006, but washer to a high-level came out after Photo credits Main section: Loveless photo by John Gress; Patti photo by Lisa Howe-Ebright; Katz photo courtesy job—a closeted man she served. of Katz; Tunney photo by Matt Simonette; Shore photo by Tracy Baim; Mell photo courtesy of campaign; Cassidy who paid a public price. photo by Kate Sosin; Cappleman photo by Matt Simonette; Yingling photo courtesy of Illinois House Democrats; Ramirez-Rosa and Robinson photos by Matt Simonette; Morrison photo by AJ Kane; Garcia photo by Robert Kusel Photography; Hadden photo by Ryan Edmund; Lightfoot photo by Matt Simonette. Judicial section: Official court photos. Lavender Door section: Hart image courtesy of Chicago History Museum Archives; PR photo of Rosewell; Rice photo by Tracy Baim. Horseshoes section: Bergeron photo by Romaine; Sable photo by Lisa Howe-Ebright; Nepon photo from the GayLife archives; Ford and Flint photos from the Gay Chicago archives. All other photos from These lists are not meant to be comprehensive, but rather highlight certain significant the Windy City Times archives. elections and “firsts” in area history.
10 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll More than 100 openly LGBTQ people have run for office to major posts in Illinois, from judicial seats to city councils and county, state and federal offices. While those efforts started decades ago, the onset of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s really kick-started the regional LGBTQ movement into action on a variety of fronts, not just in health-care advocacy, but in politics and beyond. But who were the first to break down the closet doors and take their seats at the table? Here are the highlights.
Raymond Lopez
Greg Harris Marge Paul Kelly Cassidy Sam Yingling Lamont Robinson
Deb Mell Mark Tendam James Carlos Kevin Morrison Cappleman Ramirez-Rosa
2006: Openly gay majority the 33rd Ward 2017 she was openly gay elected alderman City Council in LGBTQ person to 2018: gay, HIV-positive leader of the aldermanic seat elected city clerk elected official. of the 46th the same cycle: win a major non- Marcelino activist Greg state House of vacated by her in the same Ward. Raymond Lopez judicial elected Garcia became Harris, who was Representatives. father, Dick election where (15th) and post in Illinois 2011: Kelly 2012: Sam the first appointed to Mell. She won four LGBTQ Carlos Ramirez- when he won for Cassidy was Yingling won LGBTQ person complete Larry re-election in candidates won Rosa (35th); 5th district state 2009: Open first appointed a suburban of color McKeon’s term 2015 and is in a for city council. they are the first representative. lesbian Deb to a state seat for state elected to the in the General runoff April 2. Latino/x out Mell won a state representative representative Metropolitan Assembly, was LGBTQs on the representative 2009: Mark post, and she in the 62nd 2018: Kevin Water later elected City Council. post, serving 2009: Marge Tendam won has won re- district. Morrison Reclamation District. and continues until 2013, Paul was elected election to election every became the first to serve, when she was as an open the Evanston cycle since. 2015: Two 2018: Lamont openly LGBTQ 2019: Maria Hadden unseated making history appointed by lesbian alderman City Council, openly gay men Robinson member of the longtime incumbent 49th Ward in 2019 as the Mayor Rahm in suburban becoming the 2011: James won seats on became the first Cook County alderman Joe Moore to be the first first openly Emanuel to fill Berwyn. In suburb’s first Cappleman was the Chicago African-American Board. openly LGBTQ African-American elected to Chicago’s City Council and ONLY IN HORSESHOES first African- American Your can’t win if you don’t run … and a few bold LGBTQ people paved the way for what would be the first openly LGBTQ person to win in Illinois. LGBTQ woman elected to a 1971: Michael Bergeron, later founder of The Chicago Gay nonjudicial Crusader newspaper, ran for at-large delegate to the Democratic post in National Convention. Illinois. 1974: Radical gays Don “Red Devil” Goldman and Nancy Davis ran for alderman in the 44th and 43rd wards, respectively. 2019: The fact that Lori Lightfoot, 1977: Gary Nepon, at age 28, ran for 13th District state an openly LGBTQ African-American representative. woman, even made it to a runoff 1979: Grant Ford (who passed away this year), publisher of for mayor was historic and hardly GayLife newspaper, ran for 44th Ward alderman. predictable decades ago. But now, 1987: Baton Show Lounge owner Jim Flint ran a widely covered she may make more history as the race for Cook County Board, when city seats ran citywide. first openly LGBTQ person to win 1987 and 1991: Dr. Ron Sable came within a few dozen votes of election as unseating incumbent 44th Ward alderman Bernie Hansen in his mayor of first race, but lost by a wider margin in 1991; he died in 1993 From left: Michael Bergeron (above); Dr. Ron Sable (below); Gary Nepon; Grant Chicago, of AIDS complications. Ford; Jim Flint. the nation’s third-largest city. A joint project by the Chicago Reader and Windy City Times For more details, see Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City’s Gay Community, edited by Tracy Baim
Equality Illinois builds a better Illinois by advancing equal treatment and social justice through education, advocacy, and protection of the rights of the LGBTQ community. LEARN MORE, ACT, AND SUPPORT OUR MISSION AT WWW.EQUALITYILLINOIS.ORG ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 11 L ’CI | R W. Chicago -- FOOD & DRINK lolasconeyisland.com
Coney taco NICKMURWAY
hicago has enough hang-ups about a Lafayette guy, nor an American guy. He grew hot dogs. The last thing our home- up a block from Duly’s Place in southwest De- grown dog Nazis need to do is get troit, and that’s his ride-or-die. into Detroit’s business. But that’s Fakhoury is the force behind Lola’s, named precisely what Humboldt Park’s for his two-year-old daughter. He has a keen CLola’s Coney Island confronts Chicago with: appreciation for the ridiculousness of the Detroit-style hot dogs, which were established regional hot dog wars. Don’t ask him what neither in Detroit nor New York, but more body fl uid he’s heard some dickheads compare likely in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the home of the coney sauce to. He’s called Chicago home for oldest operating coney purveyor anywhere. 19 years—selling cars mostly—but for the Fort Wayne’s Famous Coney Island Wiener last 15 or so he’s dreamed of opening a Coney Stand was opened 106 years ago by Macedo- Island stand. He has two goals. One is to please nian immigrants who, like many of their kind, the population of Michigan transplants that trafficked in a hot dog delivery system that yearns for the coneys of home, and two: “I featured a mildly spiced natural casing wiener don’t want to give anyone from Chicago a rea- blanketed in a beanless but hearty chili sauce. son to make fun of me.” It’s literally hearty—made with ground He loves them all, which is why he offers beef hearts—but a sprinkle of raw chopped well-executed Chicago-style dogs as well as Lola’s coney dog (Detroit-style) NICKMURWAY onion and a spurt of yellow mustard brings the New York-style dogs (sauerkraut, onions, whole package into a balance quite unlike the brown mustard), both supplied by Vienna RESTAURANT REVIEW over-policed riot of the Chicago dog dragged Beef. But it’s the coneys you’ll be coming for: through the garden. natural casing beef and pork franks from Northern Indiana and Michigan are the National Coney Island, a Michigan chain that Lola’s Coney Island natural habitats for Coney Islands, but Detroit also supplies his chili. In the last two months is usually thought of as their spiritual home, Fakhoury’s made a half dozen trips to Detroit thanks in part to the century-old dogfi ght be- to keep himself supplied through his late R&D stands for Detroit tween the city’s two iconic players: American phase and the three weeks he’s been open. The Coney Island and its upstart neighbor, Lafay- dogs are salty and bouncy, and though not as There’s a dog in the fi ght in Humboldt Park. ette Coney Island. firm and snappy as a natural casing Vienna, I’m not sure why Detroiters fight over they’re still perfectly compatible with the By M S that—it’s a lot clearer than hot dog water that chili. Together with its acidic and pungent Lafayette is the better all-around establish- flourishes it’s an admirable, even craveable, ment. Jesse Fakhoury agrees, but he is neither expression of the style. 12 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll Search the Reader’s online database of thousands of Chicago-area restaurants—and add your own review—at chicagoreader.com/food. FOOD & DRINK
Double cheeseburger NICKMURWAY Lola’s is a far more modest operation than Lakeview’s late Leo’s Coney Island, the Detroit diner chain that was only able to comfort homesick Michigan expats for less than two years before closing. Fakhoury mourned when that happened, and in a small tribute, he’s included a coney taco on his menu—loose town. But he isn’t an orthodox. He o ers a rib ground beef on a steamed hot dog bun, with eye sandwich on Wednesdays, and a lobster lettuce, tomato, onion, and shredded cheese. roll on Fridays. Those are just o -script things That’s an analogue to the loose burger, that he likes to eat, and he promises he isn’t going same ground beef topped with the usual coney to expand his menu beyond that. Well, he condiments (an improvement over Iowa’s in- might start bringing in Sanders Bumpy Cakes famous Maid-Rite loose meat sandwich). and making a Portillo’s-style chocolate cake There are just a few other nods to the shake with them, which would be a conspic- Michigan Greek diner tradition, such as an uous companion to the Rock and Rye fl oat, a astonishing avgolemeno soup that Fakhoury scoop of vanilla ice cream suspended in Fay- refuses to say anything about, other than to go’s pinkish cherry cream cola. not disagree with my description of it as a kind Yes, OK, in a city that celebrates bitter of Greek congee, an intensely lemony-chickeny wormwood liquor and sausage intolerance rice porridge. Or, to reach across another body that might sound ridiculous. But sometimes a of water, it’s the best $5 risotto in the city. hot dog is just a hot dog and there’s nothing to Vernors ginger soda, and seven flavors of make fun of at Lola’s Coney Island. v Juggalo blood—er, Faygo—complete a simple but satisfying tribute to Fakhoury’s home- @MikeSula
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14 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll RIVVENPRINK
ll MARCH - CHICA O READER15 Alo Circus MATTHEW SCHERWIN
a meeting to potentially—a Hail Mary of Hail Marys—throw circus at the problem and avoid a scandal. The meeting was loaded with top brass: representatives from Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Commissioner of Cultural A airs Lois Weisberg, and the mayor’s chief of sta . Panic sat thick over the room. “So, whaddya got?” someone said. Jeff had nothing. But a clown never has nothing. He’s a clown. He’ll make something. “Well, it looks like a plaza,” Je said. “Yeah, yeah! It does look like a plaza!” “A haunted plaza.” “Yeah, yeah! Yeah!” “A haunted plaza needs residents, right?” “Villagers!” Julie said. “And a mayor!” Jeff went on. “Mayor . . . Maximilian . . . Spookenberger!” “Ah! That’s great!” “And Hester P. Stump, the Commissioner of . . . ” “Chaos!” Julie fi nished. “Oh! Yeah!” The show that came out of that free- associative idea session got the go-ahead for seven trial performances. After those fi rst dry runs on a pair of blue panel mats in front of Law’s structure, word spread and things grew. The greatest show in town Politicos milling around the plaza would come every day during the annual six-week run, sometimes catching every performance (there Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, step right up to the magical, the thrilling, the Chicago-style circus! were fi ve a day). Schools sent fi eld trips. Chi- cagoween became the most successful circus By M M show in Chicago’s history, running in the Loop for 17 years and attracting some of the great- est circus talent in the world. These days, due e used to have a rhino on ture and landscape of the city itself. It all start- of the eyebrow. It would be transparent and in large part to the success of Chicagoween, Ringling,” Je Jenkins says. ed 22 years ago in a little loft on 16th Street in accessible. No lions, no rhinos, no glitter shot Midnight has an international reputation. Its This was back when he was a Pilsen, where Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi, co- out of a cannon. Circus in the Parks initiative has raised more young clown in the Greatest founder of The Actors Gymnasium, let Jenkins Midnight had originally planned to try out than $1 million for the city to restore its play- Show on Earth. The rhino and his wife, Julie Jenkins, an aerialist, build its fresh conception of circus in theaters, but grounds. People trained in the best Montreal “Wwould charge fullspeed into its pen backstage their fi rst trapeze rig. the Jenkinses and their small team found the- circus schools compete to take part. the moment the show ended, sometimes drag- The Midnight Circus ethos was inspired in ater managers unreceptive and couldn’t get “They’ll come off Cirque du Soleil. They’ll ging its handler on the fl oor behind it. It was part by the new circus movement, created and critics to pay attention when they tried stag- be featured at the Cirque de Demain festival in terrifying. Today Jenkins is the ringmaster of codifi ed by, among others, Pickle Family Cir- ing their act on their own dollar. Then in 1998, Paris, where they’ll win a gold medal. And then Chicago’s Midnight Circus, which he cofound- cus cofounder Lawrence Pisoni and legendary the city called. This is how Je remembers the two weeks later, they’re doing their act in En- ed in 1997. The circus employs a pit bull named juggling teacher Hovey Burgess. Theirs was an story: glewood.” Je pauses and spreads one of his Rosie. Rosie has the same instinct to sprint to approach that transported the traditional nar- James Law, who ran the Mayor’s Office of deep-furrowed hands wide enough to waggle her bed backstage while the bipeds bow. But rative elements of the big top to a smaller set- Special Events, had built a weird “haunted every fi nger on it. “For fi ve bucks.” she’s far less terrifying. Cute, even. ting, more on the order of a black box theater house” structure on Daley Plaza that served Although Midnight prides itself on the qual- If there’s one thing that defi nes the Chicago than a stadium. Julie Jenkins, who went to no visible purpose. It was shaped like an X ity of performers it attracts from around the circus, having pit bulls instead of rhinos might school for drama (Je went to clown college), and cost a quarter of a million dollars, plus country and abroad, a lot of local talent has also be it. The homespun variety of circus that’s cites the epic theater of Bertolt Brecht—which installation. Then-mayor and Halloween fan been involved in its shows over the years. Since caught on here is athletic, intelligent, scaled forced the audience to engage critically with Richard M. Daley, who had a lot riding on this Chicagoween took o , a host of important Chi- down, and minutely worked out, based on an the performance—as an early influence on bizarre expenditure, was livid. If he didn’t fi nd cago companies have popped up on the scene optimistic gamble: that what audiences really what they were doing, and invokes Lenin’s a use for it fast, he was afraid he’d be fl ambéed with Midnight alumnae at their helms. Prob- and truly want is intimacy, not spectacle. Pit dictum of “bringing circus to the people,” later in the press for having approved such a thing. ably the most illustrious is Aloft Circus Arts, bulls that do real tricks, not tusks for tusks’ the company’s motto. He contacted the Jenkinses through a friend of headed by Shayna Swanson, who performed sake. It’s a bold and brilliant experiment, one In a black box, or a smaller tent, audiences theirs who worked for the Department of Cul- briefly with Midnight as an aerialist in the that’s been nurtured in part by the architec- would be able to see every wrist fl ick and arch tural A airs, and invited them to City Hall for early 2000s. I met her at Aloft’s studio recently 16 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll that Aloft has called home dates from a time measure. The morning I met him, though, he when buildings had higher ceilings than they was feeling sore. Not only that, he seemed to do now, in order to let daylight into their be processing some new realizations about his interiors all day long. Midnight Circus’s fi rst craft. storefront at Lake and Halsted was the same Kennison is 29. His daily routine has shrunk way. It may seem like a small thing, but you from hours of obsessive solitary practice in can only really do circus indoors if the ceil- front of the mirror to a 30-minute regimen. ing is tall enough to fl y or juggle under, the That’s partly a concession to new aches and floors firm enough to support your average pains—he says that jugglers typically hit a load-bearing unicycle. Swanson credits Chi- wall around the age he is now—but it’s some- cago’s architectural landscape with fostering thing else too. the city’s circus culture—fewer old-school “I have a few goals, like just strictly juggling structures get knocked down here than in goals left,” he says. “But I’m accepting that I’m New York or San Francisco (where the new not gonna be that much better than I am right circus movement began). I don’t know how now.” grateful she was for the resiliency of Chica- The best way he could explain how he was go buildings when she and her crew had to feeling was to refer me to a new act he created power-wash stains from diesel fumes o the recently for Aloft’s monthly showcase, Sanc- wall in Humboldt Park, but thinking about tuary. In it, Kennison does only two tricks. One buildings the way she does lets you see the of them fails on purpose. In a voice-over, he city the way she sees it, as a playground for describes getting hurt backstage at a Midnight circus adventures. Circus show in Canada and how that forced Aloft was always intended to double as a him to radically simplify his act. The cause MATTHEWSCHERWIN circus training school: since the company is of the injury, it turns out, was an attempt to for-profi t, Swanson knew from the jump that catch a ball with his butt. It’s a hilarious act, she would have to teach classes to fund shows. but it speaks to what Kennison thinks is a com- The message on the chalkboard in the lobby mon experience, and not just among circus at the Aloft Loft is admirably no-nonsense: performers. “Aloft Circus Arts values: to be a Brave Space, “I think it’s the same with any skill you have to nurture badassery, to be purveyors of fi ne to work really hard to get,” he says. “If you circus.” Underneath, it reads, “Please make stick with it, and come out the other side as all checks payable to Aloft Dance.” The school an artist, then you’ll be like, ‘Yeah, it doesn’t offers many programs for beginners and matter.’” hobbyists, but at its core is a 40-hour-a-week It would be easy to interpret Kennison’s apprenticeship program. Running away to join tone as apathy. He was surprised to hear him- the circus, as everyone knows, continues to be self adopting it, he told me, because he used a more viable career move than running away to get so sick of jaded professional jugglers to join the English department. In six years saying similar things to him. But he isn’t jaded of operation, she says, Swanson’s intensive yet. He may be ahead of the game for his age, has graduated 90 percent of its students into but he’s fi nding what he calls a “good way to careers in the circus. get old.” As an artist, not a technician, he be- The juggling teacher in Aloft’s program lieves in giving the intimate experience to au- right now is Book Kennison (he also performs diences for as many more years as he can, even at Midnight Circus). In what sounds like some if it means doing less. He’s fi nding that he can old-fashioned circus yarn, Kennison ran o to look back with pride on a brilliant fi rst phase join the Midnight Circus (albeit temporarily) of a career in this city, making people happy by when he was just 15. Je and Julie Jenkins fi rst doing what he loves. recognized his talents one summer at Circus “People like me,” he says, “we moved to Chi- Jenkins Family; Book Kennison MARCHAUSER Smirkus, a lauded youth training camp in cago for a little bit of time, or for maybe forev- Vermont they were helping run. A few months er, because Midnight Circus existed, because later, they spotted him in the audience at a they had that steady work, even if it was just during the last week of rehearsals for Brave dards, though her basic aesthetic remains Chicagoween show, which he’d taken the train seasonally. Steady work, steady friendships. Space, an all-female trapeze show that’s now punk. Aloft started out in a Humboldt Park from Saint Louis to see, and invited him up All kinds of people who are east coast people, on a two-week tour (it will have a longer stretch garage with 15-foot ceilings before moving to onstage. (“Do you have your juggling stu ?” from beautiful Vermont towns, who would of road dates in June and will play a series of the West Loop and then to its current digs in Julie remembers asking. “Then slot in!”) He’s have never moved to the midwest, came to free shows in Chicago later this summer). Logan Square, a church that has been retro- been a juggler his entire adult life. His father, Chicago to be a part of that. “I built my first trapeze out of a wooden fi tted to serve as a gym, rehearsal space, and Richard Kennison, is one of the premier jug- “Which I think is really cool,” he says. “I dowel rod and jump ropes from Home Depot circus training school. gling instructors in the United States. Book’s a think that’s really cool.” v and hung it in a tree,” Swanson says. Since Old buildings are an important element magnetic performer whose act combines con- then, she’s added more stringent safety stan- in Chicago-style circus. Each of the spaces tortion, juggling, and comedy in almost equal @mallerjour ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 17 Le : Blair Thomas SAVERIOTRUGLIA Right: The Steadfast Tin Soldier LIZLAUREN
Uncle Vanya, as an example, was unlike any- thing anyone had ever seen or even considered doing [here.]” Although it’s been decades, images from the play remain fresh in his mind: Yelena defi antly staring down a room full of men while wearing a hat full of perfume that streams down her face; a family singing a requiem from a Verdi opera while posing for a portrait; servants hunched over in a surreal ballet, carrying around heated kettle ball-like weights to be Renaissance man placed under wealthy womens’ dresses, an image that silently reinforced the oppres- Blair Thomas wants to make Chicago the center of a new world of puppetry. sive Russian cold from which they needed to be protected. “These techniques of using By D J nonverbal performance, of using stuff that’s based in the object world to tell the story—to tell the nuance of relationships—to me was f anybody knows puppets—like really text-based actors’ theater epitomized by com- astounding,” he says. “I’ll never forget that knows puppets—it’s Blair Thomas, found- panies like Steppenwolf. Upcoming productions production.” er and artistic director of the Chicago “The undergraduate school is this machine featuring work by the Chicago To this day, Thomas can still pinpoint the International Puppet Theater Festival and that just angles everything toward interpret- Puppet Studio exact moment during those ITFC years that codirector of the Chicago Puppet Studio. ing the playwright,” says Thomas. Although P inspired him to pursue puppetry as a serious IAnd yet, if you ask him about the artists who he’d studied English literature in college, he Through /: Thu-Sat PM, art form. In 1988, Els Comediants, the Bar- are most attracted to the form, his answer is was oppositely drawn early in his career to Sun PM, Chopin Theatre, celona-based circus collective, conducted a W. Division, -- entertainingly vague. visual and nonverbal storytelling and alterna- , thehousetheatre.com, workshop at the Park West. Els Comediants, “They’re . . . weirdos,” he says with a laugh, tive playwrights whose work wasn’t based in $. says Thomas, exhibited a pageantry in its “but I don’t know in particular what kind of naturalist drama, such as the Cuban-American performances that was unusual in Chicago at way. Most all of them are some kind of musi- avant gardist María Irene Fornés. MS’ the time. F cian, some kind of writer. They sing. They can “Chicago could boast over 150 companies /-/: Wed-Sat : “The members of the company who were dance. It may not be any good, but they can do in town,” Thomas continues, “but the aes- PM, Sun PM, Water leading [the workshop] said, ‘OK, here’s our it.” thetic was of a very narrow palette.” So what Tower Water Works, N. story,’ like a paragraph long. ‘And we’re going Michigan, --, Long before becoming one of the world’s changed? For him—and also for much of the lookingglasstheatre.org, $- to take this story, and we’re going to build the go-to weirdos for top-tier puppetry, the tall, city’s theater community, he believes—it $. puppets and the set pieces and the things for grey-bearded, Alabama-born artist was a started with a festival. the story, and we’re going to rehearse it, and C C C recent graduate of Oberlin College who had The International Theatre Festival of Chi- Sat /, PM, Tiny Tempest then before this workshop is done, we’re going moved to Chicago in 1986 to begin his career cago, which ran from 1986 to 1996, brought Farm, W Mohawk Rd., to go out onto the street and perform it.’ And I as a directing intern under Robert Falls at the in companies “that completely shocked the Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, - was just like . . . ‘What are you talking about? I -, tinytempestfarm. Wisdom Bridge Theatre. At that time, the city community in town in terms of what was com, $. don’t even know who you are.’” had a thriving and dynamic theater scene, but happening onstage,” says Thomas. “The State Over the course of three hours, using basic to Thomas, most all of it fell within the direct, Theatre of Lithuania, with their production of building materials provided by the com- J 18 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll From dance to theater: you want to be here.
The Logan Center at the University of Chicago is a multidisciplinary home for artistic practice. Connect with the Logan Center for concerts, exhibitions, performances, family programs, and more from world class, emerging, local, student, and international artists. Most of our programs are FREE.
logancenter.uchicago.edu Logan Center 773.702.ARTS for the Arts loganUChicago 915 E 60th St Photo: Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre dancers in Between Us, courtesy of the company. ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 19 continued from 18 uses constantly) in puppetry, showing o new pany and literal trash out of cans in the alley, styles and applications at the massive bian- Thomas and his peers whipped together a nual Chicago International Puppet Theater castle set and dragon puppets for a medieval Festival, which began in 2015 and wrapped up fantasy story, complete with improvised its third edition this past January. In response percussion instruments. “It put me on fire,” to an increase in requests from theater compa- Thomas remembers now. “I was so excited nies to provide consulting and puppet design about that. It took one day for me to have that and fabrication for their new works, Thomas, infl uence. One exposure.” who also teaches at the School of the Art Insti- The revelation that there were radically dif- tute, co-founded the Chicago Puppet Studio in ferent ways to tell stories broadly infl uenced 2017 with acclaimed puppeteer and director Thomas’s aesthetic and his various profes- Tom Lee, whose resume includes the original sional projects. In 1990, he and choreographer Broadway production of War Horse and the Lauri Macklin founded Redmoon Theater, Metropolitan Opera’s Madama Butterfly. “I which became known for staging elaborate was like, ‘I can’t do that on my own,’” says productions outdoors and in other nontradi- Thomas. “If [Tom] was not around, I would not tional spaces that combined storytelling, live have started that.” music, puppetry, acrobatics, and a great deal Last winter’s spectacular The Steadfast of pageantry. After his departure from Red- Tin Soldier at Lookingglass, created and di- moon in 1998, Thomas created a series of solo rected by Mary Zimmerman, was the studio’s Tom Lee, center, explains the workings of Pinocchio to Chris Mathews and Carley Cornelius COURTESYOFTHEHOUSETHEATREOFCHICAGO stage works, which he took on tour to venues inaugural project. Based on Hans Christian such as the Museum of Contemporary Art and Andersen’s Christmas short story, the nearly universities around the country, then began wordless pantomime featured a parade of “[Thomas] is a beautiful artist,” says Zim- tiful and innovatively designed puppets, were working on ensemble pieces including an ad- breathtaking puppet designs, including a tod- merman, “and the expression of the [wooden what encouraged House Theatre company aptation of Moby Dick and a staging of Arnold dler who takes various forms throughout the boy]—which feels designed but undesigned member Chris Mathews to cold-call Thomas Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire. play: a massive, cloud-like head and hands and at the same time—you could project on it, and for insight after he received the assignment Today, Thomas is on a mission to inspire an uncanny, life-size clackity wooden boy in yet it does seem to have character. That’s the to direct the theater’s upcoming production and catalyze another renaissance (a word he the style of Japanese bunraku puppetry. genius of someone who spends their life in of Pinocchio—a play Mathews suspects is the that.” Even when they’re not being operated, Hamlet of the puppet world. “I don’t want to the studio’s creations exude personality. put anyone else down,” says Mathews, “but if “When you’re leaving at night and [the bun- you’re doing something associated with pup- The Bridges of Madison County raku boy] is sitting backstage, you feel so sorry petry in Chicago, you have to think about Blair. for it. It’s a very uncanny e ect.” He’s an institution.” 3-1/2 STARS - Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times When collaborating with companies, fac- Thomas has assisted Mathews and his team toring in the learning curve for each puppet with solving various challenges, like how to is an essential component to Thomas and the stage the surprising shark attack (something studio’s design process, something he learned along the lines of a hidden fl oor “bear trap,” during Redmoon’s annual winter pageants. thinks Thomas), and making sure actor Sean These featured elaborate puppets, including a Garratt is able to operate the slightly smaller- caterpillar that transformed into a butterfl y and than-life-size boy puppet without overexert- required 14 trained performers to operate. But ing himself. the events also had a high level of audience in- The next big challenge for the newly formed teraction, which necessitated that puppets with studio, says Thomas, is figuring out how to “foolproof” operational designs, like a simple maintain a sense of continuity and presence trigger, be handed o to untrained spectators. between International Puppet Theater fests. (Even professional actors sometimes need fool- The details are in fl ux now, but he’s consider- proof designs. One of Thomas’s favorites is the ing a monthly showcase in his and Lee’s new single-hand operated tail- and head-wagging Fine Arts Building space, which acts as a local poodle manipulated by Patti LuPone in the Chi- home for the festival o¦ ce and as a satellite cago production of War Paint at the Goodman workshop of Thomas’s larger workshop in a Theatre in 2016. The puppet was a compromise barn in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. between LuPone’s desire for a live dog and the As for Chicago evolving into a major center producers’ for a stu ed animal.) for innovation in puppetry, Thomas is optimis- Reader Recommended! Through Sunday, April 21 But even for seasoned performers, the act tic: all of the vital components are here, ready of transmitting one’s presence through an to be assembled. “Within the strata of the cul- 721 Howard, Evanston inanimate object can be difficult. “The last ture in Chicago, we have the support system,” thing an actor is trained to do is to be uninter- says Thomas. “This is the renaissance that www.theo-u.com esting,” notes Zimmerman. Lee and Thomas’s we’re in.” v 773-347-1109 reputation for working with a range of actor experience levels, as well as for creating beau- @DanEJakes 20 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll From le : Ruth Page in Variations on Euclid, ca. early 1930s;Katherine Dunham in L’Ag’Ya, date unknown. COURTESYNEWBERRYLIBRARY
cago, perhaps best remembered for her annual Nutcracker, staged since 1965. (Page received in 1978 one of many angry letters protesting “a negro boy as a companion to the little white girl.” She responded: “The Nutcracker, as you know, is a fairy tale, and the color of anyone’s skin does not matter at all.”) La Guiablesse was part of Page’s much more avant-garde period, a decade that is documented in artful and exquisite professional photographs. In the 1930s she danced with long elastic bands and sticks in a piece called Variations on Euclid; she writhed barefoot on the floor in Tropic; she wrapped her face and limbs in tape in a pas de deux with German partner Harald Kreutz- berg; she wore a blue jersey “sack” designed by Isamu Noguchi for Expanding Universe. Page later looked back on these productions and called them, amusingly, her “sack, mask, and stick period.” It was also her black period. Page’s at- traction to the forms and styles of African and African-American dance might have been infl uenced by what she knew about her city. During the 1930s and 1940s, the most Dance as reclamation TL avant-garde art—the aesthetic experiments C D better known as modernism—did not come What did an extravagant 1930s ballet—imagined by and starring / - / from Page’s north-side neighborhood. Rather, Roger J. Trienens a white woman, who choreographed the piece for her city’s most Galleries the creative ferment of the city could be found talented black dancers—say about interracial mixing and cultural W. Walton in Bronzeville, that thin corridor seven miles appropriation in modernist Chicago? newberry.org F long and one and a half miles wide, where the city’s black population crammed into By L O kitchenettes under the force of the city’s J
n a steamy summer evening in 1933, a wielding tricks and disguises, from Dido and But the most radical vision was the dancers group of young black dancers readied Circe to Jezebel and Lorelei. The ballet adapt- themselves. When they turned onto the stage— themselves into position behind the ed this seduction plot, but the production was scantily clad, holding long poles—the audience plush curtains of Chicago’s Auditorium as much about style, which repurposed many could see that the only white dancer was Chi- Theatre. They were the last act on a different forms. (La Guiablesse itself was a cago choreographer Ruth Page, age 34, playing Oprogram of music and dance, a lineup that had dialectal variation of diablesse, a demon of the lead role, and at the height of her career been full of Chopin and orchestral favorites. Caribbean folklore.) With the fi rst notes of the as a dancer. Page had worked with Bolm inter- Theirs was a new ballet, La Guiablesse, the piano, the curtains parted, and the audience mittently to choreograph La Guiablesse since story of a “she-devil” from the island of Mar- beheld a set that was minimal to the point of the mid-1920s, developing the ballet as she tinique who lures a young lover away from his abstraction, mostly tall fishing poles and an travelled the world, including through Japan, beloved, pushes him over a cliff, and disap- elevated hill upstage. The set was created by China, and Southeast Asia. She had performed pears in a pu of smoke. Beyond the curtains Russian émigré Nicholas Remisoff, the de- as a teenager with Anna Pavlova in South Amer- sat an audience, including many elite Chica- signer for a short-lived group called Chicago ica, later trained with Diaghilev in Monte Carlo, goans, who would have been familiar with the Allied Arts, which loosely modeled itself on and then studied with Mary Wigman in Dres- venerable theater but hardly with what they Serge Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes, and which den and Berlin. Page would travel extensively were about to see. included Adolph Bolm, another Russian who throughout her career, trying out techniques If there was something provocative in this had danced with Diaghilev. The music of La from around the globe—from Balinese legong folktale of sex and death, it was not just the Guiablesse, too, was wildly new. Short, color- to Brazilian capoeira—but her commitment story. Based on a nineteenth-century travel ful sections tripped and changed, playing with was to Chicago, a city where she aimed one day sketch by wayfaring writer Lafcadio Hearn, La jazzy ri s and shifting tempos. Composed by to create her own ballet company. Ruth Page and Harald Kreutzberg, ca. 1934. Guiablesse played upon ancient ideas about the Harlem virtuoso William Grant Still, the Page is an extraordinary if under- Courtesy of the Newberry Library COURTESY the dangers of female sexuality—women score declared variety its bold ambition. recognized fi gure in the cultural history of Chi- NEWBERRYLIBRARY ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 21 continued from 21 It begins with children playing tug-of-war, racist, restrictive housing covenants. Despite dancing a fl at-footed “shu¸ e” with elements entrenched lines of segregation, inhabitants of the Charleston, a popular dance with of Bronzeville were emboldened by their fast-kicking steps. Then two young lovers community’s quest for economic and cultural (one of them Dunham) dance a duet, including self-determination, expressed in exciting a “slow negro walk,” which Page describes ways across the arts, from jazz and blues to in her notebook as a “cakewalk,” which is a fi lm and dance. paired dance that can be traced back to slave Page recruited her dancers for La Guiablesse plantations. Historically the cakewalk has from Bronzeville, where she also held all of her been danced, with subversive power, to mock rehearsals. Among the roughly 50 dancers slave owners. It also became a staple of min- who would perform in La Guiablesse, aston- strel shows. We can only speculate how Dun- ishingly, were both Katherine Dunham (who ham might have danced it. played the betrayed beloved) and—in a later On an overhanging ledge of the hill, La remount—Talley Beatty. Both would become Guiablesse (Page) watches in a white robe pathbreaking artists of mid-century America, with sleeves like “veils” or “wings.” She winds touring internationally with their own black her way down the hill, swinging her veils as dance troupes, and challenging the assump- she runs across the stage, casts o her robe, tion that ballet was a “high art” achieved only and kisses the young lover on the forehead. by white dancers. Also in the cast of young They move together in a “jazz dance,” a se- villagers was the 19-year-old artist Charles duction of stamps and lunges. He shakes loose Sebree, whose paintings would soon hang from the villagers to follow her into the moun- in Chicago galleries that also featured work tains, losing his way. At the moment when La by European modernists like Léger, Matisse, Guiablesse reveals her true, horrid self—an Modigliani, and Picasso. ugly hag, wrapping the lover in the veils of her What did this extravagant ballet—imagined strangling embrace—a haunting o stage voice by and starring a white woman, who choreo- merges with the music’s wordless melody. graphed the piece for her city’s most talented The voice, in 1933, was that of Mabelle A newspaper clipping shows Katherine dancers—proclaim about interracial mixing in Roberta Walker, a contralto from Evanston Dunham in the title role of La Guiablesse, likely in 1934. COURTESY modernist Chicago? About cultural appropria- whose local performances were mentioned a NEWBERRYLIBRARY tion? And what might it tell us today? few times in the Chicago Defender, the most important African-American newspaper in ike many groundbreaking moments in the the country. The Defender noted Walker’s history of performance, the details are “achievement” in La Guiablesse but little else. L tantalizing but it is hard to know what La As Walker sang, the lover fell to his death and Guiablesse was really like. Dance is notorious- La Guiablesse disappeared (through a trap- La Guiablesse and its reception, even though musical score, including a note describing ly difficult to archive. There is no footage of door) into the supernatural smoke. there is a substantial record of Ruth Page La Guiablesse casting o her robe to reveal a this particular production and no photographs In just 18 minutes, the ballet was over. dancing other ballets during the 1930s. “bronzed body.” And yet the program note have been located. Thanks to the archival With black newspaper critics as spectators, Perhaps La Guiablesse was too black, to the ballet, written by the Chicago dancer, sleuthing of scholar Joellen Meglin—and to and possibly members of the dancers’ own too daring, and too much of a challenge to poet, and painter Mark Turbyfill, describes Page’s choreography notebook now held at Bronzeville community, the mixed-race audi- the standards of classical ballet, which still how La Guiablesse “with her white deceit, the Newberry Library (where I work)—at least ence would have allowed for “cross-viewing,” clung to its origins as an elite, hierarchical, comes to separate and destroy dark-skinned there is some account of the ballet’s pastiche in the words of Northwestern University and strictly European art form. Not a single lovers.” Was she black or was she white? Color of movement. dance scholar Susan Manning—the ability to reviewer comments on the erotic physical di erence was central to this performance, if see how audience members contact between a white woman and a black also ambiguous. Here was a world of magic, it Ruth Page in Expanding Universe, across the racial divide re- man, during an era when interracial marriage seems, a stage that gave imaginative license to ca. 1934. COURTESY NEWBERRY LIBRARY sponded to the performance. was not just scandalous but also illegal. Lynch- express possibility beyond the strict catego- This phenomenon was much ings across America were frequent—a violent ries of racial segregation everywhere else in more frequent after World expression of white supremacy, to which there the city of Chicago. War II when theaters deseg- was no bigger threat than a black man with a Though the ballet was part of the city’s regated: cross-viewing as a white woman. second World’s Fair, dubbed “The Century possibility for La Guiablesse La Guiablesse may have inverted racial of Progress,” very little “progress” had been makes the ballet even more fear by embodying the sexual power of the made in the realm of race relations. Since intriguing. Yet accounts of the shape-shifter in Page herself. It is unclear the 1919 race riots—the most violent week in ballet by both the white and whether Page imagined that she was an exotic Chicago history—civic leaders buckled down black press—the Tribune, the fi gure of the Caribbean, or if the production on segregation in response to a steady stream Times, and the Defender—are played upon her whiteness to stage her as of black migrants arriving from the south, and positive if conspicuously an interloper to the Caribbean scene. It may many whites staunchly guarded their zones of vague about the performance. have been a little bit of both. William Grant work and leisure. Black artists, business peo- And there is scant record of Still neatly typed the ballet’s scene above the ple, and entrepreneurs fl ourished on the J 22 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 23 18/19 continued from 22
Ohad Naharin’s south side, but few were represented at the fair’s sleek art deco pavilions. Fair organizers used colorful neon to light up the tall buildings Gauthier Dance of their “rainbow city,” and showcased “model
Minus 16. homes” made of Masonite and modern appli- Mega Israel ances. But the fair was as culturally white as Daniel Burnham’s 1893 “white city,” and the April 5 + 6, 2019 / 7:30PM Photo by Brocke Regina model homes were a perverse counterpoint to Uprising Hofesh Shechter the squalid housing conditions in Bronzevillle. What’s more, the massive Auditorium The- Killer Pig Gai Behar + Sharon Eyal atre—designed by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Minus 16 Ohad Naharin Adler and completed in 1889—was built to be the world’s grandest institution of high culture, which to most Chicagoans at the time implied white culture. Equipped with electric- ity and central air conditioning (via 15 tons of ice delivered daily), the Auditorium had hosted Katherine Dunham in L’Afrique, ca. 1949. historical pageants and presented thunderous COURTESYNEWBERRYLIBRARY presidential announcements from Benjamin Harrison to Theodore Roosevelt. Yet here were astonishing performance,” according to the 35 black dancers moving through their “evo- Tribune. A few days later she danced the lutions” with “ease and grace” on the city’s lead again before the opera’s performance most venerable stage, wrote the Tribune in its of Salomé. Sitting in box seats, no less, were scant review. When Page took the stage for her Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, on one of experimental performance, she was aiming for their visits to Chicago during Stein’s American the Auditorium’s civic seal. But she knew that lecture tour. her ballet—the music, the set, and the nearly Herein lies the complicated transmission of all-black cast—would be a dramatic risk. Per- La Guiablesse as an aesthetic form: a folktale haps she chose to express in dance how lines written down by a travelling writer (Hearn), of segregation could be surpassed, creatively, which inspired a Russian immigrant dancer 312.334.7777 | harristheaterchicago.org | 205 East Randolph Drive through vigilance, attention, and exertion. (Bolm), who shared it with a white midwest- Through the creative labor of dance, you could ern choreographer (Page), who then gifted her witness the emancipatory potential of art. ballet to a black dancer (Dunham), who would Jack and Sandra Guthman What we do know, for certain, is that Ruth become intimately connected to the culture Page never danced La Guiablesse again. But of the Caribbean that originally inspired the Engagement Presenting Sponsor Corporate Engagement Sponsor Additional Support Katherine Dunham did, before she would go story and ballet. on to pioneer dance anthropology and become the “matriarch of black dance.” Page had been t this point in her life, Dunham was still asked to remount the ballet at the Chicago studying anthropology at the University Civic Opera the following year for the opera’s A of Chicago, where she distinguished her- very fi rst dance-only program. But Page said self as a brilliant young scholar and writer. that she was too involved in the choreogra- She won fellowships from the Guggenheim phy for a new piece of “Americana” called and Rosenwald Foundations the following Hear Ye! Hear Ye! with a musical score by year (1935-36) to pursue anthropological Aaron Copland. So she made the meaningful fieldwork in the Caribbean. She traveled decision to give the lead role to Dunham, who through Jamaica, Martinique, Trinidad, and “remembered every single detail,” Page writes Haiti, where she underwent the first level in her memoir, “every step.” Most importantly, of initiation into voodoo. Her fi eldwork was Dunham became the rehearsal director for La embodied, participatory, and immersive. She Guiablesse, overseeing the whole cast, includ- would eventually give up a scholarly career ing, this time around, Talley Beatty. Chicago in order to pursue a life in dance, becoming audiences may have seen blacks on stage at famous for her innovative and immensely cabarets and dance halls, but rarely at the popular choreography that fused balletic Auditorium, and almost never at the opera. (A with vernacular and folk traditions. Through black tenor had performed once in 1932, but a rigorous practice and daunting performance not, to date, a full cast.) schedule—she spent decades of her life trav- On November 30, 1934, a Friday evening, eling with her dance company—Dunham gave Dunham danced the lead to a rapturous audiences around the globe an experience of audience at the opera house. She gave “an the dances of African diaspora. 24 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll A small, torn newspaper clipping (from the tion, and o ers us one way of thinking about papers of Chicago dance critic Ann Barzel) its risks. Dunham was often criticized for the shows Katherine Dunham in the title role of highly sexualized nature of her dances, for La Guiablesse, likely in 1934. Dunham wears toying with stereotypes of nonwhite people anklets of fur and feathers like the Greek god in ways that would appeal to a wide audience, Hermes, a boundary-crosser. She raises her and for not offering “positive” representa- winglike veils over a cowering young lover. The tions of the race. Critics then and now play physical exertion of dance is often eclipsed by on Dunham’s primitivism, her idealization of its sheer beauty, but this photograph reveals non-Western people as simple, unsophisti- Dunham’s hardworking body: the angle of her cated, ruled by passion rather than intellect. elbows, the inward turn of her hands, the mus- But as her recent biographer Joanna Dee Das culature of her torso. The male dancer playing acknowledges, the trope of the primitive also her lover is identifi ed as Jordis McGee, which liberated Dunham to create groundbreaking is a misspelling of Jordis McCoo, the man who modernist forms, like it did so many other was briefl y Dunham’s fi rst husband. artists of the twentieth century. What’s more, Onward Dunham flew. Did Ruth Page’s La Dunham believed that her dances revealed Guiablesse infl uence Dunham’s fusion of Ca- how African-Americans retained complex ribbean forms that she would make her own? African cultural practices, and challenged When Dunham returned from the Caribbean, the idea that the primitive was inferior to she worked as director of Chicago’s “Negro Eurocentric dance. If she hadn’t introduced Unit” of the Federal Theatre Project, where the larger world to the movements and styles she met the highly inventive John Pratt, a of Caribbean dance—at a moment when those white costume and set designer who even- dances were threatened by the homogenizing tually became her longtime collaborator and forces of postwar globalization—then what husband. In January 1938, Dunham premiered might have been lost? a ballet that was set in a fishing village in Page and Dunham engaged in complex if TICKETS Martinique called L’Ag’Ya, a fantastical blend murky practices of appropriation and wild of martial arts and Afro-Caribbean movement, invention. Supreme modernists, both of START AT danced to the music of drums and sticks. Like them. But they were also performing acts of La Guiablesse, Dunham’s new ballet staged a recovery. During a period when choreogra- $35 love triangle through sexualized movements phers were often men—and when a ballerina and courtship rituals, including a dramatic gave her body to the authority of the male disrobing infused with magic. Dunham would choreographer—both Page and Dunham chal- eventually formalize many of the movements lenged stereotypes that equated the feminine in L’Ag’Ya as she codifi ed the “Dunham Tech- with the body and reduced women to their nique,” a method and practice that helped to biology. take “our dance”—a reference to dancing by The recent scandals at the New York City black people—“out of the burlesque.” Ballet, where powerful male dancers and ACROSS L’Ag’Ya became a staple of Dunham’s reper- former ballet master Peter Martins have been toire for the next decade as she built her tour- accused of violence and sexual harassment ing company, established a school in New York, against young women, reminds us what it and soared to international fame. Page may meant for Page and Dunham to be avant -garde, THE POND have felt, in seeing Dunham’s success, that La to be ahead of their times. They controlled and Guiablesse had really “belonged” to Dunham, cultivated their bodies, a physical primacy 2 WORLD PREMIERES & 1 JOFFREY PREMIERE or she may have realized, by mid-century, that that they put at the center of the stage. Both there was little point in her dancing the ballet, Page and Dunham challenged the concept APRIL 24–MAY 5 when Dunham and other black dancers like of dance as “naturalized expression”: their Pearl Primus could better express African and art was never simply innate but the product JOFFREY.ORG African-American traditions. of sweat, thought, and refinement. It was It may be tempting to see Dunham as the technique. A woman in 1933 at the center of a 312.386.8905 rightful heir to the ballet, as she certainly Chicago stage, dancing movements that she understood the culture from which it was herself had choreographed, Page exuberantly derived. But must artists have an embodied resisted a world that largely restricted her 2018–2019 SEASON SPONSORS PERFORMS AT: connection to their practice? Today, the ethics body, and her labor. For a black woman whose of artistic appropriation have become more body only two generations earlier could have complicated than ever, as we negotiate how been sold on the auction block of slavery, Dun- and when it is “OK” to imagine stories, lan- ham’s dancing was not only resistance, but 50 E. Ida B. Wells Dr. Chicago, IL guages, and movements that are not our own. also an act of reclamation. v Alessa Rogers and Christian Clark. Photo by Kim Kenney, courtesy of Atlanta Ballet. Dunham’s legacy has been dramatically defined by questions of cultural appropria- @LieslMOlson ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 25 Links Hall founders Bob Eisen, Carol Bobrow, and Charlie Vernon ca. 1980 CHARLESOSGOOD
slams started”), he decided to institute poetry readings on Thursday nights and experimen- tal music concerts Fridays and Saturdays. “I got grants, ran the whole show, set up chairs, swept the floor, and partied with the bands after,” he recalls. Among the early performers were several who are now well-known, includ- ing Amy and David Sedaris and Tony Fitzpat- rick. After three years curating and 24 years on the board, Zerang o¦ cially stepped down in 2014, though he continues to produce and perform an annual winter solstice concert— for the 29th time this coming December. From 1989 to 2009, Links continued to grow and evolve under the direction of Jim de Jong, Kay Wendt LaSota, Bill Dietz, Asimina Chre- mos, and CJ Mitchell. Roell Schmidt took the helm in 2009, and Vernon enthuses, “What she has done with Links is indescribably won- derful”—a “radical transformation” that has included international exchanges with Japan and Haiti and a long-anticipated move to its current location in the former Viaduct Theater in Roscoe Village in 2013 after rents skyrock- participants’ bodies, brought in “people who eted in Wrigleyville. Now Links Hall is the didn’t consider themselves dancers,” remem- only tenant of the music venue Constellation, bers Vernon. Eisen, formerly a performer which Schmidt describes as a creative partner A room of their own with Body Politic Theater, was the only sta rather than a landlord. member, answering the phone, scheduling, To celebrate its fortieth anniversary, Links Links Hall celebrates 40 years of being whatever the Chicago managing rehearsals, and sweeping up after- Hall has offered a unique gift to the city of dance community needs it to be. wards. “I didn’t have another job, I didn’t have Chicago in the form of its Pay-the-40th- another life,” he says. (“Links Hall wouldn’t be Forward Season. Beginning last August and By IH here without Bob,” interjects Bobrow.) continuing through June, the space has been In addition to serving as a rehearsal space, donated to artists to perform rent-free, an Links Hall rapidly also became a performance idea that seems to belong to a utopia most of inks Hall was originally Link’s Hall, we didn’t have any income,” says Vernon, then venue. Exploratory musician Michael Zerang, America has not yet envisioned. Supported named for John J. Link, the dentist who a dance critic at the Reader. The three found- an accompanist at MoMing who frequently by increased fundraising from large granting built it in 1914 and emblazoned his name ers, who met through the now-defunct per- rehearsed at Links, was the first to curate a institutions, individual donors, and $4 ra¸ es in the plaster above the front door. formance collective MoMing, simply wanted a at every show, the risky experiment has pro- Links Hall was an empty room above room of their own to rehearse. The economics duced powerful results. La hamburger joint next to a women’s health were simple: rent a place for a couple hundred “We’ve been trying for ten years for Links L S —C organization and a Japanese culture center bucks a month, recover costs by renting by the Y C L to reflect the city of Chicago better,” says in a seedy neighborhood where the Red Line hour to others who also needed space to work. Sat /, PM, Links Hall, Schmidt. “This is the first season where the rattled by every few minutes. Links Hall was And such a system was ideal for its tenants. N. Western, - - , entire season has featured majority artists of linkshall.org, $-$. a rehearsal space with shows at night: poetry “Small spaces and small audiences mean no color. And that feels right in a city with a ma- readings, experimental music, performance economy,” says Vernon. “It’s OK, I don’t mind. jority of people of color.” Adds Trier, “We’ve art, dance. Links Hall is where moving bodies To me, dancing was just a wonderful purpose.” learned how much Links can expand its com- meet for the contact improv jam. “There are a Without a specific mission in mind, the performance series there and became de facto munity when we can create points of access hundred Links Halls, and people have the one empty white room “filled the needs of the artistic director from 1985 to 1988. “Friday that don’t have fi nancial barriers for artists.” they go to,” says associate director Anna Trier. community right away,” says Bobrow, former- and Saturday nights were sitting empty,” he Nurturing the growth of the artistic com- In 1978, long before a line of glitzy bars ly a dancer with Mordine and Company (which recalls. “Bob said, ‘Do what you want.’ I said, ‘I munity is a holistic process at Links. Artists frequented by tourists and sports fans erupted celebrates its 50th anniversary at Links this do music,’ and he said, ‘Fine.’” developing work receive not only space and a at the intersection of She¦ eld, Newport, and May). Dancers fl ocked to the inexpensive stu- With the music community in mind, as well high percentage of box o¦ ce returns but men- Clark, choreographers Bob Eisen, Carol Bo- dio. Contact improvisation, the spontaneous as several friends who were poets (“No one torship from the Links staff, and other, less brow, and Charlie Vernon founded Links Hall. dance created by experiencing the body in was listening, and no one was paying them—it tangible forms of support. “The artists and the “I don’t know how we signed a lease, because relation to the weight and motion of other was this burgeoning scene before poetry art have sustained Links, and Links supports 26 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll By Ike Holter | Directed by Lili-Anne Brown
From le : Roell Schmidt, Felicia Holman, Brett Swinney, and Anna Trier IRENEHSIAO
not only the product but the process,” says Fe- combination of imagination and intention. licia Holman, director of Linkage partnerships, Such examples include the recent The Amtrak- Links Hall’s in-kind partnerships with other lor, in which performer Nora Sharp produced organizations. “Each of [the directors] is a a Bachelor-esque competition for an Amtrak practicing artist, so we have the empathy that companion ticket as a fundraiser for Links. helps us to identify folks who need encourage- The Vertical Sideshow, which staged a drag ment or a come-to-Jesus moment.” (Holman burlesque Giselle at Links in February, is plot- herself is cofounder of the Afro-diasporic fem- ting a cabaret matinee “for kids with progres- inist collaborative Honey Pot Performance.) sive adults” to support the reboot of Poonie’s More formally, e orts at Links have included Cabaret, a queer experimental variety show a task force to increase the quality and quan- that lost its funding and direction in 2016. tity of critical discourse by and about artists “Everybody has some kind of resource, and of color, as well as a partnership with Rough we all need to pool all our resources,” says House Theater to establish a puppeteers- Schmidt. “This season has really shown the of-color incubator, providing workshops and impact of generosity and how subversive it is,” performance opportunities with the Chicago says production director Brett Swinney. “We International Puppet Theater Festival. have this perception that generosity is a lim- In addition to creating opportunities for ited resource, but in reality it’s a fi re; it needs more artists to make new work, Links focus- tending and a spark. We give to artists, and Not everyone will go home a winner. es on helping artists to create a supportive the artists give back, and it strengthens the and sustaining community. “All the artists ecosystem. Generosity is the currency we’re “Thrilling Chicago writer” (Chicago Tribune) Ike Holter are asked to make a community investment really exchanging.” concludes his acclaimed seven-play “Rightlynd Saga” by instead of a [monetary] one,” says Schmidt. An artist-founded, artist-run, artist- assembling his vibrant characters for a raucous theatrical bash. “Artists are house managing for other artists, supporting organization, Links Hall is an people are providing ra¸ e prizes, people are empty room that has fl ourished into a commu- writing responses to each other’s work at the nity of diverse interests, abilities, and possi- MARCH 29 – APRIL 28 Performance Response Journal”—a website bilities. Refl ecting on the past 40 years, Eisen TICKETS START AT JUST $15! for artist-to-artist responses founded by past says simply, “That it’s continued is enough. Links performers Joanna Furnans and Hope Links is a community center where people Goldman that has partnered with Links for the can work.” And work together. “It’s really 312.443.3800 | GoodmanTheatre.org season. Artists are baking cakes for the Cake lonely to make art, even in a collaborative art GROUPS OF 10+ ONLY: 312.443.3820 Lounge following the LinkSircus showcase on form,” says Schmidt. “There’s so much doubt March 30, where the public is invited to cele- and fear. If we’re all relying on artists to keep
brate Links’ 40th anniversary with sweets. imagining a world di erent from the one we’re LAURENTS/HATCHER Perhaps most thrillingly, Links has found in, we have to be arm in arm.” v FOUNDATION Major Production Sponsor Institutional Partner that artists who experience generosity recip- rocate in ways that demonstrate the potent @IreneCHsiao ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 27 by the current cultural climate instead of mental playwright] Young Jean Lee and her adhering to a rigid institutional mission; it teachers—folks like Jeffrey Jones, and Mac was about nourishing new voices and getting Wellman, who’s sort of the godfather of down- weird and reacting to the now. Nobody was town theater.” out to sell their souls. In the tempest of these dramatic forces, Lil- “Stefan and Scott would go back and forth ley began to hone her own approach to theater between acting and directing,” says Lilley. For and after graduation took o for Chicago. Prop’s first official show, Brün adapted and “I didn’t feel like I found my people in directed Bertolt Brecht’s Mr. Puntila and His New York City, and I also thought I would be Man Matti; Vehill starred. the worst assistant,” she says. “I also really Vehill and Brün eventually found Prop a new wanted the opportunity to actually direct and home in Lakeview, and began renting out the create shows from start to fi nish. NYC was way hallways to the people they made shows with. too expensive. When I opened my fi rst show in It was a neo-beatnik utopia, Shakespeare with Chicago, it sold out, and I didn’t know anybody liberty spikes. “Five or six years into it, the lady punks Olivia Lilley began doing their stuff in the space,” Lilley U T JEFFREY BIVENS continues. “I wish I was there to see it, but Through /: Fri-Sat PM, Mon PM, Prop Thtr, it sounded very sexual and incisive and N. Elston, - - , ritualistic.” propthtr.org, $ . In 1994, however, Prop put on an adaptation by Paul Peditto of Nelson Algren’s Never Come Notes from Morning , directed by Jennifer Markowitz, who was there. That kind of thing would never which wound up taking home nine non- happen in NYC. I remember thinking, ‘Chica- Equity Je Awards, including Best Production. goans just like going to theater. Wow.’” According to a Je rep, it’s still the record to She also decided not to play “the game” underground beat. when she arrived. The “grown-up phase,” as Lilley calls it, “You know, you assistant direct for someone Olivia Lilley leads Prop Thtr’s gang of misfi ts, continued. At the end of the decade, Prop and then they recommend you to someone weirdos, and visionaries into the spotlight helped found the National New Play Network, else, and then they recommend you to some- an alliance of more than 100 theaters across one else,” Lilley says. “I was too much of a By KTH the country (including six others in Chicago) fucking punk. I wanted to fi gure it out on my that support and collaborate on new dramatic own.” t all began in 2015, when Olivia Lilley made press this guy,” she says. “But he left that night projects. Lilley is the type of artist who will rent out a deal with the devil. and was like, ‘All right, bitch can play.’” In 2005 Prop moved to the two adjoining an entire house in Pilsen so she can produce a At the time, she was new to the Chi- Or, as Brün puts it, “Boy, I was wrong.” storefronts on Elston in Avondale where it has show about a year in her life. cago theater scene and out to produce a In fact, Lilley could play the avant-garde lived ever since. “I called it The Party House ,” she remem- living-room tour of Faust with her exper- game so well that three years later Brün Lilley seems to be a perfect fit for Prop’s bers. “The characters were all based on real Iimental company The Runaways. That was offered her the position of artistic director highly stylized yet unruly ethos. She originally people, and I had auditions, where I did exten- when Prop Thtr cofounder Stefan Brün got in at Prop. She and I met there one night to talk set out to be a music composer as a teen. She sive improv with the actors. Then, I wrote the touch. shop. wrote a feminist version of The Phantom of script based on the cast. When we were actu- “I was crowdsourcing apartments on Face- The theater’s lobby is every bit the “La Vie the Opera when she was 13 and attended the ally working on it, I gave them enough space book when Stefan found me,” recalls Lilley. “He Boheme” fantasy that most drama kids envi- Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. She to improvise. It was really interesting fi guring was like, ‘You’re doing Faust? Let’s get co ee. sion after they watch Rent for the fi rst time: fit in with “the baby queers” who were into out what needed to be scripted and where they I want to talk.’ We went to this little restaurant mismatched furniture, piles of costumes, futurism, while her male music classmates could bend the rules and play. It’s like a band in the Gold Coast called 3rd Coast, a very old- worn posters, moody lighting, chalkboards called her “three-chord Broadway.” In college mentality. It’s like we’re making a song, but school diner within a bourgie neighborhood, covered in a variety of handwriting, irrev- at Carnegie Mellon, Lilley studied music com- who knows what’s coming from where? and we had a three-hour conversation.” erent relics from shows past, and a constant position but did everything she could to avoid “I wanted to create something that made us Brün believed she would fail. But “failure” draft so that we had to wear our winter coats writing music. After three months, she trans- think critically about the seemingly ‘normal’ is a murky term in the ever-defi ant and cash- to keep warm. ferred to the directing program. She spent her behavior around us, while also making the strapped world of experimental theater. Brün Lilley’s calm and articulate demeanor feels time o from school interning at theaters in everyday fantastical and thrilling to watch,” wasn’t talking Lilley out of the production; she like a foil to the mayhem, but the building’s New York, including the late Incubator Arts she continues. “I made the kind of theater that sensed that he was throwing down a gauntlet. funhouse vibe speaks to Prop’s history. After Project, which housed playwright Richard they would never allow in a black box.” So she persisted. producing student theater at Columbia Col- Foreman’s Ontological-Hysteric Theater. It’s a self-assuredness she developed in her “I said, ‘Oh, yeah? Watch me. Does the Prop lege, Brün and Scott Vehill introduced Prop in “It was a company that did a lot of artist-led academic life, where her professors were al- have any spaces?’” 1981, in a former strip club on Lincoln Avenue works, so seasons at Incubator usually re- ways encouraging her and her fellow directing Doubling down on his dare, Brün let her use in North Center, right next to the old Clear- volved around lead artists’ crazy projects,” students to “reinvent American theater.” the apartment above his theater for the fi nal water Saloon. The duo set out to create the she explains. “It wasn’t like, ‘This is the play, It didn’t take long for her to attract attention tour stop. home of Chicago experimental theater. To- this is the cast, this is what we’re doing.’ Those in Chicago. After her successful punk rendition “I was a bit nervous because I had to im- gether, they began producing work driven people were in conjunction with [experi- of Faust, Lilley began to receive offers from 28 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll folks like Beau O’Reilly and Jenny Magnus , the “I was 29, so I had to deal with the feeling codirectors of Curious Theatre Branch, which of not being the youngest person in the room. also resides at Prop. Together, Prop and CTB There were so many years that I had to fi ght produce Rhinofest, an annual fringe festival because of my age, but now I don’t have to that celebrated its 30th anniversary earlier anymore. It’s like, ‘What is this new evolution this winter. O’Reilly immediately wanted to of myself?’” bring Lilley into the Rhino-fold, sending her Right now, Prop is running 2 Unfortunate e-mails with the subject line “Because you did 2 Travel , an adaptation of The Unfortunate Faust.” Traveller, a 1594 novel by Thomas Nashe. Lil- “As someone who moved to Chicago in 2013, ley calls it “half-conceptual art.” after having only been in the underground New “There’s some really interesting perfor- York scene where everything was visual- and mance practices along with a strong narrative aesthetic-based, it was really cool to fi nd peo- and it’s extremely visual. The entire set is en- ple like Stefan and Beau O’Reilly,” Lilley says. tirely recycled materials.” “They were making theater with their own The show, directed by Zach Weinberg, pro- rules. To me, the incredible thing about this duced by Lilley, and devised by the cast and work is its adventurous nature, and its will- crew, is a scathing portrayal of Jack Wilton, ingness to craft new worlds using text, images, a world traveler and self-appointed ally of sound, lights, stylized physicality, music, etc.” women. But it would take several years before she “He’s trying to fi gure out what he can do to was able to accept O’Reilly’s invitation. In 2016 help, so he hires all of these women to tell his she partnered with the Minneapolis-based stories of his travels over the past four years,” playwright Savannah Reich, who had written Lilley says. The show deploys shadow pup- a musical called Hatchet Lady; it premiered petry, game shows, and other unorthodox de- at the 2017 Rhinofest. “We wanted to find a vices to unravel Jack’s sense of identity while nice, low-stakes situation where we could his cast of six women grapple with what it work together,” Lilley remembers. “Since Rhi- means to speak for him instead of themselves. nofest provides you the space, it was a super- “To me, it reads as a criticism of the theater homegrown, no-money operation. They’re companies who think they can Band-Aid them- all about building that sort of infrastructure selves and write about how they’re going to where we are incubating all Chicago artists, be diverse on their grant applications,” Lilley redefi ning what new work is and what theater says. A TALL TALE ABOUTTELLING THE TRUTH is.” Amid this and other critical conversations Th In 2018, after producing and directing a within the theater, Lilley is excited about the MAY 19 number of other Prop shows, Lilley was ap- kinds of changes she’s seeing at Prop. She pointed artistic director of Prop. Even though hopes to continue chipping at what she de- the theater’s leadership hired her to be her- scribes as Prop’s “insular” culture by keeping self, she says it took some time to win over her the door open to new folks who aren’t a part of skeptics. the theater’s historic “club.” “There had been other times when Prop “When I got here, everybody was friends had brought on new leadership,” she says, and now they’re more like colleagues,” says “but every single time, the young leaders Lilley. “They were resistant to clear contracts would decide that it was too big of a respon- or even nailing down job responsibilities. sibility and would quit after less than a year. Over the past year, everybody has really come I think also the Prop elders were worried I around to valuing organization and putting would kick them out or call them dinosaurs. that extra e ort in towards communication.” They are not dinosaurs, but they are baby Brün echoes these sentiments, noting that boomers, so they can be sensitive. They don’t Lilley has renewed the sense of professional realize the enormous achievement of man- management that had lapsed in recent years. aging to be serious artists for a majority of She is particularly good at social media to their lives. Prop is fi lled with people who have promote Prop’s work—arguably the best way survived it all.” of making new friends and forging artistic The role transformed Lilley’s sense of self. relationships. While she was still adjusting to her new po- “The conversation about what is exciting sition, she wrote and directed Neverland , an and experimental feels so much bigger now,” ensemble-devised imagining of the fi nal days she says. “People were actually coming to each of Peter Pan. Staged at Prop, the show received other’s shows, people who didn’t even know more grants than any of Lilley’s other work, what this place is.” v and she found herself leading about 20 people at any given moment. @ranchstressing ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 29 Lily Be Live, from life ELIZABETHMCQUERN How Lily Be made the local storytelling scene look more like Chicago. By C S
fter the rush of winning the 2013 Moth ber I landed it, and my mom was all, “Where GrandSlam storytelling competition did you learn that?” And I was like, “School,” A faded, Lily Be (née Lydia Edith Lucio) because I didn’t want her taking away my noticed that her fellow storytellers were cable. overwhelmingly white. “When I heard I was Telling stories around the table, that was the fi rst Latinx to win the Slam I was like, ‘Are just a thing my family did. My mom and my you serious? How can that be?’” she says. “It’s grandma and my aunts used stories to teach not like we’re some out-of-the-way place. It’s us lessons. Like, “This is the story of that time Chicago.” Be, a Humboldt Park native of Mexican TS descent, decided to create a storytelling Thu / , PM, Rosa’s platform that actually looked like the city Lounge, W. Armitage, where she grew up. The same year as her Moth lilybe.com , $. triumph, Be began The Stoop, now a monthly S C event at Rosa’s Lounge in Logan Square; a pod- Sat /, PM, Hairpin Arts cast is poised to launch this spring. She’s also Center, N. Milwaukee, storycollider.org , $. nurturing the next generation of storytellers house she worked in, but she stabbed him in don’t have a voice, because that’s what the by teaching “Discovering Your Story” courses the leg with a fork and ran home barefoot. world tells you when you’re poor and brown. at Second City, the Hairpin Arts Center, and your aunt got buried in the snow and ruined I have this story about my grandpa and Your family sometimes tells you that. Your Northeastern Illinois University as well as her new coat and almost froze a er she lied his 75th birthday. The night of the seven goat partner might tell you that. Sometimes it’s leading an ongoing Stoop workshop for new- about hanging out with some boys, and this is heads. They were on covered dishes. I was 18. right in your face, sometimes it’s real insidious. bie storytellers. why you don’t lie.” I don’t know what I expected was under there, Sometimes it’s a commercial that’ll tell you, She sat down with the Reader to talk about Sometimes they were horror stories. but it wasn’t goat heads. When they uncov- for instance, you’re a terrible parent because how she got started, where she’s going, and There was one about my grandma and Fred- ered the platters there they were. Seven of you’re not that mother from What to Expect how the storytelling world is changing. Her dy Krueger. We’d ask her how the scratches in them. Eyes, ears, tongues, everything. And When You’re Expecting. I want my students to words are condensed and edited below. the roof of the car got there. She told us, “Oh, they were devoured. Every part of them. So know they have a voice. Freddy Krueger did that.” When I got preg- this is a tradition from Mexico, and a er I told When I was off ered $600 to peg a guy we’ll I was like seven [when I told my first story]. nant [at 17], she told me I was now old enough this story, this guy comes up to me and says, call Ross I was so upset and offended and Maybe eight. It was a joke as much as a story, to hear the truth. She told me, “Those are the “I would not have guessed you were Mexican. hurt. I’d met him on a fetish kink website, and this Paul Rodriguez joke that had a bad word scratches I put in the car myself a er I found You don’t look Mexican.” And I told him, “You I was all, “How dare you!” But when I talked to for a phallic symbol in it. So, basically a dick out your grandpa was giving another woman don’t know enough Mexicans.” my mom about it, she was all, “Are you insane? joke only I didn’t know what a dick was. I told rides in our car.” She also told me about how That’s when I started really wondering, “Am Take the money!” So I did. I can make $600 it on the way to church. What kills me is I can’t she became an orphan. About [how] she was I the only Latinx sharing stories right now? an hour, no intercourse. I pegged guys who in remember the punch line. But I do remem- almost sexually assaulted by the guy whose Where are the rest of us?” the regular world are powerful in fi nance or Some storytelling shows come to town and law or business owners. That’s when I realized I see what they book and I’m like, “Really? You I could walk into a room of one hundred rich, NTOZAKE SHANGE’S couldn’t fi nd one brown person for the show? powerful white men and not be afraid to open DIRECTED BY Can we get someone who is poor on the my mouth. FOR COLORED GIRLS SERET SCOTT stage?” My sharing about being a cougar who pegs WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE/ When I started questioning why I was the men got me a residency at the Ragdale Foun- only Latinx to win the Moth GrandSlam, the dation. Which just tells you that there is no WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF [storytelling] scene didn’t like that. I‘d get up bad from which good can’t come. on stage and ask, “Who here is from Chicago? I took the name Lily Be a er I found out I Who identifi es as a person of color?” It would was named a er someone my father wanted SPONSORED BY SPONSORED be like 1 percent. The Moth was like, “Hey, to marry—Lydia. And my last name is also tied THROUGH APRIL 14 we’re open for everybody.” But that’s not to him. Lily is what my brother called me when 5535 S ELLIS AVE enough. You have to go out and get people. he was little, couldn’t pronounce “Lydia.” And FREE PARKING GARAGE My classes aren’t about craft. Whatever “Be” is just—I am. I’m here. I exist. If you’re CourtTheatre.org that is. They are about discovering your story. looking for me, here I am. v Not perfecting it or performing it or winning
(773) 753-4472 Photo: Joe Mazza. a contest with it. Discovering it. I thought I @CateySullivan 30 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll The Adventures of Augie March JOEMAZZA Rick Boynton, creative producer for Chicago “I’ve always loved the piece,” France says, Shakes, says, “It’s a kick-ass pop concert, a la “but it didn’t quite fit our mission for the Ariana Grande and Katy Perry and Beyoncé, breakdown for male and female characters. where the six ex-wives of Henry VIII get to tell I got in touch with Michael and asked if he their story, rather than being known through minded if we reorchestrated it.” LaChiusa his story.” For this U.S. premiere, Boynton agreed, and thus the original cast breakdown notes that there will be some references updat- of three women and four men now features ed for stateside audiences, but without losing mostly women and nonbinary voices. the smarts of “the Tudor to contemporary Getting local legend Barbara E. Robertson vernacular” in the lyrics. He also notes that the to play Taylor highlights the respect Firebrand fl exible space of The Yard o ers the opportu- has earned in its short history. “When we were nity for codirectors Moss and Jamie Armitage talking about who would play this incredi- “to fi ll the room in a really spectacular way.” ble role, she didn’t cross my mind because I wouldn’t have thought it was a possibility,” Three to watch Q M says France. But one phone call got Robertson, In only 18 months, Firebrand Theatre has who has won eight Je Awards over the course The Adventures of Augie March, Six, and Queen of the Mist bring attracted attention through its mission to ex- of a career that has encompassed musicals defi ance and derring-do to Chicago stages this spring. pand opportunities for women on- and o stage and straight plays (including the fi rst national in musical theater. For artistic director and co- tours of Wicked and Angels in America), on By KR founder Harmony France, that means seeking board. out work that foregrounds women’s stories, Taking big chances is Taylor’s story, too. hree new shows this season celebrate So you hear some of the original Bellow syntax even if they’re written by men. In Michael John Notes France, “She was 63 when she went over defiance and derring-do, from the poetic and vocabulary and extraordinary writing, LaChiusa’s 2011 musical Queen of the Mist, the falls and lived 20 years beyond that. She T grit of Saul Bellow to the feminist sass of even in a world where people talk like people.” receiving its Chicago premiere with Firebrand, was this woman at the turn of the century, liv- six famous wives to a pioneering thrill-seeker. we meet schoolteacher Annie Edson Taylor, ing in this man’s world and fi guring it out.” v S the fi rst person to survive going over Niagara TA A M People who know little else about English Falls in a barrel she designed herself. @kerryreid Bellow’s 1953 picaresque coming-of-age history can probably recite the fates of Henry tale—which opens with the famous line “I am VIII’s wives—“Divorced, beheaded, died; di- an American, Chicago born”—comes to life in vorced, beheaded, survived.” In Toby Marlow David Auburn’s world-premiere adaptation, and Lucy Moss’s pop-rock musical (which commissioned by the University of Chicago’s Court Theatre and staged by artistic director Charles Newell. Auburn graduated from U TA A M of C in 1991 and won the 2001 Pulitzer for /-/: Wed-Fri : PM, Sat-Sun and : PM, Court Theatre, S. Proof, which Newell directed at Court in 2013. Ellis, -- , courttheatre.org, (Though Bellow taught at U of C for decades, $-$, $.-$ students. he lasted only two years as an undergrad there before transferring to Northwestern.) S /-/: Wed-Fri :, Sat and That production got the two men talking : PM, Sun and PM, Tue : about other projects on which they could PM, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, collaborate. “He started tossing around some E. Grand, --, chicagoshakes.com , $ -$. ideas and when he proposed Augie March, I said yes instantly,” says Newell. This is the Q M first time the Bellow estate has granted the / -/: Thu-Sat : PM, Sun PM, Den Theatre, N. Milwaukee, - rights for a stage adaptation of any Bellow -, firebrandtheatre.org, $, work. Newell says it was Auburn’s pedigree $ students and industry. and approach to the writing that helped per- suade them. “He’s taken this extraordinary 400-page won raves during its West End run as well as novel and turned it into a play,” he says. “If you several Olivier Award nominations), the wives know the novel and the language, you think, toss o the chains of history and join forces as ‘How the hell is this going to work onstage?’ a singing sisterhood of empowerment. He was brilliant in many ways, one of which The show was a late addition to the Chicago is that he’s translated all the events into lan- Shakespeare season. Originally, a new musical guage that sounds like real people, yet at vari- version of Bedknobs and Broomsticks was ous moments, particularly for someone who is scheduled, but it was delayed after the death voiceless or powerless or unable to speak, he of director Rachel Rockwell last year. Six, slat- then used direct quotes pulled from the novel ed for the 2019-20 season, was then moved up for what we now refer to as ‘the Bellow music.’ a year. ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 31 A story about survivors, the resilient bond of family, and the enduring power of music. CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND
A PLAY BY DIRECTED BY LAUREN YEE MARTI LYONS
FEATURING SONGS BY DENGUE FEVER
APRIL 5–MAY 5 Dutch Masters JOELMAISONET GET TIX: 773.871.3000 or VICTORYGARDENS.ORG Wayback machine Jackalope and Raven take audiences on a trip back to 1992.
JACKALOPE AND RAVEN THEATRES are is on the cusp of obsolescence, its owner hell- firing up the wayback machine this spring bent on rocking on despite the inexorable rise with a pair of shows set in 1992. If you don’t of electronica and DJs. “Then, you hustled for remember the era of cassette mix tapes, exposure, concert by concert,” Eason remem- grunge, and Rodney King, prepare for a crash course on back-in-the-day. “This is a period piece. Except it’s not,” says Wardell Julius Clark, director of Dutch Mas- D M ters, a two-person psychological thriller by Through /: Thu-Sat PM, Sun and PM, Broadway Greg Keller now playing at Jackalope. The Armory Park, N. Broadway, play’s contemporary elements are unmistak- jackalopetheatre.org, $, $ able, even when (especially when) the dia- students and seniors. logue turns to politics, notably David Dinkins’s TU S election as the fi rst African-American mayor R N of New York City. “There’s this thing that hap- / -/: Thu-Sat : PM, pens when black people get in power. It hap- Sun PM, Raven Theatre, N. Clark, -- , pened then. It’s happening now,” Clark says. raventheatre.com, $, $ “People will say, ‘Racism doesn’t exist any- teachers and seniors, $ more.’ Then there’s backlash. It happened students and military/veterans. with Obama—we had eight years and then it’s ‘You better get back in your corner.’” For The Undeniable Sound of Right Now, opening at the Raven on May 2, playwright bers. “Now, you can reach millions of people Laura Eason drew on her memories of play- overnight. But in some ways—the gentrifica- ing Lounge Ax and Metro in the early 90s as tion pushing out artists, music evolving from a member of the power-pop band Tart. The one form to the next—it’s the same as it ever bar-concert venue where the action unfolds was.” —C S 32 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll AUDITORIUM THEATRE. Joff rey Ballet completed a run of Anna Karenina the night before, so the sprung deck is still on the stage.
Leave the light on
The ghost light, a single bulb in an empty theater, is for safety—and superstition. Story and Photos By M G
hether they’re holding the paranormal Some tempt fate. Arriving at The Yard at Got a ghost light? All good. As the Lyric at bay or preventing a misstep into the Chicago Shakespeare to co-direct a produc- Opera’s master electrician, Mike Reynolds, W orchestra pit, ghost lights have been tion of Macbeth last year, Teller—half of the says, “if you don’t put [a ghost light] out keeping Chicago stages safe for more than magician duo Penn and Teller and known bad things start to happen around the Opera a century. Traditionally a single light bulb for his character’s silence—strolled into the House. You’re showing your appreciation for fitted in a cage atop a tall stand, the ghost theater and announced to all, “Let’s get this the ghost taking care of you, much like chil- light is a fi xture placed on stage just before over with: Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth Mac- dren putting out milk and cookies for Santa.” the theater goes dark and acts as bare-bones beth Macbeth.” To utter the name even once illumination. And, just in case, to keep spirit could, as an old theater superstition goes, @matthew.gilson mischief to a minimum. tempt catastrophe. J ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 33 SECOND CITY MAINSTAGE. Current production: Algorithm Nation or the Static Quo.
GIFT THEATRE. Above and right: Gi Theatre is currently performing Doubt: A Parable at Steppenwolf Theatre and is keeping the ghost light on in its 50-seat storefront space.
continued from 33 34 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER, JENTES FAMILY COURTYARD THEATER. The set is for Short Shakespeare! Macbeth, scenic designer Scott Davis.
LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO, ARDIS KRANIK THEATRE. That day, the set for La traviata was being struck so that the set for Ariodante could take its place for a main stage rehearsal. The current productions were Verdi’s La traviata and Strauss’s Elektra. Ariodante opened March 2.
WRITERS THEATRE, ALEXANDRA C. AND JOHN D. NICHOLS THEATRE. Glencoe. Set: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, scenic designer Todd Rosenthal. A newer venue, Writers has its ghost light installed in the grid overhead. Architect Jeannie Gang salvaged bricks from the abandoned building that was demolished to make way for the theater, using them in the textured interior walls. ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 35 THEATER
REVIEW THEATER Grand tour These colors don’t fade R 2 Unfortunate 2 Travel is escapism you A er 40 years, Ntozake Shange’s can feel good about. choreopoem for colored girls In Thomas Nashe’s novel The Unfortunate Traveller, the remains a stunner. young servant-soldier Jack Wilton swashbuckles his way through the Grand Tour about a century before such By S F European travels became a standard part of a wellborn gentleman’s education. In Prop Thtr’s 2 Unfortunate 2 Travel, director Zach Weinberg and his excellent ensem- ble retell Jack’s story in the present day. But who is Jack, and why do we need to hear about his trip to Mexico? In brief, Jack is the whitest white boy you have ever seen and, because travel literature along with colonialism has long been the province of white MICHAELBROSILOW men, 2 Unfortunate takes the fascinating approach of Landladies MICHAELBROSILOW having Jack tell the story of his “post-election panic “I found god in myself and I loved her by casting actors who are versatile enough vacation” through the voices and bodies of six young fi ercely.” to embody the broad range of perspectives women (three Irish, four of color—you do the math) in a Healy are delightful as the young lovers, and Michael cabaret-style performance on a set constructed almost Dalberg earns lots of laughs as the trickster and con in the script. This is a play for girls of all entirely of cardboard (by Melissa Schlesinger). It works man Autolycus. frican-American feminist poet and colors of the rainbow. Jubilant childhood beautifully. Joshua Allard’s costumes, Milo Bue’s scenic design, playwright Ntozake Shange’s most patty-cake games like “Shortnin’ Bread” What makes this adaptation so delightful are its gi - and L.J. Luthringer’s sound and music design all com- Arenowned work, for colored girls who delightfully morph into stepping. Later we ed performers, who not only deliver Jack’s diary entries plement the production without upstaging the perfor- have considered suicide/when the rainbow is are treated to traditional African dance and as strikingly individual monologues but also incorporate mances or the Bard’s language. —J H B other storytelling methods—dance, spoken-word poetry, F W Through 4/20: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 enuf, now playing at Court Theater, is a spir- violin, puppetry—to create a parallel narrative that PM; also Wed 3/27, 8 PM, Edge Theater, 1133 W. itual experience. Shange described the work ranges between reinforcement and subversion of Jack’s Catalpa, 773-340-9438, idlemuse.org , $20, $15 stu- as a “choreopoem”; it fuses poetry, dance, R / earnest discovery of other places and other cultures. dents and seniors, $10 industry on Thu. music, and song to create a transcendent This becomes an exceptionally powerful confrontation Through /: Wed-Fri : PM, of issues such as allyship, safe spaces, and the political The sap is rising theatrical experience. Sat-Sun and : PM; Court implications of its own premise. The running gag of Bright Star will try the patience of even the most More than 40 years after it was fi rst per- Theatre, S. Ellis, -- having Jack’s philosophical waxing at the end of each tenderhearted romantic. formed, for colored girls remains a stunning , courttheatre.org, $-$, episode drowned out by music does not get old. —I $.-$ students. feminist interrogation of subjects like love, H U T Through 4/15: Your ability to go along with this 2014 Steve Martin-Edie Fri-Sat 9 PM, Mon 8 PM, Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston, Brickell musical may hinge on your general willingness identity, infidelity, body image, and abuse 773-742-5420, propthtr.org , $20. to accept the see-through sentiment and plucky hokum with a nuance and specificity that modern a heartbreaking contemporary solo by Leah that pervades the American musical stage. But given media often boils down to the empty calories Casey, whose movement expresses the pain Exit, pursued by a bear the level of baked-in, overearnest nostalgia, especially of “girl power.” It’s comprised of 20 powerful of strong women who hide behind a facade Best For Winter provides an early springtime in director Ericka Mac’s sparkly-eyed staging for BoHo intertwining monologues, including med- so that the world will accept them. thaw. Theatre, even the most romantic sap might ache for something with a bit more depth. itations on the contradictory kindness of It is impossible to overstate how talented Though advertised as an adaption of William Shake- It’s 1945, and young soldier Billy Cane returns from rapists, the claustrophobia of city living, so- this entire cast is. Patrese D. McClain gives a speare’s The Winter’s Tale by Evan Jackson (who also the war to small-town North Carolina only to fi nd his ciety’s near psychopathic value of emotion- stellar and ebullient performance as an ear- directs), this production by Idle Muse Theatre is, for all mother has died, a trauma he successfully processes less rationality, and the hilariously pathetic nest young innocent in love with Toussaint practical purposes, a fairly faithful, if slimmed-down, ver- with about 32 measures of “She’s Gone.” An aspiring sion of Shakespeare’s play with a couple of his sonnets writer, Billy leaves his bookish maybe-girlfriend Margo apologies of disappointing men. Louverture, leader of the Haitian Revolution. thrown in for good measure. Jackson’s simple, elegant and heads to Asheville, lying his way into a meeting The play begins with a killer guitar solo AnJi White is a chameleon, delivering two production is well suited to the intimacy of the Edge with Alice Murphy, the imposing literary editor of the by the outrageously talented Melody Angel, of the most powerful and radically di erent Theater’s performing space. esteemed Asheville Southern Journal. Prickly, asocial (who recently made her theatrical debut in monologues of the night. The fi rst explores As in the original, there is a major shi in tone Alice has quite a backstory, which began 23 years earlier halfway through the tale, from somber psychological in backwater Zebulon, where an intelligent, free-spirited the epic Father Comes Home From The Wars the complexities of seduction and body drama to lighthearted comedy, as the story turns from girl with big dreams ran into predictable trouble. The at the Goodman), and then shifts to a tab- image and asks, can this world love a plain King Leontes, whose pathological jealousy leads to his show alternates between Billy’s past and Alice’s present leaux of seven black women, their Afros and black woman? The second describes a nearly wife’s death, to a romance that blossoms between his (Jim Crow doesn’t exist in either place) until they inter- curls gracing their heads like crowns. The unspeakable tragedy, heightened by haunt- exiled daughter and a handsome prince. Jackson’s cast twine in a fi nale so contrived and saccharine it’ll likely handles this potentially awkward change fairly well, curl your toenails. Grecian courtyard set, designed by Courtney ing lighting design by Paul Toben. though Brian Bengtson is too emotionally restrained It’s all told through a repetitive bluegrassish score O’Neill, adds to the regal e ect: it honors the for colored girls who have considered sui- to be fully convincing as the unhinged Leontes. The and a radio-serial book that eschew nuance at most words of ordinary women. Shange’s text in- cide/when the rainbow is enuf is one of the top same holds for Mara Kovacevic’s icy performance as every turn, mistaking plot devices for characters, ulti- tentionally refl ects the way that real women productions of this theater season. Shange’s Hermione, the faithful wife accused of adultery: the lady mately suggesting that grief and villainy are no match speak; she purposefully chose the word “col- words cradle you and linger long after the doth protest too little. for optimism, dumb luck, and a banjo. It’s mostly well Things warm up in the second half. They almost sung, despite a rather muddy live band, although the ored” for the title so that her grandmother final curtain. Laugh, cry, and be soothed by always do in productions of The Winter’s Tale, in part incessantly circulating chorines make it seem like North could understand it. the full and beautiful soulful voices. because the story is sweeter, more like a fairy tale than Carolina is overrun with cheery zombies. —J Director Seret Scott, who was part of the “Let her be born and handled warmly.” v a tragedy, and it has a life-affi rming ending. The perfor- H B S Through 5/5: Thu-Sat 8 original Broadway cast, infuses the script mances in the second half of the current production PM, Sun 2 PM, Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. feel more relaxed and playful. Kristen Alesia and Brian Lincoln, 773-404-7336, bohotheatre.com, $35. with vitality, prescience, and universality @SheriFlanders 36 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll R READERRECOMMENDEDb ALLAGESF THEATER From Arabesque another. The shades of grey painted by Rothstein’s Full circle character development and McLeod’s visceral direction R ShawChicago goes out the way it came are a thought-provoking delight to watch. —M in, with The Doctor’s Dilemma. O L Through 4/20: Wed 1 to Zapateado and 7:30 PM, Thurs 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 2:30 and For 25 seasons, ShawChicago has been entertaining lov- 8 PM, Sun 2:30 PM; additional performance Sun 4/7, ers of classic Anglo-Irish comedy with readers’ theater 7 PM; no performance Wed 4/3, 1 PM, Northlight renditions of the works of George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Theatre, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie, 847-673-6300, Wilde, J.M. Barrie, and Noel Coward, among others. northlight.org , $30-$88, student $15. The company will cease operations this year following the death of its longtime artistic director Robert Scogin; Melancholy Play? Also twee as for its last production, it’s presenting the same play with which it debuted in 1994—The Doctor’s Dilemma, one of hell. Shaw’s sharpest works—in a beautifully spoken perfor- Sarah Ruhl’s contemporary farce crosses the line mance under the direction of Gary Alexander. from self-awareness to self-parody. The 1906 play concerns an eminent London physi- cian, Sir Colenso Ridgeon, who fi nds himself in a per- Playwright Sarah Ruhl is on the record as not loving the plexing position. He has developed a groundbreaking words “quirky” or “whimsical” applied to her brand of new treatment for tuberculosis (an incurable disease in refl ective, heady, poetic quasi-comedy. I can’t imagine Shaw’s time), but his busy boutique medical practice has she loves the adjective “twee” either, and yet there’s no room for only one new patient. Faced with two terminal getting around how prominently it hangs over the arty, cases, he must decide which impoverished patient is wry proceedings of this frequently staged 2002 “con- more worth saving: a mediocre but good-hearted fellow temporary farce,” which originally debuted at Evanston’s doctor or a brilliant young artist who’s also an amoral Piven Theatre. scoundrel—and whose wife Ridgeon is infatuated with. Tilly (Alys Dickerson), a chronically melancholy bank This prickly premise gives Shaw ample opportunity to teller, is sent by her employer to a wacky, unspecifi ed explore an array of ethical, scientifi c, and emotional Euro-accented psychotherapist (Martin Diaz-Valdes) to complexities in one of his most intriguing, caustic, and treat her aloof, not-quite-depressed condition. Her literate scripts. contemplative, sexy-sad way of meandering through The excellent cast includes Timothy W. Hull as Rid- life proves to be irresistibly alluring to everyone around geon, Daniel Millhouse and Monica Orozco as the artist her including her therapist, tailor (Kris Downing), hair- and his devoted wife, and Mark Richard as a misguided dresser (Rachael Soglin), and partnered new friend medical colleague of Ridgeon’s. —A W (Stephanie Sullivan). To their collective horror, she some- TD ’D Through 4/15: Sat noon, how discovers manic, unrelenting bliss, and the gang Sun 1 PM, Mon 7 PM, Ruth Page Center for the of potential suitors set out to “correct” her newfound Performing Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn, 312-587-7390, alienating happiness. shawchicago.org , $40, $35 seniors, $20 students. Director Laura Sturm’s production for Organic The- ater Company features live, somber mood-setting cello Christine’s world music by Michaela Voit and some legitimately laugh- R Landladies explores the power dynamic out-loud dialogue, particularly between Dickerson and between renters and owners. Soglin. During exchanges in which Tilly’s version of small talk wears down and hypnotizes a bystander for the fi rst The world premiere of this Northlight Theatre- time, notably in a great, show-defi ning haircut scene, commissioned work, written by Sharyn Rothstein and the actors showcase the sharp, hyperspecifi c comedic directed by Jess McLeod, presents a wonderfully com- impulse Ruhl’s play seems to be aiming for. plicated female relationship anchoring a larger story of But the sketch-length highlights aren’t enough income inequality and abuse of power. Christine (Leah to sustain an otherwise droll-to-the-point-of-boring Karpel) is a single mother struggling to fi nd a home and comedy, which more o en than not luxuriates in the keep herself and her daughter afl oat, all while getting same character tropes and gaudy, lyrical prose it’s away from a destructive ex named Poet (Julian Parker). supposedly poking fun at. An entire fi nal-act subplot Lying about her situation, she rents an apartment from of sad people transforming into almonds blurs the line Marti (Shanesia Davis). It’s oven-less and has a gaping between self-awareness and self-parody to the point hole in the fl oor, but it has four walls, so it will have to where it is rendered indistinguishable. —D J do. A poster of Christina’s World by Andrew Wyeth on M P Through 4/14: Wed-Sat 7:30 the wall best sums up this moving representation of PM, Sun 2:30 PM, Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 eviction and homelessness: it’s crippling, it dispropor- N. Lincoln, 773-404-7336, organictheater.org, $30, tionately aff ects women, and solutions feel completely $21 industry, students, and seniors. out of reach. We off er hundreds of classes and workshops Karpel and Davis play their roles with a compelling One woman’s search for meaning mix of sharp cynicism and genuine empathy, fi nding My Name is Rachel Corrie shows that tragic common ground over their shared “otherness” and source material doesn’t make great drama. annually in just about every kind of dance. inability to get ahead. Marti has gained some indepen- dence through real estate entrepreneurship (albeit The Jacaranda Collective’s inaugural production is a Come move with us this spring! teetering on slumlord status), and sees in Christine a sim- one-woman dramatization of the notes and journal ilarly gutsy spirit familiar with making her own luck. She entries of Rachel Corrie, the young American woman gains Christine’s trust through intimate conversations, killed by a bulldozer as she tried to prevent the leveling acting as a seasoned advisor with her best interests at of a Palestinian home by Israeli forces. Adapted to the Find your perfect class heart. What muddies the relationship, though, is Marti’s stage by actor Alan Rickman and journalist Katherine power and fi nancial dominance as the landlady. As her Viner, it’s meant to be a provocative salvo from a brand- at oldtownschool.org motives slowly come into question, it becomes clear new theater company. But fraught, tragic source materi- that Christine traded one manipulative relationship for al doesn’t necessarily equal great drama. B ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 37 The only way to change the past is to create a new one. THEATER
B Imagine spending an hour and a half with one of Peter Handke happens outside the venue. The play is those enthusiastic Greenpeace volunteers who button- presented against a window that has its curtains open hole people on the street and you’ll have some sense to reveal the 4500 block of North Western in Lincoln of what it’s like to sit through this play. In between Square in all its humdrum neon non-glory. The produc- harangues about international politics—which, like many tion enters its umpteenth movement of what sounds like twenty-somethings, Corrie takes herself to be an expert one voice, spread across nine performers, incoherently on—we are treated to a litany of the hopes and dreams blaming itself for everything it has ever done. People of a very average young woman from the Pacifi c North- have chalk and fake blood smeared on them, they’re west who wants desperately for her life to have some yelling at each other, it’s all a big old mess. Then this NOW PLAYING special purpose. elderly lady walks up to the glass. Mesmerized at the
PICTURED: NATE BURGER AND WILLIAM BROWN. PHOTO BY SAVERIO TRUGLIA. BURGER AND WILLIAM BROWN. PICTURED: NATE Halie Robinson does all she can to make Corrie play of bodies, gesturing to ambivalent passers-by like come to life, but other than her horrible death—which a kid at the fair, she is obviously a plant. Right? She’s in 847-242-6000 I WRITERSTHEATRE.ORG one can read about elsewhere and obviously isn’t a on it, right? fi rst-person account—there’s just not much there. If Cor- Arlene Arnone Bibbs gives the performance of the rie is the sum of these journal entries, she’s not someone millennium in what feels at fi rst like the luckiest accident I would’ve been interested to spend time with. That’s not that’s ever happened to a theater company trying to FROM DAVID CROMER, THE a judgment on her cause or doubt about her good inten- shake things up. Her appearance does shake things up. TONY-WINNING DIRECTOR tions. Not all lives that end tragically merit a 90-minute Codirectors Melissa Lorraine and Héctor Álvarez get play. Directed by Sam Bianchini. —D S the kind of chaotic magic they were going for and had OF BROADWAY’S THE BAND’S VISIT! MN R C Through 4/6: Thu-Sat thus far missed by violating the most sacred expectation 7:30 PM, Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee, 773-697- of theater: that it has an outside and an inside, and that 3830, jacarandacollective.com, $25, $15 students. never the twain shall meet. This frame-shattering sense of fun proves impossible to wring out of a heartless A disaster singalong script and a cast that’s been trained to scream what it R Poseidon! is still shipshape. does not understand. But oh, Ms. Bibbs! Peer in on us anytime! —M M S -A Through The dramatic footage from the Norwegian cruise ship 4/28: Fri-Sun 7:30 PM, The Ready, 4546 N. Western, stranded in rough waters this past weekend was cool, 708-209-0183, theatre-y.com . F but you couldn’t sing along to it. For that, you need to head over to Hell in a Handbag’s remount of this 2002 Required viewing
PICTURED: DAVID SCHLUMPF, KEELY VASQUEZ, LIAM OH AND LIAM OH AND VASQUEZ, KEELY SCHLUMPF, PICTURED: DAVID KYRIE COURTER. PHOTO BY SAVERIO TRUGLIA. show, the fi rst in the company’s checkered camp history. R Sweat shows how Trump’s America came BEGINS MAY 8 Created by Handbag founder David Cerda (with help to be. from Scott Lamberty), this homage/spoof of the 1972 2018/19 SEASON SPONSOR OFFICIAL LIGHTING SPONSOR Irwin Allen-produced disaster-at-sea fi lm is still mostly When people talk about “Trump’s America,” they mean shipshape, thanks to a stellar cast. two things at once. In general, the phrase is simply a Stevie Love’s idiot child-woman singer, Nonnie, con- term to describe where the country’s been at since MAJOR PRODUCTION SPONSOR FOUNDATION SUPPORT CORPORATE SPONSOR trasts with Elizabeth Lesinkski’s brassy ex-hooker, Linda the 2016 election. It’s also the preferred term of con- (who steams and struts her way through the show- descension among blue-staters for the great swaths stopping “Just Panties”). David Lipschutz as the insuff er- of Americans who elected him president. Simply as an able Reverend Scott channels Harold Hill in The Music explanation for how Trump’s America got the way it is, Man in his wrestling-with-faith number, “Dear God.” (Not and, by extension, how the country got the way it is, to be confused with the XTC song of the same title.) Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play is the most And Tommy Bullington as Belle Rosen warbles “(In the important work of art produced in the last fi ve years. Water) I’m a Very Skinny Lady” with a dash of poignance. I was fortunate to see it on Broadway; this production, The pedophilia jokes at the expense of Frankie Leo Ben- with its cast of all-Chicago talent—including director nett’s Robin feel awkward, to say the least, but Cerda Ron OJ Parson—and reimagined set design, is every bit fi nds an unlikely ethical workaround by the end. as aff ecting. Derek Van Barham’s direction and Breon Arzell’s The play gives the audience one view a er another choreography both commit to a more-is-more aesthetic, of disintegration. It starts with three women, coworkers which plays nicely off the poor-theater inventiveness in the same rust belt factory, celebrating a birthday of Christopher Rhoton’s scenic design. (I particularly at their favorite bar. By the end, six months later, the liked how the production handled the man-falling- “vipers” running things at the plant have erased a whole through-skylight sequence.) It takes a little while to fi nd way of life, and the bartender, Stan (Keith Kupferer, in its sea legs, but Poseidon’s aff ection for the original a powerful performance), has gone from advising the cruising matches course with a sharp dissection of its women’s kids not to leave the assembly line—“You leave, cliches. —KR P !A U D it’ll be impossible to get back in”—to wishing out loud M Through 4/28: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; that he’d skipped town himself 30 years earlier, when additional performance Mon 4/22, 7:30 PM, The the getting was good. Amid that rubble, we are le Edge Theater, 5451 N. Broadway, 800-838-3006, with a lacerating portrayal of one town’s ruin. Sweat is handbagproductions.org, $32-$58. required viewing for anybody in search of answers to our fractured reality. —M M SThrough The woman in the window 4/14: Wed 7:30 PM, Thu 2 and 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat The best part of Self-Accusation happens out on 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 and 7:30 PM; no performance Thu the sidewalk. 4/4, 2 PM or Sun 4/14 7:30 PM, Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, 312-443-3800, goodmantheatre. The most incredible moment in this Theatre Y produc- org , $20-$86. v tion of a nearly-forgotten German avant-garde play by
38 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll THEATER arabesque
Sweat LIZLAUREN
NOW PLAYING world-premiere adaptation from Cheryl West. Chicago Sweat Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Children’s Theatre, through April 28 about a group of blue-collar friends in Reading, Penn- Little Shop of Horrors The Little Man-Eating sylvania, dealing with economic disaster gets its local Plant That Could returns in Walter Stearns’ produc- premiere under Ron OJ Parson’s direction. Goodman tion of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s pop- Theatre, through April 14 horror musical, based on the Roger Corman cult fi lm. Herland Three aging women plan a DIY retirement Mercury Theater Chicago, through April 28 home and come to terms with long-denied desires in Small World Jillian Leff and Joe Lino’s new black this world premiere of Grace McLeod’s play. Redtwist comedy for the New Colony places a trio of Disney- Theatre, through April 14 land employees inside the crumbling walls of the It’s a For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Small World ride a er an apparent apocalyptic event. Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf Den Theatre, through May 4 Ntozake Shange’s groundbreaking 1976 “choreopoem” Bright Star BoHo Theatre presents the Chica- about black women’s lives, loves, and struggles gets go premiere of Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s a revival under Seret Scott’s direction. Court Theatre, Tony-nominated musical love story set in North Car- through April 14 olina during the 1920s and ‘40s. Greenhouse Theater The Doctor’s Dilemma ShawChicago closes Center, through May 5 its doors a er 25 years with George Bernard Shaw’s Admissions The hot-button topic of the dark “problem play” about rationed medical care. Ruth underbelly of privilege that undermines the drive for What would you do to get your kid into college? Page Center for the Performing Arts, through April 15 diversity at prestige academic institutions takes cen- Landladies Sharyn Rothstein’s world-premiere ter stage in Joshua Harmon’s biting comedy. Theater drama highlights the delicate balance between two Wit, through May 12 “ ’ ” “ ” women—a self-made building owner and her tenant, Noises Off Before “Slings & Arrows,” there was an on-the-edge single mother. Northlight Theatre, Michael Frayn’s 1982 show-within-a-show farce. Scott ★ ★ ★ ★ CRITICS PICK! TIME OUT through April 20 Weinstein’s production literally takes the audience NEW YORK TIMES the Bridges of Madison County This musi- “backstage.” Windy City Playhouse, through May 12 cal version of Robert James Waller’s novel about the A Number Caryl Churchill’s 2002 chiller about clon- romance between an Italian war bride stuck in small- ing, identity, and family alienation features William town Iowa and a well-traveled photographer features Brown and Nate Burger under Robin Witt’s direction. a score by Jason Robert Brown (The Last Five Years) Writers Theatre, through June 9 and a book by Marsha Norman (The Color Purple). Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre, through April 21 by directed by Poseidon! An Upside Down Musical Hell in COMING SOON joshua harmon jeremy wechsler a Handbag brings back its camp musical based on The Absolute Brightness of Leonard the 1972 disaster fi lm The Poseidon Adventure. Edge Pelkey The disappearance of a 14-year-old boy Theatre, through April 28 with an outsize personality in a small Jersey Shore The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 town sparks soul searching for the community. Joe For showtimes and tickets: Christopher Paul Curtis’s young-adult novel about Foust plays every character in James Lecesne’s play theaterwit.org • 773.975.8150 a black family from Michigan visiting Birmingham, at American Blues Theater, directed by Kurt Johns. 1229 W Belmont, Chicago Alabama, during the civil rights movement gets a Stage 773, March 29-April 27 B ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 39 COMING SOON! PERFORMANCES START APRIL 24 THEATER
CHICAGO PREMIERE
B Lottery Day Hot-as-blazes Chicago playwright Non-Player Character Echoes of “Gamergate” TOO HEAVY Ike Holter concludes his seven-play “Rightlynd” cycle, haunt Walt McGough’s drama about a woman games set in the fi ctional 51st Ward, with this play about a designer besieged by internet trolls, presented by matriarch hosting a community barbecue that might Red Theater Chicago. Athenaeum Theatre, April FOR YOUR set off some unexpected fi res. Goodman Theatre, 20-May 18 March 29-April 28 Too Heavy for Your Pocket A young black POCKET Cambodian Rock Band Lauren Yee’s play man must choose between a college scholarship BY JIRÉH BREON HOLDER off ers an unlikely combination of psychedelic surf (and the security it will promise for his family) and DIRECTED BY RON OJ PARSON rock (courtesy of Los Angeles’s Dengue Fever) his calling to join the civil rights Freedom Riders in and grim history as a young Cambodian American Jireh Breon Holder’s drama. TimeLine Theatre, April returns to her father’s homeland with what she 24-June 29 A powerful look at the believes is evidence against perpetrators of Pol Mad Beat Hip & Gone Steven Dietz’s play follows personal cost of progress Pot’s 1970s genocide. Victory Gardens Theater, April two young men from Nebraska who, a er a chance 5-May 5 meeting with Jack Kerouac and company in a bar, Utility The working-class blues get a workout in decide to go on the road themselves. Jess Hutchin- “WILL DIVE-BOMB INTO Emily Schwend’s drama about a young woman in east son directs for Promethean Theatre Ensemble. The Texas juggling multiple jobs, a troubled marriage, Edge Theater, April 26-June 1 YOUR HEAD AND YOUR HEART” and a daughter who just wants a nice birthday party. The Killing Game A provincial burg becomes – Talkin’ Broadway Georgette Verdin directs the midwest premiere for Ground Zero for a plague epidemic in Eugene Interrobang Theatre Project. Rivendell Theatre, April Ionesco’s late-career absurdist portrait of panic and 5-May 4 paranoia. Dado directs. A Red Orchid Theatre, May A Chorus Line Hoofers and heartbreak combine in 2-June 23 773.281.8463 TIMELINETHEATRE.COM the 1975 classic musical about dancers seeking their Next to Normal Chicago native David Cromer, big break and baring their souls in songs like “What I who won the Tony Award last year for directing 8, Did for Love” and “Dance: Ten; Looks: Three.” Brenda comes home to stage Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s Didier directs for Porchlight Music Theatre. Ruth Pulitzer Prize-winning musical about a family con- Page Center for the Performing Arts, April 10-May 26 fronting loss and mental illness. Writers Theatre, May Hannah and Martin Philosophers in love: Kate 8-June 16 Fodor’s play about the aff air between Hannah Arendt Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Lookingglass and Martin Heidegger (which won raves in its 2003 makes it four-for-four with reimaginings of Shelley’s world premiere with TimeLine Theatre) returns under classic. (Lifeline, Remy Bumppo, and Court presented Louis Contey’s direction at Shattered Globe. Theater their versions last fall.) David Catlin directs his own Wit, April 11-May 25 adaptation. Lookingglass Theatre Company, May Buyer & Cellar Barbra Streisand’s recent con- 8-August 4 troversial remarks on Michael Jackson aren’t the Take Me Reader contributor Mark Guarino and only odd thing about her: she also has a collection Jon Langford of the Mekons collaborate on this of “Main Street” storefronts in the basement of her world-premiere musical, based on a true story. Shelly, Malibu home to house her collection of dolls and a woman whose husband is in a coma, believes that other trinkets. Jonathan Tolins’s one-man play looks aliens have instructed her to move to Roswell, New at a young gay actor hired to maintain Babs’ private Mexico, and build an amusement park. Strawdog collection. Scott Gryder stars. Pride Films and Plays, Theatre, May 10-June 22 April 11-May 19 La Havana Madrid Sandra Delgado’s celebrated The Children A pair of retired nuclear scientists musical portrait of Latin American nightclubs in the at an English seaside cottage receive a disturbing 1950s returns with Teatro Vista in an immersive theat- visit from a former colleague in Lucy Kirkwood’s rical experience. The Den Theatre May 11-June 22 climate-change thriller. Steppenwolf Theatre, April It Is Magic Theater Oobleck, one of the longest- 18-June 9 running experimental theater troupes in town, Language Rooms An Egyptian immigrant fi nds presents longtime company member Mickle Maher’s himself trapped in a CIA “black site” when his loyalty mash-up of Macbeth and The Three Little Pigs, pre- is called into question. Kaiser Zaki Ahmed directs the sented as a meditation on the darker mysteries of the midwest premiere of Yussef El Guindi’s dark absurdist theatrical process. Chopin Theatre, May 17-June 29 comedy for Broken Nose Theatre. The Den Theater, Bloomsday More Steven Dietz, courtesy of Remy April 19-May 18 Bumppo Theatre Company. James Joyce’s Ulysses I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard Halley forms the backdrop for this literary time-travel tale. Half-Price Theatre Feiff er (daughter of cartoonist Jules Feiff er) wrote Theater Wit, May 16-June 16 this acidic comedy about an actress determined to Emma Everyone’s favorite well-meaning romantic Enjoy your city. Ignite your soul. Stretch your dollars. win approval from her father, a famous playwright. meddler returns in this new adaptation by Phil Tim- Cole von Glahn directs the Chicago premiere for berlake of Jane Austen’s classic. Lifeline Theatre, May Chicago's best theatre deals: HOTTIX.ORG First Floor Theater. The Den Theatre, April 20-May 18 24-July 14 v
Hot Tix is a service of the non-profit League of Chicago Theatres. Learn more about Chicago’s theatre community at CHICAGOPLAYS.COM.
40 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll L S Sat /, PM, Playground Theater, N. Halsted, theplaygroundtheater.com , $ suggested donation. ARTS & CULTURE
response. No one seemed to want to do the October, Pulley has already seen women who work of acknowledging performers of color. It tried stand-up for the fi rst time at her show got so bad that she quit doing stand-up. performing at other places across the city. But then she decided she shouldn’t have to While this space was created to give women leave the scene entirely. She and fellow come- of color opportunities to perform, it’s in no way dians Asia Martin, Jillian Ebanks, and Lauren exclusionary. Preference is given to women Walker, all black women, started something of color, but everyone is invited to sign up for new in an attempt to create a supportive com- the open mike and o er support from the au- edy environment. Lemonade Stand is a stand- dience. Pulley hopes what she and her cohosts up showcase and open mike specifically for are doing with Lemonade Stand can serve as a women of color that takes place the last Sat- model for how other rooms are run. Everyone urday of every month at Playground Theater. needs to come together to upend toxic open- “It’s called Lemonade Stand because, as mike culture, she says, and increase the diver- KAYLAPULLEY
women of color, life continuously gives us sity among performers on Chicago stages. lemons and we have to make lemonade with “White men are allowed to come and are COMEDY omedian Kayla Pulley is tired of the open it,” Pulley says. “And now we want to share encouraged to come,” Pulley says. “We all need mike scene in Chicago. As a black woman, this lemonade! We were like, there needs to be to support each other, and we especially need Turning lemons into . . . Cshe doesn’t always feel very welcome or a place for us to feel comfortable doing this, to support women of color. What women of even safe in the predominantly white, male en- because there are so many of us who would be color are doing in comedy right now is very well, you know vironment. Even after years of proving herself so great at this, and there aren’t safe spaces to important for the world as a whole, and more Lemonade Stand makes a safe space on stages around the city, she would too often do it.” people need to get behind that and support for women of color to be funny. find herself walking into a room and being Each month features a showcase of four to that if we want to see any type of change in the completely ignored by comedians she saw five comedians who are already performing world.” v By B W every day. She would call out the problems around the city and eight to ten mike slots with open mikes in the city on stage to zero for new comics. Since the show’s debut in @BriannaWellen
ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 41 Usss Directed by Jordan Peele. R, FILM min. In wide release.
REVIEW We have met the enemy and they are Us Jordan Peele’s follow-up to Get Out By BS Us
Warning: This review contains spoilers. Us begins with three separate framing in the other two framing devices, letting the and start terrorizing the protagonists, threat- devices, each of which opens up a possible ambiguity get under one’s skin. ening them verbally before taking out pairs ith his debut feature Get Out reading of what’s to follow. First comes a title The next half-hour of Us gives the audience of very sharp scissors. With the exception of (2017), Jordan Peele announced card informing the audience that there are time to chew over the ideas presented in the Adelaide’s double, none of the other doppel- himself as a horror fi lmmaker in thousands of miles of unused underground first ten minutes, as Peele builds a creepy gangers speak—they communicate mainly the grand tradition of George A. passageways in the United States; Peele uses atmosphere before getting to the next big in grunts, suggesting they come from some Romero and Larry Cohen, savvi- ominous language to hint at something devi- scare. The least successful section of the fi lm, barbarian culture. The primitiveness of the Wly using the genre to interrogate American so- ous lurking beneath the surface of American the first act slowly introduces the primary doubles is one of the most evocative details cial issues. The fi lm was perfectly scary, but its life. Next comes a TV promo from 1986 about characters, who aren’t particularly interest- of Us; it suggests, alternately, those aspects of ingeniousness lay in its satirical streak. Peele the nationwide charity benefi t Hands Across ing or unique. Adelaide is now middle-aged a person that can’t be assimilated into polite dramatized common fears among various America. Peele maintains the ominous tone of (and played by Lupita Nyong’o), married to a society and the barbaric urges that society minority groups about assimilation into and the title card, slowly zooming into a vintage genial man named Gabe (Winston Duke), and trains us to suppress. appropriation by the dominant white culture, TV set that’s playing the ad and which has raising two kids, aloof teenage daughter Zora The family’s grisly escape from their mining the subjects for discomforting laughs stacks of VHS tapes arranged around it with (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and goofy younger murderous doppelgangers makes for the before turning the story into more unsettling eerie neatness. Again, Peele intimates an un- son Jason (Evan Alex). Peele shows the family lengthiest and most e ective climax of Us. In territory. But even when Get Out became a seen devious presence, but he complicates the driving to their summer home—which hap- fending o their demonic doubles, the family full-fl edged horror fi lm, Peele didn’t lose sight mood by foregrounding a call for unity. What pens to be in Santa Cruz—and ready to have a succumbs to their own worst instincts, becom- of its guiding theme of white people using are we to make of the juxtaposition? That the relaxing vacation. All that’s clear about these ing murderers themselves. This development a range of ploys to entrance and ultimately promise of Hands Across America (and other characters is that they have money and typical suggests a sort of negative unity, with every- subordinate people of color. Released around photogenic acts of public concern) is simply upper-middle-class social aspirations; Peele one joining together in a mutual ugliness. (The the time of Donald Trump’s inauguration, the a cover-up for darker, unacknowledged im- doesn’t reveal what the parents do for a living, fi lm will amplify this idea in its haunting fi nal movie became a social phenomenon, touching pulses within our society? Peele returns to what their backgrounds are like (apart from image.) Peele reiterates the notion when the a raw nerve in the culture and making loads of this idea, but only at the end of Us, leaving the Adelaide’s traumatic experience as a girl), or family seeks help from their friends, only to money in the process. audience to wait and see. where they live the rest of the year. All that fi nd that the other family has been murdered In short, Peele had a tough act to follow, and From there the film presents a dramatic matters is that they’re a well-adjusted black by their own doppelgangers and that these the smartest thing about his second feature, Us prologue, set in 1986, in which the heroine, Ad- family, which Peele emphasizes for perhaps brutes must be destroyed lest they kill again. (now playing in wide release), is that it doesn’t elaide (played e ectively by newcomer Madi- longer than he should. The director creates a Adelaide’s family proves surprisingly adept try to repeat the formula of Get Out. The fi lm, son Curry), gets separated from her parents at compelling frisson between the normal on- at getting rid of them. Eventually it turns like its predecessor, is centered around a met- a beachfront carnival in Santa Cruz, California. screen behavior and the eerie visual aesthetic out that a whole army of doubles is rising up aphor, but that metaphor is more open-ended, Adelaide wanders near the ocean, then comes (lots of slow zooms and Steadicam shots remi- from under the earth to declare war on abo- harder to pin down. Peele’s imagery carries upon a fun house. Inside, she explores the hall niscent of Kubrick’s The Shining), but it wears veground society. Peele doesn’t make clear a wealth of associations; the movie doesn’t of mirrors and encounters another little girl out its welcome before the plot advances. what the hordes want, and this ambiguity encourage the sort of straight-ahead reading who looks exactly like herself. (Peele creates After a day at the beach, where the char- (as opposed to that with which he defi nes the that Get Out did. This ambiguity is something a nice surprise by making the stranger appear acters relax with some white family friends principal characters) strengthens the film’s of a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, to be a refl ection at fi rst; some people in the and Adelaide freaks out when she sees that central metaphor. Do the doubles represent Us isn’t a funny, cathartic crowd-pleaser like audience when I saw the film jumped when the cursed fun house from her youth is still America’s suppressed underclass? Or perhaps Peele’s debut. (Where the audience with whom the stranger turned around.) It’s an a ecting standing, the family returns to the summer the realization of a fear of society devolving I saw Get Out cheered or screamed at every moment that taps into the fear that a person home for the night. Adelaide is restless, her into barbarism? Again, Peele doesn’t resolve twist, the crowd at the theater where I saw Us may not have agency over their identity—that post-traumatic stress triggered by what she the issue, forcing viewers to leave the theater on opening night was far more subdued.) On someone can be him- or herself and also a saw on the beach, and soon her worst fear with their fears intact. v the other, it achieves an insidious, lingering stranger. Peele leaves it up to the viewer to emerges in the form of a family that resem- e ect that’s rarer in the horror genre. decide how this ties into the fears introduced bles her own. The doppelgangers barge in @1bsachs ssssEXCELLENTsssGOODssAVERAGEsPOOR• WORTHLESS
42 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll R READERRECOMMENDEDb ALLAGESN NEWF FILM
NOW PLAYING them, but others kinda miss the mark. Deathgasm is a horror-comedy in which a band stumbles upon a mys- The Big Heat terious piece of music, and by playing it inadvertently R Fritz Lang’s sizzling 1953 fi lm noir masterpiece cause its neighbors to be possessed by murderous features Glenn Ford (in his best performance—perhaps demons. It’s a throwback to gross-out splatstick classics, his only performance) as an anguished cop out to smash but beyond the bloodshed it o en comes across like a a maddeningly eff ete mobster (Alexander Scourby) and visit into the fantasy life of a stereotypical metal boy break the hold he has on a corrupt city administration. . . circa 1993. (Only one woman character has lines in the With sensational support from Lee Marvin as a sadistic fi lm’s fi rst 40 minutes, and she’s a high school prep who’s hood and Gloria Grahame as Marvin’s bad/good girl- transformed into a metalhead with help from her dorky friend, whose reward for hanging around is a faceful of love interest and his Anal Cunt CD.) The award-winning teenage mutant scalding coff ee. Brutal, atmospheric, and exciting—high- special eff ects might be worth the ticket price, and ly recommended. —D D 90 min. 35mm. Tue catching Chicago metal trio Lair of the Minotaur in the ninja turtles 4/2, 7 PM. Univ. of Chicago Doc Films soundtrack is a bonus. But there isn’t enough plot to MAR 29 - APR 1 AT 11 PM keep it engaging—by the end I found myself wishing I’d Les Bonnes Femmes gone to a local metal show instead. —J L 86 Arguably the best as well as the most disturbing movie min. Sat 3/30, midnight. Music Box Claude Chabrol has made to date, this unjustly neglect- ed 1960 feature, his fourth, focuses on the everyday lives and ultimate fates of four young women (Bernadette Lafont, Stephane Audran, Clotilde Joano, and Lucile NThe Dirt Saint-Simon) working at an appliance store in Paris If you ever wondered if there was anything more to Möt- and longing for better things. Ruthlessly unsentimental ley Crüe than scuzzy glam metal and shallow, ego-driven yet powerfully compassionate, it shows Chabrol at his debauchery, The Dirt, the new biopic based on the most formally inventive, and it exerted a pronounced band’s no-holds-barred collective autobiography of the infl uence on Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Berlin Alex- same name, will not answer your question—not that any- 12 Angry men anderplatz two decades later. In French with subtitles. one’s watching for that reason. Like many movies about APR 2-4 AT 10:30 PM —J R 100 min. 16mm. Mon 4/1, 7 PM. still-living celebrities, it presents a whitewashed vision of Univ. of Chicago Doc Films the artists it depicts, and that seems especially strange For showtimes and advance tickets, visit when those artists are practically synonymous with 80s thelogantheatre.com NThe Bra excess and bad behavior (including, for some members, The most refreshing thing about this dialogue-free domestic assault). There are plenty of fantastic movies comedy (a coproduction between Germany and Azer- about diffi cult personalities and antiheroes, and the baijan) is that it doesn’t slavishly invoke movies of the story of Mötley Crüe could have a place in that tradition. Check out the latest silent era a la The Artist. In fact, sound plays a big role Instead, a fl at narrative and mostly one-dimensional giveaways to win tickets in the fi lm—there’s usually some machine clanking or characters land The Dirt somewhere between cheese- to live theater, concerts, music playing—leading one to realize how much we ball buddy fl ick and Lifetime movie melodrama. Even and much more. hear in the world has nothing to do with language. The Airheads, the 1994 comedy that spoofed Sunset Strip WIN slender narrative concerns an aging train conductor in a hard-rock culture, had a more gripping storyline and FREE VISIT small mountain community (Emir Kusturica regular Miki emotional arc (and certainly more laughs) than this tale TICKETS CHICAGOREADER.COM/WIN Manojlovic) whose engine crosses a clothesline one day of a real band that helped defi ne that scene. —J for your chance to win! and picks up a stray bra. Terminally lonely, the conductor L 108 min. Streaming on Netfl ix embarks on a mission to fi nd the item’s owner to give himself something to do. What follows is basically a NDumbo series of variations on the same joke—the shy gentleman Disney’s latest live-action remake of one of the studio’s fi nding himself in an intimate position with one strange animated classics gives Tim Burton (Alice in Wonder- woman a er another—but cowriter-director Veit Helmer land) another chance to vamp with an empty spectacle less-than-successful acting career, and dreading her box explodes. The explosion destroys important docu- generates enough interesting sight gags to keep this that is fi ne for children and perhaps nostalgia-inducing future, Emma plans to end it all on her 35th birthday. ments that belong to all of them—LSD stickers, a letter from getting monotonous. With Denis Lavant and Paz for adults who watched the 1941 original on VHS. This Writer-director Nicole Palo’s second feature is unapol- from an abandoned son, and a birth certifi cate—setting Vega. —BS 90 min. Showing as part of the Chi- version focuses more on the humans at the circus than ogetically macabre—Emma buys her own casket and them up for a dramatic battle for survival. Holy Boom cago European Union Film Festival. Fri 3/29, 2 PM, and on the animals they train, most of which are computer- searches for cyanide pills on internet forums—but her successfully shi s among various characters as they Sat 3/30, 3 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center generated and don’t speak. Such a choice might have plans take an unexpected turn when she begins to take continue to fi nd ways to survive, eventually learning to worked if the narrative and performances were excel- a romantic interest in a funeral home employee. Even rely on one another despite the generational and racial City of Lost Souls lent, but alas. The acting from everyone onscreen, with its taboo subject matter, Emma Peeters bursts at diff erences that set them apart. Lafi manages to create West German fi lmmaker Rosa von Praunheim (Red including Colin Farrell as a former trick rider and Danny the seams with witty humor, self awareness, and a com- a balance throughout the fi lm so that none of the four Love, Army of Perverts) lights out for the territory again, DeVito as a ringmaster circa 1920, is so anachronistic plicated feeling of hope. Sometimes taking control of storylines feels more nuanced than the others. But the the sexual terra incognita of underground Berlin. It’s a and unnatural that their interaction with CGI is a respite. your life isn’t an act of optimism or inspiration—it’s bleak, real strength of the fi lm lies in its cast, which makes the musical that takes place mostly in a hamburger joint and The fl ying baby elephant is cute and the production a little bit selfi sh, and full of contradictions. But Emma premise feel natural despite some of the more unrealis- a hotel, with an all-glitter-dust assortment of uninspired design is eye-catching. The upsides end there. The Peeters is a fi ghter through and through, and it’s impos- tic and gruesome moments. In Greek and Albanian with talents (American expatriates stranded in Berlin) waiting refurbished story, both numbing in its predictability sible not to root for her as she confronts her mortality subtitles. —M DL C 99 min. Showing as for their big break on the nightlife scene. With Jayne and painstakingly woke, is the clearest indicator that head-on. In French with subtitles. —CC 90 part of the Chicago European Union Film Festival. Fri County, Angie Stardust, and La Habana (1983). In English this reboot need not exist. —L P PG, 115 min. min. Showing as part of the Chicago European Union 3/29, 7:45 PM, and Wed 4/3, 8:30 PM. Gene Siskel Film and subtitled German and Spanish. —P G 91 Arclight, Block 37, City North 14, Ford City 14, Galewood Film Festival. Fri 3/29, 2 PM, and Tue 4/2, 6 PM. Gene Center min. Thu 4/4, 7:30 PM. Northwestern University Block Crossings 14, Navy Pier IMAX, New 400, River East 21, Siskel Film Center Museum of Art F Showplace Icon, 600 N. Michigan, Webster Place NHotel Mumbai NHoly Boom This uncomfortably intense true-crime thriller is only for Deathgasm NEmma Peeters In this Greek drama directed by Maria Lafi , four strang- viewers with a high threshold for graphic violence, as it Plenty of hard rock and heavy-metal-themed movies suc- R Emma Peeters (Monia Chokri) is tired of ers, who live in the same Athens neighborhood but imagines what news cameras couldn’t show during the cessfully celebrate and satirize the culture that inspired being alive. Stuck in a dead-end job, aging out of her hardly interact, connect a er their neighborhood post coordinated terrorist assaults on Mumbai between B
ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 43 FILM Get showtimes at chicagoreader.com/movies.
B November 26 and 29, 2008. For days reporters and the French town of Arles posed for numerous Van Gogh Aubrey shouts into the void through a walkie-talkie, eats onlookers camped outside the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel portraits, sets out to determine whether the death was canned food, and fi ghts off captivating monsters. Using 35 Shots of Rum while fewer than a dozen Pakistani jihadists marauded murder, suicide, or an accident—and, moreover, why the cassette tapes Grace le behind, Aubrey begins to R A handsome black widower (Alex Descas) and the lobby and hallways of the 550-room historic edifi ce, painter, who appeared happy and productive during his piece together the puzzle of the world’s end, resulting his lovely college-age daughter (Mati Diop) inhabit a killing everyone in sight, until the gunmen’s overseas time in Arles, might have chosen that moment to take in a quest to both revert the apocalypse and to cope self-contained world of tranquil domesticity and aff ec- handlers instructed them by cell phones to begin taking his own life. The roiling landscape scenes betray the with her own trauma. White’s score is by far the standout tion in a gray suburban high-rise outside of Paris. A a few wealthy hostages. In a composite role, Dev Patel redundance of animating images that already sizzle with of the fi lm with musical themes that pivot from stirring goodhearted but insecure woman down the hall (Nicole stars as a waiter who, along with other courageous staff - energy, but the portraiture works beautifully, especially and intense to kaleidoscopic and futuristic with ease—a Dogué) lives in the abject hope of winning the widower’s ers, elects to stay behind to protect guests; Armie Ham- because the actors who supply the characters’ voices worthy playlist for the remaining inhabitants of Earth. heart, and a sweetly melancholic young man upstairs mer and Nazanin Boniadi play an American architect and and visages are fi rst-rate (especially Chris O’Dowd —CC 101 min. White attends the Friday 7 (Grégoire Colin) harbors similar feelings for the young his Iranian wife who won’t leave because their infant son as Roulin’s postman father, a compassionate soul with and 9 PM and Saturday 5, 7 and 9 PM screenings. At woman. It’s a given that the father-daughter bubble and his nanny are trapped on another fl oor. Working insights into the damaged artist). —JRJ PG-13, Facets Cinémathèque. Visit facets.org for showtimes. must eventually burst, but the smart writer-director from eyewitness accounts and CCTV security footage, 95 min. Sun 3/31, 11 AM. Music Box Claire Denis (Beau Travail) has other, subtler things on fi rst-time feature director Anthony Maras recreates the NSunset her mind than Electra-complex melodrama. This 2008 carnage in meticulous detail, while showing that the Pather Panchali Who are you? What are you doing here? These ques- feature is beautiful but very quietly so, and defi nitely vicious attackers were gullible youths from backgrounds R In 1955, the year Satyajit Ray’s beautiful fi rst tions echo throughout Hungarian writer-director László not for the ADHD set. In French with subtitles. —C so impoverished that some had never before seen a feature won the Grand Prix at Cannes, no less a human- Nemes’s 2018 sophomore fi lm, underscoring its aura D 100 min. 35mm. Tue 4/2, 9:30 PM. Univ. of fl ushing toilet. The movie’s coda cements the overar- ist than Francois Truff aut walked out of a screening, of anxiety and tilting disorientation in the face of a Chicago Doc Films ching message of extolling heroism and the survivors’ declaring, ‘I don’t want to see a fi lm about Indian peas- murky unknown future. Set in Budapest on the brink of refusal to let terror defi ne them. But that moral still rings ants.’ Time and critical opinion have been much kinder World War I, this drama follows a woman (Juli Jakab, in This Is Spinal Tap a little hollow, if only because as long as disproportion- to this family melodrama—derived, like its successors in her debut) who returns to the high-end hat shop her Rob Reiner’s 1984 satire on rock documentaries has the ately large numbers of have-nots wither from neglect the Apu trilogy, Aparajito and The World of Apu, from a parents once owned in search of work, only to learn of deadly verisimilitude of a Harvard Lampoon magazine and indiff erence across our overpopulated globe, the 30s novel by Bibhutibhusan Banerjee—than to Truff aut’s the existence of a long-lost brother. She sets off to look parody: every cliche is in place, from the grainy kine- haves will never really feel safe—nor should they. With remark. Yet there’s no question that Ray’s contemplative for him in shadowy alleys, gothically lit soirees, and dim scopes of Spinal Tap’s Mersey Beat beginnings to the Anupam Kher, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, and Jason Isaacs treatment of a poor Brahman family in a Bengali village, men’s-only clubs. The pursuit is more interesting than rambling, vapid between-tunes interviews. The material as a brutish Russian playboy who fi nds a conscience. made on a small budget and accompanied by the mes- her day job at the hat shop, which turns out to be a is consistently clever and funny, though ultimately the In English and subtitled Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi, Greek, merizing music of Ravi Shankar, is a triumph of mood luminous gilded cage. Nemes doles tension out lavishly attitudes are too narrow to nourish a feature-length Russian, Arabic, Urdu, and Farsi. —A G and character rather than an exercise in brisk West- but skimps on the payoff , making Jakab’s clear-eyed her- fi lm. Though Reiner has wisely introduced the elements R, 123 min. Landmark’s Century Cinema, River East 21 ern storytelling. In Bengali with subtitles. —J oine purposeless and ultimately muddling what seemed of a plot toward the end (the breakup of the band as R 115 min. 35mm. Wed 4/3, 7 and 9:30 PM. to be a compelling mystery at the outset. Instead, this engineered by the lead singer’s calculating girlfriend), NThe Hummingbird Project Univ. of Chicago Doc Films feels like an abstract ode to the frantic, listless, tightly 82 minutes is still a long haul for a fi lm defi ned only by Jesse Eisenberg and Alexander Skarsgård (the latter wound thing a city becomes on the eve of its demise. In derisiveness. The cast is largely composed of Reiner’s nearly unrecognizable) star as odd-couple cousins who Raise the Red Lantern Hungarian, with subtitles. —N L C R, 142 min. sitcom buddies, each reveling in the opportunity to be undertake to install a fi ber-optic cable between Kansas Completing a loose trilogy that began with Red Sor- At Landmark’s Century Cinema. Visit landmarktheatres. hip: Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, City and New York in order to speed up the process ghum and Ju Dou, Zhang Yimou’s grim 1991 adaptation of com for showtimes. Howard Hesseman, Paul Shaff er, Fred Willard. —D by which they can buy and sell stock, a practice known a novel by Su Tong once again stars Gong Li as a young K R, 82 min. Thu 4/4, 9:30 PM. Univ. of Chicago as high-frequency trading. A silver-haired Salma Hayek woman who marries a much older man, and once again Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Doc Films plays their former boss, who tries to outsmart them tells a story that explicitly critiques Chinese feudalism A marriage made in heaven—Hong Kong’s Golden Har- at their own game. What might have made for either and indirectly contemporary China. This time, however, vest Films and Jim Henson’s Muppetry—yielded this 1990 The Trial a thrilling, high-stakes drama or, at the very least, an the style is quite diff erent (despite another key use of live-action romp, scripted by Todd W. Langen and Bobby R Though debatable as an adaptation of the intelligent comedy, ends up wildly uneven—the qual- the color red) and the vision is much bleaker. The hero- Herbeck (with a goofy wit that suggests pseudonymous Franz Ka a novel, Orson Welles’s nightmarish, labyrin- ities that diff erentiate Canadian writer-director Kim ine, a less sympathetic fi gure than her predecessors, is a contributions to the dialogue by Thomas Pynchon) and thine comedy of 1962—shot mainly in Paris’s abandoned Nguyen’s work (e.g. his idiosyncratic 2012 feature War university student in the 1920s who becomes the fourth directed with skill and assurance by Steve Barron. The Gare d’Orsay and various locations in Zagreb and Rome Witch) seem out of place in a fi lm that otherwise and youngest wife of a powerful man in northern China plot involves a TV investigative reporter (Judith Hoag), a er he had to abandon his plan to use sets—remains adheres to convention. Strong performances from the a er her stepmother can no longer aff ord to pay for her a rise in thievery in Manhattan occasioned by a teenage his creepiest and most disturbing work; it’s also a lot leads help to bolster it, but Nguyen’s commentary on education. She quickly becomes involved in the various gang known as the Foot (masterminded and exploited more infl uential than people usually admit (e.g., A er structural inequality within the fi nancial system falls fl at. intrigues and rivalries between wives that rule her hus- by a ninja villain called the Shredder), and the noble Hours, the costume store sequences in Eyes Wide Shut). —K S R, 111 min. River East 21 band’s world and family tradition: each wife has her own adversaries of the thieves—four teenage turtles and Anthony Perkins gives an adolescent temper to Joseph house and courtyard within the palace, and whoever the their rat ninja master who dwell in the sewer system, K, a bureaucrat mysteriously brought to court for an Looking for Langston husband chooses to sleep with on a given night receives grown to abnormal size through exposure to radioactiv- unspecifi ed crime. Among the predatory females who Isaac Julien’s frankly erotic black-and-white meditation a foot massage, several lighted red lanterns, and the ity. Also involved is the reporter’s son (Michael Turney), pursue him are Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, and on the Harlem renaissance of the 1930s. Part narrative, right to select the menu for the following day. The fi lm split between no less than three rival father fi gures, and Elsa Martinelli; Welles himself plays the hero’s tyrannical part polemical essay, part lyrical art fi lm, part documen- confi nes us throughout to this claustrophobic universe an independent vigilante (Elias Koteas) who joins the lawyer, and Akim Tamiroff is one of his oldest clients. tary on Langston Hughes, this 1989 British fi lm employs of boxes within boxes, where wives and female servants turtles. The results are high-spirited martial arts and Welles adroitly captures the experience of an unsettling clips from various kinds of archival footage (including devote their lives to scheming against one another; the comedy, with heavy doses of Star Wars and Snow White and slightly hysterical dream throughout. Given the three Oscar Micheaux fi lms), quotes from Hughes, action is fi lmed mainly in frontal long shots. Zhang con- and the Seven Dwarfs. —J R PG, 93 impact of screen size on what he’s doing, you can’t claim Essex Hemphill, Bruce Nugent, Hilton Als, and James fi rms his mastery and artistry here in many ways, some min. Fri 3/29-Mon 4/1, 11 PM. Logan to have seen this if you’ve watched it only on video. Baldwin (the last read by Toni Morrison), and memorable relatively new (such as his striking soundtrack), though —J R 118 min. Former Reader fi lm glimpses of a period nightclub where black and white the cold, remote, and stifl ing world he presents here The Terrorizers critic Jonathan Rosenbaum lectures at the screening. Tue men in tuxedos dance together. The results are cer- doesn’t off er much emotional release. In Mandarin with R Edward Yang’s evocative and deliberately 4/2, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center tainly striking—stylistically, intellectually, and sensually. subtitles. —J R PG, 125 min. 35mm. ambiguous third feature (1986) pivots on a chance —J R 45 min. Showing with Julien’s Thu 4/4, 7 PM. Univ. of Chicago Doc Films encounter between a rebellious Eurasian girl and a 12 Angry Men 1993 short The Attendant (8 min, 35mm). Wed 4/3, 7 PM. novelist and housewife who decides to leave her hus- Sidney Lumet’s fi rst fi lm (1957) adapts a Reginald Rose Northwestern University Block Museum of Art F NStarfish band, a lab technician. As Taiwanese fi lm critic Edmund TV play about a serious-minded juror (Henry Fonda, R How does one grieve in the apocalypse? It’s a Wong has noted, the fi lm off ers “a refreshing look at naturally) who gradually convinces his 11 colleagues to Loving Vincent question that festers in A.T. White’s directorial debut like Yang’s theme of urban melancholy and self-discovery”—a reconsider the guilt of a Puerto Rican youth on trial for R A team of 115 oil painters executed some a ticking time bomb. Inspired by White’s own experience preoccupation running through Yang’s early work that murder. A somewhat pat liberal parable that reeks of 65,000 canvases in the style of Vincent Van Gogh to with loss, S t a r fi s h follows Aubrey (Virginia Gardner) o en evokes some of Antonioni’s poetry, atmosphere, its period, the fi lm is pretty much saved, or nearly, by create this extraordinary animation about the painter’s as she attempts to come to terms with the passing of and feeling for modernity. Well worth checking out. In Lumet’s tight direction and the capable performances, last days. Following Van Gogh’s death from a mysterious her best friend, Grace (Christina Masterson), while the Mandarin with subtitles. —J R 109 which are virtually restricted to the same closed room. gunshot wound, young Armand Roulin, whose family in world turns over. It’s a largely solitary story of survival: min. 16mm. Sat 3/30, 7 PM. Filmfront Mechanically written, but within its own middlebrow
44 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll FILM
limitations, it delivers the goods. With Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, E.G. Marshall, Jack Warden, and Jack Double Negative: Race, Popular Shards from the Mirror of Touch Me Not Klugman. —J R 95 min. Tue 4/2-Thu Adina Pintilie directed this experimental Romanian/ 4/4, 10:30 PM. Logan Culture, and the Politics of History German fi lm that combines narrative and documentary “Quality” A program of experimental and independent shorts to explore issues around intimacy and disabilities. In Velvet Goldmine A lecture by Racqeul Gates (College of Staten Island, (2012-18) by Chinese fi lmmakers. 60 min. Curator Nicky English and subtitled German. 125 min. Showing as part Conceptual to a fault, writer-director Todd Haynes (Poi- CUNY) about the critical usefulness and importance Ni attends the screening. Thu 4/4, 6 PM. Gene Siskel of the Chicago European Union Film Festival. Sat 3/30, son, Safe) realizes one of his oldest and most cherished of negative black stereotypes in media. Thu 4/4, 4 PM. Film Center 7:45 PM, and Wed 4/3, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center projects—a celebration of the glam-rock era and the bisexuality it turned into an opulent circus—with wit, glit- Univ. of Chicago Logan Center for the Arts F NThe Silence of Others Trouble Every Day ter, and energy, but with such a scant sense of character Robert Bahar and Almudena Carracedo directed this Vincent Gallo and Béatrice Dalle star in this 2001 horror or period that it leaves one feeling relatively empty as NEternal Winter Spanish documentary about the lingering eff ects of feature by Claire Denis (Beau Travail). In French with soon as it’s over. Apart from its coy prologue (positing Attila Szász directed this Hungarian drama about a Franco’s dictatorship. In Spanish with subtitles. 96 min. subtitles. 101 min. 35mm. Mon 4/1, 9:30 PM. Univ. of Oscar Wilde as the grand precursor to glam) and its peasant woman learning to survive in a WWII Soviet Showing as part of the Chicago European Union Film Chicago Doc Films cumbersome borrowings from the narrative structure of labor camp. In Hungarian and Russian with subtitles. 110 Festival. Sun 3/31, 3 PM, and Mon 4/1, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Citizen Kane, this 1998 fi lm off ers enough entertaining min. Showing as part of the Chicago European Union Film Center NWhatever Happened to My surface, snappy montage, and musical theater to keep Film Festival. Sun 3/31, 3 PM, and Mon 4/1, 7:45 PM. Gene one absorbed, but little of the tantalizing mystery that Siskel Film Center NThe Silent Revolution Revolution made Safe such an enduring experience. With Ewan Lars Kraume directed this German fi lm about the Actress Judith Davis stars in and directed this French McGregor, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Eddie Izzard, and NFloat Like a Butterfly repercussions of a moment of silence, in protest of the comedy about a frustrated political activist who decides Toni Collette. —J R 124 min. 35mm. Carmel Winters directed this Irish drama about a Soviet intervention in the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, to visit her mother, who abandoned her family years Fri 3/29-Sat 3/30, midnight. Music Box teen girl battling tradition that would soon have her organized by two East German high school students. In before. In French with subtitles. 89 min. Showing as part married off in order to pursue her dreams of boxing. 101 German with subtitles. 112 min. Showing as part of the of the Chicago European Union Film Festival. Sat 3/30, min. Showing as part of the Chicago European Union Chicago European Union Film Festival. Sun 3/31, 5 PM, 4:45 PM, and Mon 4/1, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center ALSO PLAYING Film Festival. Winters and production designer Toma and Wed 4/3, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center McCullim attend the screenings. Fri 3/29, 8 PM, and Sat Women of the Now Anniversary Aleksi 3/30, 5 PM. Tomorrow Never Knows Barbara Vekaric directed this Croatian/Serbian comedy- Adam Sekuler directed this 2017 documentary about a Screening drama about a young woman trying to put off adult Limestone Cowboy couple contemplating a “conscious death” when one is A program of short fi lms from the local independent responsibilities while dealing with three interested men. Abigail Mallia directed this 2017 Maltese fi lm about a diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. 93 min. Sekuler production company Women of the Now. Select fi lm- In Croatian with subtitles. 90 min. Showing as part of the possibly delusional amateur running for president of attends the screening. Sat 3/30, 8 PM. Nightingale makers and Women of the Now producers attend the Chicago European Film Festival. Fri 3/29, 6 PM, and Sat Malta, and his family’s history. In English and subtitled screening. Sat 3/30, 7 PM. Chicago Filmmakers v 3/30, 3 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center Maltese. 97 min. Showing as part of the Chicago Europe- an Union Film Festival. Fri 3/29, 4 PM, and Thu 4/4, 8:15 As Needed PM. Gene Siskel Film Center An anger-prone chef and a teen with Aspergers become partners in a cooking competition in this Italian comedy. NThe Little Comrade Francesco Falaschi directed. In Italian with subtitles. Moonika Siimets directed this Estonian drama set in the 94 min. Showing as part of the Chicago European Film 1950s about a young girl’s life a er her mother is sent Festival. Falaschi attends the Thursday screening. Fri to a prison camp. In Estonian and Russian with subtitles. 3/29, 4 PM, and Thu 4/4, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center 100 min. Showing as part of the Chicago European Union Film Festival. Sun 3/31, 5:15 PM, and Tue 4/2, 8 PM. NThe Beach Bum Gene Siskel Film Center Harmony Korine directed this comedy about a stoner (Matthew McConaughey). With Snoop Dogg, Isla Fisher, Loving Vincent: The Impossible Stefania LaVie Owen, Jimmy Buff ett, Zac Efron, and Martin Lawrence. R, 95 min. Century 12 and CineArts 6, Dream Music Box, River East 21 Miki Wecel directed this documentary about the making of the 2017 animated fi lm Loving Vincent. 60 min. Sun Videos by Jacob Ciocci 3/31, 12:45 PM. Music Box A program of experimental works by video maker and artist Jacob Ciocci. Ciocci attends the screening. Mon My Art 4/1, 8 PM. Nightingale Artist Laurie Simmons directed and starts in this 2016 feature about a NYC artist hoping to reenergize her stalled career. 86 min. Tue 3/26 and Sun 3/31, 2 PM. Deconstructing The Beatles: 1963 Museum of Contemporary Art Open TV Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! A selection of recent web series from the local Open Justin Drobinski and Sean Gallagher directed this doc- TV streaming platform. Thu 4/4, 6 PM. Museum of umentary of Scott Freiman’s Beatles explorations, this Contemporary Art F one looking at their career in 1963. 76 min. Sat 3/30, 11:30 AM, and Wed 4/3, 7 PM. Music Box Screwball Billy Corben directed this documentary about Anthony Diamantino Bosch and his role in a high-profi le doping scandal in Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt directed this Por- major league baseball in the 2000s. 105 min. At Facets tuguese/French comedic fantasy about a famed soccer Cinémathèque. Visit facets.org for showtimes. player looking to redeem his reputation. In Portuguese with subtitles. 92 min. Showing as part of the Chicago European Union Film Festival. Fri 3/29, 6 PM, and Wed 4/3, 8:15 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 45 C.H.E.W. front woman Doris Jeane during a set at a Bridgeport DIY show space in mid-2018 MARTIN SORRONDEGUY
C.H.E.W. take a bite out of hardcore W L R CHEW C G Tue /, : PM, Subterranean downstairs, W. North, $ . + The Chicago four-piece twist and tear at their favorite genre to give it a strange new shape. By LG
hen Russell Harrison, Chew asking them to change their name. The of the best punk albums of 2018. It came out and still has it in stock online, though you’ll bassist of Chicago hard- Chicago group didn’t see any potential for domestically through Iron Lung, the venerable have to deal with international shipping fees. core band C.H.E.W., first confusion and refused. In short order, they independent label run by the hardcore band Iron Lung is working on a cassette edition, replies to my interview received a cease-and-desist notice. (Sarah of the same name. At the time, says Iron Lung which should be done before May—that is, in request, he signs the Wilson, drummer for the Atlanta Chew, con- drummer and vocalist Jensen Ward, the label time for C.H.E.W.’s two-week tour opening for We-mail “c/o Courageous Horned-toads Escape fi rms via e-mail that her band took that step: was going through a fallow period, and he’d Boston indie-rock stalwarts Pile . Wasps.” Harrison and his bandmates have “Our name is trademarked.”) The Chicago started to worry that it was drifting apart It’s less plausible now to talk about an suggested several other possibilities for their Chew became C.H.E.W., but it didn’t matter from its audience. “Sales were slow—people American hardcore “scene” than it was in the acronym over the years: Cocaine Heroin Ec- too much—at that point all they’d put out was weren’t really going for the things that I 80s, in part because the Internet has connect- stasy Weed, Crying Heavily Every Week, Cold a seven-song demo, so they weren’t exactly at was really excited about,” Ward says. “I was ed di use communities and made responsible Hands Elicit Worry, Chill Hard Every Week- risk of losing a large but punctuation-illiterate like, ‘I don’t really understand—maybe I’ve generalizations difficult. But that doesn’t end. By the time you fi nish this story, they’ll audience. lost touch with the kids, who knows.’ Things prevent bands like C.H.E.W. from making an probably have come up with a few more. But In September 2018, after two more releas- weren’t selling as well as I wanted them to, or impression. “They’re proof that U.S. punk and C.H.E.W. doesn’t stand for anything in partic- es (both splits with other hardcore bands), at least hoped that they would. And then their hardcore is still very vital, and very important, ular—it’s just that “Chew” was taken. C.H.E.W. released their debut full-length record came and sold like crazy.” and it’s still possible to make urgent music Harrison, guitarist Ben Rudolph, drummer album, Feeding Frenzy . (“Full-length” is a Ward pressed 500 copies of Feeding Frenzy that means something to people,” Ward says. Jonathan “Jono” Giralt, and vocalist Doris relative term, and in hardcore it can mean and quickly sold the label’s share. C.H.E.W. “They o er hope for people who need some. Jeane began playing nasty D-beat as Chew in 16 tracks that total 31 minutes.) Bandcamp got about 150 themselves, but few of them They also o er a place for people to work out 2015, and within a year (according to an inter- Daily published a glowing profi le of C.H.E.W. can be found unsold in the wild—Reckless has their issues and listen to some angry music view they did with Maximum Rocknroll) they that described Feeding Frenzy as a “perfect a couple left. UK punk label Drunken Sailor if they need to, or just see it and have a good heard from an Atlanta psych band also called hardcore LP,” and the AV Club named it one pressed a European version of Feeding Frenzy time pushing their friends around.” J 46 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll ®
This Saturday! March 30 • Riviera Theatre This Sunday! March 31 • Riviera Theatre
SPECIAL GUESTS SAINTSENECA Saturday, April 13 Riviera Theatre
SPECIAL GUESTS CHICAGO FARMER Thursday, April 11 Park West
Friday & Saturday April 26-27 • Vic Theatre
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ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 47 continued from 46 anarcho weirdos Rudimentary Peni and Bay hree-fourths of C.H.E.W.—Harrison, Area hardcore iconoclasts the Dead Kennedys. Rudolph, and Giralt—met in Orlando, Jeane says Giralt decided she’d be a good fi t TFlorida. In 2013, Harrison moved to for this new group. “It was like, ‘Do you wanna Chicago with indie-rock band Great Deceivers. join my band? You seem like you could use “I started playing in that band—writing some an outlet,’” she says. “I was very crazy. I was songs and playing shows—and a month or two losing my shit. I think I was always coming to into it, ‘Hey, do you wanna move to Chicago, by work, ‘Oh my God, this happened!’ He was like, the way? ’Cause we’re all gonna go do that,’” ‘Have you ever tried channeling this?’” Harrison says. “I said, ‘Sure.’ And that’s why When Giralt asked Jeane to try out, C.H.E.W. I went.” Rudolph has since joined Harrison in had already made rehearsal recordings with- Great Deceivers, and they released their third out a vocalist. She was about to check herself full-length in January. into a mental institution for depression and When Harrison left Florida, Rudolph and anxiety, but she got the recordings just before Giralt were playing in a skramz outfit called she went in. Knife Hits, and Giralt had taken up an itiner- “I spent my time trying to write lyrics in ant lifestyle. “I had not been living in Florida there, which is very helpful, thank you,” Jeane for a while, and was kind of bouncing around says. “And then I tried out when I got out.” She places—the Bay Area, northern California, didn’t know Harrison and Rudolph well, but and Philadelphia. I went back to Orlando for she’d come to the audition prepared to deal a short period of time,” he says. “There was with her nerves. “I had whiskey,” she says. another large cluster of friends who were from “You had brought the little fi fth of Jameson Orlando who’d migrated here. Everybody who with you,” Giralt says. “And just polished it grew up in central Florida around that time o .” all have separation anxiety and all like to stay Jeane bonded with the rest of the band close to each other. I like Chicago, I’ve been quickly, but C.H.E.W. didn’t rush into their fi rst here a couple of times, so I fi gured I’d give this show—it wasn’t until September 2015, after place a shot.” plenty of practice, that they debuted at a Hum- Giralt persuaded Rudolph to move to Chica- boldt Park DIY space. “We played everything go during a polar vortex in early 2014, though in our sleep at that point,” Rudolph says. they expected the weather to have eased up by Their first live set included the seven the time they arrived. “We were at my parents’ crusty, bite-size songs they’d later release as a garage, trying to get the motorcycle into the self-titled demo in March 2016. Rudolph broke back of the van, like, ‘Yeah, the snow’s proba- a string a few songs in and had to borrow a bly gonna be melted—the storm hit, like, two guitar. Harrison couldn’t hear any of Jeane’s or three days ago. We should be fi ne,’” Giralt vocals, even though he’d planted himself next says. “And we were clearly very, very wrong.” to a PA speaker. Jeane isn’t even sure if she The temperature in Nashville, Tennessee, could hear herself. “I remember being scared fell to 13 below the day they passed through. “I at the fi rst show and just looking at my feet,” didn’t know what black ice was until we start- she says. “I don’t remember much after that.” ed driving on it,” Rudolph says. The gig might’ve felt like a mess to the band, Giralt landed a job at a dog day care, where but it won over plenty of the people who saw he met Jeane. She’d grown up in suburban it. Soon C.H.E.W. were getting invitations to Bensenville, southwest of O’Hare; she and her play underground spaces from some of the friends had visited Logan Square as teenagers scene’s key bookers, among them Ralph Rive- for punk shows at DIY venue La Casa Maldita. ra, who fronts radical hardcore band the Bug When she met Giralt, she had almost no ex- and runs Not Normal Tapes. “We got asked to perience in bands. “I played bass for a show, play a lot of shows,” Rudolph says. once, a long time ago,” she says. “It was always “And we just said yes to anything, whenever something that seemed cool, but it was really anyone asked us,” Harrison adds. scary.” For about a year, C.H.E.W. played two or In spring 2015, Rudolph, Harrison, and three local shows a month. In June 2016 they Giralt began working on a new project. “We hit the road for the fi rst time. “A three-week wanted to start this band—we’ve said it be- west-coast tour was our fi rst tour,” Rudolph fore—and play like an anarcho band playing says. west-coast hardcore,” Rudolph says. About “But we went to Miami first, and then we fi ve or six bands inspire all four members of went west,” Jeane adds. The rest of C.H.E.W., top to bottom: Russell Harrison, Jonathan “Jono” Giralt, and Ben Rudolph C.H.E.W., he claims, though in our conversa- “We played in Miami and Portland on that MARTINSORRONDEGUY tion the only two they can agree on are London tour,” Harrison says.
48 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll 3730 N. CLARK ST METROCHICAGO.COM @ METROCHICAGO C.H.E.W. were tight and fi erce when I fi rst it’s also slightly out of sync with the genre. saw them, downstairs at Subterranean in July Giralt says this quirky aesthetic has to do 2016. They tore through their songs so fast with the style of collaboration he’s developed ROXWELL CURATES that their nervy demo recordings felt almost with Rudolph and Harrison. “We think we’re + 2XS PRESENT 101WKQX WELCOMES relaxed by comparison. Jeane growled and writing something that is relatively square, URBANITE XXII BROODS wailed, her stage fright seemingly completely and it turns out it’s fuckin’ not,” he says. “The CHICAGO DANCE SHOWCASE WED APR 10 gone—if anything, the stage should’ve been three of us never count anything the same, so, SAT APR 06 afraid of her. three different diverging paths that all end The two split seven-inches C.H.E.W. re- at the same goal is probably what makes the EMPIRE PRODUCTIONS leased in 2017 included one called Strange songs sound the way that they do.” WELCOMES VEIL OF MAYA 101WKQX WELCOMES New Universe with Philadelphia hardcore Growing up in a city with a smaller scene MISSIO group Penetrode. It was released by Los also appears to have left a mark on C.H.E.W. & INTERVALS BLACKILLAC / SWELLS STRAWBERRY GIRLS SAT APR 20 Angeles label Neck Chop Records, which had “There was one point for Orlando punk, ev- CRYPTODIRA reissued the C.H.E.W. demo on vinyl early that eryone was kind of listening to all this crazy SAT APR 13 year. When the band began working with Neck shit, and everyone just wanted to write the Chop, their music achieved greater reach— most wacky shit possible but have it still be as and it wound up in Ward’s ear. “I found it really mean as possible,” Rudolph says. “It was never refreshing, ’cause it sounds like real music— square—songs were never formulaic.” there was no gimmick to it or anything,” he C.H.E.W. earned their opening spot on the says. “It was kind of just really well-made, Pile tour because of Feeding Frenzy—the tightly crafted punk songs, which I’ve always Boston band’s front man, Rick Maguire, had liked.” befriended the Orlando contingent before C.H.E.W. had yet to reach out to Ward or they moved to Chicago, and the album sealed Iron Lung when they began working on Feed- the deal. “There’s ri s for days,” he says. And ing Frenzy last winter. On a whim, they sent he wasn’t concerned that C.H.E.W.’s bizarre the label an unsolicited e-mail with early ver- hardcore wouldn’t appeal to the same crowd sions of two cuts o the album, “Patience” and as Pile’s relatively straightforward rock. “Positive A¦ rmations.” “Something that was kind of eye-opening for “We get a lot of e-mails every day, from us is we were lucky enough to be asked to go bands, like, ‘Hey, huge fans of the label, we love on tour with Converge, and we didn’t make Total Control,’ whatever the popular thing much sense opening for them, but some of is that month,” Ward says. “The cold e-mail their audience liked us. I think it’s better to is tough—of all the e-mails that we’ve gotten play with bands that aren’t like you. Hopefully over the years, I’d say maybe four or fi ve were the people that are coming out are fans of ones that we actually said yes to doing.” music and not a specifi c sound.” C.H.E.W. heard back from Ward, says Giralt, Ward and Iron Lung would defi nitely con- the day after they messaged him. sider themselves fans of music. “We put out a They’d started writing Feeding Frenzy in lot of di erent-sounding stu ,” he says. “One February 2017 and fi nished it the week before month it’s gonna be, like, a free-jazz record, recording the final version in March 2018. and another month it’s gonna be a grindcore Jeane wrote the lyrics for the title track while record, and the next month it’ll be a hardcore SMARTBARCHICAGO.COM sitting with Rudolph at the dining-room table record, or even just like a mellow-ass post- 3730 N CLARK ST | 21+ of DIY house Margaritaville. “That house has punk record or something, you know?” And been a pretty pivotal place for this band,” what C.H.E.W. does seems designed to appeal Rudolph says. He and Giralt used to live there, to curious listeners—the kind who like some KEVIN and Jeane lives there now. The space can only unpredictable left turns thrown into their continue to book shows because of C.H.E.W.— favorite genres. SAUNDERSON Rudolph supplied the PA speakers, and Harri- “They tick all the boxes as far as what I like son provided the rest of the rig. in a band,” Ward continues. “They play well PHILLIP Throughout Feeding Frenzy, C.H.E.W. rip live. The records look cool. Obviously the through their material with such impatient songs are really sick—they record them well. STONE energy that the brief silences between songs And they know what they’re doing, which I sometimes collapse entirely—the blackened think is the thing that’s most impressive to sludge of “Positive Affirmations” spills into me. They’re very organized, they know exactly the switchblade ri s that open “Patience.” The what they want, and they just go for it. There record closes with “Belly Up,” a comically long doesn’t seem to be anything holding them dirge whose gnarly seesawing guitar incites a back.” v SATURDAY, APRIL 6 small army of horns to go rogue. It’s all got the sweaty aggression of the best hardcore, but @imLeor TICKETS AVAILABLE VIA METRO + SMARTBAR WEBSITES + METRO BOX OFFICE. NO SERVICE FEES AT BOX OFFICE! ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 49 Recommended and notable shows and critics’ insights for the week of March 28
MUSIC b ALLAGESF
Rain (Nullzøne), which douses Eno-like instrumen- PICK OF THE WEEK THURSDAY28 tals with cosmic vibes. Tonight’s concert is Parish’s fi rst solo appearance in Chicago in two years, and Candy Abuse of Power, Ekulu, Devil’s Den, and he’ll split his set between loop-based electric com- American Football make peace with the Vortex open. 6:30 PM, ChiTown Futbol, 2343 S. positions and acoustic solo interpretations of tunes Throop, $12. b associated with 20th- century American balladeer past on their new self-titled album John Jacob Niles. —B M Candy formed in 2016, and given their relatively quick ascent among the ranks of hardcore bands, it’d be easy to use the cliche that they came out of nowhere. But in reality, Candy came from every- FRIDAY29 where. They’re o en pegged as a group from Rich- mond, Virginia, the hometown of guitarist Michael Bill Mack ay Forest Management, Miranda “Cheddar” Quick, but the fi ve members are spread Winters, and DJ Mariapaz open. 9 PM, Hideout, across the country, with no two residing in the 1354 W. Wabansia, $10. 21+ same city and only a couple in the same state. The band’s music is equally scattered, though they’re Like many avant-garde-leaning guitarists, Bill Mac- able to put it together so that it never sounds that Kay exudes the spirit of a wandering player walk- way. Their two 2018 and two 2017 releases all use ing the earth, at peace with pulling up a rickety throat-ripping hardcore as a starting point, but the stool and shuffling through a dusty acoustic jam band make minor deviations here and there, such as with whomever he happens to encounter along the jangly Britpop song “Bigger Than Yours” and the the way. A frequent collaborator with local savant thick, techno-inspired “remix” of it. But even without Ryley Walker (the pair have made a small selection those twists and turns, Candy’s hardcore aesthetics of records together), MacKay has more recent- would be hard to pinpoint. Fans of proto-metalcore ly been releasing his own solo guitar explorations, acts such as Integrity will fi nd plenty to love in the which prove he has the chops to command a quiet band’s chugging riff s and tasteful double-kick runs, and respectful room of listeners. Tonight is the but people into raw, noisy Japanese hardcore will release party for MacKay’s new Fountain Fire (Drag recognize bits of that sound too. With an uncom- City), a heady, occasionally beautiful record that promising artistic perspective and lyrics such as mixes lightly distorted electric-guitar trails (“Pre- “Overconsumption / Environmental corruption” California”) with rambling acoustic yarns that bend and “Systematic oppression leads to systematic toward the abstract (“Man & His Panic”). MacKay death,” Candy are always on the attack. The fact plays every instrument on the album—not only gui- that they’ve toured with the burly, rambunctious tars but also percussion, bass, and organ. And on Terror, the expansive, indie-leaning Fucked Up, and “Birds of May” and “Try It On,” he presents his calm, even the shoegaze-worshipping Nothing highlights almost ghostly vocals. At its most potent, Foun- their range, and how they easily cross boundaries ATIBAJEFFERSON without stumbling over them. Candy have a bright A F S PC future ahead of them—even if it’s impossible to pre- Sat 3/30, 9 PM, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, $31. 18+ dict what they’ll do next. —D A
Shane Parish A trio of Eric Krouse, Ted TWENTY YEARS AGO Illinois emo trio American Football released their self-titled debut Moore, and Emerson Hunton opens. 9 PM, Elastic to little interest or acclaim, but since then the wistful, gentle record has become a totem Arts, 3429 W. Diversey, $10. b that’s eclipsed many bigger indie and emo releases of that era. Even the album’s cover art— Shane Parish’s guitar playing in the eclectic, ener- an angled photo of an Urbana house none of the band’s members even lived in—has proved getic rock duo Ahleuchatistas encompasses rapid inspiring, becoming the subject of works of art and memes as well as being referenced by neck tapping, convoluted chord sequences, and intricate rhythmic shifts. He and fellow guitarist bands on their own album sleeves. The unexpected, durable success of the album nudged Wendy Eisenberg improvise dizzily complex con- the original members—guitarist Steve Holmes, drummer and trumpeter Steve Lamos, and figurations of starburst harmonics and frantical- singer-guitarist Mike Kinsella—to regroup in 2014, with Nate Kinsella joining in at the new ly negotiated counterpoint on their brand-new LP of acoustic duets, Nervous Systems (Verses). position of bassist. The past has acted like American Football’s fi fth member. Its shadow A resident of Asheville, North Carolina, he makes hangs over the band’s self-titled 2016 reunion album; for its cover, they chose a photo from his crust as a guitar instructor, but while his tech- inside the now-famed house on the front of their debut, and the record’s least compelling nique is prodigious, he’s a self-taught musician, and for his latest solo recording, Autodidact (Human- points serve as merely a reminder of the group’s old alchemical whoosh, which inspired so hood), he gleans creative inspiration from the state many young people. For their brand-new release, another self- titled album that’s colloqui- of not knowing. The album documents a journey ally dubbed LP3 (Polyvinyl), American Football have successfully navigated their past and that begins with a guitar in standard tuning, which alters course each time he changes the tuning or used it as a device to gaze at the future—and they’ve done so with a little help from others. threads objects such as paper clips, Nerf darts, or On a few songs, Kinsella trades vulnerable vocals with high-profi le guests: Land of Talk’s strips of plastic through the instrument’s strings— Elizabeth Powell (“Every Wave to Ever Rise”), Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell (“I Can’t Feel and the less familiar the sounds that come forth, the more involved with them he becomes. Parish’s You”), and Paramore’s Hayley Williams (“Uncomfortably Numb”). All of the album’s wind- other recent solo recordings include Undertak- Prateek Kuhad SAMBITBISWAS swept melodies, aching vocals, and contemplative lyrics o er an idea of what it means for er Please Drive Slow (Tzadik), which uses Ameri- a group of fathers—who spent most of the past 20 years building their lives outside this can folk and gospel tunes as launching platforms for winding improvisations, and Child Asleep in the band—to fi nd a way to move forward together. —LG
50 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll Est.Est.1954 1954 Celebrating over 6165 years of service service to Chicago! MUSIC 1800 W. DIVISION N LINCOLN AVENUE, CHICAGO IL (773) 486-9862 OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG . . Come enjoy one of THURSDAY, MARCH PM looks. So you could say Kuhad has one mode, and Chicago’s finest beer gardens! it’s a mode that’s likely to be cloying, verging on FEBRUARYSEPTEMBERJAMARCHNUARY 11...... 28 20 23 ...... MIKEDA MIKEVID QUINN FELTEN FLABBY FELTEN HOFFMAN SHOW 8PM intolerable for anyone other than true romantics. Robert Ellis - SEPTEMBERJAMARCHNUARY 12...... 29 21 .....WAGNER RED WIGGLERS AMERICAN& MORSE DRAFT FEBRUARYSEPTEMBER 22 24 .....THE ..... DEADLYDADYRKNAMOSRO BUNGALOWSOM MEN For those with a place in their moderately yearning JAMARCHNUARY 13...... 30 FIRST DJWARD SKID PROBLEMS LICIOUS Texas Piano Man SEPTEMBERJAMARCHNUARY 14...... 31 23 ....WHOLESOMERADIO LOCALWHITEWOLFSONICPRINCESSTO BOYSNY DO DJRO NIGHTSARIO GROUP hearts for dreamily uptight sighs and earnest ambiv- APRIL 1 MURPHY CHICAGOMOJO THOMPSON 49 SKYLINERS 9:30PM BIG BAND 7PM with special guest Ian O'Neil (of Deer Tick) JA NUARY 17...... MIKE PROSPECT FELTENJAMIE FOURWAGNER 9PM & FRIENDS alence, Kuhad is your guy—Cold/Mess is the per- JAAPRILNUARY 3 18...... MORSE MIKE & WAGNER FELTON In Szold Hall FEBRUARYAPRIL 4 25 .....WHOLESOMERADIO THE SMILIN’ RON AND BOBBY RACHEL AND SHOW THE DJ CLEMTONES NIGHT fect soundtrack to accompany all the emotions that SEPTEMBERJAAPRILNUARY 5 19...... 24 .....RC THE BIG BANDCLAM SITU 7PMAT BANDION DAV ID BIRDGANGS FEATURINGMAXLIELLIAM 9:30PM BK READ ANNA come while changing your relationship status on FEBRUARYAPRIL 6 26 .....RC SOMEBODY’S BIG BAND SINS 7PM SATURDAY, MARCH PM JA NUARY 20...... TITTY FEATURING CITTY FIRST WAJOERD LANASA PROBLEMS Facebook to “It’s complicated.” —N B FEBRUARYJAAPRILNUARY 7 21...... 28 .....PETER DUDE CRAIG SAMETO ALAN CASANONY DO ROVASARIOQUARTET GROUP 8PM SEPTEMBER 26 .....PETER SIGNE CASANOVA QUARTET JA NUARY 22...... LEAH RCJEAN BIG BAND 7PM Peter Himmelman MARCHSEPTEMBERJAAPRILNUARY 8 1...... SMILIN’ 24...... 27 .....DORIAN BOSTONTA PETERJ TYPEWRITERBO CASONOBBY ANDVA ORCHESTRA THEQUARTET CLEMTONES 5:30PM SEPTEMBERJA NUARY 25...... 28 ..... TO URS RC BIG THE BAND WICK 7PM MARCH 2...... ICE BULLY JON PULPIT BORARICKX AND NONET BIG HOUSE9PM SATURDAY, MARCH PM JAAPRILNUARY 9 26...... FLABBY THE HOFFMAN HEPKATS SHOW 8PM SUNDAY31 MARCHSEPTEMBERAPRIL 10 3...... CHIDITAROD 29 .....SOMEBODY’S ELIZABETH’SSKIPPIN’ SINS CRAZY ANDROCKTA LITTLERRINGTON THING 10PM9PM FEATURING JOE LANASA JAAPRILNUARY 11 27...... FLABBY THE HOFFMAN STRAY BO SHOWLTS 8PM MARCHSEPTEMBER 7...... 30 .....OFFJA THEMIE VINEWA 4:30PMGNER & FRIENDS Baroness Dea eaven and Zeal & Ardor open. Roy Rogers & The Delta JANUARY 28...... NUCLEAR WHOLESOMERADIO JAZZ QUARKTET 7:30PM DJ NIGHT b EVERY TUESDAY (EXCEPT 2ND) AT 8PM 6:30 PM, Riviera Theatre, 4746 N. Racine, $33. Rhythm Kings In Szold Hall EVERYOPEN MIC TUESD HOSTEDAY (EXCEPT BY MIKE 2ND) &AT MIKE8PM OPENON TUESDAY MIC HOSTED EVENINGS BY JIMIJON (EXCEPT AMERICA 2ND) Savannah-based sludge/alternative- metal quartet FRIDAY, APRIL PM Baroness have spent a long time nursing their fi h full-length, the forthcoming Gold & Grey, which is their fi rst with new guitarist Gina Gleason, replacing Bill Frisell's Harmony the outgoing Pete Adams. (Adams will be missed, featuring Petra Haden, Hank Roberts but if you ask me, it’s about time a band called Bar- & Luke Bergman oness had a woman member.) Singer-guitarist John Baizley has said this record is a look back at the SATURDAY, APRIL & PM band’s tumultuous fi rst decade, and will be the last one titled a er a color, a theme that runs through Marshall Crenshaw & Baroness PAMSTROHM every album (and album cover) and has become interlinked with the band’s identity. The sprawling, The Bottle Rockets shi ing double LP shines metal, grunge, prog, and folk elements through a melancholy prism. Occa- SUNDAY, APRIL PM sionally self-indulgent but never unforgivably so, tain Fire sounds as though it’s miraculously stay- Gold & Grey might lack in instantly gripping chug, Söndörgő In Szold Hall ing on a course that’s entirely visible only to MacK- but it rewards those who have patience for repeat ay himself, while the rest of us can’t see the path listening. Dreamy interludes such as “Crooked SUNDAY, APRIL PM till it unfurls before us. At times, the record can be Mile,” “Can Oscura,” and the spacy “Assault on downright haunting, even untethered. “Arcadia,” East Falls” contrast with the heavier tracks, and Cheryl Wheeler In Szold Hall for instance, is a sojourn of wily electric guitar with this time out, the band’s heart is in psychedelic, plenty of slide that sounds as though it’s made by melodic trance-outs, such as beautiful closer “Pale WEDNESDAY, APRIL PM a rancher lounging outside his homestead, trying to Sun.” —M K stretch notes as far as he can across the empty des- Darlingside ert. —K W with special guest Lula Wiles Little Big 7 PM, Concord Music Hall, 2047 N. Milwaukee, $49. 17+ FRIDAY, APRIL PM
SATURDAY30 Little Big have all the nuance of a Las Vegas motel Jane Siberry In Szold Hall sign, but that’s the point. They’re a Russian rave See Pick of the Week, band that have employed jackhammer drums, American Football FRIDAY, APRIL PM page 50. Sam Prekop and Campdogzz open. earthquake- inducing bass drops, and synths that 9 PM, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, $31. 18+ could soundtrack Sonic the Hedgehog on ecstasy to spoof Russian culture and dance-music cliches. Jonas Friddle The music on their two 2018 Antipositive EPs (SBA Album Release Celebration for Prateek Kuhad Elephant Micah and Devin Music Publishing/Warner Music Russia) relentless- The Last Place to Go Flower open. 9 PM, Sleeping Village, 3734 W. ly bludgeon the listener—if you’ve ever made fun of with special guest Sons of the Never Wrong Belmont, $18, 21+ teenage American EDM fans, these songs are likely the sound you imagined when you did it. But Little ACROSS THE STREET IN SZOLD HALL Even compared to twee icons such as Belle & Big’s strengths (and, dare I say, genius) lie in their N LINCOLN AVENUE, CHICAGO IL Sebastian or Camera Obscura, Indian singer- vigorous, funny videos—listening to the tracks with- Global Dance Party: Cajun Vagabonds songwriter Prateek Kuhad is very twee. His vocals out them can feel like being on the wrong end of a Global Dance Party: are light, high, and breathy. His music is smooth, joke. In their viral clip for “Skibidi,” every living crea- Carpacho y Su Super Combo melodic folk-pop—think Donovan without the weird- ture (and the occasional inanimate object) dances Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre: ness or the rock influences, or John Denver with- by repeatedly thrusting their arms together to form Company Showcase & Sneak Preview out the country twang. And his lyrics are steeped an “X” while simultaneously jerking one knee in the in sweet nostalgic indecision. On “Cold/Mess,” air, then alternating knees in time with the beat. WORLD MUSIC WEDNESDAY SERIES the title track of his 2018 EP on Artist Originals, During the song’s goofy chorus, the characters pull FREE WEEKLY CONCERTS, LINCOLN SQUARE he warbles, “I wish I could leave you, my love / But out a dance sequence reminiscent of the Macarena, Cimafunk my heart is a mess / The days they begin with your performing the moves so eff usively and with such Mn'JAM Experiment name and the nights end with your breath.” And the exacting precision that they double as a demonstra- video he’s released for it is a montage of hand hold- tion of Little Big’s operating principle—to really sell ing, kissing, romantic arguments, and meaningful a shtick, you’ve gotta embody it. —LG J OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 51 Find more music listings at MUSIC chicagoreader.com/soundboard.
continued from 51 duo of Yung Miami and JT rapped the un deniable bridge on the bounce-flavored track, which put them on stereos and streams of people worldwide MONDAY1 and seemed to set them up for surefire success. That is, until JT was busted for credit-card fraud just City Girls, Blueface Lil Baby headlines; City when the single hit airwaves, and the serious pris- Girls and Blueface open. 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, on sentence she received for the incident stalled 4746 N. Racine, $50. 18+ the group’s inevitable explosion. But before she got locked up, City Girls put together two solid Much of the world’s introduction to City Girls was releases, November’s Girl Code—their official stu- through last summer’s inescapable smash hit from dio debut—and before that, May’s Period—a real- Drake, “In My Feelings.” The Miami-based hip-hop deal hot-shit mixtape. On top of being packed with
52 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll Sat., March 30 @ 8pm MUSIC
City Girls COURTESYEMIMUSIC
“Honky Tonk Girl” - a tribute to Loretta Lynn enough buzz to tour in major venues. As he recent- Fill your glass up to the brim and enjoy the best ghtin’ drinkin’ cheatin’ ly told the New York Times, his Instagram savvy and songs: “Coal Miner’s Daughter” “Don’t Come Home a-Drinkin” “You troll-like fl air for getting a rise out of rap fans did Ain’t Woman Enough to Take My Man” and more! more for his career than his artistry: “Getting to this Starring Jenifer French & e Twang Patrol country band, featuring point probably took about 25 percent music.” Blue- Alton Smith (keyboards), TC Furlong (pedal steel guitar), John Rice ( ddle/guitar), Malcolm Ruhl (bass) and Billy Sha er (drums) face’s great strength as a rapper is his unpredict- Director: Daryl Nitz ability. No two fl ows on his June mixtape, Famous Cryp (5th Amendment Entertainment/Entertain- Tickets: $25 at www.davenportspianobar.com ment One U.S.), sound alike. At times Blueface Davenport’s Piano Bar seems downright deaf to the instrumental in front 1383 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago • 773-278-1830 of him—though he plays off these performances with a cool confi dence that suggests the only beat worth following is the one in his head. But when he 80s-gangsta-rap-infl uenced smashers and over-the- I can’t blame anyone for holding off on listening fi nds a spark, he can be unstoppable—as he is on the top energetic rhyming, Girl Code and Period take to LA rapper Johnathan Porter, better known as minimal “Thotiana,” which has become such a mas- the problematic gender politics of hip-hop and bril- Blueface, whose rapid ascent has girdled his image sive hit that I’ve noticed people crediting Blueface liantly turn them on their head, with songs about with “industry plant” insults, and whose viral celeb- for inventing the titular term, erasing the fi ve or so objectifying and exploiting men rapped in such glo- rity eclipses the music he’s ridden to fame. Just years it’s been incubating in Chicago hip-hop cul- riously raunchy detail that they’d make Eazy-E blush. over a year ago, he had only one mixtape under ture. His oddball fl ow o en goes sideways, but no please recycle It’s intense, shocking, and endless fun—a breath of his belt, but he’d already realized that marketing matter how bad it gets, it’s always memorable. More fresh air that’s much needed in mainstream hip-hop. his personality was more important for building a than most emerging rappers, Blueface understands this paper Yung Miami will be holding down City Girls sets fan base than how many releases he’d put out—and that the only thing worse than a bad performance is until JT’s release from prison. —L C since then, he’s gone from total obscurity to having being forgettable. —LG J
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LOUIS YORK & THE TOMMY CASTRO & THE CYRILLE AIMEE WILLIE NILE SHINDELLAS PAINKILLERS WITH KEVIN BURT A SONDHEIM ADVENTURE ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 53 MUSIC
continued from 53 TUESDAY2 Wake Like Rats, C.H.E.W., and Carnivores at Grace open. For more on C.H.E.W., see page 46. 6:30 PM, Subterranean, 2011 W. North, $10. 17+
Misery Rites, the newest album from Canadian grindsters Wake, opens with a slow dirge that’s anchored by melancholic howls and oceanic riff s. It’s a fi tting introduction to an album on which the band expand their palette beyond the straight-ahead blistering grindcore (complete with buzzsaw gui- tars) of its predecessor, 2016’s Sowing the Seeds of a Worthless Tomorrow, to incorporate elements of sludge and technical death metal. And where Sow- ing the Seeds was full of nihilistically political songs, on this go-round vocalist Kyle Ball plumbs his inter- Wake MIKEWELLS nal landscape for lyrical inspiration, focusing most of his ire on his personal experiences with the cycli- cal nature of depression, addiction, and isolation. A decade ago, I desperately tried to fi nd a way to Mott albums touched on Dylan-esque roots rock, The band wrote the record with that underlying the UK after I heard that legendary band Mott blasting protopunk, and gentle, poetic ballads— concept in mind, and the result is incredibly tense the Hoople was re-forming for a show at London’s but by 1972 they’d rolled over to the glam look and tracks with knotted, repetitive riffs courtesy of Hammersmith Apollo. Though five original mem- sound. While they just had the one aforementioned www.rattlebackrecords.com founding guitarist Rob LaChance and vicious drum- bers were touted, four ended up playing, and that hit over on these shores, in the UK and Europe they 5405 N. Clark Street - Chicago ming by Josh Buechert. Ball takes a brief break from reunion—along with 2013 and 2018 UK shows—were hit the charts with classic-styled rockers, includ- self-examination on “Rot,” an anti-cop track that’s met with generally glowing reviews. I missed all ing “Honaloochie Boogie” and “All the Way From two minutes of furious guitar and blastbeats that those gigs, but pinch me: at last, these glam-rock Memphis,” and epic singalongs such as “Walk- culminate in a neck-tendon-shredding breakdown. gods are coming to the U.S. for their fi rst tour since ing with a Mountain” and “Roll Away the Stone,” SAVE THE Though Wake are very good at playing grindcore, 1974. To be fair, we only get three actual Hooplers. while also exploring theatrical, almost progres- they shine most in their slower moments. On “Buri- Corkscrew-haired front man Ian Hunter (who does sive song structures on “Marionette.” (All of these al Ground,” the standout suff ocating slog that clos- tour here quite regularly), guitarist Ariel Bender songs have appeared in their recent set lists). The es the album, Ball howls, “I won’t change / I never (the pseudonym of Luther Grosvenor, who played last time they toured the States, Queen was actu- DATE(S) change.” It’s a strangled cry of someone able to rec- under his own name in Spooky Tooth), and fl amboy- ally in the support slot, and the experience inspired ognize the crushing weight they carry inside, and ant keyboardist Morgan Fisher. I actually hesitate to Queen’s 1975 single “Now I’m Here,” which includes their inability to imagine living without their bur- call the band “glam,” as that diminishes their power a lyrical name-drop: “Down in the city / Just Hoo- dens. A er Ball’s vocals drop out, the band creaks to and versatility—I mean, do people refer to Queen ple and me.” Famed glitter guitarist Mick Ronson SAT, APRIL 13 a halt, leaving the listener bathed in feedback. —E as “just” a glam band? Mott is also unfortunately joined Mott the Hoople later, but he and Hunt- B known to some people as a mere footnote in anoth- er eventually le to form their own group togeth- WED, APRIL 24 er glamster’s career—I won’t bother to mention him er, leaving the band to slog on somewhat direc- here because he already gets way too much lip ser- tionless under the shortened name Mott until 1976, vice, but his name rhymes with “Mavid Snowie,” he when they morphed into British Lions. I’ve seen WEDNESDAY3 wrote Mott’s biggest hit, “All the Young Dudes,” and Hunter a few times, and even at age 80, the man he was a huge fan of the band (as was Mick Jones of still has moves and energy. So fi le this show under Mott the Hoople ’74 8 PM, Chicago the Clash). Hunter started rocking in the 1950s, so “Bands I never thought I’d get to see in my lifetime” Theatre, 175 N. State, $45-$79.50. b he was no spring chicken in 1969 when Mott formed and this reviewer under “Ready to rock!” —S please recycle out of the ashes of a band called the Silence. Early K v this paper
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54 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll CHICAGO SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IN THE WEEKS TO COME
b ALLAGESF EARLY WARNINGS WOLFBYKEITHHERZIK Vesper, Zigtebra, Big Syn 4/16, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Never miss Liv Warfi eld 4/23, 8 PM, City Winery b a show again. Winter, Feels 5/8, 8:30 PM, Sign up for the Empty Bottle newsletter at GOSSIP Suzi Wu 6/5, 7:30 PM, Schubas b chicagoreader. Mike Zito 8/23, 10 PM, SPACE, com/early WOLF Evanston, on sale Fri 3/29, 10 AM b A furry ear to the ground of Durand Jones & the Indica- tions 4/11, 9 PM, Thalia Hall, the local music scene UPDATED 17+ Kodak Black 5/2, 7 PM, Patio LAST AUGUST, Emily Blue dropped *69, Flat Five 6/2, 3:30 and 7:30 Theater, 18+ PM, Hideout, 3:30 PM show L7 5/21, 7:30 PM, Metro, 18+ a glossy, idea-packed EP whose fi ve tunes added; 7:30 PM show is sold La Dispute, Gouge Away 4/23, burst with pulsing electro beats and wal- out 6:30 PM, Thalia Hall b loping synth-pop choruses—a small sur- Hand Habits 4/4, 9 PM; 4/5, La Santa Cecilia 4/5, 7 PM, prise to Gossip Wolf, since she’s best 10 PM, Hideout, 4/4 sold out; Concord Music Hall, 17+ 4/5 added Lady Lamb, Renata Zeiguer, known as the eff ervescent-voiced singer Alex Schaaf 4/17, 6:30 PM, of catchy local indie-rock band Tara Terra. Lincoln Hall b But a few listens to Blue’s radio-ready solo UPCOMING Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio jams, such as “Microscope” and “Falling in Deerhoof COURTESYOFPOLYVINYLRECORDS 4/20, 8 PM, Martyrs' Herb Alpert & Lani Hall 5/4-5, Mark Lanegan Band 5/7, 8 PM, Love,” make it clear that she can translate 8 PM, City Winery b Bottom Lounge, 17+ her razor-sharp hooks into any musical Cadillac Palace Theatre b PM, Lincoln Hall Eric Andersen & Last Bison 4/7, 7 PM, Subterra- language! On Friday, March 29, Midwest NEW Elkhorn, Mark Shippy/Daniel Party Pupils, Pat Lok 4/6, 9 Scarlet Rivera 4/21, 1 PM, nean, 17+ Action drops a CD reissue of *69 with Wyche, Molly Jones 4/14, 9 PM, Chop Shop, 18+ SPACE, Evanston b Lisa Lauren, Gregory Doug- Advance Base, Ratboys, Elisa PM, Elastic b Physical Therapy, Harry Cross Adam Ant 9/7, 8 PM, Riviera lass 5/23, 7:30 PM, SPACE, four new songs, and Blue celebrates with Latrice 4/6, 7 PM, GMan Mark Farina, DJ Heather 4/13, 4/12, 10 PM, Smart Bar Theatre, 18+ Evanston a set at Chop Shop on Friday, April 5. And Tavern 10 PM, Smart Bar Pink Talking Fish 6/15, 11:30 Atliens 4/6, 8:30 PM, Bottom Jeremy Loops 4/16, 8 PM, don’t despair, Tara Terra fans! On Sunday, Ages and Ages 5/31, 9 PM, Flora, Jordanna 4/18, 9 PM, PM, The Vic, 18+ Lounge, 18+ Bottom Lounge, 17+ April 7, they play Sleeping Village for their Schubas, 18+ Schubas, 18+ Pixel Grip, Grun Wasser, Cam- Avantastia 5/21, 8 PM, Patio Lord Huron, Bully 7/26, 8 PM, Allah-Lahs, Tim Hill 8/16, 8:30 45 Donuts with Merrick eron Traxx, DJ Ariel Zetina Theater Chicago Theatre first show since 2017—it’s a release party PM, Empty Bottle, on sale Fri Brown and more 4/6, 9 PM, 4/13, 9 PM, Sleeping Village Avett Brothers 9/20, 7:30 PM, Lorna Shore, Enterprise Earth for the new EP Couch Surfer, Lover. 3/29, 10 AM Harbee Liquors & Tavern F P.O.D., Nonpoint, Hyro the Huntington Bank Pavilion 4/30, 6 PM, Reggie's Rock Local singer-songwriter Marian Runk Altin Gun 7/29, 8 PM, Lincoln Gazebo Eff ect, Captain Coo- Hero, Islander, Nine Shrines Backstreet Boys 8/10, 8 PM, Club, 17+ writes uncannily vivid lyrics. The lovely Hall, 18+ persmith, Splor 4/20, 9 PM, 5/12, 6:30 PM, Bottom United Center Mana 10/11-12, 8 PM, Allstate Yasiin Bey 4/27, 8 PM, Concord Schubas, 18+ Lounge, 17+ BadXchannels, Midoca 4/10, 8 Arena, Rosemont country- and folk-inflected songs on her Music Hall, 17+ Great Good Fine Ok, Ves- Rebecca Rego and the PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+ NRBQ 6/21-22, 8 PM, Hideout recent debut album, A Few Feet From Andrew Bird, Madison perteen 5/31, 9 PM, Lincoln Trainmen, Minor Moon, Clarks 5/31, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen Olivia O'Brien 4/4, 7:30 PM, the Ground, make it easy to picture her Cunningham 7/16, 7:30 PM, Hall, 18+ Adam Remnant 5/29, 8 PM, Claypool Lennon Delirium Lincoln Hall b characters: the undertaker with a bad Chicago Theatre, on sale Fri Shaun Hague, Daniel Correa Schubas, 18+ 4/26, 9 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Ocean Alley 6/10, 8:30 PM, 3/29, 11 AM b 4/14, 7 PM, City Winery b River Whyless 6/4, 8 PM, Jon Cleary 7/18, 8 PM, SPACE, Schubas, 18+ toupee in the sparse, dusty “Crowell,” for Black Pistol Fire, Emily Wolfe Hellogoodbye, Hala 5/11, 8:30 SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri Evanston b Pelican, Young Widows, Cloak- instance, and the lovelorn snow goose pin- 5/18, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ PM, Chop Shop, 18+ 3/29, 10 AM b Anna Clendening 4/17, 7 PM, room 6/29, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ ing for a missing companion in the moving Tommy Carroll's Calculated Hip Abduction 5/3, 9 PM, Rooney 6/16, 8 PM, Schubas, Schubas b Perfume 4/5, 8 PM, Chicago ballad “The Loneliest Birds.” On Friday, Discomfort 4/10, 9 PM, Whis- Chop Shop, 18+ 18+ Romain Collin 5/26, 7:30 PM, Theatre tler F I Don't Know How But They Saicobab 5/6, 8:30 PM, Con- SPACE, Evanston Perpetual Groove 4/27, 10 PM, March 29, she plays the Hungry Brain on Casual Hex, North by North, Found Me, Superet 5/15, 7:30 stellation, 18+ Cowboy Junkies 4/13-14, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ a bill with Joybird, the project of fi ddler Tomblands, Rainbow James PM, Lincoln Hall b Score, Lostboycrow, Over- Maurer Hall, Old Town School Perturbator 5/9, 8:30 PM, Jess McIntosh, who released the similarly 4/13, 6:30 PM, Subterranean, In Motion, Buzz 5/24, 8:30 PM, street 5/2, 7 PM, Lincoln of Folk Music b Thalia Hall, 17+ folky (and excellent) Landing this month. 17+ Constellation, 18+ Hall, 18+ Dave Davies 4/21, 8 PM, City Lawrence Peters Outfi t, Jere- Chai Tulani, DJ Skoli & Sun Little People, Marley Carroll, Mike Servito, Olin 4/5, 10 PM, Winery b my Pinnell, David Quinn 4/27, Nonprofit south-side community radio Blvd, Louie Mendez 4/17, 8:30 Anchorsong 4/26, 9 PM, Smart Bar Dead & Company 6/14-15, 7 9 PM, Hideout station WHPK celebrated its 50th anni- PM, Empty Bottle Chop Shop, 18+ Shed, Aurora Halal, Ariel PM, Wrigley Field Samiam, Off With Their Heads versary last year, and on Friday, March Claude, Ziemba, Simulation Lucette, Long Lost 6/20, 9 PM, Zetina 5/3, 10 PM, Smart Bar Deer Tick 5/7, 8:30 PM, Thalia 5/15, 7 PM, Chop Shop b 29, it hosts a benefit show at the Empty 5/7, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Schubas, 18+ She's Cra y 6/21, 8 PM, Hall, 17+ San Holo, Taska Black 4/27, 8 Crywolf 4/7, 9 PM, Chop Duff McKagan, Shooter Schubas b Deerhoof, Palm 4/21, 8 PM, PM, Aragon Ballroom, 18+ Bottle! Wild avant-rockers Blacker Face Shop, 18+ Jennings 6/6, 8:30 PM, Thalia Smallpools 5/29, 7:30 PM, Park Lincoln Hall, 18+ Skating Polly, Jo Passed 5/2, 7 headline—they’ve been burning up DIY Dawn Ray'd, Lifes 6/5, 8:30 Hall, 17+ West b Dehd, Hecks, Mavis the Dog PM, Schubas b spaces for years, and Gossip Wolf’s heard PM, Empty Bottle Scott Mulvahill 8/23, 7 PM, SoDown, Cofresi, Homeade 5/10, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Turnover, Turnstile 5/2, 6 PM, whispers that they’ve got a full-length Brett Dennen 5/31-6/1, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri Spaceship 4/20, 10 PM, Chop Dodie 9/17, 7:30 PM, Riviera Concord Music Hall b SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 3/29, 10 AM b Shop, 18+ Theatre b Vampire Weekend 6/16, 6:30 coming this year. Also playing are pop 3/29, 10 AM b Mystery Skulls, Snowblood Summer Salt, Dante Ele- Earth, Helms Alee 6/23, 8:30 PM, Huntington Bank Pavilion singer Violet (who fronts dark rock out- Dip, Moorea Masa and the 7/23, 6:30 PM, Subterranean phante, Motel Radio 7/30, PM, Empty Bottle The Who 5/21, 7:30 PM, Holly- fit Doctor Death Crush) and art-rockers Mood 4/25, 9 PM, Chop b 6:30 PM, Bottom Lounge b Ex Hex, Moaning 4/10, 8 PM, wood Casino Amphitheatre, Pete Willson & the Rooks. WHPK DJs Shop, 18+ Nth Power, Congregation 4/11, Tallest Man on Earth 9/28, 8 Thalia Hall, 17+ Tinley Park Do Re #metoo with Kelly 9 PM, Martyrs' PM, Cadillac Palace Theatre Faux Ferocious, Glyders, Xeno & Oaklander, Odonis spin between sets, and the folks behind Hogan, Nora O'Connor, and O.R. They?, Defcee 4/12, 10 b Junegrass 4/12, 9 PM, Empty Odonis 4/11, 9 PM, Empty ace Chicago zine The Sick Muse will be in more 5/9, 8 PM, Metro, 18+ PM, Subterranean Tennyson, Sports Boyfriend Bottle Bottle the house with copies of their new issue! Drums, Tanukichan 5/1, 8:30 Oh Sees, Prettiest Eyes 10/11- 4/10, 7:30 PM, Schubas b God Is an Astronaut 9/25, 8 Xiu Xiu 5/17, 9 PM, Empty —JRN LG PM, Metro, 18+ 12, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Tusk 4/7, 8 PM, City Winery b PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Bottle Grelley Duvall Show with John Paris Chansons 8/10, 7 and 10 TV Girl, Negative Gemini 6/12, Justin Jesso 5/9, 7:30 PM, Yheti 5/3, 10 PM, Bottom Cicora Tuesdays, 9:30 PM PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Schubas b Lounge, 17+ Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail Through 4/23, Hideout Fri 3/29, 10 AM b Urulu, B. Hayes 4/27, 10 PM, Johnnyswim 5/25, 7:30 PM, Zveri 5/31, 7 PM, Concord [email protected]. Ludovico Einaudi 6/6, 7:30 PM, Charlie Parr, Phil Cook 5/16, 8 Smart Bar Riviera Theatre b Music Hall, 17+ v ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 55 SAVAGE LOVE
Sad boys and vaginal design Audience-submitted questions from a live event.
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56 CHICA O READER - MARCH ll [email protected], & ref job in Chicago, IL. Reqs: Bach 111287. deg or for equiv in CS Sci, JOBS InfoSys Engg, or IT rel fld +6 GENERAL Loyola University Chicago yrs exp of SAP solutns dsgn, is seeking an Assistant maintenance, & implement of Northwestern University, Professor in Chicago, IL to fi n’l solutns w/manufng ind OR By Dan Savage SAVAGE LOVE Dept. of Economics, teach students in classroom Mast deg +3 yrs as described Evanston, IL. Position: setting re areas of advtg, above. All stated exp must Assistant Professor. Duties: public relations (PR), global incl: architecture of technol teach,advise students, conduct strategic communication & platforms, IT change mgmt, bus and publish economic research. related courses incl corporate process model’g, issue resolutn Required: PhD in economics or communication, crisis methods, & applic architecture related degree, outstanding communication, & strategic dsgn, incl framewrks, tools, research record, excellent campaign development. Plse technologies, & methodologies. recommendations, teaching send resume to John Slania 10% int’l travel. Apply online at ability. Send CV and 3 reference ([email protected]) & ref job www.nouryon.com/careersfor letters to Director of Finance #032871. Req# 1900011O. and Adm., econ@northwestern. edu. AA/EOE. Staffigo Technical Services, Solutions Architect QM by LLC in Woodridge, IL seeks Nouryon Chemicals LLC. in A: Same as comedy: tragedy rubber one, and it was just upright about four million Know Marble, Granite, Technology Analyst to create Chicago, IL. Reqs: Mast’s deg + time. uncomfortable. Is it worth years ago. Terrazzo? Natural stone & implement bus. processes, or equiv in CS, Comp Engg, restoration co. Is seeking workflows & tech solutions. or rel fld +2yrs of exp in the more time and research? skilled & reliable craftsman to No trvl; no telecom. Job duties IT sector w/SAP w/i manufng join team. Provable Skilled tech are proj-based @ unanticipated ind OR Bach deg +5yrs of : In the era of online : My mother-in-law had receives signing bonus. Drivers sites wi/in U.S. Relo maybe exp as described. Employer dating, how do you navigate : Cock rings are made episodes of amnesia a er license a +. Email resume to req’d @ proj end. Mail resumes will accept exp gained before A [email protected] to: Staffi go Technical Services, or after complet’n of Bach the people who think from all sorts of diff erent orgasm in her 50s. Have $17-$30 p/h, bonus eligible. HR, 6825 Hobson Valley Dr, Ste deg. All stated exp must incl 104, Woodridge, IL 60517. architecture, technol platforms, the grass will always be materials, and it’s important you heard of this? WILL IT Systems Analysts/ & bus domains w/relevant exp greener and have diffi culty to fi nd the material (rubber, HAPPEN TO ME? Developers; Park Ridge, IL: Groupon, Inc. is seeking a in the Supply Chain & Rsrch Support enterprise wide VoIP Manager, Data Science in & Dvlpmt domain. Exp must committing to truly building metal, leather) and fi t (snug infrastructure & associated Chicago, IL w/ the following also incl bus process model’g hardware & software, including responsibilities: Lead & applic architecture dsgn a relationship? but not too tight) that works A: I have not! I HAVE NO AVAYA IP-PBXs, legacy PBX transformational initiatives as a (logical & physical), framewrks for you. I defi nitely think IDEA! I have also googled systems, call management part of Data Science leadership (TOGAF), tools, technologies, systems, Aura & ESNA w/in Groupon by executing & methodologies. Apply online A: The expression “the grass you should experiment a bit this for you, and—holy shit— voicemail, soft-phones, initiatives in Supply Chain, atwww.nouryon.com/careers automatic call distribution & Forecasting, Supply, Discovery for Req#1900011N. is always greener on the before giving up—cock rings it’s a thing and it has a name: interactive voice response & Conversion. Up to 25% travel other side of the fence” has are great. And, hey, did you transient global amnesia systems. Travel/relocate reqd to various unanticipated to various unanticipated locs in the U.S.; must live w/ its roots in a Latin proverb know there’s a Wiki page with (TGA). Apparently, any form locations. Send res to Peterson in normal commuting distance Technology Partners, Inc. 1030 of Seattle, Chicago, or San fi rst translated into English a lot of good info about cock of strenuous exercise can West Higgins Rd, Ste 230 Park Francisco. Apply on-line REAL in 1545—which means the rings? trigger TGA. So don’t fuck, Ridge, IL 60068 athttps://jobs.groupon.com/ ESTATE
CLASSIFIEDS jobs/R19830 sentiment predates dating don’t run, don’t bike! Just sit Job Description RENTALS A national leader in longitudinal Chicago, IL – Willis Americas apps by, oh, roughly half a : Will you be my sperm still and you’ll be fi ne! outcome studies is seeking Administration, Inc. seeks a millennium. But the “paradox donor? entry level interviewers Senior Placement Specialist, STUDIO for Social Science studies Professional Liability to act as of choice,” or the idea that : What do you think is the involving adults with substance the main pt of contact on the Large studio near Warren use disorders and criminal N. American Construction Team Park. 6804 N. Wolcott. people have a hard time A: Well, that depends. Are most needed focus of le justice involvement. Primary to coord parties on all sides Hardwood floors. Laundry choosing when presented you male, between the ages activism in the United States JOBS duties include interviewing to meet & undrstd agendas in building. Cats OK. $825/ participants and follow-up &goals. Support the dvlpmt of month. Heat included. with too many options, of 25 and 55, and (my entirely today? tracking. Should have good oral professional liability team ins Available 4/1. (773) 761-4318. ADMINISTRATIVE communication, organizational prod strategy. Negotiate pro www.lakefrontmgt.com has certainly complicated subjective notion about what skill. Should be able to work liability placemt terms for major modern dating. But too many is) hot? Then sure! A: Most needed: defeating SALES & weekends and nights. accts. Assist cnstructn teams Large studio apartment MARKETING w/ Willis srvc, underwritg & near Loyola Park. options beats too few, in Trump and combating climate Job Tasks: Conduct surveys coverage issues on existing 1329-41 W. Estes. and collect data, using prgrms. Provide cnstructn Hardwood floors. Cats OK. my opinion, and it certainly : My partner wants me to change. Most prevalent: FOOD & DRINK methods such as interviews, liability cntrct rev, policy audits $825/month. Heat included. beats no options at all, e.g., move in with him and have relitigating the 2016 questionnaires, and focus & mkt contacts. Reqs: Bach Available 5/1. (773) 761-4318. SPAS & SALONS groups. Review, classify deg or equiv in Construction www.lakefrontmgt.com deserted islands, compulsory kids. He also wants an open Democratic primary. and record survey data in Mgmt, Risk Mgmt, or rltd & 5 BIKE JOBS preparation for computer yrs exp in the cnstructn/engg Large studio near heterosexuality, unhappy relationship and to be able analysis. Experience and pro liability ind, incl 5 yrs exp Morse red line for arranged marriages, etc. to father children for other : My mom fi nishes every GENERAL knowledge in the substance w/: wrkg w/ lge, multinat’l, sublease. 6826 N. Wayne. abuse field, criminal justice, global corps & institutns; Hardwood floors. Laundry in women if they choose to call with “God bless you.” refusal conversion, motivational understandg cnstructn proj risk building. Pets OK. Sublease interviewing training, and from a design pro, contractor from 6/1-8/31. $775/month. : Any advice for a 22-year- be single moms. I’m not I’m not a believer, but it’s not bilingual are a plus. Tracking & owner perspctv; pro liability Heat included. (773) 761-4318. old woman who meets only comfortable with that. How something we could ever REAL difficult to locate individuals. cvrage expertise, incl in-depth www.lakefrontmgt.com Managing large amounts of undrstndg of proj-spec plcmts sad boys who need a mom? can I express this without talk about. I usually ignore it, ESTATE inbound and outbound calls & annual renewable policies; in a timely manner. Following wrkg w/ CPPI, OPPI, PSPL BEDROOM blocking him from getting sometimes I say it back, but “scripts” when handling & AE E&O; dealing w/ ins : Your handwriting is such what he wants? it’s always awkward. What RENTALS different topics. Identifying claims; wrkg for a multinat’l Budlong Woods, 5500 N-2600 A study participant needs, clarify org; leadg teams & perfrmg W. Large 2 Bedroom, eat in that I thought you wrote “sub should I do? FOR SALE information, research every negotiatns; & employg comp kitchen, large living room, lots issue and providing solutions. & app skills, incl using Word, of closets, near transportation. boys,” and I was going to A: By not moving in with NON-RESIDENTIAL Excel & Pwr Pt. Must possess 1285 includes heat-water. respond, “Enjoy.” But then him, by not having kids with : You should sneeze. Preferred Experience: an Ins Broker’s Lic. 25% trvl Marty 773-784-0763 A ·Previous experience in a reqd. To apply, visit https:// I reread your question: sad him, and by not continuing to ROOMATES customer support role careers.willistowerswatson. Luxury Downtown Rentals ·Track record of over-achieving com/ & enter 190000O9 in the 2bed/2bath $2,500 and up boys, not sub boys. Okay, partner with him. Thanks to everyone who quota “Keywords” fi eld. For a list of units, email: if you’re meeting only one came out to Savage Love ·Strong phone and verbal [email protected] MARKET- communication skills along with Demand/Supply Mgr sought Mark Killion type of person or all the : Why wasn’t semen Live in Portland! Savage Love active listening by Akzo Nobel Surface Kale Realty · Client focus and adaptability Chemistry, LLC. in Chicago, 2447 N. Ashland people you’re meeting have a designed to stay in a Live is coming to Seattle, PLACE to diff erent personality types IL. Reqs: Mast. deg or equiv in Chicago, IL 60614 certain character fl aw, either woman’s vagina? It always Denver, San Francisco (with ·Ability to multi-task, set Engg, Logistics, Supply Chain Offi ce: 312-939-5253 priorities and manage time Mgmt, or rel fl d +3yrs of exp in Cell: 773-354-6693 you’re seeking that type of makes a terrible mess. I hate Stormy Daniels!), Chicago, GOODS eff ectively logistics, plann’g, & cust srvc in the manufng ind. Qual cand person out—consciously or waiting for it to leak out of Madison, Minneapolis (also SERVICES Job Type: Full-time, Entry-Level must have exp w/statistical subconsciously—or you’re me. with Stormy Daniels!), Toron- Job Type: Full-time forecast’g techniques, incl HEALTH & Email resumes to: linear & optimal regress’ns, MARKETPLACE projecting your own shit onto to, and Somerville. For more [email protected] Lewand regress’n, &/or Fourier GENERAL WELLNESS transformatns. Stated exp must that person. This is a case A: I wasn’t around when info and tickets, go to sav- incl: amine based chemistry; MUSIC & ARTS where the best people to ask semen and vaginas were agelovecast.com/events. v INSTRUCTION Loyola University Chicago plann’g cntrl-parameters for is seeking an Analyst in schedul’g/toll’g; keep’g SAP- DOMNICK DEFANSO Britney MUSIC & ARTS Chicago, IL to work in master data updated; IBP for a gut/reality check are designed—I’m old, but not Beach, Tracy Guns & Guns Enrollment Systems, Research cycle of (PMR, DMR, SMR, N’ Roses rocks Aerosmith. your actual friends, not your that old—and I’m pretty sure Send letters to mail@ & Reporting Dept; initiate IRR & MBR) & how this relates NOTICES M. Crue, B. Sabbath, AC/ creation & development to SMR. Travel req.25%. Apply friendly sex-advice columnist. they didn’t have a designer. savagelove.net. Download DC, J.Bieber, popstar Love, L. of appropriate methods online at www.nouryon.com/ MESSAGES Gaga, C. Aguilar, B. Spears, I’m also guessing leakage the Savage Lovecast every (qualitative, quantitative, & careers for Req#1900011L. mixed methods) & processes B. Joni, D. Bowie, Cube & LEGAL NOTICES Pink, SLayer. 312-206-0867, : How good are cock wasn’t a problem until our Tuesday at thestranger.com. for collecting nec data. Please Financial Solutions Architect 773-323-5173 B rings? I tried a stretch ancestors began walking @fakedansavage ADULT SERVICES send resume to Tim Heuer, by Nouryon Chemicals LLC ll MARCH - CHICA O READER 57 B SERVICES LEGAL NOTICE Chicago Case Type: Name Change FOR REQUEST FOR NAME Cook owner(s)/partner(s) is: MILES CURRY Clerk of Cook County. Registration from Kaitlin Darbi DeBerardinis CHANGE. Request of: Michael Scott 4214 SOUTH GREENWOOD AVENUE Number: Y19000642 on February 21, Danielle’s Lip Service, Erotic Phone Notice is hereby given, pursuant to Kaitlin Darbi Masters Case Hefner Enter the case number to the CHICAGO, IL 60653, USA (4/11) 2019 Under the Assumed Business Chat. 24/7. Must be 21+. Credit/Debit to An Act in relation to the use of Initiation Date 3/12/2019 Court Date new name of: Name of HARDCORE FITNESS with Cards Accepted. All Fetishes and an Assumed Business Name in the 5/17/2019 Case # 2019CONC000300 Winnie Michael Hefner. The court date Notice is hereby given, pursuant the business located at: PO BOX Fantasies Are Welcomed. Personal, conduct or transaction of Business Assigned to Judge Calendar, 12 (4/4) will be held: the Request for Name to “An Act in relation to the use of 87123, CHICAGO IL 60680 The true in the State,´as amended, that a Change. Make sure the date is at least an Assumed Business Name in the and real full name(s) and residence Private and Discrete. 773-935-4995 certification was registered by the Notice is hereby given, pursuant 8 weeks after the date you fi le this on conduct or transaction of Business address of the owner(s)/partner(s) is: please recycle undersigned with the County Clerk of to “An Act in relation to the use of 5-8-2019 Date at 09:30AM form with in the State,” as amended, that Owner/Partner Full Name SHANNON this paper EVENTS Cook County. Registration Number: an Assumed Business Name in the the Circuit Clerk. a certification was registered by BONNER at 6500 S. MINERVA #2S Y19000752 on March 8, 2019 Under conduct or transaction of Business at 50 West Washington Chicago Cook the undersigned with the County CHICAGO, IL 60637 USA (4/11) the Assumed Business Name of in the State,” as amended, that a in Courtroom # 1706 (4/11) 11th Annual EL PUEBLO CANTA RACHEL DAHLGREN THERAPY certification was registered by the with the business located at: 2620 undersigned with the County Clerk of Notice is hereby given, pursuant Proceeds - IMMIGRANT JUSTICE W HOMER ST APT 1, CHICAGO, Cook County, Registration Number: to “An Act in relation to the use of WORK IL 60647 The true and real full Y19000843 on March 14, 2019. Under an Assumed Business Name in the name(s) and residence address of the Assumed Business Name of conduct or transaction of Business Saturday April 6th 7:00 - 8:30pm the owner(s)/partner(s) is: RACHEL SQUIRTZ EXCLUSIVE AROMATICS in the State,” as amended, that Wellington Avenue United Church of Half-Price Theatre DAHLGREN 2620 W HOMER ST APT with the business located at: a certification was registered by Christ 1 CHICAGO, IL 60647, USA (4/4) 341 W 110TH ST, CHICAGO, IL 60628 the undersigned with the County 615 West Wellington The true and real full name(s) and Clerk of Cook County. Registration Enjoy your city. Ignite your soul. Stretch your dollars. STATE OF ILLINOIS, PUBLICATION residence address of the owner(s)/ Number: Y19000807 on March 12, Tickets $25 $15 students/limited NOTICE OF COURT DATE FOR partner(s) is: ANTWAN CHILDS 341 2019, Under the Assumed Business income under 12 FREE REQUEST FOR NAME CHANGE W 11OTH ST CHICAGO, IL 60628, Name of FLOW UNLIMITED with the waucc. org/2019ElPeubloCanta/ Chicago's best theatre deals: HOTTIX.ORG (ADULT For Court Use Only USA (4/11) business located at: 4214 SOUTH 5:30 - 7:00pm CIRCUIT COURT COUNTY) Location GREENWOOD AVENUE, CHICAGO, Purchase Latino & Arabic Food Cook County - County Division - STATE OF ILLINOIS, PUBLICATION IL 60653 The true and real full Hot Tix is a service of the non-profit League of Chicago Theatres. Learn more about Chicago’s theatre community at CHICAGOPLAYS.COM. District 1 - 50 W Washington Street NOTICE OF COURT DATE DATE name(s) and residence address of the 58 CHICA O READER - MARCH llll Light up your facility with energy savings from the ComEd Energy Efficiency Program. It’s as easy as flipping a light switch – click. Save your facility money and impress your boss with lighting discounts.
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