WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

- If you go to Raven Theatre's 30th Anniversary ‘Raise the Curtain!’ Benefit Performance you'll get to hang out with their Board of Directors and see their first production for 2012-13, The Big Knife. Tickets are $50 and reservations are suggested. You'll also get some "pre-play libations" from Broadway Cellars, Castle Food and Liquors and Fritzy's Tavern, the last of which sounds like a delightful joint we should all go to as soon as possible.

- Sideshow Theatre Company's 2012-13 season "brings to light lingering secrets and apocalyptic preparations." They'll have Idomeneus, Maria/Stuart and The Burden of Not Having a Tail.

- Sordid Lives is getting an additional weekend.

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The power dynamic between teachers and students has changed in recent years. What was once a teacher as leader, student as folllower relationship has switched, something many have credited to the turning tides of technology, when the personal life of teachers is so easily accessible to students who once knew little about this person they see daily.

The Paper Machete co-founder Ali Weiss Klinger brings us this story of teacher vs. student that's just the latest in this long string of students triumphant. Read an excerpt below or listen above:

"High School Student Files Lawsuit Over C+ Grade in Chemistry"

Let’s stare into the inkblot of that headline. What we see there likely stems from our visceral reaction as Americans to the legal system, the education system, and nerds.

A DJ in Seattle tweeted it best: "Bowen Bethards, 17, has sued his chemistry teacher after she gave him a C+.

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- Ricardo Gutierrez will take over at Teatro Vista's new artistic director, as founder and artistic director Edward Torres moves on "to focus on independent projects." Torres and Gutierrez will artistic direct Teatro Vista through February to ease through the transition. "We are thrilled that Eddie has found such tremendous success as a director and actor," said Teatro Vista Board President Joan Pantsios in a statement. "His dedication to Teatro Vista over the decades has been invaluable, and Teatro Vista would not be what it is today - a nationally-recognized home of the best Latino theater - without his hard work and passion. Eddie has assured us that he will remain an active ensemble member and supporter of the theater." Gutierrez is currently an ensemble member and directing associate of the company.

- Steppenwolf has announced the companies they're partnering with for their Garage Rep this year: Baliwick Chicago, Buzz22 Chicago and Theatre Seven.

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You spend all your days on the Internet. And you might think you're just normal. But comedian Katie Rich thinks you might have a real problem -- because she does. With that, Rich brings her take on the latest news in celebrity pop culture, featuring the likes of Stevie Wonder, Jenna Jameson and Taylor Swift.

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- BackStage Theatre Company is now explaining that the storefront theater company is closing down because of "the continuing challenges of drawing audiences to less familiar work in an extremely competitive market."

- Debbie Reynolds is coming! Tickets to her performances 1:30 and 7:30 performances at Dury lane on September 17 and 18 are $55 or $70-74 with lunch or dinner included.

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The Dueling Critics won’t return to the air 'til next Friday, August 17, when we’ll review Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness at Eclipse Theatre. Meanwhile, console yourselves with one of these:

Shylock and His Daughter, this and next Thursday at 8:15 p.m., First Folio Theatre in Oak Brook, $10.

If you’ve ever wondered what The Merchant of Venice would look like from Shylock’s perspective, come check out First Folio’s staged reading of this play from the Yiddish theater. Merchant director Alison C. Vesely is at the helm, and the reading features the actors from Merchant reprising (and reinterpreting) their roles. It should be an excellent complement to Vesely’s thoughtful interpretation of one of Shakespeare’s most difficult comedies. There are only these two performances, though, so don’t tarry.

Cupid Has A Heart On: A Musical Guide to Relationships, Saturdays at 10:30 p.m. beginning August 11 at Stage 773 on Belmont, $20.

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The story behind the story of the much-discussed Chicago Cultural Plan is this: For the past ten years, at least since Richard Florida wrote his book The Rise of the Creative Class (reviewed here by a proto-Dueling Critic), cities and their governments have taken it on faith that the best way to create urban prosperity is to be hospitable to “the arts.” (The idea has to be taken on faith because it contains so many unexamined assumptions.) These days this cluster of wishes, dreams and guesses goes under the name of “vibrancy.”

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