Onstage/Backstage

Daily Rehearsal: Bruce Norris revokes rights to 'Clybourne Park' for German theater

By: Kate Dries | Oct. 18, 2012

Oct. 18, 2012

- Steppenwolf's excited because Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? has been extended on Broadway through February 24, 2013. 

- The 2013 Lookingglass gglassquerade (woah.) will be hosted by Stephen Colbert on March 2, 2013 at 6 pm at the Four Seasons. “The fact that Stephen is uncannily brilliant, desperately funny, and irritatingly good-looking is not particularly important, or something we should hold against him (but we do so anyway),” said Artistic Director Andrew White, who went on to remind us that Colbert has had a long relationship with the theater.

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Are the terrible things we say online only terrible in repetition?

By: Kate Dries | Oct. 18, 2012

Oct. 18, 2012

“You know, you wait for the end of these things, and then you worry about how they may end,” said FOX News' Shepard Smith as the network chose to air a clip of a carjacker committing suicide by shooting himself in the head. Smith quickly apologized for the choice, saying, "And we really messed up. And we're all very sorry. That didn't belong on TV."

The incident inspired writer Scott Smith. At a special Paper Machete at the Green Mill, he mused: "Maybe, in an unexpected way, there isn’t any harm in Gawker or Buzzfeed airing a clip of a guy killing himself when in our current media landscape these incidents aren't really worth the import they’re given. They only seem that way because they're everywhere now. Something isn’t just said, it’s retweeted, maybe hundreds of times, and that amplification gives it an undeserved status as a topic worth discussing.

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1 anti-war ballet, 2 comedies & a partridge in a Strange Tree

Kelly Kleiman and Jonathan Abarbanel | Oct. 18, 2012

Oct. 18, 2012

ElectionFest 2012 at Pine Box Theater at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont; 1-773-975-8150; $13; Oct. 22, 23 and 29, 30 ONLY

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See 'Kinky Boots' — on the cheap

By: Kate Dries | Oct. 17, 2012

Oct. 17, 2012

- Hot Tix has half-price tickets to Kinky Boots performances this week, which means they're running about $40 to $50. Enter "HOTTIX" to get the deal.

- Steppenwolf has announced that tickets for Next Up 2013 go on sale March 29, 2013. The set of plays will run May 28 to June 16 in the Steppenwlf Garage; productions include The Drunken City by Adam Bock and directed by Johnny Michael DiResta; The Internationalist by Anne Washburn, directed by Erin Murray; and  Neil LaBute's Fat Pig, directed by David Prete.

- They're also extending Good People for five performances; it now closes Saturday, November 17.

Questions? Tips? Email kdries@wbez.org.

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Daily Rehearsal: 'Iceman Cometh' takes home six Jeff Awards

By: Kate Dries | Oct. 16, 2012

Oct. 16, 2012

- The Chicago Stand-Up Project has locked down a local Emmy nomination; the show, which is produced by WTTW and Zanies and created by Pat McGann, takes Chicagoans that you know and love and makes them try to be funny. The Chicago Emmy Awards will be presented on November 18 at the Alhambra Palace.

- It's that time of year again: drop by the Goodman and pick up some of their costume shop goods for your Halloween Costume from this past year's season.

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Daily Rehearsal: It's getting to be spooky season

By: Kate Dries | Oct. 12, 2012

Oct. 12, 2012

- Metamorphoses has been extended at Lookingglass through December 16; the show has gotten a bevy of rave reviews.  

- Halloween shows to look for: New Millennium Theatre's Kill Viktor: Vol.

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Paper Machete: You don't deserve a MacArthur 'genius' grant

By: Kate Dries | Oct. 12, 2012

Oct. 12, 2012

This year's crop of MacArthur geniuses — several of whom were from Chicago — inevitably inspired jealousy, frustration and anger amongst those in creative and science fields. But Write Club founder Ian Belknap doesn't want to hear about how you deserve it more than them, not even for a second. Read an excerpt below or listen above: 

The MacArthur Fellows – the “genius” grants – were announced this week. Each year, Chicago’s largest private foundation awards these prestigious prizes, each of which comes with $500,000, no strings attached.
 
I will discuss this year’s “class” of “geniuses,” but before I do, I’d like to begin by eliminating something.
 
Each and every year, when the MacArthur Fellows are announced, there is some dipsh** in your circle of acquaintance who says or posts or tweets some variation of the following: "Aw DANG!

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Performance riot at the UofC

Kelly Kleiman and Jonathan Abarbanel | Oct. 11, 2012

Oct. 11, 2012

Logan Center Launch at the University of Chicago, this Friday through Sunday, October 12-14, 915 East 60th Street, multiple events, mostly FREE!

This week's headline event is the opening of the David and Reva Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago, which our own architecture blogger Lee Bey wrote about earlier this week. After years of creating great theater, improv, dance, painting, sculpture and multimedia (not to mention playwriting, prose and poetry) in basements and converted lounges, artists at the University of Chicago can move into their fancy new building and explode with creativity. Among the 50-plus events: Sean Graney's 12-hour Greek tragedy performance All Our Tragic; a kick-off concert of Mexican roots music including David Hidalgo of Los Lobos; and student performances of Proof, the Tony-Award-winning play by alumnus David Auburn. Still bored?

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