Chicago's newest Fulbright Scholar has a theatrical connection: it's playwright, professor and Mortar Theatre co-founder Jacob Juntunen, who takes off in several weeks for five months teaching in Poznan, Poland.

I think playwright John Guare owes playwright Charles Smith a large apology.

The Mueller family of Evanston should have no trouble paying the rent this winter, due largely to the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire where the family is triple-dipping for the next few months.

Actor-playwright-monologist John Leguizamo will return to Chicago Feb. 1-12 to break in his new Broadway-bound show, "Ghetto Klown" (which is being called "John Leguizamo Warms Up" here, for reasons unknown).

Buddhist goes up to a hotdog stand, says “Make me one with everything.” Y’know, comedy is a funny thing. That’s why I’ve made a separate list of the five best comedies of 2010, distinct from the five best dramas.

Best of 2010? Who knows? Theaters in Chicago and ‘burbs produce upwards of 800 shows a year and no one person can begin to see even half of them, and still have time to do the laundry.

On this date, Dec. 16, Noel Pierce Coward was born in London in 1899. You may ask, what does the sophisticated English master-of-all-theatrical-trades have to do with Chicago? The answer is: plenty.