Interview: S. Fey, Author of Decompose
Interview by Binx Perino. In preparation for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs 2024 Annual Conference, I organized a poetry reading to benefit Kansas City based mutual aid groups […]
Review: Lifeline Theatre’s Native Son Tells the Sad and Stirring Story of Bigger Thomas
The tragedy of Bigger Thomas has had many iterations since Richard Wright’s novel Native Son was published in 1940. Set in 1939 Chicago, at least two film versions and several […]
Review: A Red Orchid Theatre’s Thriller, Turret, Builds a Bunker Home from Memory
Turret, a new show written and directed by Chicago playwright Levi Holloway, is born from a cinematic legacy of horror, apocalypse, and suspense, and it uses the mechanisms of live […]
Review: The Terror of Love and Grief—Elsewhere: An Elegy, by Faisal Mohyuddin
In his poem “The Hourglass. The Pebble. The Throne of God,” Faisal Mohyuddin ponders “the lightless language of elegy.” His father is dead, and he is grieving. And he wonders if he […]
Review: Grossman Ensemble Ends the Season Memorably
The Grossman Ensemble ended their 2023/2024 season in a memorable way at Logan Center for Performing Arts in Hyde Park on Friday night. Under the direction of conductor Jeffery Meyer, […]
Review: Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Brings Exquisite Craft and Depth to Of Joy
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago closed out season 46 with a program titled Of Joy. Passion, joy, and dancers in peak performance mode were on display much to the audience’s pleasure. […]
Review: Blank Theatre’s On the Twentieth Century Never Reaches Full Steam
The new production of On the Twentieth Century by Blank Theatre Company, directed by Danny Kapinos, is the latest incarnation of many fabulous versions of this story—on stage and screen. […]
Storefront Theater Roundup: Neo-Futurist’s Cult-Show and Theatre Above the Law’s Prelude to a Kiss
We review two shows now running in Chicago’s storefront theater scene. Did you know that Chicago has more than 200 theater companies, many of them small and performing in storefronts […]
Review: Dehd Ushers in an Early Summer Renaissance for Chicago With New Album Poetry
As one of the hardest working and effortlessly talented bands in Chicago, the three-piece Dehd are back with a brand new album Poetry just two short years after their last […]
Review: Wildcat Attempts to Reveal Flannery O’Connor Through O’Connor’s Own Words
As filmmakers and creatives look to their own for subject matter, there are ultimately two options to chronicle the lives and inner dialogues of notable authors, musicians, artists and others: […]
Review: In Back to Black, Newcomer Marisa Abela Is the Central Force of a Less-Than-Compelling Biopic
Sometimes, it comes down to a performance. In the case of the new Amy Winehouse docudrama Back To Black, from director Sam Taylor-Johnson (Fifty Shades of Gray, Nowhere Boy), that […]
Review: Creating a World of Imaginary Friends, IF Overstuffs Its Plot, Cast and Saccharine Message
When you line up an army of famous friends to do character voices and even manage to get Ryan Reynolds to star as the impish ringleader of a group of […]