The Southport corridor venue gets new life and new leadership. Retractions generally aren't fun for journalists. But the announcement last week that Mercury Theater Chicago isn't dead after all makes me happy—even if it means that my obituary for them as one of the losses in Chicago theater for 2020 now has to be taken […]
Even though its titular character always does just the opposite Meiselman is put-upon. Everything and everyone in his world is bent on humiliating and belittling him, so he plots his revenge.…
Ghostlight Ensemble's online festival celebrates overlooked women playwrights. A group of unmarried women decide to encloister together on an idyllic estate inherited by their ringleader, Lady Happy. No men are allowed on the premises at any time.…
A movement for pay equity and transparency for theater designers scores a victory; Black Lives Black Words kicks off a new discussion series. Back in 2019, I interviewed Chicago set designer Arnel Sancianco for a short Reader profile. In the course of our discussion, he mentioned that, while creating a sustainable career as a designer […]
Two books explore the creativity of people in prison while highlighting their lack of access to basic necessities. “Art helps to free people even while incarcerated,” Renaldo Hudson says in the new book Carving Out Rights from Inside the Prison Industrial Complex.…