Results tagged “nlincolnave”

What started as Chicago actor and director David Blixt’s creative inquiry into the Capulet-Montague feud quickly became so much more. The Master of Verona, Blixt’s debut novel set in 14th Century Italy, explores Italian political life, conspiracy, the life of Dante, and the possible backstory for Romeo and Juliet. While directing the aforementioned Shakespeare play years ago, he found its all-consuming resolution fascinating and troublesome, hinting at but never revealing the source of the families’ feud. So started an intense exploration that took the author to the Newberry Library, the University of Michigan, and the villa Serego Alighieri in Verona.

Hopefully, you already love Found, the magazine and series of books created completely out of found items submitted by readers. The Found magazines and books play on a voyeur mindset of peeking at all the things that are none of your business. Items within the series, include a list about a budget with $600 set aside for crack, and other more poignant items, such as a letter found attached to a floating balloon addressed to...

The “Chicago theater season” is as anachronistic as our Columbia House Record Club membership. August was simply a lull before the crush of Fall openings coming to major institutions and their well-funded houses, who'll receive sufficient ink and column inches in the daily and weekly papers. We’re turning an eye to those less heralded venues doubling as rental space, educational resource, and meeting locale. None of these theaters are named after deep-pocketed donors, but that...

All year we’ve been hearing the hype and the promises. This week, two Chicago cultural institutions invite the public to see the results of their high profile face lifts. The venue once known as the Chicago Historical Society regularly provided modest, helpful insights into local and regional history. Now it’s been renovated and renamed the Chicago History Museum, sporting 16,000 shiny new square feet for robust programming, heeding Burnham’s command to “Make no small plans.”...

Victory Gardens Theater is shedding its identity crisis. Up until now, it was entirely possible to see show after show by the Lincoln Avenue hub’s resident companies without ever discovering a VG original. That’s too bad, since they’ve been breaking Chicago playwrights like Charles Smith and James Sherman for over 30 years. They also cast that guy from CSI years before he was popular and that guy from The Cosby Show years after he sported that Gordon Gartrelle knockoff.

The art world is getting a little more casual with the arrival of summer. This weekend we’re looking forward to seeing quality work and engaging in stimulating discussion in a more casual environment, and maybe laughing our ass off.