Results tagged “thehouse”

Let’s just get it done. Let’s pass it. They have to pass this legislation…with the change. Everybody will accept that. Who cares? Let’s just pass this legislation. That’s how important it is.

Illinois state legislators are at it again today, after yesterday's close-but-no-cigar attempts to resolve the transit funding crisis. The House passed a sales-tax increase plan yesterday, but it fell one vote sort in the Senate; those so-and-sos are going to give it another go today because three of them abstained (courteously?) yesterday.

We're always skeptical of the "farewell tour" phenomenon, but Ministry seems to mean it. On the heels of their surprisingly good swan-song The Last Sucker, the band has announced the final North American tour dates of its loooong career.

Want to go to a play--but you don't know how? The Trib has you covered. This "Theater 101" article is full of such helpful tips as "If the show starts at 8:00, get there at 7:50." Honest to God, we can't tell if the item "Applause: When the play ends, there's a blackout, then the lights come back on and all the actors come on stage to take a bow. This is when you should...

The US House subcommittee on highways and transit will conduct a hearing here on October 29 to determine what kinds of transit improvements Chicago would need before we could host the Olympics. Why yes, October 29 is a mere 6 days before our public transit system starts collapsing into itself like a dying star! "Mayor Richard Daley, Blagojevich, officials from the Regional Transportation Authority, the three transit agencies and the U.S. Olympic Committee will...

When a theatrical production in Chicago receives seven Jeff Awards, there's definitely something buzz-worthy about it. Picking up the awards for Outstanding New Work, Production, Director, Ensemble, Original Music, Projection Design and Choreography, The House Theatre's production of The Sparrow was the must-see show earlier this year. Everyone around town was trying to get tickets. When the show extended its run another six-weeks, seats sold out in a matter of days, setting box office records...

On Wednesday, the Illinois House Committee on Mass Transit approved legislation that would enable the RTA to fund the CTA, Metra and Pace and prevent service cuts and fare hikes across the board. The Illinois House Committee on Mass Transit approved a transit funding and reform proposal by a 15-4 vote. The House is expected to convene to vote on the proposal next week. This bill comes after the RTA announced that a "doomsday" scenario...

It's been said that politics makes strange bedfellows, but we wonder if politics just makes you crazy instead. While Blagojevich strolls around the capital trying to convince the General Assembly to play ball with his all but dead budget, Emil Jones is taking shots Mike Madigan by proxy. On Tuesday he kicked Sen. Louis Viverito (D-Burbank) an assistant majority leader, out of a closed-door Senate Democratic leadership meeting. Viverito voted against the plan for expanded...

The House Theater of Chicago moved one step closer to world domination this morning, netting 13 Joseph Jefferson Citation nominations, 10 for their phenomenally successfully spring show “The Sparrow” (pictured, right) and 3 for their modestly admired fall show “Hatfield and McCoy.” TimeLine Theater improved by 10 over last year, netting 12 nominations, 10 for celebrating a New York mayor in song in "Fiorello!" (pictured, far right) Lifeline and Bailiwick Rep once again impressed,...

The House on Thursday passed the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill designed to make the difficult process of forming a union easier for workers. The legislation, passed by a vote of 241-185, largely along party lines, was supported by nearly all of Illinois' Democratic delegation, and both senators Durbin and Obama have promised to guide this bill through the Senate. Barack Obama voiced his support of the bill, although he acknowledged that getting it...

Super Bowl Sunday will be a bittersweet day for Chicago actors who happen to be Chicago Bears fans … or Bears fans that happen to be in a show. They’ve been waiting over two decades for the Bears to return to The Big Game but likely have been honing their craft even longer. That conflict was too much for the Neo-Futurists, who have cancelled Sunday night’s performance of perennial favorite Too Much Light Makes the...

"... when people ask me today where I live, I am often tempted to say instead of Chicago, I live on the Internet."

Note: Part 1 of this series is here.

Chicagoist never gets the last word. Shows run long after we’ve weighed in, discussions evolve beyond our ramblings, companies grow, companies fold, artists work hard to make a living or to make the next news cycle. For our curious and attention-deficient readers, some quick updates on previously reported stories. Art Fairs and Festivals At the eleventh hour, the Merch Mart saved Art Chicago 2006. Soon after the exhibitors packed up came word that Merchandise Mart...

Joe Meno, author & playwright

The House Theatre has become the “it girl” of the local theater community by following a very familiar playbook, a story that never seems to get old: core members meet in their college drama program, produce their first Chicago play in some out-of-the-way black box, repeatedly outdo themselves to become a cult favorite and, as word spreads, are deemed the Company Everyone’s Talking About. That moment for the House came in 2004 when they produced...

One major drawback to having an endless array of cultural offerings at our front yard is that any attempt to condense our experiences into a year-end summary or “Best Of” list necessarily falls short. Not a huge loss since Top 10 lists are so passe. [Note to our editors: this doesn’t apply to you, we’re sure any lists you publish will be awesome!] Instead we turn our attention to an overriding theme of ’05: the...

Chicagoist believes the only thing better than finding fun shows and exhibits for our readers is watching them develop. The arts and theater communities continue working long after their 15 minutes on the web expire, we just try to keep up. Consider this report a “Where Are They Now?” sans washed-up celebrities. The Snubfest ’06 lineup has been announced, and it looks good. Not Aspen Comedy Festival good, but that’s kind of the point. The...

Tommy Rapley, The House Theatre of Chicago

Being a fan of the House Theatre of Chicago and campy movies on the USA Network, last Thursday Chicagoist journeyed to the House's reading of "Tremors: Edited for Television" at the Neo-Futurarium. The House's take on this film included Shawn Pfautsch and Lucas Merino reading the roles of the protagonists Val and Earl (originally played by Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward), Stephen Taylor and Marika Mashburn reading the lines of the gun happy couple Burt...

">pay 700 dollars for a 23 dollar ticket. But be sure he does so online!"

Man oh man do we wish we'd been able to observe the Illinois House floor today when the Predator Accountability Act came up for discussion. The act, Rep. Constance A. Howard's (D-Chicago) bill HB1299, will allow "persons who have been or are subjected to the sex trade to seek civil damages and remedies from individuals and entities that recruited, profited from, or maintained them in the sex trade." These damages include, among other things, financial...

�The Rocket Man� opened at The House Theater this weekend to mixed reviews, the Trib calling it a "particular drag," but the Sun-Times giving it a more enthusiastic "playful if overly long." The House supports cheap ($10-$19), accessible theater under the leadership of artistic director Nathan Allen, who brought Windy City drama dorks �Death and Harry Houdini� and the highly acclaimed �The Terrible Tragedy of Peter Pan.� �The Rocket Man� is an interplanetary love story...