Displaying items by tag: mustsee

If our day-to-day lives were a collective color, it would probably be the color blue. Whether you are feeling blue, have the blues, or are just Blue (Da Ba Dee), it’s the color most closely associated to feelings of sadness, of cold, depression, or loneliness. Not every day is going to be sunshine and rainbows filled with vibrant hues. Some days are just…blue. Personally when I feel blue, sad songs are more poignant, rain is more comforting, and I gravitate towards shows, plays, and movies that make me feel something deeper. Because when I’m blue, I want and need to feel everything. If you want to feel something deeper too, then Time Is A Color And The Color Is Blue now playing at Bramble Arts Loft is just the play for you.

Alice Wu in Time is a Color and the Color is Blue.

Set in an ice cave, Time is a Color and the Color is Blue follows a glaciologist, Whittaker, who becomes trapped in the cave while searching for the oldest known cave paintings. As her team waits out the storm in their lab, her mind begins to spiral, memories and guilt melding and folding in on each other just like pressurized ice thousands of feet below the surface. Trapped and losing oxygen fast, Whittaker must confront how she can ask forgiveness—from the Earth, from the ice cave, from loved ones she's hurt, and from herself.

 From the moment you enter the small black box theatre within Bramble Arts Loft, you are completely immersed in the cold cave with Whittaker. Surrounded by blue ice, cut off from the outside world, you immediately feel the sense of unease and brace yourself for what is to come. Will she make it out? What drove her to be there in the first place? What must she confront in herself and in the cave? What unfolds throughout the 75-minute play is an expertly crafted story by playwright Melanie Coffey. The pressure, isolation, and loneliness Whittaker experiences within the cave is a shared experience with the audience. Like the ancient ice that surrounds her, Whittaker feels the pressure to confront her reality while reconciling with her past. Alice Wu’s portrayal of Whittaker brings humor and depth to her character, pulling you into the blue. “Time is a Color and the Color is Blue weaves a story of guilt and love and ice that breaks the surface and snaps as it comes up for air,” says Coffey. The play is neither boastful nor damning though it easily could be. Rather than shaming the audience or the characters, Coffey connects us through connection; to loved ones, time, history, and the natural world. It’s connection that will save us, in more ways than one.

Harper McCoy, Alice Wu, Stephanie Fongheiser, Sabine Wan and Mary Mikva in Time is a Color and the Color is Blue.

Did you know that blue ice is created under pressure.? When snow falls and becomes compressed to glaciers it squeezes air bubbles and enlarges ice crystals, the effect resulting in its signature blue hue. A beautiful thing created under pressure. Blue isn’t just the color of sadness and loneliness, it’s calming, soothing, and tranquil. When our days become overwhelming and we feel the weight and pressures of the world we retreat into our own caves. But in those caves of our own making we can channel the calming, reflective nature of blue. Like Whittaker, we can allow ourselves to pause, reflect, and release. To find connection to our world and ourselves. If and when you are feeling blue, be sad and take the time to pause and reflect. If you choose to venture out of that cave, consider taking a stroll in Andersonville to see a play that will make you feel all the feels and maybe, just maybe, not so blue.

Time is a Color and the Color is Blue is now playing through May 24th at the Bramble Arts Loft, 5545 N. Clark Street. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit avalanchetheatre.com/time-is-a-color.

*This review is also featured on https://www.theatreinchicago.com/!

For the past two-plus years, I’d dreamed of doing all the things in Chicago that were shut down due to the pandemic. When restrictions were lifted and entertainment started to come back to the city, I was determined to say yes to every unique city experience. By far the most Chicago heavy hitting art came with the Joffrey ballet performing Don Quixote with the Lyric Opera.

Don Quixote is a ballet following the adventures of an aging knight-errant who reads epic tales of chivalry and romance, and seeks out on an adventure to revive chivalry and serve his nation, under the name Don Quixote de la Mancha. He recruits a simple farmer, Sancho Panza, as his squire, and together they travelin search of love and adventure. While Don Quixote is the focus on the ballet, the central theme is a love story; Kitri is the ballet’s feisty and wilful heroine of the ballet. When her father Lorenzo tries to marry her off for money, she doesn't play the victim, but hatches a plan to marry Basilio, the charming barber who has won her heart, and pursue her own version of happiness. It is Don Quixote who stumbles into town, sees what is transpiring and intervenes in the name of chivalry and true love.

The Joffrey principle dancers and ensemble company brought the Spanish classic to life, dancing with all the grace, talent, and poise ballet dancers can possess. Their energy was unparalleled as they leapt and twirled around the stage. The casting was perfection in Victoria Jaiani at Kitri and Dylan Guitierrez as Basilio; notably the Joffrey has a rotation of principle dancers to play the ballet’s leads, offering patrons a unique flare each performance. Set against elaborate and immersive set designs, and accompanied by a live orchestra, Don Quixote was a visual and unexpected wonder. 

The visual and auditory spendlor of the ballet was only surpassed by being in such a historic venue as the Lyric Opera. Here I was, watching some of the nation’s best dancers, perform with a world renowned orchestra, sitting comfortably in a historic Chicago landmark; post pandemic I am grateful for the chance to see such a performance and that others have the opportunity to experience this as well. Thanks to the artistic group’s mask precautions and vaccination card screenings at the door, these performances can continue to bring beauty and light into an increasingly darker world. No matter how bleak the days might seem, The Joffrey helps to remind us that there is still grace and beauty in the world to be experienced, and we must leap at the artistic opportunities when they come our way the way Don Quixote leapt at adventure.

Don Quixote runs through June 12th at the Lyric Opera House at 20 N Upper Wacker Dr, Chicago. Tickets are available at Joffrey.org.