What did you do during the 2020 lockdown? Many people I know took on a special project – learning to bake bread, or writing a novel. Me, I took a literary antiracism journey. From the classics like Malcolm X, Bayard Rustin, WEB DuBois, and James Baldwin to more contemporary thinkers…
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Theatre in Review
Sunday, 13 November 2022 15:17
Review: 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' at Skokie Theatre
Written by Wesley David
My favorite writer of all time is Tennessee Williams. He was born into a dysfunctional family in Mississippi 1911. Most of his plays revolve around family dynamics. My favorite play of his, and of all time is “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”. It is an exploration of life, of…
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Theatre in Review
Monday, 07 November 2022 15:39
Babes with Blades Theatre Company's 'Plaid as Hell' at Factory Theater a queer romp in the woods, with mayhem and manacles!
Sarz Maxwell
I’m not a devotee of the comedic genre and wouldn’t ordinarily choose this show. But I am a devotee – and a fervent one! – of Babes with Blades. With PLAID AS HELL the Babes, as always, bring it off. Written by Cat McCaysh/h and directed by Christina Casano/h, PLAID…
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Theatre in Review
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Friday, 11 November 2022 14:18
A holiday treat! Marriott Theatre's 'A Christmas Story: The Musical'
Written by Ken Payne
What first made its mark on Broadway ten years ago in November 2012, has now become a traditional holiday play for theater goers to attend – when it comes to town. Based on the mega-popular film, A Christmas Story: The Musical is regularly being mounted by theater companies come November…
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Theatre in Review
Tuesday, 08 November 2022 15:47
D&D fan or not, 'The Twenty-Sided Tavern' is a fun new way to enjoy theater!
Written by Kimberly Katz
The Twenty-Sided Tavern is a funny, lively, and very interactive theater experience based on the game Dungeons & Dragons that was first published in 1974 and soared in popularity in the 1980s. And thanks to its devoted following, the fantasy role playing game that takes its players on epic journeys through…
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Theatre in Review
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Wednesday, 09 November 2022 13:27
And Now Something Completely Different: 'The Conspirators 125th Anniversary Jubilee'
Written by Bill Esler
The title alone is the tip-off that “The 125th Anniversary Jubilee” from The Conspirators is out of the ordinary—an irreverent show that is both laugh-inducing and thought provoking. “Jubilee” consists of a sampling of skits from The Conspirators past performances, as well as “imagined” skits from an impossibly distant past…
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Theatre in Review
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Sunday, 06 November 2022 14:05
Review: Porchlight Music Theatre's 'Rent' - Highly Recommended!
Sarz Maxwell
RENT opens with three slides projected one-by-one onto a billowing curtain: rent noun a payment made periodically by a tenant to a landlord in return for the use of a building rent verb [past tense of rend] to tear apart, split, or divide an object or community rent…
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Theatre in Review
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Tuesday, 01 November 2022 15:36
'American Son' at Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre: This show is miraculous!
Sarz Maxwell
You know that breathless moment of silence after the curtain falls and before the applause begins? That moment doesn’t happen often, and it always indicates a truly extraordinary performance. That silence occurred Sunday night as the stage of AMERICAN SON at Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre went black: we all sat stunned for…
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Theatre in Review
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Saturday, 29 October 2022 19:18
True Story of a False Prophet: Man of the People Is a Powerful Tonic for What Ails Us
Written by Bill Esler
“Man of the People,” an original play by Dolores Diaz, tells the incredible but true story of a 1920s medical charlatan, Dr. John Romulus Brinkley, who garnered a large following with a popular medical advice radio program. He then scammed thousands of his devoted listeners into buying useless tonics, some…
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Theatre in Review
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Wednesday, 26 October 2022 16:51
THERE ARE NO FAULTS, DEAR BRUTUS, IN INVICTUS THEATRE’S “JULIUS CAESAR”
Written by Wesley David
Invictus Theatre Company is quickly becoming one of my favorite venues in Chicago. They consistently produce excellent theatre without pretension or fanfare. For a small storefront theatre, they more than hold their own against larger, better financed houses. They are always punching above their weight class and winning. I had…
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Theatre in Review
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Playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury titled the play ‘Marys’ Seacole to emphasize its depiction of multiple Marys. Jerrell L. Henderson and Hannah Todd direct the collective Marys in kaleidoscopic vignettes at breakneck pace. Mary Jane Seacole was a British-Jamaican nurse. At the outbreak of the Crimean War she applied to the British War Office…
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Theatre in Review
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Sunday, 23 October 2022 15:05
'Clue' at the Mercury Theater a mystery with loads of laughs and fun
Written by CJ Burroughs
One of my earliest memories going to a movie theater is seeing Clue on the big screen. It not only started a lifetime love of Tim Curry, but cemented the Parker Brothers board game as the only board game little me ever wanted to play. And it still remains as…
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Theatre in Review
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Monday, 17 October 2022 17:42
'The Wizards' at APO Cultural Center - Supernaturally Imaginative!
Sarz Maxwell
THE WIZARDS explores the convoluted synergy of racism and urban gentrification. From the Oregon Black Laws and the more widely prevalent Sundown Laws, America has used statutory exclusion to uphold and reinforce segregation. Chicago remains the most segregated city in America; even the heinous redlining that propelled development of the…
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Theatre in Review
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The Title Says it All in Conspirators Remarkable ‘Chicago Cop Macbeth’
Written by Bill EslerIt was a dark and stormy night as I motored to The Conspirators “Chicago Cop Macbeth,” with a fog of dust giving the streets an eerie feel. As the lights came up at the Otherworld Theater, the storm continued, the… -
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