Just announced: Tracy Letts wins, as widely expected, the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the magnificent August: Osage County. This is such a huge honor for Tracy and Steppenwolf Theatre of course, but also for the city of Chicago’s vibrant, bustling, supportive, energetic, and courageous theater community. As the Chicago Tribune’s Chris Jones notes in his blog entry announcing the win, this is the first time that a playwright living in Chicago has won the country’s highest and most prestigious dramatic honor for a play that originated in Chicago. As a sidenote, I find it interesting that this year’s drama prize judges did not include Chris or the New York Times’ Charles Isherwood, who have both served on the panel previously, but who have been the most vocal supporters of this legendary work, but instead includes Peter Marks, the Washington Post’s theater critic who wrote a much derided (by bloggers) negative review of the play. Talent ultimately prevails!
Here’s the ad for A Steady Rain I mentioned below, courtesy of BFF Sydney and her scanner:
Tags: A Steady Rain
Bluebirds are singing, rainbows are dancing, the sun is dazzling, I’m traipsing down a yellow brick road strewn with hydrangeas, cashmere sweaters, Veuve Cliquot bottles, first class plane tickets to Bali and Buenos Aires, and Eric Bana’s and Ryan Gosling’s unlisted phone numbers….life is great! Today, I got my first ever quote on a play’s ad! Yep, it’s right there, in the ad for the critically acclaimed drama A Steady Rain, currently playing at the Royal George Theater, on page 11 of the On The Town section of the Chicago Tribune, April 4, 2008. Right in the middle of the page. Right after quotes from Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune (”A Must-See Smash Hit….A Sizzler!”) and Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times (”Some of the Most Dazzling Acting You Will Ever See Anywhere.”) is a quote from http://www.fromtheledge.com/(”Mind-blowingly Great!”), taken from my enthusiastic blog post. I am both exhilarated and humbled. When I started From the Ledge in October of last year, I never imagined that anyone outside of my close circle of friends would come to the blog and read it, or care about it, or consider it when making decisions as to which arts and culture activities they go to in Chicago. As I said in my first post, “Curtain Up”: Do I have something to say? Do I have a unique voice to say it in? Would people want to read the soak time thoughts of a thirtysomething single urban professional Filipino immigrant organization change consultant living in Chicago? (yes, maybe, we’ll find out soon enough). Over the past several months, I’ve been excited to see the number and diversity of folks who find the blog (yes, I have readers from the Ukraine to Brazil); I’m still not really sure how people find me, or why they stay, or more importantly, why they keep on coming back. But I’m thrilled. And inspired. And committed. And eternally, deeply grateful. And I’ll continue to write with passion for the things, groups, people, that I care about. That continue to shape my artistic life. Speaking of gratitude- I think this is the right time to thank all the folks throughout the years who’ve cajoled, begged, encouraged, threatened, beat me over the head, pushing me to get my act together and start writing, and who’ve continued to provide feedback and support: Debra, Sydney, Camela, Andrew, Rene, divine Ms. Jennifer M, Julie, Linda B. And of course, the biggest Thank You of all, to invaluable blog mentor and collaborator, Tom, without whom, this blog would continue to have been a figment and an aspiration. Now, get yourselves to a play or a concert or a dance performance or an art gallery, people!
Tags: A Steady Rain, Chicago theater
I think it’s safe to say that storytelling is almost primal. Every culture has a strong history of oral tradition; before books, newspapers, cable television, the internet, stories were handed down from one generation to the next when someone- an elder, a designated storyteller, a performer/actor- gave an oral recounting to someone else, or more likely, to a group of someone elses. A community’s collective myth, folklore, symbolism, and cultural tenets were codified, institutionalized, and transported through time via the art of storytelling. The Ijo tribe of the Niger delta recounted their Ozidi saga through a seven-day storytelling, dance, and drama event. Korea’s p’ansori tradition shared stories within a community using sung storytelling. In Siena and its surrounding Italian countryside, the veglia, a nightly communal activity made up of storytelling and verbal games, was a popular social custom during the 15th century. Storytelling and its communal nature helped established the roots of theatrical tradition, in conjunction with religious ceremony. Unfortunately in our age of soundbites, elevator speeches, adult ADD, the “in and out”, the 2 minute pitch, of everything needing to be instantaneous, storytelling can be seen as archaic, old-fashioned, unhip, a little too “kumbaya around a campfire”. If only people used to webzines and half-hour sitcoms will give it a chance- the power of a shared communal experience listening to stories leisurely and passionately told live is astounding and addicting. It is the power that the terrific theater group Serendipity Theatre Company is harnessing in its storytelling event, Second Story, one of the best-kept secrets, and one of the most interesting cultural experiences, in Chicago (although seeing the good-sized crowd last week at Red Kiva when blog mentor Tom and I attended the most recent edition of Second Story, the secret might be out- which is a great thing!).
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