From the Ledge

It’s a wonderful 80 degree day in Chicago today, so welcome after the ridiculous non-spring of the past couple of weeks when rain and a cold front kept me and many other Chicagoans wondering whether the proverbial light of summer at the end of a lingering winter will ever come.  It’s great to be out and about in the city today, but other than a couple of hours running around this afternoon, I’ve been at home, recovering, yes recovering, from the festivities last night at the Steppenwolf Theatre Auxiliary Council’s Red or White Ball (I guess my philosophy of age being just another number is demolished by the reality of a major hangover, achy feet and joints, and a hoarse voice brought about by a night of late-night carousing).  The Ball is the major annual fund-raising event for the Auxiliary Council (of which I’m a Governor), and all proceeds go to Steppenwolf’s exemplary Steppenwolf for Young Adults program which brings high school students from the Chicago public school system to the theater to see adaptations of literary works on stage.  The program also helps enrich the teaching toolkits of the drama and arts teachers of these students by providing immersion workshops for them to attend.  It’s a really great program, which I am very proud to be supporting and to be associated with.  The Steppenwolf for Young Adults 2008-2009 season consists of an all African-American production of Tennesee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie featuring ensemble member Alana Arenas, directed by ensemble member Yasen Peyankov, and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, directed by the actor Michael Patrick Thornton, who was terrific in last year’s Young Adults production of The Elephant Man.  Some people I know are reluctant to come to the Young Adults productions because they think these plays are staged and performed with teenagers in mind (meaning adults might just be fidgeting and checking their watches every five minutes througout the performance), but I have to say both The Elephant Man and Harriet Jacobs which comprised the 2007-2008 season were as mature, involving, and impactful as the Main Stage productions.  Come on- it’s Steppenwolf.  And kids in this century are savvy enough to know when they’re in the midst of enthralling theater.  On a personal note, I’d like to thank all my friends who came out last night to the Ball - I hope everyone had a great time, and a lot to drink (and needed less recovery time today than I did!)

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Tags: Steppenwolf Theatre

Here’s the ad for A Steady Rain I mentioned below, courtesy of BFF Sydney and her scanner:

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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!

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Tags: A Steady Rain, Chicago theater

Last year, when I was seriously contemplating going on the frightening adventure of having a personal blog, I was looking around at other people’s blogs to get a sense of what folks were writing about and came across Deceptively Simple, an arts and culture blog with a focus on classical music, by Time Out Chicago classical music editor, Marc Geelhoed.  I was thrilled to discover it - finally a personal blog that didn’t contain annoying rants about potholes and long lines at Dominick’s, or gushy breathlessness about the latest handbag purchase; finally an arts and culture blog that didn’t sound like an extended MFA lecture or a pretentious cocktail party conversation.  Deceptively Simple was smart, informed, appealingly and elegantly written, passionate- qualities that I wanted my own blog to possess.  Marc and his blog were an inspiration and guide for my own online aspirations (and I was very excited to get this shoutout during the launch week of From the Ledge).  Marc wrote last Friday that he was leaving Time Out Chicago and moving to a job with the Chicago Symphony’s Resound record label, and noted that Deceptively Simple would need to take a different tone and focus, given his new role.  My initial perturbation with the impending change at one of my online must-reads of the day vanished with his latest blog entry (on a topic I actually feel very passionate about, arts education). Change is good and Deceptively Simple will continue to be a terrific model for us bloggers who want to write about arts and culture with clear points of view and insights and a goal to win others over to the possibilities and power of the arts. Thanks Marc!

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One reason I started writing a blog was because I see so much film, theatre, and other performing arts, that I needed an outlet to express either my passionate raves or my grave disappointments. Well, other than over Sunday brunch with the BFFs, who most of the time needed several strong cups of Ethiopian bean (with a shot of bourbon) to not only get over Saturday night day-after-regrets of all kinds, but also sit through my exuberance or ranting over the latest play or movie that I saw. In 2007, I was grateful to be a Chicagoan, because it was the watershed year when our city cemented its place as a world cultural capital, when artists and arts lovers from New York, London, and everywhere else came to Chicago not because they had a layover or a delayed flight at O’Hare, but because they were eager to participate in and partake of the vibrancy, energy, and commitment of our artistic community and audiences. It was quite the year in Chicago, when the summer saw the premiere staging of Steppenwolf Theatre’s August: Osage County, now widely hailed as the best new American play of the past several years and currently taking Broadway by storm; when dozens of world-class productions and cultural events, from both our homegrown arts companies as well as from companies from other cities in the world, were available on our stages and performance spaces.

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I am back in Minneapolis this week for the Thanksgiving holidays; it’s the city I lived in when I first moved to the US for graduate school back in the days when no one could fathom that stringing the letters b-l-o-g together could stand for something significant or meaningful (way back in the mid-90s to be honest).  It’s a city that I will always hold close to my heart, not just because of the vivid, life-altering memories I have of my life here, the numerous close friends I still have living here, but also because, and it may come as a surprise to many, it’s thriving and interesting cultural and artistic life.  Minneapolis isn’t just the city of Larry Craig’s tea-room shenanigans, of the Coen brothers’ surreal, darkly funny Midwest, or the place where bad clothes happen to really good-looking people; it’s a city where theatre is alive and booming and where major art exhibitions are created and sent out to the world.  The Guthrie Theatre, majestic in its new building, and the Walker Arts Center, are two cultural institutions that are heads above shoulders of many of its peers in the North America.  No Guthrie play for me this trip, but I do have tickets for the Theatre de la Jeune Lune’s latest production, a re-invention of Marivaux’s infrequently produced farce, “The Deception”.  I am also planning to take in the Frida Kahlo exhibition at the Walker.  Look out for my blog entries on both soon.

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