From the Ledge

No, this is not a basketball-related blog post at all.  Spring is annoyingly dragging it’s feet (sort of like Renee Zellweger in Christian Loubotin heels, uggh) in coming to Chicago with its lush green, its warmer weather, and its generally genial effect on a wintered-out, beaten-down populace, but the cultural hubbub has began.  March is turning out to be a great month for actively engaging in the vibrant artistic life of the city.  Some of my avid blog readers continuously ask which theatre, film, visual arts, or classical music/opera events I plan to go to, so as a sort of “public service announcement”, I’ll probably give a rundown of notable arts events in the city maybe once a month (of course, with my colorful, insightful commentary accompanying each one -ha!- since plain, bulleted lists are for grocery stores, not arts and culture blogs).

There are several theaters that I am a very good, passionate, friend of, and a couple of them are premiering new productions over the next few weeks.  This Saturday, March 8, I am off to the benefit performance for Greasy Joan and Co.’s The Misanthrope, by Moliere.  I saw a highly de-constructed version in New York last year directed by European theater’s enfant terrible, Ivo von Hove, which I’m not sure succeeding versions could top (I mean spreading Manhattan trash freshly hauled off the street on stage and stuffing various kinds of produce and foodstuffs down star Bill Campbell’s crotch were some of the more fascinatingly bizarre things that von Hove presented).  I talked with my friend Julieanne Ehre, Greasy Joan’s Artistic Director, over the weekend and she said this version of The Misanthrope is envisioned as occurring in a “burned-out world” (I’m not sure if that meant literally or metaphorically or both).  Interesting.  The Misanthrope runs at the Atheneum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport, until April  5.  By the way, wait till you see Greasy’s next production in April- an intriguing version of the Scottish play.

On Sunday, March 9, I’m going to a concert at the Flatfile Galleries in the Fulton Market arts district, one of three performances being presented over the weekend by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE).  ICE is one of the more interesting, and adventurous, classical music groups out there (and they hold concerts primarily in New York and Chicago).  I am not really sure exactly how they are organized, but it seems like they are a loose collective of emerging musical artists who perform collaboratively incorporating multi-media and other art forms.  I am very intrigued so I’ll definitely post an entry on the March 9 concert, which is a solo percussion concert featuring one of their founders, David Schotzko.  I’m on the lookout to attend one of these days a concert of one of the more prominent ICE artists, Phyllis Chen and her toy pianos (! ). For more information on their Friday and Saturday performances, check out their website.

I have tickets for the March 12 performance of the newest Steppenwolf main stage play, Carter’s Way, written and directed by one of the theatre’s ensemble members who so rarely works in Chicago, Academy Award-winner Eric Simonson (he won for a documentary short in 2006, I think).  Because it’s a new work from Eric, Carter’s Way is pretty notable, but I am excited to see it also because there’s supposedly a lot of jazz music integrated into the narrative (it’s set in 1930s Kansas City, where jazz musicians and mobsters actively circled each other), and also because it stars two of the most dynamic members of Steppenwolf’s famed acting ensemble, James Vincent Meredith, who blew me away as John Proctor in The Crucible last fall, and Ora Jones, who was magnificent as the corrupt government official in an unnamed African country a couple of seasons ago in Bruce Norris’s The Unmentionables.  Carter’s Way is on the Steppenwolf Main stage, 1650 N. Halsted, until April 27.

Another weekend, another benefit performance.  On March 14, I am going to the benefit performance and reception for another theater that I love and support, TUTA and its version of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya (although I am one of those people who needs another Chekhov production in my life as much as I need a tetanus shot).  With it’s Serbian roots, TUTA, I think, is very well poised to tackle Chekhov with a distinctively European point of view.  I heard there’s not going to be deconstruction and reconstruction gimmicks, a trend that seems to be befalling many works in the classical repertory, in this Uncle Vanya, so it may be quite refreshing to see Chekhov done with a strong and straightforward point of view.  You can catch Uncle Vanya at the Chopin Studio Theatre, 1543 W. Division St., until April 13.

On Saturday, March 15, I am planning to see William Yang, noted Australian performance artist, and his new work Shadows, about the marginalization of aborigines and German immigrants in Australia, which was recently seen in New York as part of the Public Theatre’s cutting edge Under the Radar Festival.  If there is one production that people who are interested in innovative, unique, memorable theatrical experiences should go to during the month, I think it’s this one.  This performance piece combines storytelling using thousands of photographs that Yang took and original musical compositions by Colin Offord.  I think Shadows will be a fascinating night of socio-cultural exploration with a unique voice (Yang is a gay Asian immigrant tackling dispossessed groups in a complex white-dominated society- going to see this show is like writing a thesis without needing to defend it!).  Shadows is part of the MCA’s performing arts programming, which traumatized me earlier this year with the heinous, Euro-trashy, pretentious nonsense of Societas Raffaelo Sanzio’s Hey Girl (if there was ever a waste of a night at the theater, or pseudo-theater in this case, that was it).  Shadows will be performed at the MCA Theater, 220 E. Chicago Avenue.

As part of the Goodman’s Horton Foote Festival, it’s staging, with New York cast intact, the acclaimed off-Broadway production of Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful, starring the wonderful Lois Smith (who won an Obie Award for this) and directed by the actor Harris Yulin.  This is probably the exact counterpoint to the theatrical boundary pushing of the MCA’s performance programming, but Foote’s plays are always beautifully and touchingly written, and the lead part in this play is such a complex, multi-dimensional character (Geraldine Page won an Oscar for the movie version).  I’ll be at the Goodman together with the rest of the 5 pm dinner crowd.  The Trip to Bountiful runs until April 6 at the Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St.

Finally, what’s more spring-inducing than a musical?  This season I have had a love affair with the Court Theatre, and I really think their version of Titus Andronicus is going to be one of my best shows of 2008, so this Northsider will be hopping on over to the Southside for their production of Carousel.  After the brazenness and visionary nature of Titus, I am hyperventilating in excitement to see what Charlie Newell has in store for Carousel, one of the best, and also one of the darkest, most sinister, works in American musical theatre.  And even if Newell decides to stage Carousel in a straight forward manner, my gosh, between “Mr. Snow”, “If I Loved You”, “June Is Bustin’ All Over” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone” - all adrenaline shots for every musical theatre queen out there- it’ll still be quite a night at the theatre.  Catch Carousel at the Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Avenue, until April 13, after which it moves to the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, one of the most highly-regarded regional theaters in the East Coast.

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