The Building Stage, under the splendid direction by Blake Montgomery and Joanie Schultz, specialize in stretching the boundaries in storytelling through unique adaptations from various media. Their staging of Wagner’s opera cycle, The Ring of the Nibelung–is NOT an OPERA–but a thrilling, totally engaging re-imagining drama (non-singing stage play).
Each person’s bias comes rushing out through their statements. Racial, anti-police and sensational news reporting make the truth a sort of bias. Prejudice, hidden agendas, deceit as well as anonymous threats against Investigator Mahnaz filled this fast-paced drama with questions and suspense as we try to sort out the facts.
The folks at Lights Out Theatre Company sure have loads of chutzpah for mounting the world premiere of Joe Tracz’s Song for a Future Generation. This is a weird play that tries to be many things and comment on several themes–and–it almost succeeds.
You know a show is in trouble when the high points of a show are the two short scenes that find the real Dalmatians running across the stage and performing dog tricks!
In my first experience with the Joffrey Ballet I was blow away by the magnificence of it all; the enchanted venue inside the Auditorium Theatre, the enormity and depth created in the flat set, the exquisitely detailed costumes and the speechless beauty in the Joffrey dancers.
This cocktail party is a vehicle for the opinionated , manipulative Beverly to both express her warped views of society, marriage and contemporary living-but as fertile grounds to nag, insult and harass her husband. Beverly is bored with her life, especially with her frigid husband.
The Gimmick follows Alexis who is a young smart black girl growing up in Harlem. The adults around her are caught in the negative traps of life leaving her to mature all alone except for her dependable friendship with Jimmy (Brandon Thompson,) her books and a librarian who encourages Alexis to use her words to achieve greatness.
This refreshing and thoroughly enticing drama is part magical realism, part fable and part fantasy. It plays out like a blend of science fiction and contemporary minimalistic realism. The real and surreal blend into a chilling tale.
While in Chicago, You must see, Tommy Gun’s Garage, “Chicago’s only original Speakeasy Dinner Theater”. You’re an actor too when you come to Tommy Gun’s Garage.
We meet the Pazinski family–a second generation Polish-American family living above the family neighborhood tavern in Buffalo New York, circa 1959 (terrific set design by Ian Zywica). The Pazinski family have four teenage children–each questioning their family values in their own mischievous ways