Inspire. Educate. Entertain.
2902 Villa Lane Benton Harbor, MI, 49022 United States
(312) 880-9691
Conversations featuring authors and influential leaders in the arts, media and business.
With 250 theaters serving an audience base of over 5 million, Chicago has one of the most respected and thriving theatre communities in the country. According to the League of Chicago Theatres, the combined budgets total more than $250 million, creating 15,000 jobs in 115 venues which translates to over 64,000 seats. And, the landscape is growing.
Read MoreRich Daniels and The City Lights Orchestra return to the Auditorium Theatre on November 17th for ELLA & LENA: The Ladies and Their Music, a centennial concert celebration of Ella Fitzgerald and Lena Horne. Chicago vocalist and producer Joan Curto will be joined by many of Chicago’s top artists including E. Faye Butler, Beckie Menzie, Tammy McCann, Paul Marinaro, Tom Michael and Sophie Grimm with a 17-piece orchestra featuring songs from the Great American Songbook.
Read MoreOur Conversation this week comes in the form of a letter from Ron Keaton. Ron agreed to step in when business called me out of town. It was a chance for Ron to give his unique point of view on a big night of recognition for Chicago's professional theatre community and share comments from award recipients in many of the categories.
Read MoreFor Brenda Didier, directing Porchlight Music Theatre's production of Billy Elliot The Musical is like coming home again. The show opens the company's 23rd season in their new digs at the Ruth Page Center in Chicago a place that is very familiar to Didier. She has vivid memories as a young dance student. And perhaps most helpful, particularly to the story of Billy Elliot, is rekindling the excitement she experienced realizing her own dream that began when she was eight years old.
Read More
There's a little motto that the amazing E. Faye Butler saved until the end of our delightful conversation between rehearsals on September 8th at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
Read More
This week, more conversations with artist's whose work this year has been recognized with a 2016-2017 Joseph Jefferson Equity Award nomination.
Read More
The 2016-2017 Joseph Jefferson Equity Award nominations were announced this week. There were 158 nominations in 33 categories for Chicago Equity theatrical productions during the period August 1, 2016 through July 31, 2017.
Read MoreDeep inside Cirque du Soleil’s white and gold big top tent city at United Center, there is an area bustling with excitement. Coaches work with strap artists on new routines, tumblers tumble as human hummingbirds flutter by. There is a wide array of exercise equipment, lest you think that 10 shows a week is not exercise enough. It may not be the most conducive place to have a conversation -- in and alongside weight lifters, an enormous stallion puppet and yes, the contortionist, who was nailing his stretching exercises as the cactus handlers strolled through.
If only life was a circus!
Read MoreYou will want to make a note that Lizzie Borden is coming to town. The fabled axe madam herself, known for a (disputed) total of 81 combined whacks, will have her story retold by a new professional theatre company making its debut with the Chicago premiere of LIZZIE at the Den Theatre. Stay tuned for more about the show ... but first, Firebrand! Chop! Chop!
Read MorePreviews begin this weekend for the Grippo Stage Company's revival of long-time Chicago playwright and actor James Sherman's God Of Issac at the Piven Theatre at Noyes Cultural Arts Center in Evanston. The semi-autobiographical piece centers around a young American Jew searching for his Jewish identity following the threatened 1977 neo-Nazi march in Skokie.
Read MoreIf not for a comment by Walter Matthau on the set of Dennis the Menace, Randall Newsome might well be still behind the camera.
Read MoreIn case you were wondering, David Catlin actually grew up in Pittsburgh. At last report, no whales have been sighted in the Ohio River, but that did not deter Catlin’s lifelong fascination with water, the ocean, or, otherwise affect his extraordinary gift for storytelling, all of which intersect in the Lookingglass Theatre’s magnificent production of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.
Read More