Theater&Dance
PHOTOGRAPHS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT): JEFF SCIORTINO; ANDREW ECCLES; STEVE HALL
Theater & Dance Shakespeare 400 Chicago 00 Chicago
William Shakespeare is often said to have “shuffled off this mortal coil,” as Hamlet would say, on his birthday, April 23, though there’s some contention over the precise dates of both his birth and death. But we can be sure that some day in 2016 marks the 400th anniversary of the great English playwright’s passing, which is the occasion for this yearlong, citywide celebration of his work. Chicago Shakespeare Theater spearheads the festivities, which were announced in November.
The slate includes performances, panels and more events exploring the Bard’s work from dozens of angles, with participation from such institutions as the Lyric Opera, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Public Library; there’s even a culinary angle curated by Boarding House and Seven Lions proprietor Alpana Singh, with chefs creating menus for each of Shakespeare’s 38 plays at restaurants across the city.
Freddie Stevenson as Edward III An anchor of the proceedings is
Tug of War, CST artistic director Barbara Gaines’s adaptation of six of Shakespeare’s history plays into two epic sagas. Foreign Fire, premiering this spring, distills Edward III, Henry V and Henry VI Part 1; Civil Strife, covering Henry VI Part 2 and Part 3 and Richard III, premieres in the fall.
Tug of War: Foreign Fire is at Chicago Shakespeare Theater May 12–June 12. $100.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
In 2013, shortly after taking over as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s third artistic director, Robert Battle talked with us about wanting to surprise people. “Hopefully I will continue to do the unexpected. Maybe the unexpected will become the norm,” he said. During the company’s annual residency at the Auditorium Theatre, Chicago audiences can see Battle’s first new piece since taking the helm: Awakening, set to a score by John Mackey. Also premiering in the company’s
weeklong stand are Open Door by Ronald K. Brown, with music by Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, and Rennie Harris’s Exodus, set to a score that mixes gospel and house music. The program varies at each of the seven performances, but all shows close with Alvin Ailey’s 1960 classic, Revelations, the piece that introduced Battle to dance.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater plays at the Auditorium Theatre Mar 8–13. $33–$103.
Writers Theatre arrives
In February, Writers Theatre in Glencoe, Illinois, cut the ribbon on its swanky new home. The new building, designed by architecture star Jeanne Gang and her firm, Studio Gang, was constructed on the site of the theater’s former home. But at 36,000 square feet, including a spacious and welcoming lobby that doubles as an event space, the new venue is a much more comfortable fit, accommodating the entirety of Writers’ programming. Marjorie Prime, closing March 13, is the company’s final production in the
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TIMEOUT.COM/CHICAGO March–May 2016
back of Books on Vernon, where Writers was born in 1992. The new building contains two performance spaces: the Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Theatre, a 250-seat thrust that preserves the feel of Writers’ old mainstage, and the Gillian Theatre, a flexible 99-seat black box. Both spaces are being christened this spring. Artistic director Michael Halberstam opens the Nichols with a production of Tom Stoppard’s heady, time-jumping Arcadia in March.
In April, the Gillian opens with the world premiere of Death of a Streetcar Named Virginia Woolf, a parody in which Second City writers Tim Sniffen and Tim Ryder put 20th-century stage creatures Blanche DuBois, Willy Loman, George and Martha, and an affable Stage Manager into a blender; Halberstam and Stuart Carden share directing duties.
See
writerstheatre.org for show details.
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