"Kron's deconstruction is well-served by Kiely's intelligent production. [Mary Ann] Thebus glows with the maternal energy that can make parents objects of adoration and frustration." - Kris Vire, TimeOut Chicago "HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Exceptionally fine production.. Kiely's direction is spot-on... cleverly structured, emotionally complex...Well deftly mixes pathos and laugh-out-loud moments. " - Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times Read the full review

"The talented cast is infectious. Lia D. Mortensen, playing Lisa Kron, delivers some of the most connective, engaging and funny narrative directly to the audience that I have ever experienced. The enthusiastic ensemble is delightful and Mary Ann Thebus is nothing short of brilliant as Ann Kron, Lisa's mother." - Venus Zarris, Chicago Stage Review "Well has much of value to say about illnesses that are difficult to define and understand. And Kron's connective tissue between individual and community health is unusually deep and wise." - Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

Labels: Chicago theatre, Well

This play has so many facets and ingredients that it is sure to stimulate interest in any theater attendee. For me personally, the relationship of mother and daughter struck home. A difficult relationship that is a work in progress as it moves slowly toward a reconciliation of sorts. A winner of a play that should only get better with repeated viewings as the many layers of meaning, comedy and relationship are more closely examined.

by  Neal S. Robinson, at 12/03/2008 1:05 PM

The show is a fascinating exploration of who is sick and who is "well", heightened by the delicate relationship between mother and daughter and set against the question of what is real and what is performance.

David Hart

by  david hart, at 12/04/2008 11:11 AM

This show is great! Funny and touching.

by  Anonymous, at 12/05/2008 8:40 PM

What a coincidence that I saw this show. Back in 1972 through 1974 I worked in the dietary dept at Henrotin Hosp. The memories of serving the food on the trays to the allergic patients flooded back .

by  Anonymous, at 12/05/2008 9:56 PM

What a wonderful show! I laughed out loud and cried. The relationships are real and the ideas of hope and racial harmony certainly ring true today! Not to be missed!!!!!

by  Anonymous, at 12/09/2008 11:31 AM

very provokative, informative,funny,sensitive,will make me think of many issues it touched upon.
thank you

by  Anonymous, at 12/11/2008 9:25 PM

How courageous of you to put on such an innovative play. Loved every moment of it except the times when someone opened the rear door and it made such a loud noise. Keep up the great work.

by  Anonymous, at 12/11/2008 9:29 PM

We loved the play. The cast was perfect. Please do something about the exit door--it was so distracting to hear it opening and closing during the performance.

by  Anonymous, at 12/11/2008 9:32 PM

BUT DID IT MAKE SENSE TO YOU?
by Jason Loewith on 12/11/2007 04:28:00 PM 

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A BIG DAY FOR NEXT THEATRE!
by Jason Loewith on 9/06/2007 06:42:00 PM 

Executive Director Lisa Fulton and I are proud and thrilled to announce the following six Joseph Jefferson Award nominations for Next Theatre artists and productions in the 2007-08 season!

• THE ADDING MACHINE: A CHAMBER MUSICAL, Best New Musical
  
• David Cromer, Best Director of a Musical, THE ADDING MACHINE


• Joel Hatch, Best Actor in a Musical, THE ADDING MACHINE


• Amy Warren, Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, THE ADDING MACHINE


• Keith Parham, Best Lighting Design, THE ADDING MACHINE


• Toy DeIorio, Best Sound Design, FROZEN

A full list of award nominees can be found here.

I'd like to take a quick moment also to remember some of the extraordinary work that did not get recognized by the Jeff Awards committee, including Jeff Still's remarkable Menelaus in HELEN; Linda Kimbrough's MISS WITHERSPOON; the incredible production and total design team behind all of THE ADDING MACHINE, lassoed by Production Manager Jim Davis and Resident Stage Manager Richard Lundy; Jeremy Ramey's extraordinary Musical Direction of that show; and the courageous and knee-wobbling performances created by Laura T. Fisher, Jenny McKnight, and Joseph Wycoff in FROZEN. It was an exceptional year throughout Chicagoland theater as the award nominees suggest, and an exceptional year for us at Next.

I'd like to also take a quick moment to recognize the Artistic Associates at Next whose work was nominated elsewhere. Goes to show what a tremendously talented group of artists, staff, artisans and technicians we have working for us:

• Allen Gilmore in the Ensembles of ARGONAUTIKA and JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE (and Featured Actor, JOE TURNER)


• David Cromer for Direction of a Play, COME BACK LITTLE SHEBA


• Michael Montenegro for Puppet Design, PUPPETMASTER OF LODZ
  

Thanks to all of you who have made this celebration possible. What a year it's been, and what a wonderful season lies ahead!

Labels: Adding Machine, Awards, Chicago theatre, Frozen

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IS "AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY" THE NEXT GREAT AMERICAN PLAY?
by Jason Loewith on 8/08/2007 02:35:00 PM 

I had the good fortune last night to see Tracy Letts' new play AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY at Steppenwolf. The show has gotten a lot of heat and a lot of praise, and a number of subscribers and colleagues have said to me, "I can't wait for you to see it so I can hear what you think!" [Some of you know that Tracy's first play, KILLER JOE, had its world premiere at Next in 1993 (I had nothing to do with it; all credit's due to the wonderful Dexter Bullard, former director of the Next Theatre Lab).] So I'm happy to weigh in on the big question:

Is AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY the next Great American Play?

Short answer: I'm not sure yet, but I'm leaning towards YES. Our Great American Plays tend to be family plays, so imagine a continuum from OUR TOWN through DEATH OF A SALESMAN, LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, BURIED CHILD, and FENCES. I don't know if AUGUST deserves a place on that list yet - that's history waiting to be written - but does the play boldly point the way towards a new of thinking about American drama? Possibly. Will it be remembered as a significant milestone in our theater? Probably. Is it comparable to the last 12 Pulitzer Prizewinning plays? Absolutely. And better than many of them.

Long answer: Let's face it: as theater artists, we're a bit in the wilderness right now. I can't think of any play since ANGELS IN AMERICA (the Pulitzer-winner in 1993) that's both told us who we are as a culture and pointed a way forward. (There are plenty of plays that do a good job of telling us who we are - or who a portion of us are - as a culture: look at the twelve Pultizer Prizewinners that came after it.) Whatever gets called the "Next Great American Play" better do both: it better tell us who we are as Americans, and show us what might lie ahead. As Bart Sher, Artistic Director of the Intiman Theatre in Seattle (and director of LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA) told me:

Maybe it’s more recent, and maybe it’s over the last two years, but I do think that there’s an exhaustion about where America might feel like it is. We’re exhausted by the struggle between the right and the left, we see no clear sense of where we’re going, and there need to be more artists engaging the question of who we are right now to take us to some next place. It’s in kind of this “held state”, late in the Bush Administration, where we really don’t know who we are as Americans anymore because we’ve been so damaged by the struggle from 1990 to now, between the right and the left, it’s had a very devastating impact on the culture. And people are holding on, and people have deep belief and faith, but it’s not so guaranteed.

That's where artists are incredibly important. Artists are growing and developing communities, and finding more and more of who they are. But there’s no guarantee, if they don’t go back to those communities and work, if they don’t keep investing in what they’re making, if they don’t keep experimenting and trying things, if they don’t keep hoping for something to lift into to a bigger place... there's no guarantee the culture will survive.

So, does AUGUST tell us who we are as a culture, and does it point the way forward?

For the first 3 and a 1/4 hours of AUGUST last night, I was convinced I was in the presence of a remarkable feat of the former... that the play - perfectly cast, forcefully acted, directed with exceptional deftness and written with astonishing wit and intelligence and sensitivity - was one of the best dysfunctional-family plays I'd seen. And that's great, and that's all it needs to be for me to say to everyone that they oughta get out and see it before it closes.

But I wasn't sure it had anything to say about what lay ahead until the last 15 minutes. And at that point, for me, the character Violet Weston (embodied by the amazing Deanna Dunegan) became a metaphor for America right now. Strong to a fault, exercising her power because of the hardships she'd suffered as a child, and now dramatically, desperately alone. Her ability to exercise absolute power over her family led to a moral slippage, an almost tragic slippage, that she could not halt. When Letts has Violet retreat in the final moments of the play into the waiting arms of Johnna, the Cheyenne housekeeper - who embodies a simultaneous spirituality and utter clarity of purpose: she's there for the paycheck - it felt like a sucker-punch to the gut. Johnna accepts Violet for the flawed and ultimately vulnerable woman she is... but does she do it just for the paycheck?

I guess I've seen enough theater (and film, and television, and art, and on and on) in the past few years telling me that we're a culture in crisis - that we can't solve the rift between left and right, between greed and charity, between fear and strength. I already know that. So a play like THE PAIN AND THE ITCH (also at Steppenwolf, and also a play I truly loved) addresses those issues beautifully, hilariously, and dangerously - but ultimately doesn't tell me something new.

Something about AUGUST felt new to me, though. I'm still trying to figure out if it's a cautionary tale or if it points the way forward more optimistically, but I do think Letts has accomplished something rare. He has engaged me emotionally and intellectually on that most familiar of topics - the family - and made me feel like it was a metaphor for what it means to be an American right now, and what it might mean in the future.

I'm eager to hear your thoughts.

Labels: Chicago theatre, Fame

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jason, i agree with you on so much of this. i felt strangely optimistic at the end of AUGUST because it felt like the play was encouraging a brand of brutal honesty that is not only new to most over-advertised/over-lied-to Americans, but is ultimately cathartic. it feels good to admit fault, it feels good to speak the awful painful truth. it feels new for once. the brutality of that family was never a lie. and, to me, that really meant something.

and, as for that final moment (does the servant genuinely care? is she just doing it for money?), i felt it was genuine. very genuine. though, i could have just seen it poorly; i was crying pretty hard by that point.

by  Justin D.M. Palmer, at 8/17/2007 4:28 PM

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OTHELLO IN LONDON; OTHELLO IN GLENCOE
by Jason Loewith on 7/31/2007 04:11:00 PM 

I'm back from a long-awaited vacation to Europe, where for two weeks I mostly avoided theater at all costs! But on my way back, I decided one really shouldn't leave London without having seen at least one piece of drama.

So I trundled across the Thames and waited for returns at the Globe, the architecturally-faithful recreation of the stage where most of Shakespeare's plays had their world premieres. And I got in to that afternoon's production, OTHELLO, directed by Wilson Milam, and starring Tim McInnerny as Iago and Eamonn Walker as the Moor.

The next morning I flew back to Chicago, and found myself almost 24 hours later in Glencoe, watching OTHELLO at Writers' Theatre, directed by Michael Halberstam, and starring John Judd as Iago and James Meredith as the Moor.

Comparing the two - as I was asked to do frequently - was absolutely fascinating, and said something different about London audiences vs Chicago audiences, British actors vs American actors, and British Shakespeare vs American Shakespeare. But what was most telling about the experience was what it taught me about fitting the play to the stage.

Off the bat I'll say that both productions were thoroughly engaging, very well-acted, relatively free of directorial "concepting" (this moreso true of the Globe production), and quite powerful. But they were nonetheless extremely different. And most of those differences could be ascribed
to the different theaters in which they took place.

Michael's production at Writers was designed for his intimate space: a cut-down cast and cut-back script, great simplicity of presentation (in terms of design, props, and the like), and a slow and considered delivery of the lines. Played straight as a domestic tragedy, this production held a gravitas and quiet intensity that fit exactly the Writers mission, audience, and physical environment.

By contrast, the Globe production was designed to keep the attention of 1000 groundlings standing in the hot sun through an afternoon. Every opportunity for humor was exploited, the full cast and live musicians entered and exited all over the space, and the dialogue was played about three times the speed (perhaps in part because the British presumably "hear" Shakespeare with greater facility than American audiences, but at least in part because an outdoor space like the Globe is not one conducive to quiet consideration of poetry). I've never seen an Othello that celebrated the sheer physicality of its performers like this one.

So which approach paid off better? Comparing the first "acts" (i.e., acts I, II and II), the Globe's production ultimately held the attention here better, because the first three acts of Othello benefit from a large cast and large space in which they may perform. The night scene before Brabantio's house, the convening of the Venetian council, the arrival in Cyprus... these are the kinds of scenes where a large blank canvas like the Globe is a perfect setting. The Othello-Roderigo subplot is a classic example of hilarious comedy dropped in the middle of a tragedy, and played better within the physical and emotional environment of the Globe production. At Writers', the Othello-Roderigo scenes felt out of place, almost - Iago could easily have accomplished what he wanted without the distraction.

But in the second "act", when the action truly becomes the domestic tragedy Michael envisioned, you see how Writers' production pays off. Whereas, at the Globe we are suddenly drawn into a quiet contemplation that doesn't quite fit what's come before, at Writers', the shift in the action makes utter sense... could OTHELLO be performed in any other way? It suddenly seems we're watching the Moor's madness for the first time. (Michael's interesting decision to break up the scene in which Iago truly infects Othello with thoughts of Desdemona's infidelity was a part of that power.)

All in all, I feel lucky to have seen and experienced both productions, and so soon one after the other. But mostly, I feel like I learned a very important lesson about making sure you fit your production to your space.

Labels: Chicago theatre

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The Revolution is now!
by Chelsea Keenan on 7/12/2007 02:54:00 PM 

I have a good friend, a theatre artist, writer, all-around smart art-maker, that has informally drafted a number of Chicago companies in to "The Revolution". The Revolution consists of theatre and performance companies pushing the bounds of what theatre is in Chicago, beyond it's extraordinary acting, gutsy spirit and creative use of any empty room plus chairs. It seems that The Revolution requires all that good Chicago stuff, plus an outright challenge to the audience to be an active part of an evening by opening up to the unexpected, the unpredictable, and the unfamiliar.

These performances do what I like best as an audience... they surprise me. And only when I'm surprised... be it by astounding beauty, tremendous physical feat, genius theatricalization of a moment on stage, or simply the impact of silence and stillness amidst spectacle... I am moved. I cannot defend my senses against what I cannot see coming. There is no time to outsmart the play and avoid the emotional impact. Laughter roars, gasps are heard, tears well up.

I will always vividly remember my first show on staff here. Suzan-Lori Parks In the Blood in 2003 took risks with everything from casting and staging to language and content. It tackled both the tremendous politicized questions the surrounding welfare system and everyone who touches it, while at heart communicating as a story about love and loss. And to do it, Parks used rich poetry alongside a baseball bat and a bucket of stage blood. Everything was heightened, stylized, jam-packed with tension and possibility. And it surprised me. It moved me. So much so that friends and I talked late into the night about how the work had stirred us and forced us to question our own ideas and feelings about our new urban environment. It was so much more for us than just a night at the theatre. It felt revolutionary.

But.. Next is dark this month. You've seen what exciting and provocative theatrical events we have coming your way next season... but for now, go see 500 Clown at the Upstairs Steppenwolf. They're part of The Revolution.

Labels: Chicago theatre

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500 Clown sure is doing something right over at Steppenwolf. Talk about actively involving an audience!

by  Justin D.M. Palmer, at 7/12/2007 4:41 PM

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POLITICAL THEATER
by Jason Loewith on 6/21/2007 02:17:00 PM 

Last night I had the opportunity to be part of a panel on Political Theater at the Cultural Center, sponsored by the folks at Stage Left. Stage Left is a small non-Equity company in Lakeview, and we share with them a dedication to plays that raise questions about important social issues... so I was happy to do it.



Also on the panel were Stage Left playwright David Alan Thompson, Congo Square Theatre Executive Director Erin Gilbert, and Teatro Luna co-Artistic Director Tanya Saracho. The Q&A that followed was surprisingly provocative and heated, especially when questions about race and theater came up. As you may know, Congo Square is one of the city's youngest, finest companies that consistently presents plays written by African-Americans, and Teatro Luna is particularly interested in plays written by and for Latinas.



Teatro Luna's cast of S-E-X Oh!



Two questions were surprising in different ways. The first questioner wanted to know why our theaters - and in particular Congo Square and Teatro Luna - didn't produce plays with "universal themes like love or family", and the second questioner wanted to know what Congo Square was doing to push black audiences to traditionally white theaters. Behind their questions were very disturbing views about the racial divide in America.



What lay behind their questions? In the first case, the questioner (a white woman) clearly felt excluded by Congo Square's programming. She had never been to one of their productions (Erin pointed out that their audiences are now 65% caucasian), but clearly believed that a play produced by Congo Square would have universal themes, or that she could see herself in a "black play."

Congo Square's production of Seven Guitars.


The second questioner (a white man) seemed to feel Congo Square, because of its commitment to providing an outlet for underserved artists and audiences, was somehow embracing a separatist mission. He seemed to believe that a place like Victory Gardens (which recently produced a work by Athol Fugard, a white South African writer who has been concerned with race all his professional life) provided a perfectly legitimate outlet for African-American artists and audiences; so why does Congo Square need to do their own thing?



What struck me about the panel afterward was that, even among our enlightened theater audiences in Chicagoland, there is still so much fear and just plain ignorance when it comes to questions of race. And that's what makes it so important for a company like the Goodman to embrace the plays of African-American August Wilson, or for us at Next to produce works by African-Americans Suzan-Lori Parks, Dael Orlandersmith or Lynn Nottage. Even if we can't get as much as an African-American audience in for those plays as we want, we're obviously creating an important dialogue for our white audience, too... they're coming to learn, hopefully, that all the plays we choose have universal themes, no matter the race of their writer.


Next Theatre's production of Fabulation: Or the Re-education of Undine, by Lynn Nottage


The conversation that ensued was spirited and lively, to be sure. You can watch the panel and the questions on CAN-TV 21 on Friday, June 22 at 1:30pm, and again on Saturday, June 23 at 3pm. I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Labels: Chicago theatre

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JOSE RIVERA - ON THEATER AND WAR
by Jason Loewith on 4/03/2007 11:57:00 AM 

"I feel that theater is the place where we can best discuss and examine the demons and angels of our inner nature. The place where society is examined, put on trial and tested. Where our values as a community are discussed and challenged. Where change is not only talked about but demonstrated. What happens when we act altruistically? When we speak truth to power? What does it look like when the masks worn by our leaders are taken off?"

So writes Jose Rivera in this week's Chicago Tribune, relative to his play Massacre about to open at the Goodman. Check it out. Thanks to Board President Judy Kemp for sending it on to me!

Labels: Chicago theatre

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