Technical wizardry matches the magician's artistry in “The Journey,” illusionist and mentalist Scott Silven's 55-minute trip into the landscape of his rural Scottish homeland and our minds, which is being livestreamed for a limited run as part of Chicago Shakespeare Theater's World's Stage series.
Institutions in Hyde Park are planning virtual events to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day this year.
What do you get when you cross Second City-style sketch comedy with Black activist theater, then subject it to the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic?
One of the hallmarks of Beethoven is that he created no one great masterpiece. His compositional career is littered with masterpieces.
Ah, for the Dog Days of summer! I get why they call it that: I’m a dog living right on the edge of Nichols Park, and last summer I had the time of my life.
About Face Theatre is kicking off its 25th season with “Kickback,” an online compilation of short plays and performance pieces about Black LGBTQ+ experiences commissioned by the theater and inspired by the Rebuild Foundation's collections at the Stony Island Arts Bank.
This is the first in a two-part series exploring some of Hyde Park’s classical-music history.
The DuSable Museum is presenting "Your Virtual New Year's Lounge: Hope, Renewal, Unity" from 11 p.m. on Dec. 31 through the first 30 minutes of 2021, with live-streamed jazz, spoken word performances and dance music.
A year full of uncertainty developed into an inspirational push for 20-year-old singer and Hyde Park native Mikayla Gilles, who released her debut single, "Away," on December 4. Writing and recording the four-minute-long alternative R&B track provided catharsis for Gilles during a time o…
Hyde Park students snagged two of the three top spots in Pegasus Theatre's 34th annual Young Playwrights Festival. Seventeen-year-old Aisha Ziad, a senior at University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, won for “A Lady’s Facade,” while 18-year-old Jake Florell, who just graduated from Kenwood A…
Everybody knows “A Christmas Carol,” the 1843 novella by Charles Dickens that has become an iconic stage and screen holiday special. Far fewer people are familiar with “The Chimes,” the story he published the following year (and the second in an eventual series of five Christmas books).
The happiest memories of Christmas frequently involve children. Sometimes it is the joy they bring others, sometimes it is the vicarious pleasure we take in their joy. The Hyde Park Youth Symphony (HPYS) has done something that offered a little bit of both in a pair of Zoom streaming events.
If you ever thought about getting in touch with an old love but were afraid of what might happen, James Ijames' “What is Left, Burns” will give you hope.
Lyric Opera of Chicago’s latest virtual concert celebrated singers and composers from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico, Spain, Guatemala, Argentina and the US. Lyric’s Ryan Opera Center, which sponsored the concert, assembled an array of fine singers, most of whom are members or alums of the Ryan C…
Court Theatre and the University of Chicago's Experimental Performance Initiative joined forces with the West Coast-based collective For You for an innovative project that culminates with a virtual celebration on December 10.
The show must go on—even if “on” means “online” this holiday season. The possibilities range from variations on “A Christmas Carol” to classics in-the-making. While some are filmed versions of previous live productions, others have been created specifically for the internet. Several even are…
These are difficult times for opera presenters. Chicago Opera Theater (COT) had hoped to provide a streamed version of the complete opera “Kashchej the Immortal” by Rimsky-Korsakov this weekend, but tighter coronavirus restrictions made that impossible. The organization was able to pivot and…
The Hyde Park Art Center’s annual gala went virtual last Saturday but still managed to bring in $424,000 for the exhibition and educational space, surpassing its goal for the evening.
The pandemic-born resurgence of radio plays gets a boost on Thanksgiving Day when Lookingglass Theatre Company's “Her Honor Jane Byrne” premieres on WBEZ 91.5 Chicago.
Since having to cancel all fall concerts with audiences, University of Chicago Presents has turned to local artists and streaming to bring music to their subscribers. Last Friday, they introduced a new series, "Sounds/Sites," which allows artists to perform in locations not always available …
Porchlight Music Theatre's “New Faces Sing Broadway 1987” kicks off the sixth season of the savvy revue series, but this is the first time it has made sense for me to cover it. That's because in the past each edition — highlighting Broadway openings in a single year — had only two performanc…
This is the first in a series of columns from photographer, writer and Hyde Park resident Yasin Muhammad about young artists in the neighborhood.
It's impossible to imagine Interrobang Theatre Project's “The Spin” anywhere else than on the internet. That's because Spenser Davis' savvy satire, commissioned by the company, consists almost entirely of a Zoom meeting, preceded by a filmed ad played for the participants and punctuated by a…
The Dame Myra Hess Memorial concerts mounted by the International Music Foundation (IMF) have been a staple of the Chicago cultural landscape since 1977, and the coronavirus pandemic has not changed that. But it has changed the method of presentation, with the effect that considerably more p…
While the city's larger theaters have put their live seasons on hold during the pandemic and presented mostly educational programming online, some of the small storefront ensembles are forging ahead with digital productions and even inviting reviewers.
Haymarket Opera Company, now celebrating its tenth anniversary, has entered the pandemic-inspired streaming age with a luscious production of Handel’s “Acis and Galatea”. This 90-minute work is perfect for a small company because the cast is small — three principals, one additional soloist, …
A virtual book talk hosted by the Silver Room on Wednesday night brought over 70 participants — mostly women, mostly women of color, and a few from across the world in London and Australia — to take part in a robust discussion about feminism.
I don't really like scary stories. Poe is included in this Halloween mix of two virtual plays and two radio broadcasts because it seemed remiss to exclude him, but my preference is for the sci-fi.
Music organizations large and small, both across the world and in Chicago, have developed ways of reaching audiences without having them in physical proximity to those making the sound. In the beginning this predominantly meant streaming events: concerts, very small operas, and the like.
The University of Chicago Presents offered a streamed concert Friday night featuring a Hyde Park favorite, the Pacifica Quartet. Early in their career, they were resident performing artists for 17 years at the University of Chicago, offering numerous concerts, and they developed a substantia…
When the pandemic struck, Bruce Finkelman with the 16" on Center hospitality group began seeking out new ways for talent to fill his array of music venues and restaurants.
In a message recorded for the virtual 3Arts Awards celebration Oct. 19, muralist and teaching artist Dorian Sylvain described herself as a bit of a “bridge.” By working in the public sphere, she's trying not only to give back to the community, particularly the youth, but also to address the …
It’s not news that small businesses are struggling in the time of COVID-19. Sadly, this applies to small arts groups as well. Yet Third Eye Theatre Ensemble, a very small and rather young Chicago opera company, has persevered, and this weekend offered a low-budget, high-impact streaming even…
Just in time for the momentous 2020 presidential election, the Neo-Futurists have commissioned “45 Plays for America's First Ladies.” A companion piece of sorts to its earlier “43 Plays for 43 Presidents” — originally produced in 2004 and remounted in 2012 as “44 Plays for 44 Presidents” — t…
When she was in her twenties, Carol Cheung recalled, she wasn't sure that she wanted to go into the family business. Her grandparents had owned a soybean farm and a restaurant, where they'd serve the tofu made from the legumes they harvested.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s new, paid and online series "CSO Sessions" continues to offer high-quality performance combined with expert audio and visual presentation, making it the next best thing to being there.
British playwright Titas Halder's 2017 “Run the Beast Down” belongs to a long line of stories about privileged young men who suffer psychological meltdowns because of professional or personal problems—often of their own making—but Strawdog Theatre Company deserves credit for recognizing the …
Porchlight Music Theatre is kicking off its all-virtual autumn with a welcome alternative to Zoom plays that fits the digital format surprisingly well.
Last week, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra began its series of weekly paid concerts online with a one hour performance. Part of the “CSO Sessions,” the main portion of the concert featured five CSO principals, while a middle section featured two other members of the orchestra.
Over the weekend, Hyde Park residents and visitors welcomed the 14th annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival with great fervor.
The final Rush Hour concert of the season, which streamed online last week, was a fitting and splendid way to end the summer season for the International Music Foundation. The Kontras Quartet — made up of Eleanor Bartsch and Francois Henkins, violins; Ben Weber, viola; and Jean Hatmaker, cel…
Both Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have announced further details about the upcoming season and their responses to pandemic conditions that will not allow live performances before large audiences for some time to come.
In the fall of 2019, when Remy Bumppo Theatre Company was putting together its 2020-2021 season, the plan was to offer an escape from what promised to be divisive election proceedings by opening with a raucous dark comedy by Martin McDonagh.
Pigment International, a Chicago-based art collective, and the DuSable Museum of African American History, 740 E 56 Pl., will present the second annual Black Fine Art Month in October as a series of online talks, exhibitions and events.
Chicago Opera Theater opened its 2020–2021 season, where every performance will be streamed online, with a concert version last week, of the new opera “The Transformation of Jane Doe.”
The nominees for the 52nd annual Equity Jeff Awards were announced last week, and Court Theatre garnered 11 of them.
Hyde Park Jazz Festival artistic and executive director Kate Dumbleton has spent years bringing international jazz stars and local heroes to a growing neighborhood audience. The COVID-19 pandemic made her completely reverse course and discourage mass numbers from gathering while still presen…
The Room is the realization of a dream for American Blues Theater—but not in the way the ensemble envisioned.
Lyric Opera of Chicago formally kicked off its 2020–21 season Sunday night with a free online gala concert. Lyric had originally planned a cabaret-type event but when coronavirus restrictions made large events impossible, it pivoted and created a virtual concert instead.
The University of Chicago will play host to a new public art project by Jenny Holzer, a conceptual artist best known for her text-based light projections.
Myriam Ben Salah, the incoming executive director of the Renaissance Society, is excited to take command of her first art museum after organizing the upcoming biennial at the University of California, Los Angeles' Hammer Museum and working as curator of social projects and public programs at…
