Everyone is observing this one-year anniversary of the day our world changed. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced a stay-at-home order to take effect at 5pm on Saturday, March 21, 2020. […]
Many Americans seem to have a British-Royals obsession that has never made sense to me. Steppenwolf Theatre’s newest online production in its Steppenwolf NOW streaming series plays on that royals […]
The Catastrophist, by Lauren M. Gunderson, succeeds as a story that informs us about science and tears at our hearts about love, death and grieving. It soars from the scientific […]
Chicago theater companies are scheduling new virtual experiences as we approach the first anniversary of pandemic theater. Some are live streamed and some filmed—all will be available from your living […]
“What evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows….” “The Shadow” was a midcentury radio mystery that sometimes kept a little girl from sleeping. My mother finally tried […]
Missed Connections, Jon Tai’s magic and mystery show, is a cozy hour of entertainment laced with his stories of, yes, actual missed connections. Tai and his co-creator, Alex Gruhin, offer […]
An homage to Lou Rawls and to the St. Louis poet who became a Brit. February is the cruelest month. Where did T.S. Eliot get that April business? […]
Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president. Historian Timothy Snyder characterizes our past president and describes his followers vividly in his essay, “The American Abyss: Trump, the […]
Eight years ago, I wrote a post about Richard Blanco’s poem, “One Today,” presented by the poet at Barack Obama’s second inaugural. I was so moved by Amanda Gorman’s poem […]
As part of their WorldStage series, Chicago Shakespeare is offering a visit with illusionist and mentalist Scott Silven from his childhood home in rural Scotland—or as he says, “in the […]
I like cooking big family dinners or special dinners for company. Some of my favorite entrées are country captain, a chicken curry dish; vegetable lasagna starring lots of spinach; or […]
There’s no need to say how devastating 2020 has been for live theater and all forms of live entertainment. Millions of careers, lives and families have been turned upside down […]