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The Chicago Reader

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City Life, Public Service Announcement Jan 15, 2021
A day of service

Upcoming events and recommendations from our listings coordinator
- By Salem Collo-Julin
- Tags: Public Service Announcement, listings, events, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Martin Luther King, MLK, Hyde Park Arts Center, Public Narrative, Public Enemy, Chicago Children's Museum, African American Arts Alliance, Black Ensemble Theater, City Year, My Block My Hood My City, Love Fridge, Studio One, Afropunk

Arts & Culture, Comedy Mar 10, 2020
Lisa Beasley cooks up her own opportunities

How she went from cracking jokes at church to touring with one of the world’s comedy giants to writing her own recipe for success.
- By Lisa Beasley
- Tags: Comedy, Lisa Beasley, comedy, Second City, eta Creative Arts Foundation, Black Ensemble Theater, 3Peat, Gary Christian Center, Comedy Central, The Blackening, 420

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Mar 10, 2020
Black Ensemble Theater’s The Healing is saved by the audience

Jackie Taylor mixes history, personal essay, racial justice, and music to mixed effect.
- By Taryn Allen
- Tags: Theater Review, The Healing, Black Ensemble Theater, Jackie Taylor, Dwight Neal, Dawn Bless, MJ Rawls

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Nov 6, 2019
Recommended
The Other Cinderella turns Black Ensemble Theater into a magic kingdom

Forty-three years after its first production, Jackie Taylor's African American adaptation still enchants and empowers.
- By Marissa Oberlander
- Tags: Theater Review, The Other Cinderella, Black Ensemble Theater, Jackie Taylor, Jayla Williams-Craig, Rhonda Preston, Robin DaSilva, Blake Hawthorne, Recommended

Music, Gossip Wolf Aug 6, 2019
Spektral Quartet’s new season takes deep dives in diverse directions

Plus: “Posi-djent” act Harm Less celebrates a new album, and No Trend Records hosts a showcase “in the round” at Thalia Hall.
- By J.R. Nelson and Leor Galil
- Tags: Gossip Wolf, Spektral Quartet, Totally Obsessed, Shaggs, My Pal Foot Foot, LJ White, Constellation, Beat Kitchen, Thalia Hall, New Amsterdam Records, Fanm d’Ayiti, Nathalie Joachim, Black Ensemble Theater, Kotoka Suzuki, Shulamit Ran, Enigma, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, University of Chicago, Bryan Kingsley, Harm Less, Safe’s Pace, posi-djent, Flesh & Bone Records, No Trend Records, in the round, Mykele Deville, Absolutely Not, Avantist

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Jul 31, 2019
Recommended
You Can't Fake the Funk is superfreaky fun

Black Ensemble Theater’s celebration of the history of funk dazzles with defiant joy.
- By Catey Sullivan
- Tags: Theater Review, You Can’t Fake the Funk, Black Ensemble Theater, Daryl D. Brooks, Dwight Neal, Robert Reddrick, Recommended

Arts & Culture, Theater Review May 29, 2019
Recommended
Style & Grace pays tribute to Lena Horne and Nancy Wilson

Black Ensemble Theater’s latest bio-musical tells the stories of two great jazz divas.
- By Marissa Oberlander
- Tags: Theater Review, Style and Grace, Lena Horne, Nancy Wilson, Black Ensemble Theater, Kylah Frye, Aeriel Williams, Chantee Joy, Jayla Williams Craig, Rhonda Preston, Vincent Jordan, Kelvin Davis, jazz, divas, Recommended

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Jul 26, 2018
It's Rick Stone: The Blues Man, starring Rick Stone as Rick Stone

For 90 minutes, the Cooley High alum will sing the blues with utter absorption.
- By Max Maller
- Tags: Theater Review, Rick Stone: The Blues Man, Black Ensemble Theater, Rick Stone, Robert Reddrick, Cooley High, Howlin' Wolf

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Jul 18, 2018
Heartbreak Hotel revisits Elvis’s early, prejumpsuit years

Plus all the classic hits you know and love!
- By Dan Jakes
- Tags: Theater Review, heartbreak hotel, scott prisand, elvis presley, authentic brands group, black ensemble theater, million dollar quartet, eddie clendening, vegas, The Greatest Showman, Erin Burniston

Blogs, Bleader May 21, 2018
The Sea and Cake and more of the best things to do in Chicago this week

A New Attitude: In Tribute to Patti LaBelle and more goings-on 5/21-5/24
- By Steve Heisler
- Tags: Arts, Do This, Film, Music, a new attitude: in tribute to patti labelle, patti labelle, black ensemble theater, the sea and cake, empty bottle, charlie curtis-beard, reggies rock club, weather warlock, bruce lamont, isle of dogs, wes anderson, courtney barnett, chicago cultural center, black panther

Arts & Culture, Theater Review May 17, 2018
Recommended
A New Attitude does the great Patti LaBelle proud

Somebody loves you, baby.
- By Dan Jakes
- Tags: Theater Review, A New Attitude, Patti LaBelle, Black Ensemble Theater, Jackie Taylor, Rueben D. Echoles, Dawn Bless, Cherise Thomas, Recommended

Blogs, Bleader Apr 4, 2018
In the Jackie Taylor Drama Series, the Black Ensemble Theater highlights work by three young playwrights

The new series is a preview of what to expect when the company opens its studio theater next year.
- By Dan Jakes
- Tags: Arts, Race, Theater, Black Ensemble Theater, Jackie Taylor Drama Series, Jackie Taylor, African-American theater, Ervin Gardner, Reginald Williams, L. Maceo Ferris, Black Playwrights Initiative, DuSable Museum of African American History, Perri Irmer

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Oct 25, 2017
Arnie the Doughnut, Tangles and Plaques, and 11 more new stage shows to see

A delightful kids' show and a Neo-Futurist's look at dementia are among this week's best bets.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Arnie the Doughnut, Lifeline Theatre, Laurie Keller, Francis Limoncelli, George Howe, Rachel Sypniewski, Juanita Andersen, The Black Renaissance (A Musical Resistance Against Racism), Jackie Taylor, Black Ensemble Theater, Reconstruction, the Civil War, Ku Klux Klan, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, racism, Robert Reddrick, Carrie, Underscore Theatre Company, Carrie 2: The Rage, The Rage: Carrie 2, Preston Max Allen, Maggie Robinson, Rachel Elise Johnson, Isaac Loomer, Spring Awakening, Chicago Danztheatre, Danztheatre Playwright Fest, Getting Old Sucks, Nelia Winter, Cetalogy, Moby-Dick, Pivot Arts, Don't Look Back/Must Look Back, Uptown, Chinese Mutual Aid Association, Albany Park Theater Project, Ellen Gates Starr High School, Learning Curve, Devon de Mayo, Tennessee Williams, His Greatness, The Glass Menagerie, Daniel MacIvor, David Zak, Pride Films and Plays, Danne E. Taylor, The Last Days of the Commune, Bertolt Brecht, Prop Thtr, Stefan Brün, Kyle Ann Greer, Paris Commune of 1871, Refuge Theatre Project, High Fidelity: The Musical, Lysistrata, Lysistrata Jones, Douglas Carter Beane, Lewis Flinn, Justin Brill, Mary-Margaret Roberts, Shanna VanDerwerker, A Swell in the Ground, Jeanine Nabers, Chika Ike, the Gift Theatre, the Neo-Futurists, Kirsten Riiber, Jen Ellison, With Blood, With Ink, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Third Eye Theatre Ensemble, Daniel Crozier, Peter M. Krask, Johns Hopkins Peabody Conservatory, Zombie Bathhouse: A Rock Musical, Campsongs Productions, Brian Kirst, Dan Foss, Scott Free

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Aug 2, 2017
Brave Like Them, The Bricklayers of Oz, and ten more new stage shows for the dog days

A "queer as f**k riot grrrl musical" and Chicago Dance Crash's latest story-length hip-hop showcase are among this week's best bets.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, An American in Paris, Christopher Wheeldon, George and Ira Gershwin, Gene Kelly, I Got Rhythm, Craig Lucas, McGee Maddox, Jerry Mulligan, Ryan Steele, About Face Youth Theatre, riot grrrl movement, Kathleen Hanna, Bikini Kill, 90s punk, Ali Hoefnagel, Kieran Kredell, Kyle Norton, Erin Kilmurray, Nicholas Davio, Brave Like Them, The Fair Maid of the West, Oak Park Festival Theatre, Thomas Heywood, 17th-century comedy, Amanda Forman, Zach Livingston, Kevin Theis, swordplay, Bobby Bowman, Teatro Vista, La Havana Madrid, Sandra Delgado, Latin nightclub, Carpacho y Su Super Combo, Latino immigrants in Chicago, Goodman Theatre, Lakeview, the Comrades, In the Wake, Lisa Kron, Rose Sengenberger, Alison Plott, Mike Newquist, Rachel Rauscher, Bush v. Gore, 2000 presidential election, Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, Ground Zero, Alex Mallory, Black Ensemble Theater, Rueben Echoles, Deverin Deonte, Last Dancer Standing (More Than Hip-Hop), Black Lives Matter, Huggable Riot, sketch comedy, Judgmental Institutions, the Annoyance, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare in the Parks, Marti Lyons, The Vagina Monologues, The Aleatoric Theatre Company, Eve Ensler, Refugee Alliance Group, transgender, Joette Waters, Sandy Smith

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature May 17, 2017
American Hero, Into the Empty Sky, and eight more new theater reviews

"Sandwich artists" go rogue and nameless women go nowhere in two of this week's notable stage shows.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, American Hero, First Floor Theater, Bess Wohl, Cody Estle, Saraí Rodriguez, Black Pearl: A Tribute to Josephine Baker, Black Ensemble Theater, Joan Ruffin, Aeriel Williams, Josephine Baker, Dance for Beginners, MT Cozzola, Piven Theatre Workshop, Chicago Dramatists, Dev Kennedy, Laurie Larson, Into the Empty Sky, Trap Door Theatre, Wisława Szymborska, Monica Payne, Chicago Theatre Workshop, Little Miss Sunshine, William Finn, James Lapine, Maggie Portman, Robert Groth, Jennifer Thusing, George Keating, Sophie Kaegi, The Outpost, One on One Chicago, Andrew Lund, Seminar, Spartan Theatre Company, Theresa Rebeck, Robert Koon, Time Stands Still, Donald Margulies, AstonRep Theatre Company, Georgette Verdin, Sara Pavlak McGuire, Rob Frankel, Waiting to Inhale, Under the Gun Theater, EbonyEssenceJet, Mike Mazzocca, Michael Arndt, Kedgrick Pullums Jr., Exit Chicago

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Oct 7, 2016
The Bardy Bunch, The Last Wife, A Walk in the Woods, and ten more new stage shows

A mashup of Shakespeare with The Partridge Family and The Brady Bunch is one of this week's high- (or maybe lowlights).
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, The Bardy Bunch, The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, The Bard, Stephen Garvey, Logan Medland, Jay Stern, Mercury Theater, Steep Theatre, Bobbie Clearly, Alex Lubische, Robert Askins, Joel Sobel, Hand to God, Victory Gardens, Fantasy Island for Dummies, Trap Door Theatre, Ruth Margraff, Fantasy Island, Annette Funicello, Party Perfect, Dandelion Theatre, Fish Eye, Lucas Hardin, Katherine Lamb, Morgan Crouch, Stephen Rowland, the Frontier, Theo Ubique, Fly by Night, No Exit Cafe, Jeremy Ramey, Fred Anzevino, Meredith Kochan, Kyrie Anderson, Will Connolly, Michael Mitnick, Kim Rosenstock, Hillary: The Musical!, KellyAnn Corcoran, Greg Allen, Jenny Magnus, Mark Chrisler, How We Got On, Idris Goodwin, hip-hop, Grandmaster Flash, Den Theatre, Black Ensemble Theater, I Am Who I Am: The Teddy Pendergrass Story, Rashawn Thompson, Deverin Deonte, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Jessica Seals, Rueben Echoles, Kyle Smith, TimeLine Theatre, The Last Wife, Kate Hennig, Catherine Parr, Henry VII, Elizabeth I, AnJi White, Steve Pickering, Quest Theatre Ensemble, The People's History of the United States, Andrew Park, City Lit Theater Company, Psmith, Journalist, P.G. Wodehouse, Terry McCabe, Skooby Don't, Hell in a Handbag Productions, Interrobang Theatre Project, Still, Jen Silverman, Yale Drama Series Award, Georgette Verdin, miscarriage, Matthew Nerber, A Walk in the Woods, Spartan Theatre Company, Lee Blessing, Patrick Belics, Sara Pavlak McGuire, Vincent P. Mahler

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Aug 11, 2016
Ayn Rand in Love, Thrones! A Musical Parody, and eight more new stage shows

An incongruous musical and a Game of Thrones spoof are among this week's highlights.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Ayn Rand in Love, MCL Chicago, Premier Premieres, Einstein's Gift, Fritz Haber, Genesis Theatricals, Elayne LeTraunik, Chris Saunders, Vern Thiessen, First Floor Theater, Fitzfest, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Tender Is the Night, Kevin Rolston Jr., The Jackie Wilson Story, Jackie Taylor, Black Ensemble Theater, Rueben Echoles, Mother and Me, Melinda Buckley, Kimberly Senior, The Promise of a Rose Garden, Babes With Blades, Dustin Spence, Elyse Dawson, Muse of Fire Theatre Company, Queen Margaret, Henry VI, Richard III, Annelise Dickinson, Jon Beal, Thrones! A Musical Parody, Baby Wants Candy, Nicholas Druzbanski, Game of Thrones, Caitlyn Cerza, Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Reutan Collective, Second City, Slate, Unelectable You, Jacob Weisberg, Peter Sagal, Calamity West

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Jun 15, 2016
Congo Square’s A Small Oak Tree Runs Red, Black Ensemble’s The Marvin Gaye Story, and ten more new theater reviews

Two African-American companies present revelatory dramas.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Bars and Measures, Idris Goodwin, Osiris Khepera, Anthony Conway, Tara Branham, John Keats, The Dark Ages: Otho the Great, The Divine Sister, Hell in a Handbag Productions, Charles Busch, David Cerda, Shade Murray, Charlotte Mae Ellison, Chad, Hauptmann, John Logan, Denis O'Hare, Terry McCabe, Bruno Hauptmann, Lindberg kidnapping, George Seegebrecht, Brian Pastor, The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling, Tracey Power, Theatre-Hikes, Eldridge Shannon III, William Goff, Felix Mayes, Timothy Sullivan, The Marvin Gaye Story: Don't Talk About My Father Because God Is My Friend, Jackie Taylor, Black Ensemble Theater, Marvin Gaye, Marvin Gay Sr., Rashawn Thompson, Henri Watkins, Lake Forest Theatre, The Secret Garden, Steve Malone, Edward Fraim, A Small Oak Tree Runs Red, Congo Square Theater, Lekethia Dalcoe, Harry Lennix, Mary Turner, lynchings, The Sound of Music, Kerstin Anderson, Ben Davis, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Jack O'Brien, A Storm of Limbs, Piebenga Plumbing, Tapped: A Treasonous Musical Comedy, Jed Levine and Brad Kemp, Holly Gombita, Molly Todd Madison, Laureen Siciliano, The Untold, Untrue Love Story of Bill and Hillary Clinton, Grace Perry, Lyndsay Rush, Sarah Ashley, iO Theater

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Apr 20, 2016
Dreamgirls, Dead Man Walking, The Few, and ten more new theater reviews

Porchlight wows, Piven Theatre crusades, and Steep Theatre goes hard-core American.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, The Book Club Play, Karen Zacarias, 16th Street Theater, Kevin Christopher Fox, Ann Filmer, Brad Harbaugh, Piven Theatre, Dead Man Walking, Sister Helen Prejean, Tim Robbins, Patricia Lavery, Jay Reed, Mikalina Rabinsky, Black Ensemble Theater, Dionne Warwick, Jackie Taylor, Rueben D. Echoles, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Dreamgirls, Porchlight Music Theatre, Brenda Didier, Effie White, Evan Tyrone Martin, Eric Lewis, The Few, Steep Theatre, Samuel D. Hunter, Peter Moore, Dana Black, Travis Coe, Eclipse Theatre, Jesus Hopped the "A" Train, Anish Jethmalani, Stephen Adly Giurgis, Elizabeth Birnkrant, Johnathan Nieves, The Kinematics, Mark Ravenhill, Pool (No Water), Milkwhite, Anthony Kochensparger, Chris Smith, Chicago Art Department, Strangeloop Theatre, Mitera, Maria Burnham, Othello: The Remix, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Jeffrey Qaiyum, Gregory Qaiyum, Q Brothers, Shakespeare, Postell Pringle, Jackson Doran, Tympanic Theatre, Paper City Phoenix, Walt McGough, Rebecca Willingham, Rogue Theater, Pygmalion, Right Brain Project, George Bernard Shaw, Nate White, Nellie Ognacevic, The Other Theatre Company, The Realm, Sarah Myers, Kelly Howe, Trash!, New American Folk Theatre, Anthony Whitaker, Jamal Howard, Johnny Drago

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Feb 25, 2016
Black Ensemble's Doo Wop Shoo Bop, Quest Theatre's All the World's a Stage, and eight more stage shows to see now

Revivals are back—even Sister Act.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Black Ensemble Theater, Doo Wop Shoo Bop, Those Sensational Soulful 60s, Jackie Taylor, jukebox musicals, All the World's a Stage, Andrew Park, Quest Theatre Ensemble, seven ages of man, doo-wop, I & You, Jackalope Theatre Company, the Yard, Senn Arts Magnet School, Tevion Lanier, Olivia Shine, Walt Whitman, In a Word, Strawdog Theatre, Lauren Yee, Jess McLeod, Mary Winn Heider, Rebecca Sohn, Shirley Lame, My Solo Show of All Duets, the Annoyance, T.J. Shanoff, Muse of Fire, Genesis Theatricals, Redtwist Theatre, Auschwitz, Jake Rosenberg, Rock Baby Rock, Hard Rock Cafe, Jerry Lee Lewis, Lance Lipinsky, Neil LaBute, The Shape of Things, Pygmalion, Eclectic Full Contact Theatre, Katherine Siegel, Patrick Iven, Sister Act, Marriott Theatre Lincolnshire, Whoopi Goldberg, Don Stephenson, Marissa Zaremba, Nancy Missimi, Aretha Franklin, Jackie Wilson, Ziryab, the Songbird of Andalusia, Ronnie Malley, Silk Road Rising

News & Politics, Feature Oct 15, 2014
One of these guys is going to be governor of Illinois

A few things you should know about Pat Quinn and Bruce Rauner
- By Mick Dumke
- Tags: Feature, Governor Pat Quinn, Bruce Rauner, Rod Blagojevich, George Ryan, Stuart Levine, gubernatorial race 2014, CompBenefits, The United Neighborhood Organization, Juan Rangel, Richard M. Daley, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, GTCR, SBC Communications, Koch brothers, Americans for Prosperity, Charles Koch, David Koch, Judicial Correction Services, Illinois Republican Party, Iris Martinez, Neighborhood Recovery Initiative, UNO, Jesse Jackson, Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Black Ensemble Theater, Westside Ministers Conference, Saint Pius V Church, Martin Sheen, Reverend James Meeks, Michael Madigan, Lisa Madigan, William Daley, Olive Garden, Uber, Bill Brady, Rick Perry, Governor Scott Walker, Illinois Freedom PAC, Cesar Chavez

Blogs, Bleader Apr 9, 2014
Reader's Agenda Wed 4/9: "Geometric," Black Playwrights Festival, and Wu Man

What's on the Reader's Agenda for Wednesday, April 9
- By Keshia Bardney
- Tags: Do This, Arts, Chicago Artist Resource, Geometric, Art + Floral, Black Ensemble Theater, Black Playwrights Festival, Black Playwrights Initiative, Leonard Maceo Ferris, M. Shelly Conner, Wendell Etherly, Ervin Gardner, Daryl Brooks, Wu Man, Chinese lute, Northwestern University, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall

Columns & Opinion, On Culture Jun 25, 2013
Curtains for the Uptown Hull House Center theater

An 11th-hour effort fails to save the longtime home of Organic and Black Ensemble theater companies.
- By Deanna Isaacs
- Tags: On Culture, Stuard Gordon, Organic Theater Company, David Gassman, theater, architecture, William Petersen, William H. Macy, Jim Belushi, Joe Mantegna, George Wendt, Bob Sickinger, Off-Loop theater, Hull House, David Mamet, Jackie Taylor, Black Ensemble Theater, Pegasus Players, Rahm Emanuel, Uptown, Crombie Taylor, James Cappleman, City Council, Jim Jacobs, League of Chicago Theatres, Deb Clapp, Ward Miller, Preservation Chicago, Ilesa Duncan, Nick Rabkin, zoning, preservation, development, Uptown Hull House Center

Blogs, Bleader Jun 12, 2013
An eleventh-hour online petition seeks to save Uptown's Hull House theater

Online petition seeks to save Uptown's historic Hull House theater.
- By Deanna Isaacs
- Tags: Theater, Arts, Architecture, Clout City, News, Hull House Theater, Leo Lerner Theatre, Organic Theater Company, Black Ensemble Theater, Joe Mantegna, William H. Macy, William Petersen, Jim Belushi, George Wendt, Bob Sickinger, James Cappleman

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Sidebar Apr 8, 2013
Image
Black Ensemble Theater's weeklong engagement

Five full-lengths, five short takes, and two parties—all in the seven-day Black Playwrights Festival
- By Jena Cutie
- Tags: Performing Arts Sidebar, Black Ensemble Theater, Black Playwrights Initiative, Jackie Taylor, Paul Oakley Stovall, Jil Ross, The Last Word, Jarrin Davis, Light, Loy Webb, For Alice and August, Leonard M. Ferris, Savages, Katrina V. Miller, The Holidays

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