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Arts & Culture, Feature Feb 21, 2020
Defending your life

How to Defend Yourself and Do You Feel Anger? ask us to consider how to survive patriarchy without losing our minds—and bodies.
- By Kerry Reid
- Tags: Feature, How to Defend Yourself, Do You Feel Anger, Victory Garden Theater, A Red Orchid Theatre, Lilian Padilla, Marti Lyons, Mara Nelson-Greenberg, Jess McLeod, Steph Paul, Emjoy Gavino, Sadieh Rifai

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Feb 4, 2020
Recommended
How to Defend Yourself wrestles with rape culture

A self-defense class reveals hidden vulnerabilities in Liliana Padilla's world premiere.
- By Kerry Reid
- Tags: Theater Review, How to Defend Yourself, Victory Gardens Theater, Liliana Padilla, Marti Lyons, Anna Crivelli, Netta Walker, Isa Arciniegas, Ariana Mahallati, Andrea San Miguel, Ryan McBride, Jayson Lee, Recommended

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Nov 19, 2019
Recommended
The Niceties raises the stakes for academic debate

Generational and racial divides light the fuse at Writers Theatre.
- By Catey Sullivan
- Tags: Theater Review, The Niceties, Eleanor Burgess, Writers Theatre, Marti Lyons, Mary Beth Fisher, Ayanna Bria Bakari, Erika Christakis, Recommended

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Oct 10, 2018
Recommended
The Faustian bargains in Witch take on extra resonance in the current political climate

The devil has a much easier time raking up the souls of castle-dwelling men.
- By Dan Jakes
- Tags: Theater Review, Witch, Writers Theatre, Audrey Francis, Witch of Edmonton, Jen Silverman, Ryan Hallahan, Yu Shibagaki, Scott Dickens, Marti Lyons, Steve Haggard, Jon Hudson Odom, Matt Hawkins, Recommended

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Mar 27, 2018
Video
Court Theatre’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner is tasteful, digestible—and unnecessary

A new adaptation ignores the realities of Jim Crow America in favor of spreading its message of love.
- By Justin Hayford
- Tags: Theater Review, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Court Theatre, Todd Kreidler, William Rose, Marti Lyons, race relations, Jim Crow, civil rights, interracial romance, Video

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, Theater Review Jun 14, 2017
Ostensibly a comedy, Victory Gardens' Native Gardens terrifies

A poisonous dispute over two feet of dirt
- By Max Maller
- Tags: Theater Review, Victory Gardens, Native Gardens, Karen Zacarias, Marti Lyons, Paloma Nozicka, Patrick Clear, Janet Ulrich Brooks, Gabriel Ruiz

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Apr 19, 2017
There’s no mystery in Writers Theatre’s The Mystery of Love and Sex

Instead of answers, Bathsheba Doran’s play offers contrivance.
- By Tony Adler
- Tags: Theater Review, Writers Theatre, Bathsheba Doran, The Mystery of Love and Sex, Lia Mortensen, Keith Kupferer, Marti Lyons, Hayley Burgess, Travis Turner

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Nov 30, 2016
Winterset, Finding Neverland, and three more alternatives to holiday fare

A resonant period piece and a musical that does it better than the movie are among this week's best bets.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, The Hypocrites, Cinderella at the Theater of Potatoes, Andra Velis Simon, Pauline Viardot-García, Cendrillon, Sean Graney, Amanda Martinez, Cinderella, Finding Neverland, J.M. Barrie, Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, Peter Pan, Gary Barlow, Eliot Kennedy, Broadway musicals, Broadway in Chicago, Kevin Kern, Christine Dwyer, Equity touring shows, Diane Paulus, Mia Michaels, Calamity West, Sideshow Theatre Company, Rolling, Jackalope Theatre, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, Give It All Back, Bob Dylan, Marti Lyons, Mary Williamson, R. Crumb, Allen Ginsberg, Mr. Natural, ShawChicago, Jeeves Intervenes, Margaret Raether', P.G. Wodehouse, Bertie Wooster, Eustace Bassington-Bassington, Robert Scogin, Winterset, Sacco and Vanzetti, Griffin Theatre Company, Jonathan Berry, Maxwell Anderson, Maurice Demus, Larry Baldacci

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Oct 1, 2016
Cheers Live, Dog Night, The Happiest Place on Earth, and nine more new theater reviews

The latest Chicago stage shows range from the rawly emotional to the enjoyably ridiculous.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Cheers Live on Stage, Broadway in Chicago, Nich Radcliffe, Organic Theater Company, Joe Mantegna, Open Space Theater, Bleacher Bums, Northlight Theatre, Anthony Giardina, The City of Conversation, Lia D. Mortensen, Marti Lyons, Chicago theater, Pulse Theatre, The Colored Museum, George C. Wolfe, ETA Creative Arts Foundation, Aaron Mitchell Reese, Demetra Drayton, Ekia Thomas, Dead Children, The Side Project Theatre Company, Robert Tenges, Erik Wagner, Kirsten D'Aurelio, Adam Webster, Victoria Gilbert, Dog Night, Rabid Bat Theatricals, North Lakeshore Cultural Center, Gunder House, Philip Dawkins, The Happiest Place on Earth, Disneyland, Jonathan L. Green, Greenhouse Theater Center, Genesis Theatricals Productions, The People's Choice, Philip Pinkus, political satire, Baby Wants Candy, Game of Thrones, Thrones! A Musical Parody, Nick Druzbanski, Caitlyn Cerza, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, pH Theater, William Finn, Rachel Sheinkin, Erin Elisabeth Smith, Jason Geis, Filament Theatre, The Van Gogh Cafe, Community Tavern, Portage Park, Cynthia Rylant, Julia Ritchie, Visiting Edna, David Rabe, Steppenwolf Theatre, Anna D. Shapiro, Donterrio Johnson

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Mar 18, 2016
Lookingglass's Blood Wedding, Strawdog's D.O.A., and nine more notable current stage shows

García Lorca gets transplanted to the Dust Bowl, and an off-Loop mainstay goes noir.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Lookingglass Theatre, Federico Garcia Lorca, Blood Wedding, Daniel Ostling, Kareem Bandealy, Mercy Street Theatre, Ian Michael James, Burn, J. Cody Spellman, Strawdog Theatre, D.O.A., Leo C. Popkin, 42nd Street, City Lit Theatre, Harold Arlen, I've Got the World on a String, Sheldon Patinkin, Kingsley Day, Profiles Theatre, Darrell W. Cox, Joe Jahraus, Jez Butterworth, AmarA*jk, Thad Halstein, Jerusalem, Mai Lang Dao, Sideshow Theatre, David Jacobi, Marti Lyons, The Matchmaker, Thornton Wilder, Goodman Theatre, Hello, Dolly!, Henry Wishcamper, Jerry Herman, The New Sincerity, Theater Wit, Jeremy Wechsler, Erin Long, Alex Stein, Alena Smith, Zuccotti Park, Pride Films & Plays, Delia Kropp, David Valdes Greenwood, Raggedy And, Recent Tragic Events, Craig Wright, 9/11, Interrobang Theatre Project, World Trade Center, Joyce Carol Oates

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Sep 2, 2015
Making art out of Hurricane Katrina's suffering

Ten years after the disaster in New Orleans, true stories of survival fill a pair of Chicago productions.
- By Zac Thompson
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Katrina: Mother-in-Law of 'Em All, The Play About My Dad, Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, Chicago Tribune, Kristen McQueary, Rob Florence, Mother-in-Law Lounge, Interrobang Theatre Project, Georgette Verdin, Boo Killebrew, Raven Theatre, Marti Lyons, Title and Deed, Bethany

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Nov 13, 2013
The Peacock's no calamity, but it isn't West's best

Playwright Calamity West's latest, set in a post-WWII creative writing class, receives an unsatisfying staging by Jackalope Theatre Company.
- By Justin Hayford
- Tags: Theater Review, Calamity West, Lemony Snicket, Jackalope Theatre Company, The Peacock, Common Hatred, Angels in America, Tony Kushner, Chekhov, World War II, Marti Lyons, Lucas Neff, The Last Duck, Slavs!

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Defending your life

How to Defend Yourself and Do You Feel Anger? ask us to consider how to survive patriarchy without losing our minds—and bodies.

Recommended
How to Defend Yourself wrestles with rape culture

A self-defense class reveals hidden vulnerabilities in Liliana Padilla's world premiere.

Recommended
The Niceties raises the stakes for academic debate

Generational and racial divides light the fuse at Writers Theatre.

Recommended
The Faustian bargains in Witch take on extra resonance in the current political climate

The devil has a much easier time raking up the souls of castle-dwelling men.

Video
Court Theatre’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner is tasteful, digestible—and unnecessary

A new adaptation ignores the realities of Jim Crow America in favor of spreading its message of love.

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.

Ostensibly a comedy, Victory Gardens' Native Gardens terrifies

A poisonous dispute over two feet of dirt

There’s no mystery in Writers Theatre’s The Mystery of Love and Sex

Instead of answers, Bathsheba Doran’s play offers contrivance.

Winterset, Finding Neverland, and three more alternatives to holiday fare

A resonant period piece and a musical that does it better than the movie are among this week's best bets.

Cheers Live, Dog Night, The Happiest Place on Earth, and nine more new theater reviews

The latest Chicago stage shows range from the rawly emotional to the enjoyably ridiculous.

Lookingglass's Blood Wedding, Strawdog's D.O.A., and nine more notable current stage shows

García Lorca gets transplanted to the Dust Bowl, and an off-Loop mainstay goes noir.

Making art out of Hurricane Katrina's suffering

Ten years after the disaster in New Orleans, true stories of survival fill a pair of Chicago productions.

The Peacock's no calamity, but it isn't West's best

Playwright Calamity West's latest, set in a post-WWII creative writing class, receives an unsatisfying staging by Jackalope Theatre Company.

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Browse News & Politics

Browse Music

Browse Film

Browse Arts & Culture

Browse Food & Drink

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How to Defend Yourself and Do You Feel Anger? ask us to consider how to survive patriarchy without losing our minds—and bodies.

A self-defense class reveals hidden vulnerabilities in Liliana Padilla's world premiere.

Generational and racial divides light the fuse at Writers Theatre.

The devil has a much easier time raking up the souls of castle-dwelling men.

A new adaptation ignores the realities of Jim Crow America in favor of spreading its message of love.

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.

A poisonous dispute over two feet of dirt

Instead of answers, Bathsheba Doran’s play offers contrivance.

A resonant period piece and a musical that does it better than the movie are among this week's best bets.

The latest Chicago stage shows range from the rawly emotional to the enjoyably ridiculous.

García Lorca gets transplanted to the Dust Bowl, and an off-Loop mainstay goes noir.

Ten years after the disaster in New Orleans, true stories of survival fill a pair of Chicago productions.

Playwright Calamity West's latest, set in a post-WWII creative writing class, receives an unsatisfying staging by Jackalope Theatre Company.

Other Searches