Chicago Theater and Arts – Page 33 – What's happening on the arts scene – on stage, in museums and at fairs and festivals

Red Tape and Boho Theatres lead Non Equity Jeff Awards

Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Theo Ubique. (Austin D. Oie Photography)

The 47th Non-Equity Jeff Awards announced honorees in 21 artistic and technical categories on June 22. Their work was featured at 14 theater companies during the 2019-2020 season.

A Jeff Awards statement said “With respect for current times calling for reflection, conversation and action towards issues of social justice, commemoration of the annual awards had been postponed.”

Red Tape Theatre led with six awards for “All Quiet on the Western Front” and Boho Theatre received five awards. for its productions.

A complete list of award recipients and nominees is at the non-Equity section at Jeff Awards.

The following are some of the categories and recipient:

Production – Musical

Big Fish (2020) – BoHo Theatre

Production – Play

All Quiet on the Western Front (2020)

Ensemble

All Quiet on the Western Front (2020) –

New Work

Matt Foss – All Quiet on the Western Front (2020) –

Director – Musical

Stephen Schellhardt – Big Fish (2020) – BoHo Theatre

Director – Play

Lili-Anne Brown – P.Y.G. or The Mis-Edumacation of Dorian Belle (2020) – Jackalope Theatre Company

Performer in a Principal Role – Musical

Will Lidke – Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2020) – Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre

.Amanda Raquel Martinez – Ghost Quartet (2020) – Black Button Eyes Productions

Performer in a Principal Role – Play

Brookelyn Hébert – Ada and the Engine (2020) – The Artistic Home

Eric Gerard – P.Y.G. or The Mis-Edumacation of Dorian Belle (2020) – Jackalope Theatre Company

Performer in a Supporting Role – Play

Renee Lockett – Sugar in Our Wounds (2020) – First Floor Theater

Michael Turrentine – Mlima’s Tale – Griffin Theatre Company – Griffin Theatre Company

Performer in a Supporting Role – Musical

Kyrie Anderson – Big Fish (2020) – BoHo Theatre

Jeff Pierpoint – Big Fish (2020) – BoHo Theatre

Equity Award announcements are expected in August

Around Town updates museum and zoo reopenings

All sorts of interesting creatures of different colors, patterns and movements are at the Shedd. (Photo courtesy of Shedd Aquarium.

Following Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s announcement Monday that Chicago is on track to move to Phase 4 beginning Friday, June 26, Chicago’s popular zoo and museum destinations are making plans to reopen. They all are following timed-ticket reservations and the face covering, social distancing and look-but-don’t-touch protocols.

Lincoln Park Zoo

The free,easily walkable zoo in Lincoln Park, opens with a preview weekend June 26-28. It opens to the public June 29. Expect grounds to be open but buildings are closed. The zoo is at 2001 N. Clark Street, Chicago. For reservations and other information visit LPZoo/welcome.

For a virtual tour of the zoo with Mayor Lightfoot, go to HitPlayChicago. Released last week, the tour is Mayor Lightfoot’s latest field trip to Chicago destinations during the city’s and state’s “stay home” orders for staying safe.

Brookfield Zoo

Brookfield Zoo, operated in suburban Brookfield, IL by the Chicago Zoological Society, opens to members July 1 and the public July 8 using reserve-ahead, timed tickets. No tickets available at entrance.

“Brookfield Zoo has been closed for nearly four months and we are eagerly looking forward to welcoming guests back to reconnect with animals and nature,” said Stuart Strahl, president and CEO of CZS.

Admission includes access to Dinos Everywhere! and is $24.95 for adults, $17.95 for children ages 3-11 and $19.95 for seniors 65 and over. Parking is $15. Check protocols at CZS/Know. Indoor spaces are closed. Food carts and gift shop carts will be on walkways.

Brookfield Zoo entrances: North Gate is at 8400 31^st St. (1st Avenue and 31^st Street) and South Gate is at 3300 Golf Rd.

Museums

Because Chicago museums are basically indoor facilities, most of them will be opening at different times in July with timed-tickets.

Shedd Aquarium, the middle building at the Chicago Museum Campus on Lake Shore Drive, will reopen July 3. Member pre sale is June 24, public presale is June 25. Visit Tickets are for reserved time.

Other museums have said announcements will come in July. The Art Institute of Chicago is still encouraging people to visit the museum online until it reopens.

‘The Talk’ is a play for right now

Sonny Kelly in 'The Talk' (Huth photo) — Sonny Kelly in ‘The Talk’ (Huth photo)

Because theaters have been shuttered during the COVID-19 crisis for the safety of artists and audiences they have been putting some of their productions online. One such production was a Neo-Futurists “Wrench” production mentioned here in CTAA a few weeks ago.

Also, Citadel in Lake Forest just successfully held a live production that was a round-up of past musicals. It was held sitting in cars in the parking lot of the local community center.

However, sometimes it is worthwhile to go back to productions that have become extraordinarily relevant today during our (hopefully) history-changing 2020.

One such production is “The Talk” done in Durham and Chapel Hill, NC in 2019. Presented by StreetSigns and Bulldog Ensemble Theater in cooperation with the Department of Communication at UNC Chapel Hill, it has been brought back on video for a short time only by Bulldog and PlayMakers Repertory Company with permission from the artists and unions.

Written and performed by Sonny Kelly and directed by Joseph Megel, “The Talk” is a one-person show where a young black father talks to his son about his own experiences and what the son may experience growing up in the United States of America.

The script and acting is intelligent, poignant and heartbreakingly informative. Kelly wrote it while working on his Ph.D at UNC Chapel Hill’s Department of Communication a few years ago. He has since attained his doctorate.

The show takes a little over an hour to watch but its messages are deep and lasting. Be mindful that the video introduction says not to copy the video or use it for commercial purposes.

The production companies involved hope more people will be able to see a show that sold out in 2019 and speaks to what is still confronting Americans today.

Jodie Jacobs

A different Chicago summer finds some farmers markets opening and some programs online

Unfortunately, most Chicago summer events have been canceled, including the Air and Water Show .(City of Chicago photo)

Most of the events that bring thousands of residents and tourists downtown Chicago such as Lollapalooza and the Air and Water Show have been canceled for what will be remembered as the summer of COVID-19.

But with summer there also comes farmers markets, a different way to enjoy Taste of Chicago and where to find entertainment options.

Concert Week Special

The Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra is playing this week with the last concert Friday, June 12. Tune in at 6 p.m. to hear this talented group. Find them on facebook at FacebookCYSO even if you don’t have an account. Or watch and find more information at Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra/week.

Farmers Markets

Some outdoor markets have opened in the suburbs under strict guidelines including the Evanston Farmers Market.

In Chicago, a few are expected to open in June and July. However, most have curb-side or other pickup arrangements through a What’sGood app. For farmers market news visit Chicago City Markets.

Green City Market opens its Lincoln Park location June 13 from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. The market will only be open on Saturdays. The 7-8 a.m. time is for COVID vulnerable populations. GCM in the West Loop opens in Mary Bartelme Park on June 20 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

See Shopper guidelines because they will ensure the markets can stay open. They include how to move swiftly through the market, wearing face coverings, keeping social distances and not touching items.

For more information on the market you usually use visit and how and where to find its goods visit Chicago farmers market collective.

Taste of Chicago is in to-go mode July-8-12, 2020. How to support the restaurants and how to find chef demonstrations online visit Taste of Chicago To-Go

Online arts programs

Under the title Do Stuff at Home, the Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events suggests watching local online programs that range from “The Quarantine Concerts that can be seen today, June 11 through June 30 and First Folio’s “Cymbeline: A Folk Musical” available through June 14 to “Keeping Pride Alive” on June 28. To see the schedule go to DO312.

Jodie Jacobs

Around Town has three outdoor updates in and west and north of Chicago

The outdoors beckons now that Chicago and Illinois has entered Phase 3 of its COVID-19 fighting strategies. Just know that restrictions such as social distancing and face coverings are still part of the experience.
Also note where reservations and permits are still required.

Navy Pier

The Pier at the eastern end of both Illinois Road and Grand Avenue, among Chicago’s most popular destinations, is opening its outdoor spaces excluding rides on June 10, 2020

Parking garages will have free access during the opening phase. Polk Bros Park across from the entrance and the Peoples Energy Welcome Pavilion will open and some boat tours will be operating. There will be access to North and South Docks.

Several restaurants and retailers will have outdoor spaces such as Harry Caray’s Tavern, McDonald’s, Margaritaville Chicago, Billy Goat Tavern, Rainbow Bone and the large Offshore Rooftop & Bar. For updated information

For more information see Updates Navy Pier and visit Navy Pier.

Morton Arboretum

The Morton Arboretum, a 1,700 acre park and outdoor plant and research museum, is open now on timed visit, reserve-ahead tickets through Jujne 14. Visits will be available to nonmembers on a restricted basis beginning June 15.

Located at 4100 IL Hwy 53 in west suburban Lisle, IL, the park is interlaced with walkway and hiking and biking trails. For membership, admission fees and hours visit Know/visit/information.

Waukegan Savannah Dog P:ark (Photo courtesy of Lake County Forest Preserves)

Lake County Forest Preserves dog park

Off-leash dog exercise areas begin opening second week of June, 2020 to annual permit holders. Dog Exercise Areas using COVID-19 guidelines and restrictions.

On June 8, Lakewood Dog Park in Wauconda and Waukegan Savanna Dog Park in Waukegan plans to open. They will be followed by Duck Farm Dog Park in Lake Villa and Prairie Wolf Dog Park in Lake Forest on June 10. Then, Independence Grove Dog Park in Libertyville opens June 12.

Visit LCFPD.org/dogs to confirm opening dates and details.

“Once reopened, modified use practices will be in place for the health and safety of Forest Preserve staff, dog owners and their pets,” said Chief Operations Officer Mike Tully.

“Access will be limited to annual permit holders only. To help prevent overcrowding, daily permits will not be sold at this time. Additional signage will remind permit holders to do their part and abide by safety rules and protocols to help prevent the spread of COVID-19,” said Tully.

Jodie Jacobs

Two interesting COVID directed experiences

Art Institute's popular painting by Georges Seurat . (J Jacobs photgo) — Art Institute’s popular painting by Georges Seurat . (J Jacobs photgo)

Chicago’s theater companies have been inviting audiences to watch productions on line as a way to raise needed funds to stay in business while COVID-19 has shuttered stages and in-person experiences. Citadel Theatre has found a different, fun way (sort of like a movie drive in) to enjoy a program.

Museums and other Chicago destinations have also suffered financial losses from closed doors. Youngsters and their families have also been deprived of popular places to visit. To help with the latter issue, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is journeying out to some of the city’s museums in virtual field trips geared to the whole family. They have been fun and enlightening. So go on, take a virtual field trip with her.

Outdoor Cabaret

Citadel Theatre, a Lake Forest-based equity production company, has found a new way to put on a theater experience in line with Sate and national guidelines. Audiences are invited to watch and hear one-hour matinee performances at the suburb’s Gorton Community Center Parking lot while sitting comfortably and safely in their cars.

Cabaret dates are June 13, 14, 20 and 21 at 1 and 3 p.m. at 400 E. Illinois Rd., Lake Forest.

Tickets are considered donations and must be bought in advance because of limited parking space. Entrance is on Illinois Road, exit is at McKinley Road. Community Center facilities (washrooms) will not be available.

For tickets and more information visit Citadeltheatre/cabaret.

Hit Play Chicago goes to the Art Institute

The world renown museum is the next stop on the city field trip series that visited the Shedd Aquarium, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Field Museum, the National Museum of Mexican Art and the DuSable Museum of African American History.

It’s a chance to visit (or revisit) a famous painting, hear about an upcoming block-buster exhibition and see works that might become favorites.

Visit HitPlayChicago to see the video that went live on Wednesday and will be replayed on WTTW on Friday and Monday. Scroll down to visit past field trip destinations.

Jodie Jacobs

Have a virtual museum and theater experience

DuSable Museum of African American History. (Photo courtesy of the DuSable Museum)

Even though Around Town typically looks for experiences out of the house, with stay home still in place in some areas and particularly in Chicago, the experiences shared since March have virtual. Stay home has been hard on theater companies and museums. Indeed, the latest museum news is the large number of people being laid off by the Museum of Science and Industry. So Around Town will continue to let readers know of virtual experiences in those areas and talk will talk about re-openings.

DuSable Museum of African American History

Stop in the DuSable museum of African American history to hear about its virtual reconstruction of The March, visit with late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington ans see his office, learn about blacks who fought in France during World War I and become more familiar with the battle for civil rights.

Your field trip leader is Mayor Lori Lightfoot who is taking viewers to the DuSable Museum on HitPlay Chicago, her fourth excursion to fascinating city destinations that are temporarily closed to the public because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Named for Jean Baptiste Point Dusable, a trader of Haitian, African and French descent the museum was founded in 1961 by Margaret Burroughs and moved to its City of Chicago Park District property in Washington Park in 1973.

Neo-Futurist Theater

See this small-box, innovative theater’s latest work the “Infinite Wrench Goes Viral” with 30 digital plays in one hour. At $5 (or more if you want), it’s a very inexpensive way of seeing a performance while Chicago theaters are dark.

Dating to the 1980’s, the Neo-Futurist Theater has been a collective of writer-director-performers who fuse sport, poetry and living newspaper into their original plays that are usually shown at a late-night “The Infinite Wrench” event. They have also done more than 65 full-length interactive mainstage productions

For their latest offering, the ensemble is working from home producing new plays each week that are filmed and shared. The Neo-Futurist ensemble of writer-performers continue to work from home and produce new plays weekly, which are then filmed and shared with patrons who subscribe via the patron platform.

For tickets and more information visit NeoFuturists.

Jodie Jacobs

Around Town revisits Millennium Park concerts and takes a field trip to MSI

Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park hosts summer concerts. (JJacobs photo)

DCASE Millennium Park Concerts

Yes concerts across Chicago have been cancelled or postponed so the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events is doing “Home,” a concert series you can catch on DCASE’s Youtube and Facebook pages..

It starts this weekend, May 22-23, with a DJ House mix that would have been in the city’s 5^th Annual House Music Festival.

Next up, Gospel singers will be on the series May 29-30 because of Chicago’s 35^th Annual Gospel Music Festival. That will be followed by blues, June 5-7 for what would have been the 37^th Annual Blues Fest. For more information on the concerts, visit youtube/com/ChicagoDCASE.

Museum of Science and Industry. City of Chicago (MSI photo) — The Clarence Darrow Bridge is behind the Museum of Science and Industry. (MSI photo)

HitPlay Chicago Museum Series

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s field trip goes to the Museum of Science and Industry

The field trip went live at HitPlay on Wednesday, May 20 and will be on WTTW the PBS TV station today, May 22 and again midday Monday, May 25.

An impressive building dating to the 1893 Columbian Exposition, MSI is known for, among other things, its coal mine experience. However, on this visit viewers will come across science experiments they may not be familiar with,and the popular indoor tornado section they may know of in the science Storm exhibit.

One stop that viewers may find fascinating and very current, is the Wanger Family Fab (fabrication) Lab that can make face shields.

Stay with the video to the Big Train Story where model trains go from Chicago to Seattle past well-known city buildings and mountain scenery.

For past field trips scroll down on HitPlay Chicago to see the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum and the National Museum of Mexican Art.

Three experiences to try while waiting for Chicago to reopen

Lyric Opera House on North Wacker Drive (J Jphoto)

Some of us miss seeing a stage performance in person. Some miss going to the Lyric for a grand opera. Other folks miss visiting Chicago’s world class museums. The following opportunities hit these three targets while sitting at home.

Theater

Citadel Theatre has a unique experience scheduled for 6 p.m. May 21. Viewers register for what is called “The Defamation Experience.” It begins with a 70 minute film that is a one-act courtroom drama. Then there is the Deliberation. You and your fellow jury members deliberate the case on Zoom to decide the outcome.

After the deliberation and verdict, expert facilitators lead a brief post-show discussion.

Registration is free. A zoom meeting link is provided upon registration.

Opera

Hear and watch an opera segment, lecture or tour the Lyric Opera of Chicago building. The Lyric has a weekly newsletter available on its blog. Here is one aria, many audiences will find familiar.

“La donna è mobile” (“Woman is fickle”) is from the fall of 2017 performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto featuring Matthew Polenzani as The Duke. It comes in the third act where Maddalena (Zanda Švēde) flirts with the Duke.

For more Lyric gems visit LyricOpera/lately.

Museum

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been taking field trips to the city’s exceptional institutions so that the rest of us staying home can visit these places virtually.

Each field trip shows up on line on Wednesdays and then on PBS’ WTTW on Friday and replayed the following Monday.

This week she visits the National Museum of Mexican Art. To join her go to hitplayChicago. Founded in 1987, the museum is a very special cultural destination in the Pilsen neighborhood.

To see the last two field trips scroll down to the Shedd and the Field Museum.

Jodie Jacobs

Around Town updates Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen

'"Hamilton" closed in chicago in January 2020 (Photo courtesy of Broadway in Chicago and 'Hamilton.') — “Hamilton” closed in Chicago in January 2020. (Photo courtesy of Broadway in Chicago and ‘Hamilton.’)

A tweet from Lin-Manuel Miranda recently showed up in my email box. The famed composer/actor of the Broadway hit musical “Hamilton” tweeted that he’s “excited” because the show will be streaming on Disney Plus on July 3.

The move to the Fourth of July weekend from its originally scheduled release in movie theaters, October 2021, was a Disney decision prompted by stay-at-home orders to keep people safe from the coronavirus and a chance to direct home viewers to Disney Plus offerings.

The film features footage from a June 2016 Broadway “Hamilton” performance that stars Miranda as Alexander Hamilton with the original cast.

In a recently released statement, Disney Executive Chairman Bob Iger said, “In light of the extraordinary challenges facing our world, this story about leadership, tenacity, hope, love and the power of people to unite against the forces of adversity is both relevant and impactful.”

Iger and Miranda had also announced and talked about the timing on “Good Morning America” on May 12.

The North American touring company of Dear Evan Hanson. (Photos byh Matthew Murphy)

Chicago theater audiences will have to wait until 2022 for the Tony Award winning “Dear Evan Hansen” to return to the Broadway in Chicago schedule. Originally planned for the CIBC Theatre on July 7 through Sept. 27, 2020, it has been canceled due to coronavirus concerns and state and city orders. A new date will be announced.

Several Broadway in Chicago touring productions have been rescheduled so new information continues to be announced.

Regarding “Dear Evan” Broadway in Chicago has said that ticketholders and individual ticket buyers will be refunded via their point of purchase. Their announcement included the following directions: If you purchased through Ticketmaster, click here for more information and if you purchased through the box office, email Broadway In Chicago at CustomerService/.

Jodie Jacobs

Hamilton is worth the hype

Hamilton leaves Chicago

Dear Evan Hansen