Wisconsin Holiday

There was lots of cooking, presidents, and icy walk. And funny hats.

Solstice

Work Trip to NYC

What, no theatre? Well, I stayed at the W on Lexington, and food was the non-work focus for some reason. Avra (Greek), Po (for old time sake), and Pampano (Mexican seafood).

Book Club: The Quiet American

Dublin Carol

Happy Holidays everyone!

From Time Out Chicago. "Among Conor McPherson’s dark plays that make you nearly want to kill yourself—an anthology known colloquially as “the Conor McPherson plays”—there exists a shared ethereal quality that inspires producers to keep mounting them and audiences returning for more....

Dublin Carol, now in a tidy, conservative and affecting Steppenwolf production, is no exception. William Petersen plays John, a perpetually if casually drunk funeral director who’s kept his life low maintenance by abandoning his wife and kids and anesthetizing his soul on a slow bourbon drip. When his adult daughter (Wiesner) shows up with the news that his dying, cancer-ridden wife would like him to handle her funeral, he’s forced to pay the emotional piper.

Holiday Party with the Dean

A lovely evening at the Dean's house for his annual holiday party.

Midsummer Night's Dream International

This was completely enjoyable.

From Time Out Chicago:

"After touring the world, this subcontinental take on the Bard’s nicest comedy came to town just as the Mumbai terrorist attacks were erupting. The crystal-ball acuity is one thing, the quality of the productions another, but between the two, Chicago may be on its most relevant theatrical run in some time. This joyous reinterpretation adds a long feather to that cap.

Director Supple’s London-born show slaps polyglot readings of the venerable source into imaginative physical theater. Circus arts tend to undermine their settings, but the cavorting of spirits and fairies in ol’ Bill’s daisy-chain plot is as excellent a match as imaginable for the aerialist stunts on display.

This multitongued, symbol-heavy adaptation is sometimes an ingenious escape from archaic gibberish, but it’s just as often a stumbling block: Following Elizabethan English is hard enough without heavy accents and arbitrary foreign-language insertions. Yet the ritualistic heart of the proceedings, as profound a meeting of Eastern and Western magickal traditions as anything Aleister Crowley ever dreamt of, burns through these barriers, and the athletic cast of Indians and Sri Lankans perform with a skill and immediacy that transcends linguistic (and cultural) boundaries."

Radio Scottish Play

Love Ann Bogart, love SITI company, but this one didn't work for us.

When Hyde Park Rules America

David Brooks at the Gleacher Center.
You can watch the video here.