Chicago Lifestyle Podcast & Video Blog
A sparsely furnished motel room dominates the stage. Along the perimeter an empty swimming pool, an imposing neon MOTEL sign, a massive telephone pole and bits of scrub grass suggest this is essentially the bottom of the barrel in the middle of nowhere somewhere at …
What do you know about Richard Hunt and his Monument to Ida B. Wells? How about Madison Hemings the son of Thomas Jefferson? Do you know much about the practice of “redlining” and how it kept people segregated and denied Black Americans the ability to …
What are you willing to sacrifice to be the light in someone else’s life?
This story by Chicago-based playwright Reina Hardy is partly about getting in touch with our better nature, rejecting a poor self-image, overcoming your own self-doubts and negative inner dialog and indeed rejecting the opinions of others based on their view of us.
The four-person cast includes Mark Pracht, a Jeff Award winner playing The Beast. Kat Evans, plays an animated lamp called Only. Appearing as The Witch is Elaine Carlson, who has earned two Jeff Award nominations. Completing the cast as the independent Aiofe is Cailyn Murray, a new-to-Chicago actress who moved from Washington DC to Chicago in 2023.
GLASSHEART A CHICAGO PREMIERE written by Reina Hardy is Directed by Artistic Director Brian Pastor
through February 23, 2025 at City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, on the second floor (accessible via elevator) of the Edgewater Presbyterian Church.
Tickets available online at www.citylit.org or by phone at 773-293-3682.
Holidays have a unique way of punctuating our lives. Through this activity we assess alliances, trade information, and mark the passage of time. In The Long Christmas Dinner written by Thorton Wilder, presented by TUTA Theatre in Chicago we join an affluent Midwestern family, sometime …
Mike Royko was an outspoken Chicago journalist, who in the 1960s through 1990s railed against the political machine and championed the cause of the underdog with the same zeal he displayed toward his beloved Chicago Cubbies. Mitchell Bisschop’s roughly two-hour performance as Royko serves as …
Reno Lovison, Executive Producer comments on the documentary Time Passages by Chicago filmmaker Kyle Henry who tenderly reviews his relationship between himself and his mother, whose memory is slowly slipping away due to dementia.
Looking at other people’s lives is always interesting. We can’t help but to compare our experiences to theirs perhaps in a quest to see if we ourselves are “normal.” – – Are they the outliers, or are we?
The 86-minute documentary Time Passages was screened as part of the 60th Chicago International Film Festival in October 2024. For festival information visit ChicagoFilmFestival.com For film information including other screenings visit timepassagesfilm.com
An aspiring African American actress, Vera Stark (Ashayla Calvin) works as a personal maid to fading 1930s movie star Gloria Mitchell (Caitlin Jemison), once known as “America’s Little Sweetie-Pie.” The two have a close relationship and have a shared struggle to find success. However, due …
This is a film review of “The Light of Truth: Richard Hunt’s Monument to Ida B. Wells following the Chicago artist’s creation of a monument to the civil right champion and woman’s suffrage leader. The film premiered at the 60th Annual Chicago International Film Festival …
Letter writing is more akin to internal dialogue and can have a kind of naked intimacy that is difficult to achieve in the flesh.
This is a smart biographical drama providing us a glimpse into the lives and thoughts of two interesting, actual people, who through their own words demonstrate to us the value of friendship and human connectedness.
Dear Elizabeth by Remy Bumppo Productions is at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago through November 17, 2024. Runtime is about 100 minutes with one 10 minute intermission. For information visit RemyBumppo.org.
Reviewer: Reno Lovison
Elizabeth Bishop – Leah Karpel
Robert Lowell – Christopher Sheard
Director – Christina Casano
Assistant Director – Eduardo Xavier
Scenic Designer: Catalina Niño
Lighting Designer: Max Grano De Oro
Costume Designer: Kotryna Hilko
Sound Designer: Chris Kriz
Projections Designer: John Boesche
Kicking off this popular Chicago ensemble theater company’s 49th season a rather incompetent troupe of actors are expertly portrayed by a considerably expert cast, in Steppenwolf’s revival of Michael Frayn’s classic comedy “Noises Off,” directed by Anna D. Shapiro. A co-production with Geffen Playhouse. Featuring ensemble …
I had an opportunity to “bond” with spy movie expert Tom Pizzato at the press opening for the new 007 Science: Inventing the World of James Bond beginning March 7, 2024 and running through October 2024. The museum has partnered with Eon Productions who own …
The Goodman Theatre reminds us that the more things change the more they remain the same in this production of the classic courtroom drama, “Inherit the Wind.”
Small town school teacher Bertram Cates is on trial for breaking a state law that prohibits the teaching of evolution.
The prosecution is aided by the bombastic self-important fundamentalist bible thumping Matthew Harrison Brady while Cates is represented by famed Chicago lawyer Henry Drummond, a clever defense attorney known for taking on difficult and controversial cases.
The premise is a fictionalized version of the infamous 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial where three-time presidential candidate and former secretary of state William Jennings Bryan argued for the prosecution, while Clarence Darrow served as defense attorney for science teacher John T. Scopes.
Harry Lennix (Henry Drummond), Alexander Gemignani (Matthew Harrison Brady), Charín Álvarez (Mrs. Brady), Terry Bell (Sillers), Hamid Dehghani (Storekeeper), William Dick (Mayor), Meighan Gerachis (Elijah), Lawrence Grimm (Dunlap), Kevin Gudahl (Judge), Presley Rose Jones (Melinda), Christopher Kale Jones (Tom Davenport), Mi Kang (E.K. Hornbeck), Ryan Kitley (Reverend Jeremiah Brown), Tyler Meredith (Rachel Brown), Thomas Murphy Molony (Howard), Christopher Llewyn Ramirez (Bertram Cates), Robert Schleifer (Meeker), Eric Slater (Mr. Bannister) and Penelope Walker (Mrs. Krebs).
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