“Kubrickian” Teeters Between Cosmic Drama and Spacey Oddity Factory Theater’s overlong production has its moments, but it struggles to pull us into its sci-fi scenario.

Don’t be surprised if you recognize Charin Alvarez, as her extensive career in Chicago theater and film continues to grow. Alvarez has been acting in Chicago since 1996, and it would be simpler to ...

The Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire has reinvented classic musicals and produced Chicago premieres and new works for fifty years—but they’re not out of surprises. “Our favorite shows,” says Peter ...

Now in its thirty-first season, Writers Theatre continues its tradition of staging both new works and new interpretations of the classics. Artistic director Braden Abraham says that the Glencoe ...

During Peter Andersen’s time as producing artistic director of Oak Park Festival Theatre, the company has seen tremendous growth in audience and artist engagement. Says Andersen, “Audiences have been ...

The founder of Making a Difference Dancing (the M.A.D.D. part of the name) continues to do just that. His twenty-three-year-old organization, founded to disrupt the “school-to-prison pipeline,” has ...

The Saints have been a pillar of support for the cultural community for more than forty years, providing volunteer ushers to medium and small performing-arts companies throughout the Chicago area. The ...

The Conspirators perform founder Sid Feldman’s adaptation of the unfortunately timely Marx Brothers’ film at Stars & Garters, a brand new “retro entertainment” venue halfway between The CheckOut and ...

It was the summer of 1980—the first season for American Players Theatre in rural Spring Green, Wisconsin. The company was performing “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” on the hilltop stage. William Borth, ...

For centuries, lighting designers have been integral to bringing stories to life on stage, playing a noble role as an artist who avoids the spotlight to illuminate others. You know good lighting ...

Chicago stages have been described as petri dishes for talent development, with the city seen as a particularly fertile launching pad for the stars of tomorrow, whether in acting, comedy, writing or ...

Gods give demigods life. So does Margaret Atwood. In Atwood’s retelling of the life of Penelope, the veiled, enigmatic, ever-weaving wife of Odysseus is reborn. In Homer’s “Odyssey,” Penelope is ...