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Trollin' Adventures

GDC Spring Anniversary Series a Sizzling Triumph

March 27, 2018 by Mitchell Oldham

Tossed Around – Gorman Cook Photography

Giordano Dance Chicago proved again Friday night why they’re such an asset to the city.  Celebrating their 55th year as a modern jazz company, the program they presented at the Harris Theater, which featured two world premieres, was frequently stunning and always strong.  Long known for their precision and crisp movement, the company brought ample quantities of each to their Spring series as well as loads of charisma.

 

Opening with Give and Take, a work created by Brock Clawson in 2009, the piece unfolded slowly and beautifully as couples alternately mimicked one another’s graceful flamenco inspired moves.  As it did here, it wasn’t unusual during the entire evening’s program for a poetic beginning to transition into a tirade of energy as the dance’s storyline progressed.  If Give and Take was a commentary on romantic relationships, it was as shrewd as it was nuanced.  Stark and clean, the absence of artifice allowed the purity of the dance to shine through.  And in this particular work, it also helped to confirm what a dazzling dance ensemble GDC is.  Throughout the evening, it was impossible not to notice how perfectly paired music was to dance.  A’ME, Trentemollen’s electric score elevated and fueled a dance that exemplified elemental human emotions.

Give and Take, Maeghan McHale and Devin Buchanan – Reveuse Photography

Give and Take proved the perfect prelude to the first world premiere, Take a Gambol.  With such a tremendous opening, expectations were now in the clouds.  Choreographed by former GDC dancer Joshua Blake Carter and current GDC Operations Manager, the spotlight was honed on the company’s eight male dancers. Seductive, mischievous, muscular and decidedly fun, in many ways Take a Gambol was the most conventionally jazz dance piece performed that evening with its clear narrative and free style form.   Adding a touch of drama, the dancers ascended the stage from the main floor of the theater oozing potent doses of swag in their jazz stroll.  Dressed in trim black suits and tapered white shirts, they looked like a little army of James Bonds about to dispatch a mission.

 

The work well accomplished its objective of displaying the outsized talents of GDC’s male corps. Placed on a musical polyglot that emphasized rhythm and blues and jazz, Gambol let the dancers parade their considerable balletic skills as well as have fun with their jazz dance pedigree.  The work could just as easily be called the coat dance because the men used their jackets extensively as a dance element.  Taking them off, passing them between themselves and using them to fly low like crows in bygone Disney films, they made Gambol a joy filled romp danced at the highest order.

Hiding Vera, Adam Houston – Reveuse Photography

Tossed Around may have been even more demanding physically but it was just as artfully executed.  And, according to Ray Mercer who created the piece, its theme is also                    direct.  Mercer crafted the piece to give expression to how we’re all tossed around “physically, spiritually and emotionally as we go through life and deal with obstructions”. Here bright yellow chairs symbolize the hurdles people face as we navigate complex lives. Dancers do everything from sit on them in pensive determination to throwing and catching them in their efforts to triumph over difficulties.  There’s a distinctly introspective air that laid lightly on the feel of this work but it never impeded the ability of the dancers to take flight.

Having only covered half of their program by this point, GDC had already delivered a whole night’s worth of marvelous entertainment.  Anticipating what was to follow turned out to be a thrill of its own.  The second world premiere, Hiding Vera, with its initial use of arched backs and constrained tempo seemed to slip into the world of modern dance before accelerating and launching a barrage of pirouettes.  There’s something mesmerizing about those sustained spins that thrill audiences as much as a 3-point shot at the buzzer.  GDC employs them liberally with both the male and female dancers.  After all, jazz dance heartily embraces the exuberance those incredible spins embody and GDC’s performers have the youth and talent to make them glisten.

Hiding Vera, Giordano Dance Chicago – Reveuse Photography

Despite its own unique verve that highlighted the abilities of the women in the company, Crossing/Lines was a study in precision and perfect timing. Alternating between composed restraint and intense directed energy, its three parts did a wonderful job exploiting the skills of GDC’s ladies.

 

But even this night of bounty was no preparation for the finale; Pyrokinesis; or the ability to set objects on fire.  Choreographed 11 years ago by Christopher Huggins, the dance lived up to its name and is a favorite of many who know the company well.  Dressed in body hugging black with crimson lightning bolts emblazoned down one side, the troupe epitomized fire itself with moves that brought cheers from the audience. Fast, fast, fast seared to hot, hot, hot.  When the dancers suddenly began appearing on stage wearing red dance shoes, the additional dimension of color served only to heighten the already scorching charge of the dance.

Give and Take, Ryan Galloway and Linnea Stureson – Reveuse Photography

GDC seems to love having its dancers sparkle.  With their deep talent pool, the ultimate beneficiary of the leadership’s generosity is the audience.  We see in full relief how gifted and rigorously prepared these dancers are.

 

And, based on Executive Director’s Michael McStraw’s comments at intermission calling attention to the troupes 55 years of producing acclaimed dance and extolling the leadership of Artistic Director Nan Giordano whose diligence and commitment are extending the contributions of her father, what we experienced tonight will continue for many more years.

Filed Under: Trollin' Adventures

CSO’s Muti, Chen and Mozart – Tops

March 17, 2018 by Mitchell Oldham

There was a time when the appearance of the resident conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at a home program would equate to a sold-out house.   That has only changed slightly.  On Thursday night’s Muti, Chen and Mozart program that opened with Haydn’s Symphony No. 89 in F Major, the number of empty seats was not disconcerting.
Riccardo Muti – Todd Rosenberg photograph

Although Haydn was 24 years Mozart’s senior, the two composers formed a strong friendship and one that fostered a great deal of creative exchange.  The evening’s selections may have been chosen to highlight both the similarities as well as the differences of the two revered composers.

 

Haydn’s symphony No. 89 contains many of the structural hallmarks you associate with the composer.   Broken up in the customary four parts, there’s a distinguishing formality and elegance that are so typical of Haydn’s work.  Under Muti’s direction, the lush richness of the melody could be thoroughly appreciated.

 

Rightly considered the prolific innovator, Mozart’s sinfonia concertante in E-flat major, K 364 showcases his ability to incorporate the unexpected to enhance the beauty of a composition.  Featuring solos for both violin and viola, he highlights the unique color each instrument uses to shade music.

 

CSO concertmaster Robert Chen’s exceptional playing was well matched by violist Paul Neubauer’s exquisite musicality.

 

Mozart was only 35 when he died of an unknown illness in 1791.  That may explain the ever-present sense of youth found in so much of his work.  That air of vitality filled Symphony No. 36 in C Major, K. 425, the final piece of the concert.   A hectic performance schedule and myriad career obligations caused him to write the commissioned piece hastily.  The final result reflects no hint of a rushed creation.  Exuberant, delicate and masterful, it energized an evening already replete in beautiful music.  The orchestra, under conductor Muti’s baton, made sure it shone in full luster.

Filed Under: Trollin' Adventures

Von Freeman Tribute Fires Up Garfield Conservatory

March 11, 2018 by Greg Threze

Von Freeman

Jazz in Chicago lends itself to total immersion. Unfortunately, when your music pool is that deep, it’s hard to know the true scope of your live listening options. How many truly wonderful musicians are out there?  Who are they and where are they playing?  It’s like falling through Alice’s mirror when you unexpectedly find yourself in the same room with some of the best of them.  Like at the Jazz City event at the Garfield Park Conservatory one recent frosty March night.

A winding walk through the great Palm Room led to a long well-lit glass extension where a posthumous musical birthday party was in progress for one of Chicago’s most treasured musicians, Von Freeman.  With one exception, the performance stage was an all-female affair that billed itself as –

 

The Ladies!  Women of Chicago Jazz

Celebrating Von Freeman’s 95th

 

And they came to swing.

 

First, Chicago Vox, an eight-voice jazz vocal ensemble affiliated with Columbia College did some harmonious crooning Manhattan Transfer style with tunes like All or Nothing at All and Fool on the Hill. Very sweet and super mellow and leaving little hint at the explosion of sonic wonder that was about to follow.

Caroline Davis, sax

With Joan Hickey on piano, Caroline Davis on sax and a spirited Marlene Rosenberg on bass, the three dubbed themselves the Vontets for the evening and included vocalists Margaret Murphy-Webb and Maggie Brown.  Drummer Makaya McCraven, as the lone male, rounded out this crackling hot pop up of a band.

 

Why an all lady tribute? The answer to that question became clear almost immediately.  Whether they had worked with him, been profoundly influenced by him or were mentored by him, each of these delightfully talented women knew him well and could attest to his fondness for them and their gender.  Maybe it was that particular strain of respect that propelled this steamy jazz soaked love fest.

 

They rocked the room as only as only top flight jazz musicians can. Every time Caroline Jones slid into one of her solo ventures, the crowd just sat rapt with their heads bobbing to the rhythm.  This audience was no gathering of jazz neophytes amassed under towering greenhouse ferns. They knew they were listening to marvelous music and showed it.

 

In every set, “Vonski” had to do a ballad and would cue the band by saying, it’s time to do something for “all my dahlins’”.  The Vontets delivered on the soft stuff too. Their rendition of Cry a Little was as tender as a baby’s tears and was sweetened by intuitively deft playing.  By the time Margaret Murphy-Webb took the stage, the quartet was primed for taking the evening to the next level.   Murphy-Webb was more than willing and able to get them there.

With a style that’s both polished and earthy, her Fly Me to the Moon was a finger poppin’ good natured command that insinuated a tantalizing treat in the bargain.

 

Full of anecdotes about her mentor that added a rainbow of color to her performance and our appreciation of the man, she told of how much Freeman loved Billy Holiday for her ability to pour so much feeling into her lyrics.  She then served up her own version of God Bless the Child that spoke knowingly of the love many of the kids on our meanest streets don’t get.

Margaret Murphy-Webb,vocalist

 

Charged with wrapping the show up with a big bright red bow, Maggie Brown did just that with her usual aplomb.  Her rendering of I Need Jazz went straight to the heart of any true jazz aficionado and perfectly captured why so many people find this music form so fulfilling.

 

Just as impressive was the corps of workers who put this show together.  All young and all women, the small army of what looked like college students working with the Jazz Institute of Chicago did everything needed to make the evening’s entertainment a reality.  If jazz had angels, they’d be these lovely young women.

Filed Under: Trollin' Adventures Tagged With: Von Freeman Tribute

Ailey Dance Company Ends Evening in Triumph

March 9, 2018 by Mitchell Oldham

Stack-Up, photo by Paul Kolnik

The second night of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s annual return to the Auditorium stage began somewhat perilously.  The opening piece, Stack Up, choreographed by Chicago native Talley Beatty has been in the company’s repertoire for years and has consistently enjoyed accolades for its craftsmanship since it debuted in 1982.  Inspired by the clamorous dissonance of urban life, it’s visually vibrant and pulses with rhythm and the knowing attitude of street life.  At its core, you feel it’s meant to be fast, sharp, fluid, precise, slick.  Instead, on this night, the piece seemed inexplicably burdened and somehow mysteriously tethered  when it should have been in flight. Lead dancers could not achieve the lifts that they were clearly capable of and the precision you come to rely on from this highly-esteemed company was in low supply.  The staunch spirit and natural talent of a few of the dancers enabled flashes of stylistic bravado to occasionally peek through and allowed glimpses of what the dance could be.

 

A sea change followed the intermission.   Victoria, a work choreographed for the Ailey company by Spanish choreographer Gustavo Ramirez Sansano stretched one’s understanding of what this dance company is.

 

Modern dance can seem challenging if you’re not accustomed to recognizing complex emotions through a dancer’s movements.  Dark and at points anguished, Victoria called to mind Picasso’s blue period and his painting, The Old Guitarist, depicting a blind old man sitting forlornly in profile playing his guitar on the streets of Barcelona.  He appears spent; but not defeated.  Musically back dropped by a rewriting of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, the interplay of music and dance communicated struggle and perseverance.  It was the beauty of the dance and the beauty of the music which gave Victoria its appeal.  When talking about the process of creating dance, Sansano said he believed beauty was a weapon against forces in the world that stifle individual fulfillment and that this specific dance was a reflection of where we find ourselves today.

 

Victoria, photo by Paul Kolnik

 

 

To balance the contemplative splendor of Victoria, Ella was all spirit and joy.  Samantha Figgens and Chalvar Monteiro brought perfect synchronization and a priceless delight in the process of dance to Ella Fitzgerald’s rapid fire scat riddled recording of Airmail Special.

 

It’s been 58 years since Alvin Ailey’s masterwork Revelations made its premier.  Since then its morphed to iconic status and been seen by 23 million people around the world.  No other modern dance holds that distinction. Because its center is so tied to a specific culture and its unique tribulations, one could easily wonder why the rest of the world finds it so enthralling.

 

At over 30 minutes long, Revelations is more than simply a dance. It’s theater.  Chronicling a history characterized by unfathomable hardship, the work’s real message is about an incomprehensible endurance that ultimately leads to triumph.  Everyone in the world can relate to impediments that thwart growth or happiness or personal completion.  Revelations puts that struggle into context and shows that, in the African American culture at least, religious faith is both the balm and the means by which we can prevail.  And as dance, Revelations could not be what it is without its bedrock, traditional black gospel music.

 

Revelations, photo by Gert Krautbauer

 

Broken up into three parts, each is saturated in Ailey’s choreographic signature and each was elevated by exceptional performance.  You would never guess from the gleam in the dancers’ eyes that they were performing a piece decades older then themselves or that the company has danced it thousands of time. When Akua Noni Parker and Jermaine Terry assumed the stage with Fix Me, Jesus late in the first part, their self-assurance and talent shifted the performance to an even higher and more thrilling gear.

 

Sinner Man danced by Samuel Lee Roberts, Chalvar Monteiro and Renaldo Maurice was particularly captivating for its use of lighting.  Washing the stage in a distinct green glow gave the dancers bodies a metallic sheen that served to accentuate their movements.  Nicola Cernovitch’s lighting approach was daring , but worked.  Her boldness was matched by the charm in seeing a dancer of a major dance company on stage wearing glasses.  It’s nice to see that the Ailey company has no qualms about keeping it real.

 

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

March 7 – 11, 2018

Auditorium Theatre

50 E. Congress Pkwy.

Chicago, IL  60605

Filed Under: Trollin' Adventures

College Jazz Students Go Recording

March 8, 2018 by Mitchell Oldham Leave a Comment

Sean Sheldon, Lincoln College

Six students from Lincoln College’s jazz studies program descended on Rax Trax Studios in Lakeview on Tuesday with a goal.  Escorted by lead faculty jazz instructor Denise La Grassa, they will be recording their own compositions with the assistance of Rax Trax owner, Rick Barnes.   Getting hands on experience on the production side of the business is a crucial component in understanding the music industry.  “Our students will have an incredible opportunity to learn from one of Chicago’s best known and most talented music producers,” La Grassa stated.

 

Located in central Illinois just north of Springfield, Lincoln College’s student body has a vibrant urban context.  Most of the students participating in the recording session call the Chicago Metropolitan area home and their style of jazz reflects their youth and the contemporary music landscape.

 

Much of the material being recorded today will also be performed live during the college’s spring jazz concert at Lincoln April 26th and 27th.

 

Sean Sheldon, a jazz studies student from Calumet City, will be dedicating his hip-hop infused jazz composition, Take A Breath, to the high school students who survived the carnage in Parkland, Florida last month as well as those in his own community indelibly impacted by gun violence.

Filed Under: Trollin' Adventures Tagged With: lincoln college jazz

Latin Spiced Jazz Ignites Symphony Center

March 8, 2018 by K.J. Stone

Lots of people who adore jazz have only a passing appreciation of how other cultures contribute to the form.  The impact of two small islands in the Caribbean Sea are especially noteworthy.  For decades, American jazz musicians have both sought inspiration from these cultures and cultivated an eager audience for jazz originating from the United States.  Both Puerto Rico and Cuba have proven to be cauldrons of creativity and innovation producing greats like Tito Puente born in New York City to Puerto Rican parents and the illustrious Afro Cuban virtuoso Chucho Valdés.
Gonzalo Rubalcaba

 

Friday night’s outstanding performance at Orchestra Hall (Symphony Center) had a Cuban focus and featured the exceptional jazz pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba as well as that of the peerless Valdés.  Although they hail from different generations, they are perfectly matched.  Two jazz pianists, to quote a woman seated in the row immediately behind us, who are “on another level”.  That level is exceedingly high.  Extraordinarily gifted piano virtuosos who intimately know the texture of music of two worlds; their program weaved between standards intimately familiar to an American audience and work soaked in the sounds of Cuba and Latin America.

 

A technical perfectionist whose intricate piano work is rife with complexity, Rubalcaba’s fingers seemed hardly to touch the keys as he produced some of the most sublime music anyone could hope to enjoy.

 

His 50-year long career as a professional artist endows Valdés with much more than technical expertise.  He has such an innate sense of timing and phrasing; both the younger Rubalcaba and the audience shook their heads in wonder.  To hear their combined rendition of “Over the Rainbow”, as performed that evening, was a gift.  The piano duet reminded you of the incredible range of the instrument and its capability to take on so many emotional hues.

Chucho Valdés

 

In the balcony’s front row, an 8-year-old in short blond pigtails stared intently down on the stage. Occasionally her fingers would rise to the rail and quietly run through the motions of playing.  An ideal example of the power of music to move the young.

 

Chicago Symphony Center Jazz Series

Chucho Valdes and Gonzalo Rubalcaba

Symphony Center

February 23, 2018

8:00 pm

220 S. Michigan Ave.

Chicago, IL  60604

Filed Under: Jazz +, Trollin' Adventures

Trinidad Rising

March 6, 2018 by Mitchell Oldham

Trinidad Cardona

Confidence, charisma, a nice voice and angelic good looks can converge to become a phenomenon.  If you have any doubts about that just ask Trinidad Cardona.  After posting a playful video of himself singing in a public bathroom, the 18-year-old ended up with 7 million Facebook views last year and a self-proclaimed mission to produce a “real” song.  The resulting 2.0 version of Jennifer, the song that propelled him into cyber fame, is polished, breezy and brimming with youthful swag.  To these ears, it only achieves true lift though during the last 60 seconds when he unleashes his rap chops.  Too bad it’s explicit.

 

More promise comes peeking through with his latest effort, Dinero, a sweet little tune about a guy who tries to please a girl by spending money on her.  Sparks fly as he opens in Spanish rolling on smooth piano chords and then switches to English and ups the rhythm to a hot Latin beat.  The song’s mischievously playful and layered and fun.  And be sure he’s more than wise to the folly of his romantic ploy.

Filed Under: Jazz +, Trollin' Adventures Tagged With: Trinidad Cardona

Chicago Loves Valerie June

February 28, 2018 by Stevie Wills

Valerie June at the Vic

Sometimes it seems we to focus far too much on the things that keep us separated.  Things that highlight our differences.  One of the few exceptions lies in the world of music.  It is the common ground that doesn’t differentiate.  The welcoming sphere that attracts people who love creativity, imagination and beauty manifested in sound and song.

 

Finding an artist who guilelessly defies categorization simply by being themselves and consistently creating exceptional music is like stumbling on exquisite treasure.   One such treasure arrived in Chicago on a recent Thursday night at the Vic in the form of Valerie June Hockett.   She goes simply by Valerie June and sinks her musical roots into many fertile fields.  Bluegrass, R&B, folk, blues, country; she’s at home with them all.  Replete with her massive dreads and lovely songs, she captivated the audience with her utterly unique voice, idiosyncratic style and songwriting skill.  With its patina of weathered grace and long musical legacy, in many ways the Vic was the perfect venue for her talent.

Hockett readily reminds you that the banjo arrived as a musical instrument from Africa and that it’s unwise to make presumptions about what you can expect to hear when you see someone playing it.

 

Her banter was as interesting as her music.  Casually weaving the mundane and the profound and talking as if she had just run into some old friends at the supermarket, she shared charming stories about how she writes her songs.  How they can come to her in dreams and voices and how at other times she has to catch them lightning bugs.  When she checked herself and said, “Ya’ll didn’t come here to hear me talk”, a woman’s voice affectionately shot back, “Yes we did.”

Birds of Chicago, Allison Russell & J.T. Nero

 

That spiritual essence that defines so much of her work shone though in those snippets of chat and endowed even greater depths of understanding of her music as the audience listened to her sing.  Backed up by a wonderful band that kept the room shuttering with excitement, the atmosphere took on the aura of the transcendent.

 

So old school it still uses smoke machines to create a haze on the stage while artists perform, the Vic ups the ante with flawless lighting; imperceptibly melting colors from blue to lavender to pale pink over the stage.  The affect remains seductively beautiful.

A night at the Vic

Valerie June’s lyrics don’t romanticize or castigate the Janus faces of love.  A clear-eyed pragmatism permeates songs of desire and songs of disappointment.  It’s the music behind the songs that provide the essential pointer on how to read them.   Shakedown might be about somebody looking for love; but based on the song’s beautifully bottled frenzy, it’s clear they’re having a blast during the search.

 

Solidly anchored in up tempo roots rock and completely comfortable doing ballads and traditional folk, the husband wife duo Birds of Chicago was a brilliant choice to open for Hockett.  Allison Russell’s enjoys remarkable control of voice and the couple delivered a set noted for its perfect pitch and artistic passion.  The caliber of musicianship she and her husband J.T. Nero delivered made the opening set feel like a terrific main act.

 

Rightfully known for its great acoustics, the even dispersal sound couldn’t compensate for the Vic’s microphone problems which left the singers voices compressed; squelching clarity.  Judging from the enthusiasm of the crowd, no one seemed to care.

 

 

Valerie June

 

February 15, 2018

 

The Vic Theater

 

3145 N. Sheffield Ave.

 

Chicago, IL   60657

 

773-472-0449

Filed Under: Trollin' Adventures Tagged With: Valerie June Chicago

Theater Week is Here!

February 13, 2018 by Greg Threze

Chicago Theater Week
February 8 – February 18

Steep ticket prices have long been a deterrent when trying to fill seats at many local theaters.  Attempting to emulate the success of Restaurant Week, the local theatre community and city promoters devised Theater Week six years ago to draw an interested public to live theatre. The promotion is an excellent opportunity to see shows at your favorite venue or to venture out and stretch yourself by going to a theater company you know nothing about.

 

Fire sale priced at $15 and $30 makes doing either much more of a doable possibility for thousands of people.  Even though the majority of the shows were priced at the $30 mark, over 12,000 people took advantage of the bargain rates and saw 128 different performances last year.  It’s also interesting to note that using HotTix in conjunction with Theatre Week and result in even more heavily discounted ticket costs.

 

The League of Chicago Theatres boasts a membership of 250 theaters.  Approximately 120 of them are expected to participate in this year’s Theater Week celebration. Hailing from the city center to distant suburbs, participants include the Court Theatre, Drury Lane Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Black Ensemble Theatre, The Joffrey Ballet, Lifeline Theatre, Second City, Congo Square, and Writers Theatre.

 

Running from February 8th through the 18th, Theater Week is actually 11 day and includes the weekend before and after the core week.  Early reservations are recommended.

Filed Under: Trollin' Adventures

The Blues Ain’t a Color – MLK Tribute Speaks Frankly about Race

January 16, 2018 by Mitchell Oldham

Commemorating the birthdays of figures who helped shape the destiny of the nation is not something we do well.  After naming buildings, byways and bridges for them, remembrance devolves into speech making and, in the case of Martin Luther King Jr., concerts.  Both are acceptable, even laudatory and enjoyable.  But they suffer from a predictable sameness.

Denise La Grassa’s one woman show, The Blues Ain’t a Color, escapes the conventional and brings a unique outlook to the state of race relations in the country; 50 years after Dr. King’s assassination.  Originally performed in 2014, the piece ambitiously encompasses a broad swath of black culture with La Grassa portraying an array of characters; both black and white.  This is a daring gamble for a non-black actress.  The idioms and intonations of informal black speech can make for a slippery slope and when it’s not quite right; it’s wrongness can sound calamitous.

 

Depicting both a black mother, Davina, and her daughter Bethany; La Grassa’s impersonations teeter frighteningly close to parody.  Her purpose of exposing hard realities redeemed the portrayals and bolstered the show’s artistic relevance.  The Blues Ain’t a Color is an assessment of where the United States stands five decades after the civil rights era ended.  To no one’s surprise, considerably more progress has to be made before we’re issued a passing grade.  In a sense, La Grassa’s piece is a tally of our failures.

 

Projecting dramatic archival footage, intriguing personal commentary and colorful contemporary paintings from the late artist, Maria Kern on the wall behind her performance space, she employed dynamic elements to add flow and substance to the work. The footage and the commentary were key in grounding the performance’s purpose and provide graphic reminders of why King and thousands of others defied the status quo to demand equal rights be codified in law.

Actress, vocalist Denise La Grassa

Live performance consumes most of the hour-long plus show that’s lightly sprinkled with levity to offset the weight of her message’s gravity.  Satirizing the petty obsessions of the super-rich, she even takes on the role of Elizabeth III, an overly pampered dog who gets facials, goes to the hair dresser and eats foie gras.  Here, as when she skewers the vapid pretentiousness of a bank vice president, her comedic jabs work to heighten the absurdity of economic and racial isolation.

 

An accomplished vocalist, La Grassa weaves original songs throughout The Blues Ain’t a Color to bolster her narrative and is ably accompanied by John Kregor on guitar and Jon Small on bass.

 

There must be something soldered into our DNA that makes us look to the young for hope in the future.  If that’s true, you’d be hard pressed to find better harbingers then the “kids from Western Avenue Community Center”.  Singing Tiny Stars of Peace in the one of the show’s final video clips, their voices, faces and natural exuberance made you believe in the possibility of the impossible.

 

The Blues Ain’t a Color:  A Conversation About Race

 

January 14, 2018

 

Elastic Arts

 

3429 W. Diversey Ave., #208

 

Chicago, IL   60647

 

773-772-3616

Filed Under: Trollin' Adventures

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Performance

Show Your Gratitude to Chicago’s Arts Community

March 28, 2020 By Mitchell Oldham

2400 Block of Estes Ave. – Chicago – photo City Pleasures

The impact of the coronavirus has unalterably reached into the lives of everyone and shown us of our common vulnerability.  We will rise from the withering blow it’s dealt to our spirits and to the way we are accustomed to living our lives.  

This crisis, like most hardships, does not encroach and disrupt our lives equally.   One’s age, calling, income, zip code and profession all determine how deeply the ramifications of the epidemic affect you. 

City Pleasures covers the arts community.  Actors, dancers, musicians and the venues that showcase their talent are being devastated by their inability to either practice their craft or feature artistic talent.  Because they need our help, City Pleasures is sharing ways that allow anyone financially capable to provide support to do so.  Some of those channels extend beyond the arts and entertainment community by design and list opportunities to also contribute needed relief to Chicago neighborhoods and the most vulnerable.

There are several ways to support the theater community.  Individual theater companies as well as all non-profit arts organization accept support through direct donations, the purchase of a ticket, gift cards or subscriptions.  The homepage of your favorite theater or theaters will direct you on how to do so.

If you would like your contributions to be broad based, the City of Chicago and the United Way of Metro Chicago have launched the Chicago Community Covid-19 Response Fund “to unite the funds raised by Chicago’s philanthropies, corporations and individuals to be disbursed to nonprofit organizations across the region”, including those in the arts. 

Click here to donate:  https://www.chicagocovid19responsefund.org/

One Chicago entertainment institution’s Training Center is taking comedy to the clouds by offering classes online. To find out more about or enroll in Second City’s comedy at home lessons, visit:   https://www.secondcity.com/comedyfromyourcouch.   Areas of focus include “Creating and Pitching Your TV Series”, “Teen Standup” and “Voiceover 101”.

Day of Absence, Refreshed and Brilliant at VG

March 6, 2020 By Mitchell Oldham

Sonya Madrigal, Ann Joseph, Bryant Hayes – Jazmyne Fountain photography

When Douglas Turner Ward wrote his pioneering one act play, Day of Absence, in 1965; he had a very clear intent.  He wanted to write a play exclusively for a black audience.  An audience that did not then exist. He was also working with a highly specific set of objectives.  Expectedly, he wanted to write a play that spoke to the lives black people lived, but he also aimed to create a work that was implicit and allowed his audience to fill in the blanks.  One that was subtle and edged with fine threads of sophistication.  And just as importantly, he wanted to write something that did not put his audience to sleep.

He came up with two plays, both in one acts, Happy Ending and Day of Absence that played simultaneously at the St. Mark’s Playhouse in New York.  Both plays grew legs and are regularly reprised on the contemporary stage. 

Douglas Turner Ward – photo courtesy WNYC

When they were originally created 55 years ago, Ward also had to track down and recruit an audience by going anywhere the black public gathered; social clubs, union halls, beauty shops to rustle them up.  His tactic worked and the productions played over 500 shows at the St. Mark’s. 

Congo Square is only presenting Day of Absence on Victory Garden’s Christiansen stage right now.  And as wonderful as it is, the current production won’t be running as long as it did when the play debuted back in ‘65.   Making it even more of a must see. Even today it’s startling to see what Ward did with this jewel.  A spare play with very few props, Day of Absence, like any top-tier theatrical creation intended for live performance, thrives on a gleaming story and fantastic characters.  And it achieves everything Ward originally hoped to accomplish plus. 

Taking an approach that says, “We know how you see us, now let us show you how we see you”, Day of Absence is all about reversals and looking at the world through different eyes.  Normally, the cast is all Black.  But this updated adaptation broadens what “black” is by making it anyone not white; resulting in cast made up of both brown and black performers.

Kelvin Roston Jr and Ronald L. Conner – Jazmyne Fountain photography

The overriding constant is that the play is still performed in white face, (and lots of wigs) with minorities portraying whites in a small southern town.

Opening quietly, a couple of regular guys working in a mall are just getting their day started. Luke (Ronald L. Conner) and Clem (Kelvin Roster, Jr.) share small talk southern style and toss shout outs to regulars as they peruse the routine landscape of their work lives.  Clem’s older and Teddy Bear homey, Luke’s younger, gruffer and lost in his cell phone.  It takes a minute or two, more like several, but Clem finally picks up on something.  Something that’s not quite right or out of kilter.  Suddenly stricken, he realizes he hasn’t seen a black person all day.  Half the population.  Luke’s slower to accept something that ridiculous.  Until he can’t do otherwise. 

Jordan Arredondo, Meagan Dilworth – Jazmyne Fountain photography

Performed as satire, Day of Absence chronicles what happens when a constant of life disappears.  One that you may take for granted, resignedly tolerate or even benignly dismiss depending on your mood.  More interestingly, it’s a story about how people react.  What do they say and do in what quickly escalates into crisis and chaos. 

Anthony Irons directed the production and achieved a master stroke by having his characters, or more precisely his characterizations, vie with the plot for overall strength.  The way Ronald Conner portrays nonchalant insouciance is about as winning as it gets.  Later we find him equally transfixing playing a completely different role.  Roston, with his delicious phrasing and the pitch perfect softness of his drawl, is just as effective as Clem.

Ronald L. Conner, Ann Joseph – photo Jazmyne Fountain

The action streams briskly through three backdrops.  The mall, John and Mary’s bedroom and the mayor’s office.  John (Jordan Arredondo) and Mary (Meagan Dilworth) make their discovery of the vanishing rudely when their new born wails plaintively through the night and there’s no one to tend to it.  There’s no Kiki, no Black three-in-one, nursemaid housemaid cook, to intervene and relieve the stress of parenthood.    Dilworth’s Mary is so preciously inept at doing anything useful you’re tempted to feel sorry for her.  But that sympathy would be horribly misplaced.  Dilworth still makes a splendid Mary whose only skill is to function as a household “decoration”.  Arredondo as her husband fills his role to the brim with manly character and pragmatism.  When he valiantly volunteers to go the hood to look for Kiki and finds nothing short of a ghost town where “not even a little black dog” could be sighted, he’s all business and entitled indignation.

Ward created the consummate repository for the town’s angst and ire in the mayor.  And director Irons knew exactly how to shape the character as an unforgettable foil. Unflappable and supremely confident, the mayor’s sense of privilege and the power she insinuates take on regal dimensions.  In the right hands and under the right direction, it’s a fantastic role and one that Ann Joseph fills beautifully.  Ordinarily a male actor plays the part and Jackson is the last name of his female personal assistant/secretary/gopher.   Here Jackson is the second role Mr. Conner inhabits so vividly and with so much virtuosity.  Always on point and a bit self-consciously effete, he’s deferential to a fault and ever vigilant about watching his own back.

Ward shrewdly built a lot of humor into the play.  And this effort takes advantage of every morsel.  It even adds more zest causing the whole affair to frequently tip over into the hilarious.   The perfume skit alone deserves its own baby Tony award.  Despite the outright comedy, the underlying subtext couldn’t be more biting.  Bryant Hayes as Clan and Kelvin Roston, Jr. in his dual role as Rev. Pious represent the true demons Ward is battling in his lasting contribution to the American stage.

This adaptation, cleverly updated with the playwright’s permission, makes it shine like new money.  

Day of Absence

Through March 27, 2020

Victory Gardens Theater

2433 N. Lincoln Ave.

773-871-3000

www.congosquaretheatre.com

A Fiery Birthday with the Boys

February 25, 2020 By Mitchell Oldham

William Marquez, Kyle Patrick, Sam Bell Gurwitz, Denzel Tsopnang in Windy City Playhouse’s Boys in the Band, photo credit Michael Brosilow

Time and a change of perspective can allow you to appreciate things you once abhorred. That maxim can be true of many things.  Music, art, food.  People.  It was true of Boys in the Band.  When Mart Crowley’s 1968 bombshell of a play rolled out on celluloid in 1970, it rightfully caused the world to shutter.  Never had anyone so boldly pulled back the curtain to reveal the inner-life of the dispossessed as vividly or as candidly as Mr. Crowley had done.  Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, people are still wondering how accurate his painful picture of gay life is.    

Having recently experienced the very fine Windy City Playhouse immersive take on the play, there’s no doubt many will be wondering the same thing 50 years from now.

The cast of Windy City Playhouse’s The Boys in the Band, photo credit Michael Brosilow

Listening to Mr. Crowley talk about how he came to write his landmark; how he was broke, out of work, without prospects and angry, the cathartic aura surrounding the play was finally given a cause.  Still, because you don’t expect friendship to take on such ruthlessly hurtful dimensions, those explanations don’t satisfy the question of intensity or the depths of some the play’s caustic plunges.

William Boles scenic design played a key role in helping to provide the audience a tactile understanding of the times, place and people at this dark birthday party Michael (Jackson Evans) was throwing for his newly 32-year-old best friend Harold.  Ushered six at a time through a tastefully appointed residential lobby and taken up the pretend elevator to the 5th floor, the audience enters Michael’s resplendent apartment as if they themselves were guests.  The party hadn’t started.  Michael wasn’t there.  You could walk around and admire his beautiful spirit decanters.  The lovely artistic touches.  The drama of the sunken conversation pit.  70s chic at its highest.   All in deep red with accents in gold and in blue. The room radiated not only success, but power.

The set of Windy City Playhouse’s The Boys in the Band, photo credit Michael Brosilow

After everyone’s settled, Michael sweeps in doing last minute party preparation things.  Putting the food out and the music on.  You notice that even when the first guest, Donald (Jordan Dell Harris) arrives, things aren’t particularly warm.  Nor are you immediately clear on Michael and Donald’s relationship.  They’re more than just friends but not exactly lovers either?  And even though Donald’s sparring skills are impressive, Michael seems to take pleasure in baiting him with petty criticism.  Everyone else flows in shortly after Donald goes up to change.  Emory (William Marquez) and Bernard (Denzel Tsopnang) arrive together.  Lovers Larry (James Lee) and Hank (Ryan Reilly) are carrying the vestiges of a something bitter between them into the party.  It’s a spat that will continue to swell throughout the play.  Then Harold’s birthday present gets there much too early.  A prostitute, Cowboy is as dull witted as he is beautiful.  Even though he’s taunted by nearly everyone for his lack of intelligence, he’s also silently envied for his physical exceptionalism.  And there’s a straight outlier in the mix.  Michael’s close friend from college, back in a time when he was still in the closet, was in town and needed to see him.  So much so that he wept with desperation when talking to Michael on the phone.  Not being able to dissuade him, Michael invited Alan (Christian Edwin Cook) to the party as well, hoping to somehow camouflage the party’s gay complexion.

Christian Edwin Cook as Alan in Windy City Playhouse’s production of The Boys in the Band, photo credit- Michael Brosilow

The dynamics of the party are already roiling by the time he shows up.  Emory is being quintessential Emory.  So gay.  Not defiantly; more in a liberation of self sort of way.  His racial digs at Bernard, the only Black member of the party, were unsurprisingly catty but very curious.  Were these swipes supposed to be expressions of the times are something else?   Marquez made a splendid Emory.  Later, when he apologized to Bernard for his callousness, promising not to cause such conscious hurt in the future, he was contrite enough and sincere enough to be ingratiatingly convincing.  Which highlights one of key joys of the play; it’s exceptional casting.  The spat that would not die between Hank and Larry centered on Larry’s inability, in fact his refusal, to be faithful to Hank; who had left his wife and children to be with him.  Both James Lee as Larry and Ryan Reilly as Hank deliver a lot of honesty in their portrayals of what two people, who genuinely love one another, are willing to sacrifice to conquer an imposing barrier together. 

Denzel Tsopnang, William Marquez, James Lee and Jackson Evans in Windy City Playhouse’s The Boys in the Band, photo credit Michael Brosilow

Christian Edwin Cook’s characterization of Alan, Michael’s straight friend, proved the most surprising because of the voice director Carl Menninger chose for him to use.  He spoke with the diction and phrasing characteristic of blue bloods in the era when the Carnegies and Vanderbilts were flying high.  His speech alone set him apart from everyone else at the party.  Emory’s effeminacy however brought out his bile and even pushed him to violence.  His punishment:  he must remain at the party. 

Unfortunately, Tsopnang’s Bernard was the least developed of the eight central characters.  When Michael comes up with his insidious parlor game of calling the person you’ve always in your heart-of-hearts truly loved, and telling them your feelings for them, Bernard’s the first to gamely take up the challenge.  It was only then did we catch a tiny glimpse of his inner core.   By this time, everybody had had enough liquid courage to consider doing something so exposing and so ripe for humiliation.  Who Bernard chose to call was also marked by the kind of class and race disparities that shout futility. 

Jackson Evans and WIlliam Marquez in Windy City Playhouse’s The Boys in the Band, photo credit Michael Brosilow

Harold (Sam Bell-Gurvitz) had grandly made his infamous “32-year-old, ugly, pock marked Jew fairy” entrance by the time the game was in full swing.  Despite it ushering in the possibility of something positive for Larry and Hank, as it continues, the game seems to dredge up nothing but pain.  Michael’s adamancy about playing it turns pathological when you realize he’s the only one not drunk.  He’s been on the wagon for five weeks and therefore without an excuse for insisting that everyone take this wanton drive off a cliff.  When it back fires, sorrow for him does not exist.  And when he makes his plea like statement, “If we could just not hate ourselves so much”, you wonder why he doesn’t just direct that question to himself. 

Stonewall happened just one year after The Boys in the Band premiered off Broadway.  Led by a fistful of outraged fed-up drag queens, another landmark, gay pride, was born.  It’s fascinating to look at these two milestones side by side.  Whether you consider them a “before and after” or a continuum, they both are about community; with all the complexity the word embodies. 

Under Mr. Menninger’s enlightened direction, and mounted on Mr. Boles sensational set, Windy City’s staging of The Boys in the Band has proven a highpoint in the theater season.  It’s also an ideal example of how well an immersive approach to theater aids in fully absorbing a captivating story.

The Boys in the Band

Through April 19th, 2020

Windy City Playhouse

3014 Irving Park Rd.

Chicago, IL   60618

windycityplayhouse.com

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