Creating 10 OUT OF 12 – Inside a Meta Tech

Creating 10 OUT OF 12 – Inside a Meta Tech

Upon entering the sunny rehearsal space for Theater Wit’s 10 OUT OF 12, I find two of everything: two stage managers at their duplicate tables; two directors alternately sitting back in pensive reflection, then hopping up to offer guidance; two sets of assistant directors noting their mentors’ every move. Watching the preparation of this ambitious play—which details, moment by moment, the process of a tech rehearsal—provides a double image of a singular experience.

Read more
Creating SNOWY DAY at Emerald City

Creating SNOWY DAY at Emerald City

Emerald City Theatre’s production of THE SNOWY DAY AND OTHER STORIES by Ezra Jack Keats. Photo by Austin Oie. By Kyle Whalen January 20. I’m sitting in Emerald City Theatre’s Little Theatre, where the company is rehearsing THE SNOWY DAY AND OTHER STORIES, currently running at the Apollo. Jerome Hairston...

Read more
Collaboraction Dives into Theater’s Gender Parity Problem

Collaboraction Dives into Theater’s Gender Parity Problem

Gender parity in theater is hardly a new conversation, but the creation of Not In Our House and the Chicago Reader exposé on Profiles Theatre brought the issue to the forefront of the Chicago community last year

Read more
EMPRESS ARCHER, an unorthodox dance-making experience

EMPRESS ARCHER, an unorthodox dance-making experience

Ariel Freedman and Meredith Webster are an odd couple and beautiful pair. They are renowned dancers, working with the top dance companies and best choreographers in the world.

Read more
15 Years of Making Bedford Falls ‘WONDERFUL’

15 Years of Making Bedford Falls ‘WONDERFUL’

An inside look at what makes American Blues Theater’s IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE: LIVE IN CHICAGO! keep ringing after 15 years.

Read more
Dandelion – Making Theatre to Attract a Company

Dandelion – Making Theatre to Attract a Company

Consider the dandelion.
There’s the daffy, yellowy, flowery kind, that sprouts up in fields or from cracks in the curbside, and that children hold beneath their chin to see if they like butter (if the color reflects onto your skin, you do.)

Read more
Ron OJ Parson—”People Need to Create…the Process Is All of Us Creating.”

Ron OJ Parson—”People Need to Create…the Process Is All of Us Creating.”

By Kyle Whalen A Monday afternoon. I am foolishly running late, stuck in traffic at the time I’m supposed to call director Ron OJ Parson and interview him. At a stoplight, I ring him to confess I’ll be late. He picks up, a laugh already in his voice, and asks...

Read more
Bri Sudia – Crafting Her Own Path in Chicago Theater

Bri Sudia – Crafting Her Own Path in Chicago Theater

“I wasn’t really going to be an actor,” Bri Sudia insists. When I got a chance to interview her over the phone, she was fresh from rehearsal, stretching out after a long day at the Goodman, where she stars as Ruth Sherwood in the Mary Zimmerman-directed WONDERFUL TOWN.

Read more
Albany Park Theatre Project and Third Rail Projects – Developing LEARNING CURVE

Albany Park Theatre Project and Third Rail Projects – Developing LEARNING CURVE

LEARNING CURVE, an immersive, original show about Chicago public schools, seems a natural fit for Albany Park Theatre Project. But why now?

Read more
Jacqueline Stone and the Future of Emerald City Theatre

Jacqueline Stone and the Future of Emerald City Theatre

If you were to ask Jacqueline Stone, the new artistic director of Emerald City Theatre, why she makes theatre for young audiences, she would likely tell you about a deep-set sense of civic and artistic responsibility.

Read more