Pictured Anna In The Tropics by gay playwright Nilo Cruz.
The playwrights finally caught up with the Crisis In The Middle East this season. Precious Stones and Homeland Security featured talking non-blond heads airing issues already covered extensively elsewhere in mass-media fiction. The irony is that the plays that addressed their topic most cogently were written long before America's wakeup call in the autumn of 2001, and how few of these proved popular with audiences now looking for solutions, having already done with hand-flapping alarm.
That said, these are my I'm-so-lucky-to-be-here-seeing-this-play selections for 2003:
The Cider House Rules (Famous Door): It took two full-length plays, two directors and 30 actors to capture the rich textures of John Irving's slice-of-America novel in live performance, but no one who saw this ensemble carry it off will ever forget the experience.
Homebody/Kabul (Steppenwolf): Tony Kushner wrote his tour of the Middle East long before we were concerned with covering our own asses and so analyses the cultural conundrum with uncluttered insight in a refreshingly hysteria-free production.
Blind Tasting (Live Bait): For nearly six months, Sharon Evans' smart, funny, educational and romantic comedy sent audiences out the door craving wine, poetry and vacations in Italy. Hello, Storefront and Noble Fool Theaters—this show deserves a Loop-side revival!
Anna In The Tropics (Victory Gardens): Who knew that Nilo Cruz' bittersweet look at the Cuban-American experience and the revolutionary power of art would take the Pulitzer? Henry Godinez and his cast were just out to tell a beautiful story.
Journey's End (Seanachai): The expected attack of commercially exploitive Brave-Boys-In-Uniform plays has yet to strike, but Robert Sherriff's classic tale of conflict in the trenches pretty much said it all in 1928.
Wedding Band (Congo Square): We can quibble away about the history of African-American relations, safe in our modern perspective, but Alice Childress was THERE and tells it as she saw it in 1918, and so did Ron OJ Parson and his hand-picked cast.
The Sign Of The Four (Apple Tree): Refitting a Sherlock Holmes adventure to the live stage is one thing. Making it coherent, articulate, true to its period while still satisfying to modern sensibilities is another. Steve Pickering and his cohorts accomplished both.
Man From Nebraska (Steppenwolf): 'Every male over the age of 40 will understand this play' said an audience member of Tracy Letts' quiet account of despair and redemption. The critical response—once the astonishment at its being written by the author of Killer Joe dissipated—appeared to bear out this opinion.
Desdemona (Experimental Theatre Chicago), Three Sisters (GroundUp Theatre), The Love Talker (Box Theatre Group) and Below The Belt (Steep Theatre): 'He shall speak well who takes an old word and makes it new' said Cicero, and these fledgling companies did just that with a quartet of classroom standbys.
More Playwrights To Watch: Paul Peditto (Pura Vida), McKinley Johnson (Georgia Tom), G. Riley Mills (Raising Blue), Keith Bunin (The Credeaux Canvas), Gavin Lawrence (Cut Flowers), Kenneth Robbins (Molly's Rock).
Adaptations: Christina Calvit (Far From The Madding Crowd) and Alan Donahue (Trust Me On This).
Not Perfect Yet, But Look Ahead: Annie Weisman (Be Aggressive) and Hrísto Boytchev (The Colonel Bird)
More Directors To Watch: Steve Scott (That Championship Season, Red Hen), Teri McCaskill (A Pair of Pinters, Raven), Douglas Alan-Mann (Cut Flowers, Chicago Theatre Company), Linda LeVeque (You Can't Take It With You, North Lakeside Players), Bryan White (My Sister In This House, Wing and Groove), Frank Pullen (The Colonel Bird, Journeymen), Beau O'Reilly (Pura Vida), Joe Feliciano (The Way of the World, Mom and Dad Productions)
More Actors To Watch: Mechelle Moe (Machinal, The Hypocrites), Stephanie Childers (Mr. Kolpert, Red Orchid), Jan Blixt (Tartuffe & The Play's The Thing, City Lit), Jen Engstrom (Sky Girls, Northlight), Jane Baxter Miller (Silence, Rivendell), Tara Mallen (Silence, Rivendell), Mary Mulligan (Stevie, 1900 Productions), Caroline Devlin (Cain, Tinfish), Paul Dillon (In The Solitude Of Cotton Fields, Red Orchid), Derrick Nelson (On The Open Road, Journeymen), Mike Nussbaum (Tuesdays With Morrie, Northlight)
Special Casting Against Type Award: Michael Shannon in Mr. Kolpert (Red Orchid) and Arch Harmon in The Pinter Plays (National Pastime)
Special Cool Creepster Award: Ron Wells in Cuttings (Stage Left) and Charles Likar in Titlow (Corn Productions)
Special AARP Pin-Up Award: Esther McCormick in Social Security (Raven Theatre)
Outstanding Ensembles: Judgment At Nuremberg (Shattered Globe), Trust Me On This (Lifeline), Katzelmacher (Trap Door), Georgia Tom (Bailiwick Rep), Far From The Madding Crowd (Lifeline), By The Music Of The Spheres (Goodman), Breath Boom (Pegasus), Cut Flowers (Chicago Theatre Company), You Can't Take It With You (North Lakeside Players), The Illusion (Wing and Groove), Abingdon Square (Piven)
Topnotch Tag-Teams: Page Hearn and Will Schutz (Tartuffe, City Lit), Jennifer Kern and Krista Lally (Be Aggressive, Rivendell), Kimberley Inouye and Sierra Cleveland (The Shadow Box, Tinfish), Phillip Edward Van Lear and Lynnette Gaza (The Lady From Dubuque, Organic), Timothy Gregory and Keith Kupferer (Things Being What They Are, Steppenwolf), Susan Scott Wade, Dado, and Carolyn Hoerdemann (Madame De Sade, European Repertory)
Scenic design: Matthew York (Marisol, Greasy Joan & Company), Peggy Murphy (Dancing At Lughnasa, Shapeshifters Theatre).
Costume Design: William T. Buster (The Women, American Theatre Company), Elea Crowther (Boston Marriage, Roadworks).
Wraparound-Concept Tech-Teamwork: Death And Harry Houdini (House Productions), Rose Rage: Henry VI (Chicago Shakespeare), Madame De Sade (European Repertory), Cain (Tinfish), Trust Me On This (Lifeline), Raising Blue (Prop Thtr)
Special Boat-In-The-Bottle Scenic Design Award: Sharon Evans (Pura Vida)
Special Fab Fauna Award: Wessex Sheep and Sheepdog (Far From The Madding Crowd)
Special Mary Zimmerman Environmental Theater Award: Molly's Rock
Plays I'd Like To See in 2004: Rebecca Finnegan in Can-Can or Call Me Madame. Corryn Cummins in A Taste Of Honey. Finnegan, Cummins and Jennifer Pompa in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie or The Effect Of Gamma Rays On Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds.
Congratulations to all the theaters that make Chicago critics the envy of their colleagues all over America. Now let's get those PPA licenses and do it again next year, huh?
