Give now, or forever …
Many major Chicago institutional theaters like the Goodman, Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare and Northlight have all been making news lately by announcing their 2009-10 seasons. But before you start pulling out credit cards to start subscribing, put your plastic to good use by donating to smaller companies that might not survive the current season.
The economic meltdown has forced About Face Theatre to cancel its final show of the season. What's worse, the famed theatre dedicated to producing LGBT work is in danger of going under completely if debts aren't repaid right away.
That would be a shame and an artistic black eye on Chicago if About Face Theatre went under, especially since it has helped produce important LGBT work that has gone on be produced elsewhere both nationally and internationally.
Plays like I Am My Own Wife, Pulp, Loving Repeating and Winesburg, Ohio, are just some of the output of About Face. Its youth ensemble also provides an vital artistic voice for LGBT teens and young adults.
I recently left a telephone message with About Face artistic director Bonnie Metzgar seeking comment on the company's current fundraising efforts. The fact that she didn't get back to me hopefully isn't a bad omen.
So do your part and donate right away. The company has raised more than $125,000 of its needed $300,000. Visit www.aboutfacetheatre.com or call 773-784-8565 to donate.
American mutiny
Backstage drama at American Theater Company spilled out to the general public on Thursday, March 26. That's when 23 long-time ensemble members of American Theater Company released a press release saying they were breaking away from the 25-year-old off-Loop theater institution.
The group includes respected actors and artistic administrators like Kate Buddeke, Carmen Roman, Stef Tovar, Cheryl Graeff and Rick Cleveland. They intend to form their own company under the theater's original name, American Blues Theater, with the first production aiming for 2010.
As reported by Chris Jones in the Chicago Tribune, the schism was due to artistic and casting differences the group had with the ATC's recently hired artistic director of 18 months, PJ Paparelli.
The breakaway group felt that they were being shut out of many important artistic decisions, while Paparelli ( with the backing of the majority of ATC's board ) felt the company needed to diversify in terms of race, class and sexuality to better represent its "American" moniker.
Some of American Theater Company's recent productions included the Midwest premieres of the Jonestown drama The People's Temple and Celebrity Row, plus a rotating repertory of Top Dog/Underdog with True West.
Up next at American Theater Company is a revival of John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask's transgender rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. It's a replacement for the postponed world premiere musical Yeast Nation by the creators of Urinetown: The Musical.
Speaking of drag …
The 1996 musical Rent and the 1975 musical A Chorus Line ( Photo by Paul Kolnik ) are both rightfully held up as artistically groundbreaking works. Both won Best Musical Tony Awards and Pulitzer Prizes for drama, and both just happen to be playing this month in Chicago in two Equity tours at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre.
One celebrated aspect for those in the LGBT community is the matter-of-fact depictions of gay New Yorkers in both shows, whether they're bohemian artists living with HIV, or out actors trying to get hired in a new choreography-heavy Broadway show.
Yet there is some dissention among queer scholars about the depiction and unfortunate outcomes for the characters in both shows who do drag.
Spoiler alert ( skip this paragraph if you haven't seen the shows ) : In Rent, the drag queen Angel is only character who dies from AIDS-related causes, while the auditioning actor Paul in A Chorus Line suffers what could be a career-ending injury after pouring his heart out about growing up gay and making money in drag shows behind his parents' backs.
Both characters unquestionably present sympathetic gay characters for mainstream audiences. But some queer scholars point out that these characters' removal fit into the "tragic" homosexual stereotype and only reinforce the homophobic perception that gay people ( or at least the ones who do drag ) suffer retribution for leading such unconventional lives.
Now I'm not bringing this up to deter you from going to see either show. Remember that both are products of the times that spawned them.
In fact, I think everyone should see Rent and A Chorus Line live because their respective film versions fail so miserably to capture the vital theatrical spark of both shows live on stage.
But while you're watching both shows, think about how far the LGBT community has come, and how far it has to go in terms of honest and genuine depictions of queer characters in all forms of media.
