Posted on

Key Reviews: ‘Hoodoo Love’ at Raven Theatre

The Key: Young Critics Mentorship Program is back with our fifth set of reviews, and this set is all about  Hoodoo Love at Raven Theatre! This year’s cohort: Ada Alozie, Alisa Boland, Anyah Royale Akanni,  Hannah Antman, Mariah Schultz, and Yiwen Wu. Read selections from each critic below, and click through to their author profiles to read the full critique and learn more about them! The Key is co-facilitated by Regina Victor and Oliver Sava. 

Alisa Boland: “Hoodoo Love, directed by Wardell Julius Clark at Raven Theatre, adds a bit of extra enchantment to Katori Hall’s debut script, a cocktail of blues singing, conjure, and inevitable tragedy. Set in Memphis, Katori Hall’s play follows Toulou an aspiring singer, played with spirit and tenderness by Martasia Jones. The young country girl turns to the supernatural help of her friendly, grandmotherly neighbor and hoodoo practitioner Candylady (played by the audience favourite, Shariba Rivers) to hold down her lover Ace (Matthew James Elam), a restless blues artist. The situation is further complicated by the arrival of Toulou’s older brother Jib (Christopher Wayland Jones), a preacher with a wolfish eye and an appetite for unholy, distilled spirits.” –  Read Alisa Boland’s full critique and learn more about the author!  Continue reading “Key Reviews: ‘Hoodoo Love’ at Raven Theatre”

Posted on

Key Reviews: Multimedia Edition

The Key: Young Critics Mentorship Program is back with this year’s Multimedia Edition. After a class session with Vulture staff writer Angelica Jade Bastien, we encouraged our students to write about any piece of art that was not live theatre. The topics chosen range from the legacy of Breaking Bad in media, to the Joffrey Ballet’s Jane Eyre, to William Tyler’s album cover art. Finding your passion is a key component of a sustainable career in arts journalism!  This year’s cohort: Ada Alozie, Alisa Boland, Anyah Royale Akanni,  Hannah Antman, Mariah Schultz, and Yiwen Wu. The viewpoints of the authors are entirely their own. The Key is co-facilitated by Oliver Sava and Regina Victor. 

Ada Alozie, Breaking Bad: “When Breaking Bad was airing, it was hard to escape the personification of Walter White as an anti-hero: the word critics used to describe a white man with nebulous ethics, involved in shady (albeit) criminal activity. The anti-hero felt like it was everywhere in the early 2010s. I accepted the anti-hero label without thought when I was younger. As I was rewatching the series now, I couldn’t help thinking why the word anti-hero had been used to describe this character when it was so clear to me that Walter White was a straight-up villain.” – Read Ada Alozie’s full critique and learn more about the author!  Continue reading “Key Reviews: Multimedia Edition”

Posted on

Key Reviews: ‘Hope: Part II of a Mexican Trilogy’

The Key: Young Critics Mentorship Program is back for our third year, and with a new format! This year’s cohort: Ada Alozie, Alisa Boland, Anyah Royale Akanni,  Hannah Antman, Mariah Schultz, and Yiwen Wu. The third show of our session was Hope: Part II of a Mexican Trilogy produced by Teatro Vista at The Den Theatre. Read selections from each critic below, and click through to their author profiles to read the full critique and learn more about them! The Key is co-facilitated by Regina Victor and Oliver Sava. 

Hannah Antman: “Directors Bruce and Gutierrez landed some evocative and heartfelt moments. Hope is a true period piece, in the sense that it showcases the past in order to illuminate something about our world today. I found Betty’s deep fear of the atomic bomb to be especially prescient, reflecting many young people’s current fears about climate change – in 1961 or 2019, being a teenager comes with the threat of the world ending. As an extension of that fear, Betty (excellently portrayed by Caraballo), has a series of imagined phone calls between herself and JFK (and later, Fidel Castro). I found these fantasy phone calls to be particularly compelling, and I wish the rest of the play delved as deep in its theatrical risk-taking.” –  Read Hannah Antman’s full critique and learn more about the author!  Continue reading “Key Reviews: ‘Hope: Part II of a Mexican Trilogy’”

Posted on

Key Reviews: The Brothers Size

The Key: Young Critics Mentorship Program is back for our third year, and with a new format! This year’s cohort: Ada Alozie, Alisa Boland, Anyah Royale Akanni,  Hannah Antman, Mariah Schultz, and Yiwen Wu. The first show of our session was The Brothers Size at Steppenwolf for Young Adults. Read selections from each young critic below, and click through to their author profiles to read the full critique and learn more about them! The Key is co-facilitated by Regina Victor and Oliver Sava. 

Yiwen Wu: “Present, but invisible. For over 2.3 million imprisoned Americans, their life and struggle against the profound racial and social-class biases in our criminal justice system are often overlooked. At Steppenwolf for Young Adults, Tarell Alvin McCraney’s poetically thrilling The Brothers Size strives to confront the brutal legacy of incarceration, through a tender story of brotherhood and love–how the intimate ties that bind us together can free us in a world that fails to be free.” – Read Yiwen Wu’s full critique and learn more about the author! Continue reading “Key Reviews: The Brothers Size”

Posted on

Meet The Keys – Elon Sloan

Get to know Elon Sloan, a recent Alumni of The Key Young Critics Mentorship Program! Each writer wrote a multimedia review about a piece of pop culture currently capturing their imagination that you can read at the end of Elon’s profile. We’d like to thank Angelica Jade Bastien at Vulture for sharing her insights on media reviewing with us. Check out more of Elon and their cohort’s writing in our Key Reviews section!

Name: Elon Sloan

City/State: I grew up in Oak Park, Il, but now I live in Chicago

Age: 24

Racial / Ethnic Identity: Black and Nigerian-American

Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation: Queer Enby

Why do you want to write for Rescripted?: I love that Rescripted gives artists a chance to create a dialogue about one another’s work. Taking conversations that might only happen between theatre professionals or artists and making them public and accessible invites people to think about criticism in a whole new way. I also love that Rescripted writes about the shows and artists that otherwise might not get the spotlight. Continue reading “Meet The Keys – Elon Sloan”

Posted on

Meet The Keys – Sierra Carlson

Get to know Sierra Carlson, a recent Alumni of The Key Young Critics Mentorship Program! Each writer wrote a multimedia review about a piece of pop culture currently capturing their imagination that you can read at the end of Sierra’s profile. We’d like to thank Angelica Jade Bastien at Vulture for sharing her insights on media reviewing with us. Check out more of Sierra and her cohort’s writing in our Key Reviews section!

Name: Sierra Carlson

City/State: Chicago, IL

Age: 22

Racial / Ethnic Identity: White

Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation: Female, Hetero

Why do you want to write for Rescripted?: I want to write for Rescripted because I want to support a platform for socially-conscious culture writing that questions the status quo and celebrates the revolutionary. Continue reading “Meet The Keys – Sierra Carlson”

Posted on

Meet The Keys – Lonnae Hickman

Get to know Lonnae Hickman, a recent Alumni of The Key Young Critics Mentorship Program! Each writer wrote a multimedia review about a piece of pop culture currently capturing their imagination that you can read at the end of Lonnae’s profile. We’d like to thank Angelica Jade Bastien at Vulture for sharing her insights on media reviewing with us. Check out more of Lonnae and her cohort’s writing in our Key Reviews section!

Name: Lonnae Hickman

City/State: Originally from Milwaukee, WI, but now in Chicago, IL

Age: 20

Racial / Ethnic Identity: Black/Native American

Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation: Cis Queer Woman

Why do you want to write for Rescripted?:
I want to write for Rescripted because I’m dedicated to reviewing all types of theatre, not just the ones in the loop. Rescripted’s mission is working on giving honest and appropriate reviews for shows that are normally left out – shows that I believe are fundamental to Chicago and the theatre world. Continue reading “Meet The Keys – Lonnae Hickman”

Posted on

Meet The Keys – Aaron Lockman

Get to know Aaron Lockman, a recent Alumni of The Key Young Critics Mentorship Program! Each writer wrote a multimedia review about a piece of pop culture currently capturing their imagination that you can read at the end of Aaron’s profile. We’d like to thank Angelica Jade Bastien at Vulture for sharing her insights on media reviewing with us. Check out more of Aaron and their cohort’s writing in our Key Reviews section!

Name: Aaron Lockman

City/State: Chicago, IL

Age: Chronologically 23, Spiritually 63 1/2

Gender Identity/Sexual Orientation: Mostly cis male, but with he/him/they/them pronouns, and a relationship with gender that could mostly be described as exhausted. Bisexual as heck.

Racial/Ethnic Identity: White/Eastern-European-Jewish

Why do you want to write for Rescripted?: Because I thoroughly agree with Rescripted’s mission of bringing a diverse array of voices into the critical sphere. And because the people seem nice. Continue reading “Meet The Keys – Aaron Lockman”

Posted on

Meet The Keys – Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel

Get to know Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel, a recent Alumni of The Key Young Critics Mentorship Program! Each writer wrote a multimedia review about a piece of pop culture currently capturing their imagination that you can read at the end of Yasmin’s profile. We’d like to thank Angelica Jade Bastien at Vulture for sharing her insights on media reviewing with us. Check out more of Yasmin and her cohort’s writing in our Key Reviews section!

Name: Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel
Age: 22, Aries 

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

What, in your opinion, is the purpose of arts criticism?: Arts criticism is the way by which the ephemeral production of artists can be stamped into a place and time for posterity. By writing on the arts, we are creating a separate cannon that serves to document the who, what, where, when, how, and why of art for the present and future. Though criticism is viewed as assessing the quality of the work, it should also aim to root the production in our world. This means writing on the artists and acknowledging their social locations, their personal lenses. Continue reading “Meet The Keys – Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel”

Posted on

Key Reviews: ‘Rightlynd’ at Victory Gardens Theater

These are the fourth set of reviews from this year’s The Key: Young Critics Mentorship Program. Members of this cohort are: Sierra Carlson, Yasmin Mikhaiel, Aaron Lockman, Elon Sloan, and Lonnae Hickman. All reviews are workshopped and edited by co-facilitators Oliver Sava and Regina Victor. Check out their reviews of Rightlynd at Victory Gardens Theater below! 
Continue reading “Key Reviews: ‘Rightlynd’ at Victory Gardens Theater”