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

I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying!: The Edifice of Self in Next to Normal at Writers Theatre

I don’t need to tell you how good of a musical Next to Normal is — it won a Pulitzer; we all know how good it is. Nor will it be a surprise to hear that Tony-winning director David Cromer has created a masterful evening of small and terrifyingly intimate moments with a deft, spare, and nuanced hand. Instead, I’d like to focus on why this show had me weeping uncontrollably for most of its second act, and how I think it got there.

For those unfamiliar, Next to Normal is the story of the suburban, middle-class, normal-seeming Goodman family. Our central character, Diana (Keely Vasquez), struggles to live her adult life while dealing with severe and often crippling bipolar disorder. Her husband Dan (David Schlumpf) and teenage kids Natalie and Gabe (Kyrie Courter and Liam Oh), meanwhile, must deal with the side effects of Diana’s dysfunction. Continue reading “I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying!: The Edifice of Self in Next to Normal at Writers Theatre”

Posted on

‘Suddenly Last Summer’ and the Myth of the Man

Editor’s Note: This is a guest contribution by local performer Julian Terrell Otis.  Originally these comments were posted on social media, then further expanded with our editors to become a review posted on our site. We are interested in the viewpoint of the artist, and what they have to say about the work coming out of their community. If you are a Chicago artist interested in contributing to Rescripted, please e-mail us at rescriptedreviews@gmail.com, we want to hear from you!

Catherine: “Is that what love is? Using people? And maybe that’s what hate is – not being able to use people.”

It was incredible to watch Suddenly Last Summer at Raven Theatre. I would highly recommend it. To be honest, my experience with Tennessee Williams is limited. I often feel the narrative to be out of touch because of the lofty language, the whiteness, the exposition about class issues that are distanced from current audiences by time, and in a way, it’s petty. But hey that’s the drama of life! Raven’s production is thoughtful and the audience is invited to be a fly on the wall in a very personal family matter regarding mental illness, sex, control, and money. The stakes ride high as the characters navigate their own desires. The setting transforms from a Louisiana estate to some sort of metaphorical jungle where the most vicious creatures that inhabit it are the (white) humans.

The casting reflects that interesting power dynamic. On opening night, the audience was invited into the world of the play through the eyes of the black gaze. In this performance Miss Foxhill was played by Song Marshall, though the role is usually played by Janyce Caraballo. The caretakers Miss Foxhill and Sister Felicity (played by Ayanna Bria Bakari) provide regularity to the upended lives of this ultra wealthy family in crisis. Marshall’s and Bakari’s performances elevate quotidien tasks to epic proportions.The women of color hear the foul words and see the ambition, and I feel their unending struggle to keep these white people in check.  One gets the feeling that Miss Foxhill’s job might be on the line if the daiquiri isn’t made just right and Sis. Felicity may actually fear that bodily harm may come to her from her charge, Catherine (played by Grayson Heyl). One cigarette burn would be too many for me. Yet these women endure because circumstances necessitate it.  Continue reading “‘Suddenly Last Summer’ and the Myth of the Man”

Posted on

The Spectacle of Suffering in ‘Through the Elevated Line’

 

Set in Chicago, the play centers on the arrival of Razi Gol (Salar Ardebili)  to his sister’s apartment in Uptown, right off of the Lawrence CTA Red Line. Soraya (Catherine Dildilian), Razi’s sister, has been in the United States for more than a decade after leaving her family in Shiraz, Iran to attend school and lives with her white Irish-American husband Chuck (Joshua K. Volkers).   Continue reading “The Spectacle of Suffering in ‘Through the Elevated Line’”

Posted on

Aziza Barnes’ ‘BLKS’ Gets Up Close and Personal

This review is written by Logan McCullom, an alumni of The Key: Young Critics Mentorship Program.

Stumbling through the seemingly unending crowds and stairs that make up Steppenwolf’s theatre, I was frazzled and bewildered by how many folks I saw waiting to be seated for the opening night of BLKS. At first glance I found the title to be easy and not very enticing at all, but it was quickly redeemed as I saw the set. Like the title would prove to be, it was comprised of… well… everything. There was no shortage of couches, there were even couches on the walls! Set designer Sibyl Wickersheimer draped long blue curtains on the stage, making distinct isolations that served as different rooms within the same stage. It was messy, chaotic, a perfect representation of life on your own, and I loved it. Continue reading “Aziza Barnes’ ‘BLKS’ Gets Up Close and Personal”

Posted on

‘Book of Will’ Fails to Diversify The Bard

By Lavina Jadhwani

“Casting should be diverse. Shakespeare is meant for everyone.”

This simple statement, written atop the casting breakdown of Lauren Gunderson’s new play, THE BOOK OF WILL at Northlight Theatre, filled me with so much hope.

I am a woman of color who regularly directs Shakespeare and regularly encounters pushback when trying to convince producers and audiences that the words people often assume were written primarily for white, cis, able-bodied men can be shared by, well, everyone. That’s why I was so moved by Gunderson’s sentiment and so excited by the casting announcements made by the Denver Center and Oregon Shakespeare Festival regarding this play. (The world premiere in Denver included two South Asian actors — my desi heart soared!!) My heart sank, however, when I saw the casting announcement of a local company, Northlight Theatre, which included an all white cast and production team. Nevertheless, I attended the production in hopes of learning something new about this play and the world of William Shakespeare. I wanted to keep an open mind. And honestly — I wanted to support my friends. Continue reading “‘Book of Will’ Fails to Diversify The Bard”

Posted on

Rhapsody in Blue Eyeliner: Taylor Mac’s ‘A 24-Decade History of Popular Music’

Jerome Joseph Gentes

Author’s note: I attended two different “versions” of Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music at The Curran on Sunday September 24 and at Stanford’s Bing Concert Hall on Wednesday September 27. This review compares the two audience experiences of “Chapter IV” and “Abridged Version” respectively.

What makes a piece of theatre a phenomenon? What turns it from instance to event? Driven by conscious and subconscious hope that their art goes the analog equivalent of viral, artists create art everyday from fine to pop, traditional to technological. Artistic organizations do this, as do artist teams. Most of it never becomes an event. Theatre that does may do so incidentally, and in cases like the Broadway productions of ANGELS IN AMERICA, RENT and HAMILTON, deliberately. Continue reading “Rhapsody in Blue Eyeliner: Taylor Mac’s ‘A 24-Decade History of Popular Music’”

Posted on

The Consequences of Fake Allyship in ‘A View From the Bridge’

Regina Victor

If you’ve studied the American Theater, chances are you’ve heard of Arthur Miller, the King of Kitchen Sink Realism. Trust me when I say, Ivo Van Hove’s A View From The Bridge is not your mother’s Arthur Miller. There isn’t a sink in sight. In fact all unnecessary props, down to certain actor’s shoes, have been eliminated. This actor-driven production features a square set with dark-colored benches and a white floor, designed by Jan Versweyveld. Audience sits on either side of the stage, meaning the actors are playing to a house that’s three-quarters in the round. It feels like a boxing ring with only one entrance and exit upstage, which adds to the feeling of being trapped in the space. Continue reading “The Consequences of Fake Allyship in ‘A View From the Bridge’”

Posted on

Remembering Romance Under The Setting Sun in ‘The Glass Menagerie’

The premise of the well-known American drama The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams centers around single mother Amanda Wingfield, her oldest son Tom, and his little sister Laura who have found themselves in a financial squeeze since only Tom is able to work. Out of desperation, Amanda decides to try and set Laura up with a “gentleman caller,” a man from Tom’s work named Jim. What differs in this production is the centering of people of color and women in the casting of the play, a point of artistic pride for director Lisa Portes. Amanda and Laura’s predicament doesn’t come across as the result of a debutante who doesn’t believe women should toil, but rather a societal limitation imposed by the times (the play is set in St. Louis in 1937). This increased my empathy for these characters ten-fold. Continue reading “Remembering Romance Under The Setting Sun in ‘The Glass Menagerie’”