Wandering Through Chicago's Arts and Culture

Some Thoughts on Diplomacy and Art Death Comes in Threes Three things have recently converged on my mind that remind me of the grave danger we face every day by submitting our fate to the hands of “leaders.” First, I saw TimeLine Theatre’s magnificent production of Lee Blessing’s A Walk in the Woods playing now through Novermber 20 th at Theater Wit. That experience reminded me of a ballet I saw several years ago at a Joffrey Ballet of Chicago performance. German Choreographer Curt Jooss’s The Green Table portrays the futility of negotiation and the triumph of death over sanity and humanism. Finally, I have been viewing a Teaching Company DVD entitled Transformational Leadership: How Leaders change Teams, Companies and Organizations. Diplomacy vs. Negotiation Certainly the production of A Walk in the Woods by TimeLine Theatre Company is what started me thinking about all of this. This is a two-character play, mostly dialog that takes place in an unchanging wooded setting popu...

The End of the Grant Park Music Festival 2011 Season Requiem as Art and Drama The thought of ending the Grant Park Music Festival with Giuseppe Verdi’s great Requiem Mass, in Memory of Alessandro Manzoni for Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Tenor and Bass Soloists, Mixed Chorus and Orchestra immediately conjured images in my mind of all the terrors of Medieval Christianity as so effectively documented by that obscure 13 th century Franciscan friar-poet (generally thought to be Thomas of Celano (c. 1200 – c. 1260–1270)   whose Dies Irae is included in so many of the world’s great musical settings of the Missa defunctorum or Mass of the Dead . Thomas’s words are here presented in   the English translation from Latin by William Josiah Irons that replicates the rhyme and metre of the original. The day of wrath, that day Will dissolve the world in ashes As foretold by David and the sibyl! Oh, what fear man's bosom rendeth, when from heaven the Judge descendeth, on whose senten...

Netflix for Theatre Theater Wit’s Brave New [Ticketing] World Memberships Theater Wit’s Artistic Director, Jeremy Wechsler, never one for timid action, has embarked on a bold new plan to benefit artists, patrons and theater companies that present on one of Theater Wit’s three stages. Simply put, you can buy a Membership at Theater Wit that entitles you to see any play presented in the space once, many times or never, as your whim and fancy dictates. The only caveat is that tickets are subject to availability so for popular productions the prudent course is to call well in advance to reserve your ticket. There’s nothing to stop you from just “dropping in” five minutes before curtain if you feel like it and if there are seats available, one will be yours. All of this for the low monthly membership fee of $36. Wechsler was inspired by a similar program in place at Seattle’s A Contemporary Theatre. In Seattle’s case the membership program hasn’t resulted in a decrease in number of tra...

Tonight was the penultimate concert of the Grant Park Music Festival 2011 season. It was an odd program comprised of two works: John Adams's The Chairman Dances: Foxtrot for Orchestra and Dmitri Shostakovitch's Symphony No. 10. The Chairman Dances This is a typical Adams piece.The orchestra payed homage to the monotonous Adams minimalism that repeats the same motifs endlessly as instruments are layered upon instruments until a climax of sorts is achieved which is quickly followed by a barely audible recapitulation of what we have just heard, building into yet another crescendo, and so forth until ennui overtakes all but the most avid Adams fan. I understand that Adams composes in a cabin overlooking the Pacific; undoubtedly, his exposure to the monotonous sound of the Pacific waves contributes to his overall artistic direction. In fairness, Adams writes great ballet music. I have seen ballets accompanied by Adams's music and they are stunning. O...