The Northwest Side neighborhood of Albany Park has been the first American home for thousands of immigrants — from Russia, Malaysia, Guatemala, and more. To portray these varied experiences, the Albany Park Theater Project created a remarkably realistic three-story courtyard apartment building inside a former warehouse on West Montrose Avenue. The building serves as a set for … Read more
On the second floor of the Hyde Park Art Center, Candace Hunter’s studio space brims with color and texture. On the rear wall hang several of her 20-inch-square mixed-media works, part of the joyous Brown Limbed Girls series she began in the early days of the pandemic. Some of those images landed on Chicago billboards … Read more
Next spring will see the first Broadway revival of The Wiz, the iconic Black musical reimagining of The Wizard of Oz, in 40 years. But Chicagoans can get a look at the production before then, when it hits town as part of a national tour. Among the leads for the new staging is Chicago actor … Read more
In 2020, Lula Cafe chef-owner Jason Hammel did what he could with pivots to keep his business afloat. But he also accomplished something he’d been wanting to do his entire adult life: write a book. “The pandemic gave me a new sense of perspective and urgency,” he says. “I almost lost my business and it … Read more
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley’s gothic story of creature and creator, is brought to life in the late British choreographer Liam Scarlett’s 2016 ballet of the same name, which will be staged October 12 to 22 by the Joffrey Ballet. Scarlett often chose monsters as his subjects, and this Midwest premiere is a psychological thriller in every … Read more
Famous for high-octane bouts, theatrical story lines, and colorful masks that mark each fighter’s identity, the Mexican brand of wrestling known as lucha libre offers plenty of drama. That’s the idea behind Lucha Teotl, a lucha-themed play from actor and playwright Christopher Llewyn Ramirez, a Dallas native who now lives in Chicago, running at the … Read more
When the moon passes between the earth and the sun on October 14, creating a partial eclipse, Tom Skilling will be watching closely. “There’s just something about it that makes you realize what an amazing universe we live in, and what a tiny part of it we are, when you see this take place before … Read more
Two experiential Halloween happenings turn the typical haunted house on its severed head. But which is the spookiest?
“There’s something to be said about staying in an old cheese factory in southern Wisconsin that’s on the National Register of Historic Places,” says Nic Mink, a proprietor of Seven Acre Dairy Company in tiny Paoli, Wisconsin, just south of Madison. That something is an eight-room boutique hotel combining classic Dairyland vibes with decidedly modern amenities, … Read more
When local filmmaker Eric D. Seals set out to chronicle his father Donnie’s transformation into a biking enthusiast late in life, he thought he was going to tell a simple inspirational tale. But the Wheaton native soon found himself capturing more than his father getting in better shape. His documentary Bike Vessel plumbs themes such … Read more
