This month, Gabriela investigates one takeaway from encounters with Chicago artists: how to communicate onstage without a shared language.
November melts together, from Wicked to political news, like a holiday treat with strange aftertastes. Social media memes multiply about “holding space for the lyrics to ‘Defying Gravity,’” and a lot of us aren’t kidding when we say that. It’s a fruitful time to be a theatre person or creative activist; our work can feed a hungry nation. From Chicago to the world beyond, our local creatives have been hard at work investigating diverse artistic aesthetics that respond to a widespread call for solidarity. This November, I experienced that firsthand with a moving Encuentro, alongside various Chicago artists at the Latino Theater Company’s national Los Angeles convening. One way to welcome everyone, I found, was through ensemble physical storytelling and more inventive closed captioning.
I got to spend time with a number of Chicagoans, including Miranda González, fresh off Chicago Lore(s) with Tony Bruno and Iván Vega, who scooted about the Los Angeles Theatre Center with a fractured foot. González wasn’t there as a director, necessarily, but as a national leader and Imaginista—one in a circle of playwrights commissioned by the Latino Theater Company. LTC artistic director José Luis Valenzuela’s words on emphasizing artistic aesthetic without needing to prove oneself felt important to our community. Said Valenzuela, “When you go to the theatre, and it has one moment of truth, the entire evening was worth it. That is what we are struggling for. What is the truth? Because that moment of truth is what we all go to the theatre for.” In many cases, though, theatre too often “becomes an intellectual exercise of proving yourself every time.”
In many national convenings, he shared, discussions don’t always center the art itself. Those aesthetic conversations at Encuentro highlighted how to devise and, from the beginning, consider intended audience when it comes to language. It felt exciting to see what piqued the interest of the Chicago creatives in attendance. Water People Theater presented a standout in Rebeca Alemán’s The Delicate Tears of the Waning Moon, which follows a femme journalist’s recovery and will to go on after a harrowing attack. One line contextualized the world: “Freedom is to gaze at the moon and smile.” While performed mostly in English at Encuentro, the performers’ powerful expressiveness and space for stillness and silence created some of the most important moments in the play.
Jean Carlos Claudio’s Memorabilia from La Vuelta Ensemble also expanded audiences’ understanding of their internal lives without need for words. He presented his clown, solo show at Encuentro and left an indelible mark with his imaginative exploration of memory. The nimble and effervescent Claudio has been known for bringing people together via interactive and physical performances. Newly dubbed a Teatro Vista ensemble member, I’m sure he’ll be one to watch in 2025. You may have seen him in early 2023 in another physical piece, TVP’s The Dream King by Marvin Quijada. Under the co-direction of Alice da Cunha and Sandra Marquez, all performances projected English, Spanish, and Polish subtitles, reflecting the demographics of nearby communities.
Theatre that transcends language also cropped up here in Chicago this past weekend, at Robert Lepage and Guillaume Côté’s dance-theatre Hamlet, which featured evocative choreography and occasional projected lines from the original play. At the Harris Theater for the Nov. 23 opening, the pair said they wanted to do the U.S. premiere in Chicago, a city they love and respect for its skillful performing arts community and welcoming audiences.
I’m curious to see what the coming months will bring in terms of both non-verbal plays and plays in different languages. At Encuentro, almost all shows featured closed captioning to translate English-to-Spanish or Spanish-to-English, depending on the show. Each production had its own way of incorporating the element, with some positioning captions above the proscenium, like an opera. Others featured the captions off to the side, but with a matching frame around it to blend with the set.
I anticipate January’s Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival will offer even more visual experimentations: The lineup looks promising, from Scottish company Tortoise in a Nutshell’s Concerned Others, to local artists’ puppetry design within the exhibition “Potential Energy: Chicago Puppets Up Close.” The city will, as it often does, provide a meeting ground for the world to play. One thing is for sure: In Chicago’s sandboxes there is room for us all.
Now See This
Dueling pianos, but make it Sondheim. At least that’s what I imagine started the conversation that led to the Kokandy Productions’ staging of Into the Woods, currently running at the Chopin Theatre (through Dec. 22). For this intimate production, directed by Derek Van Barham, the orchestrations have been reimagined for two grand pianos sitting in the middle of the space. Check out the trailer for the production to get a glimpse inside this unique trip through the trees.
Around Town
This month, Jerald catches us up on a few items you may have missed!
The Chicago theatre community, especially we who value the pillars who carry theatre coverage in this city, were dealt a shock last week with news that longtime Chicago arts journalist and critic Kris Vire died at 47. “Kris was both a critic and a champion of Chicago theatre,” said Frank Sennett, former president and editor-in-chief of Time Out Chicago, to the Chicago Tribune. “Like people who love something best, he wasn’t afraid to speak the truth to those who need to hear it, while celebrating the best aspects of the amazing Chicago cultural scene.”
To read more about and from Vire, I suggest his most recent work from Chicago magazine, this 2018 Q&A Vire did with AT editor-in-chief Rob Weinert-Kendt, and the many articles he contributed to AT over the years. Chris Jones offers a remembrance of Vire and his contributions to the Chicago theatre scene in the Chicago Tribune.
- The Reader recently published their annual People Issue, highlighting 15 Chicagoans ranging from a 10-year-old zinemaker to a horror-adjacent drag king. “This is the ninth People Issue, and like last year and every year before it, it’s truly a labor of love for us,” the Reader team writes in their intro. “Maybe you’ll encounter someone unexpected who will inspire you to engage more deeply with Chicagoans and feel a stronger connection to the city’s enduring tapestry.”
- In recent Ghost Light columns, Kerry Reid discussed the planned comeback of Firebrand Theatre with co-founder Harmony France and navigating the arts world within and away from Chicago with comedian, actor, writer, and producer Melissa DuPrey. “I think that part of the thing that I love most about being a Chicago person, and I’ll always be Chicago-rooted, is that it’s really OK for me to have my politics here on the street where the activism actually is,” DuPrey told Reid.
- Charlie Kolodziej, for the Reader, previewed To Cut a Barber’s Hands, a new one-man play from actor and playwright Anthony Spaulding, following Spaulding’s real-life journey attempting to obtain a barber’s license after being released from prison. “They need to really see how outrageous it is for a person like me to come home,” said Spaulding to Kolodziej.
- For Third Coast Review, Binx Perino shares an interview with Sivan Spector and Annie Share who, inspired by the Eastland Disaster in 1915 that resulted in the deaths of 844 passengers and crew members here in Chicago, created the Neo-Futurist puppetry show Switchboard, currently being remounted at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theater. “Something I love about Chicago is that it feels like a place where it’s possible to actualize artistic ideas in ways that feel less tangible in other cities,” Share told Perino. “Switchboard started as the seedling of an idea that we committed to.”
- Larry Yando had portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge at the Goodman Theatre for the last 16 years. But now that he’s part of the cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Christopher Donahue is stepping into the humbug spirit. For the Sun-Times, Mary Houlihan talks to the actor who is ensuring Goodman’s 47th annual run of A Christmas Carol continues to be a beloved holiday staple.
- Also for the Sun-Times, Mike Davis dives into the life and history of Jon Michael Hill, the Steppenwolf ensemble member who has been on Broadway with two Steppenwolf-originating productions (Superior Donuts and Pass Over), starred in the Steppenwolf run of Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins’ Broadway-bound Purpose, and is currently on stage in Ngozi Anyanwu’s world premiere play Leroy and Lucy. “Having an artistic home for a young actor just getting out of school is just unheard of,” Hill told Davis. “You can’t ask for a better situation.”
- Davis also reports on how Laura Winters’s Coronation—a farcical, futuristic play about a world where women, 300 years from now, create a new monarchy after continued inability to win presidential elections—hit different following the recent election outcome. “The parallel couldn’t be more perfect,” said one attendee to Davis. “It just felt like I was watching the anger that was happening everywhere around Chicago, happening onstage in real time.”
- Finally, Davis also caught up with Chicago-born playwright Sarah Ruhl, whose Becky Nurse of Salem and Dear Elizabeth were running in adjacent theatres in Lakeview. “Chicago, I think, has a really healthy, awesome scene for new plays,” Ruhl told Davis. “It’s really still very vibrant and exciting here. In New York, you have nonprofits who are still struggling but going strong. But I fear we’ll see a lot of regional theatres close, just because of the economics of the thing.”
Chicago Chisme
Every month, we check in with Chicago/Midwest theatre artists about what’s getting them out of bed in the morning and keeping them up at night. At the dawn of winter we’re focusing on care and cultural consent. More below from two theatre practitioners who specialize in just that! Denise Yvette Serna and Sheryl Williams consulted on Lyric Opera’s Blue (through Dec. 1) and Court’s Falsettos (through Dec. 8), respectively.
You’re both specialists and rockstars in care and cultural consent. What has inspired your practice? Do you recall the first time you were hired to do that kind of work?
Denise: It started unofficially, I think. I was hired as an assistant director for a Taylor Mac production, Hir, which centers around a family with a trans teenager, as they navigate trauma, conflict, and abuse. I learned a lot from how the director Hallie Gordon facilitated her vivid vision of the piece and its themes with care for the artists creating it. I shared affinity, solidarity, and visibility with the queer and trans folks in the room. I noticed how my dramaturgical lens is colored by my experience, values, and identity. My presence in a room can be revolutionary because of who I am and what I care about; with or without a title, I can build the practice of care into the process.
Sheryl: I am always inspired by the humanity of the performing arts and the joy that this work has the potential to bring into spaces. Supporting people finding the joy in having autonomy over their choices and the confidence to try different choices, even if it is not a physically intimate moment, I think, creates space for the performers to dive deeper into the work than they may have before. The first time I was hired for this work was at the beginning of the pandemic. It was a student production that had moved over to Zoom, dealt with heavy subject matter, and had scripted intimate touch. (I did) consulting on the script, helping them find a way to create containers for the spaces they were bubbled in, so that the content of the show didn’t linger with them.
What’s your No. 1 self-care practice this season?
Denise: The bean of the week! My Monday ritual is cooking up a big batch of beans without a recipe, usually with seasonal local veg and what’s in my pantry. It slowly cooks all day, while I have a therapy session or do living room yoga with the smells in the air reminding me that good things take time and will always surprise me.
Sheryl: The two self-care practices I have this season are to drink more orange juice in the morning and to dance/sing around my apartment. With the early nights and being inside more, having a way to take up more space than just my physical size, for me, is a nice way to stretch my soul, like how one stretches their body.
What’s one thing you wish people knew about the art you make or the way you make it?
Denise: It’s remarkable to lead and have a lot of good ideas, but a leader doesn’t always have to have the best idea in the room (rehearsal or otherwise). Sometimes I’m planting the seeds for ideas I might never have imagined myself! I love collaborating and the feeling of volleying ideas and images back and forth. I look forward to learning about new forms (from) visual artists, choreographers, and architects because I’m learning from my collaborators’ ideas and recognizing their brilliance for what it is.
Sheryl: I thrive on the collaboration between me and the performers with director guidance for story notes. I want them to feel like they gave me their ideas, and I helped them plan out the technicalities. I ask performers to make a note as they continue through the choreo and let me know if something is not working anymore; whether impulses change or their throughline has shifted so we can keep the work as autonomous to them and authentic to the work and story everyone is wanting to tell.
Shoot your shot. What artist or company are you dreaming of working with? What show or project are you dreaming of working on?
Denise: I recently directed for Lyric Opera of Chicago and was really inspired by the process. I think it would be outstanding to work on the new opera adaptation of The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros! Sandra is a Chicana elder I truly admire, and the work has made such an impact. I can (so far!) only imagine how beautifully it might fill the epic container of an opera.
Sheryl: I would love to work at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, a huge theatre complex that also houses opera. Originally from the West, I miss the climate and, with my BA in musical theatre and minor in stage combat, opera is a great way to incorporate those skills while providing new tools to a new venue of performers. As a Baldur’s Gate, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect fan, the gamer in me would love to work with Larian Studios or BioWare and collaborate on their romance option scenes if their future series have them.
