Gabriela Furtado Coutinho recounts the evocative and spirit-like quality to recent theatrical events.
English cannot hold my heart; there’s no word in the language for my visceral reactions to theatre this past month. In Brazilian Portuguese, we have words for belly laughs-turned-cries caught in the chest and sobs that heave with the rhythm of laughter: “chorar de rir,” “chorar de soluçar.” So powerful were the evocative tales of lineage this month. Theatre transported us across time and back to intimate corners of our souls in Pericles, Azira’i, Chicago Lore(s), Jocey y Las Mariachis, Becky Nurse of Salem, and By the Way, Meet Vera Stark.
I was working on my new POTUS piece, chronicling productions that have provided sanctuary to audience members across the nation, when I rushed to Chicago Shakespeare Theater this past Friday to catch the sweeping Pericles, a late Shakespeare play of ancient Greek proportions, and the vehicle of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Chicago return. I would sit in a dark, enlightened space again at Navy Pier on Sunday for the Destinos-sponsored Azira’i, Zahy Tentehar’s one-woman “musical of memories,” performed in both Brazilian Portuguese and Ze’eng eté.
I tried to make sense of the soluçar (the laugh-sob). What was it about this month? We had many opportunities to mourn and laugh, through characters’ circumstances or in connecting their past to our present. There has also been much to mourn: We lost, for instance, Ken Page and Gavin Creel. There is much to yearn for, especially with the upcoming election. But humor and movement offer a balm, from expressive asides to the audience and Suzuki-like choreo in Tamara Harvey’s Pericles to Zahy Tentehar’s light-hearted humility and shamanic song in Azira’i. Tentehar told me, “I see my play as a ritual. I don’t try to protect myself from the emotions; I let myself experience everything and connect.” I followed suit and let go.
There are times a show immerses you so entirely, you emerge having lived many lives and remembering. The body processes personal histories that connect to the characters’ journeys, and their onstage struggles remind us all over again of why humanity creates theatre. It’s not everyday that we feel this way about a show. “Theatre people are like compulsive gamblers. We always think the next one is going to be the hit,“ said Understudy co-owner Adam Todd Crawford at CST following Pericles. “This was one.”
We, with Shakespeare and through a “song that old was sung,” bring the dead back to living, traverse oceans, and survive.
Such beautiful ghosts appear.
We find, looking for differences, that an Elizabethan play resonates with our own stories, bodies, spirits. I see my grandfather in Pericles. See my brother in Zahy’s son. See myself in Jocey. The stories told across Chicago theatres overlap and, together, touch the most sacred parts of our lived and ancestral experiences. Tamara Harvey reminded me in our Offscript conversation of the power in space—space between the lines, between the words, where we can “bring our own experiences.” Harvey invoked lines from “Letters from Maine,” a poem by May Sarton: “Read between the lines. Then meet me in the silence if you can.”
The quiet triumphs extended beyond onstage titles. We just experienced several major events, including the League of Chicago Theatres (LOCT) Gala, Walder Foundation’s inaugural Platform Awards, 3Arts Awards, and the Jeff Awards. Having attended the LOCT and Walder ceremonies, I can attest to a bright hope suspended in air. Inspiring speeches at both events—plus the very existence of the Platform Awards, a new, major grant opportunity for artists—encouraged me.
As theatre companies continue to shutter in 2024, events like these remind me that some stories have yet to come. What art and transformation will arise from a new initiative? Many wondered at last night’s Platform Awards. What will this event look like many years from now?
Already there was beauty here. In particular, E. Faye Butler’s LOCT Lifetime Achievement Award acceptance speech and J. Ivy’s words on Chicago arts: “Chicago is more than a place; it’s a pulse.” His spoken word performance reverberated in my head with its refrain, “We are not of this world.”
Again and again, Chicago transcended this month. Yet in transcending and reaching for the heavens, the theatre returned audiences back to Earth with a strong sense of home. I confess I’m not paying too much attention to Wicked movie screening dates. This city doesn’t need magic red slippers when it’s busy encountering artists from abroad and applauding Chicago stalwarts. Was it all a dream? Was I in Stratford-upon-Avon? With family in Rio? No matter where you’re from, our stages take you home.
—Gabriela Furtado Coutinho
Now See This
Check out this look into the inspiration behind the Steppenwolf world premiere of Ngozi Anyanwu’s Leroy and Lucy, a new play with music based on the myth of blues legend Robert Johnson. The “sexy and mysterious” Steppenwolf production, running through Dec. 15, stars Jon Michael Hill and Brittany Bradford, is directed by Awoye Timpo, and features compositions from Jeremy Jones.
Around Town
Jerald Raymond Pierce catches us up on a few items you may have missed.
The beginning of the 2024-25 theatre season in Chicago brings with it a celebration of last season: the announcement of Equity Jeff Award winners. Major winners this year include Steppenwolf, which took home multiple awards for its world premiere productions of the Broadway-bound Purpose by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Samuel D. Hunter’s Little Bear Ridge Road, with both being awarded best new work.
For full coverage of the award-winning productions, you can head to our colleagues around the city, including this roundup from the Chicago Tribune, this writeup from the Sun-Times, and this summary from the Chicago Reader.
Now, to look forward, here’s some of the latest news and stories from around the area:
- For the Sun-Times, Mike Davis previews Milo Imagines the World at Chicago Children’s Theatre (through Nov. 10), a world premiere adaptation by Terry Guest of the children’s book by Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson. “I got into theatre as a kid,” Guest tells Davis, “so I have a lot of respect for the ways that storytelling and theatre can teach children and can allow them to express feelings that they have deep down inside.”
- Also for the Sun-Times, Mitch Dudek wrote, in an obituary for Carol Bleackley Sills, who died on Oct. 11 at 89, that she was “someone you should know in the history of Chicago improv.”.
- Stefano Esposito takes Sun-Times readers along as he follows three prospective Blue Men through the popular Blue Man Group’s eight-week training course which, for the first time in the company’s history, took place in Chicago. You’ll have to check out the article to see if any made the cut.
- In a recent Ghost Light column in the Reader, Kerry Reid discusses Lookingglass’s new managing director, Jamey Lundblad, as well as the restructuring going on at Lifeline Theatre after the company fell short of its emergency fundraising goal. As Reid notes, the company eliminated three paid staff positions, including that of artistic director Ilesa Duncan, as it looks to move toward what they’re calling “a more ensemble-driven, volunteer leadership structure.”
- Also in the Reader, Jonah Nink writes about how Mona Aburmishan, a comedian with deep Chicago ties, is teaching Palestinian youth in a West Bank refugee camp how to flex their comedy and storytelling muscles. “I was facing two things,” Aburmishan tells Nink. “One is to put together a program quickly, but also put together a program that can be self-sustaining.”
- As part of the Reader’s coverage of the seventh Destinos: Chicago International Latino Theater Festival, Charlie Kolodziej previews two shows that “reflect what makes theatre so special—its ability to handle difficult themes with sensitivity, style, and a not-so-small measure of fun.”
- Also in the Reader’s Destinos coverage is a piece from Alejandro A. Riera on two South American theatre companies that are taking on environmental themes. “The possibility of being able to internationalize our work is a desire that we have had for a long time,” Gabriel Contreras Hernández, director behind La Memoria de los Sésiles, told Riera.
- For Chicago Magazine, Web Behrens profiles mountain bike fanatic, caffeine moderator, and Evanston native Matt Mueller, the actor currently playing the grown-up Ron Weasley in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in the production running at the Nederlander Theatre.
- Also in Chicago is a Kimberly M. Vazquez conversation with Ruth Guerra about Guerra’s immersive, autobiographical solo work, Ruth on the Rocks, which is being performed in her late father’s repair shop as part of the Destinos festival. “Now it’s a good time because now we have the space, we have the support, and it’s nice to do it here [her father’s storefront], where I feel comfortable,” Guerra tells Vazquez.
- Over at NewCity Stage, Tristan Burns covered the short run of Until, Until, Until…, a work created and directed by conceptual artist Edgar Arceneaux and co-written by Kurt Forman, which ran at the Museum of Contemporary Art earlier this month. Part movie, art installation, and performance piece, the work centers around the controversial appearance of Ben Vereen in blackface at Ronald Reagan’s inaugural gala in 1981.
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. This fall we feel spooky. More below from costume designers Ben Argenta Kress, behind Raven’s The Love Project (through Nov. 3), and Kotryna Hilko, just named a Remy Bumppo associate artist (where Dear Elizabeth runs through Nov. 17).
The all-important question: What are you dressing up as this Halloween? Did you make some of your costume?
Ben: I’m dressing up as a Furby! We spent a morning checking out some of our favorite thrift stores to get inspired and come up with a costume idea and the Unique on Elston had an abundance of fuzzy sweaters. So we pulled together some leftover fabric from previous projects and some Christmas ornaments and had a great time making three ridiculous (and cozy!) Furby costumes.
Kotryna: Ok…so I have to admit I’m not the best at dressing up for Halloween, especially because the last few Halloweens I’ve found myself in tech. But one of my go-to costumes is to dress as a cowboy. Growing up, my mom’s immediate family lived in Texas, and I grew up riding horses. That’s to say, I love any excuse to show off my cowboy boots and wide brim hat collection.
It also gives me an excuse to dress my dog up in her matching cowboy hat and a mini saddle I found at the airport in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, when visiting my family a few years back. Watching Addie waddle around in her mini saddle cracks me up every year.
What’s your No. 1 self-care practice this season, amid busy show openings and election jitters?
Ben: I’m really grateful for my houseplants. I cherish those early morning, sun-kissed plant-tending moments. They force me to slow down, listen, and practice mindfulness, which isn’t always easy elsewhere in life and work.
Kotryna: Recently my partner and I have started a tradition of Sunday night dinners. The idea being that for one meal a week we invite friends or family and treat ourselves to a fully decked out, home-cooked meal. While my partner loves to cook, I love creating warm and inviting spaces, resetting the apartment physically from the chaos of the week. Our lives can feel so hectic and stressful. Connecting with the people we love over a nourishing meal helps us to remember what’s important. For a few hours every week, we get to disconnect from what’s happening at work and in the world at large.
Shoot your shot. What artist or company are you dreaming of working with, or what show are you dreaming of working on?
Ben: Oh, wow. After four years of powering through my grad program, I’m just ready to work, period! But having just designed the very first production of a script, and currently working on designs for another new work here in Chicago, I’m really excited by opportunities to be part of something fresh and new.
Kotryna: I grew up in Chicago, seeing theatre at places like Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare, and Court. Seeing the shows for young audiences was how I fell in love with theatre and what drove me to become a storyteller. I’d love to work on those stages and get to create art in the spaces that raised me and inspired me to become an artist.
