Here they are, all of them. Reading my article. Thanks boys.!

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Marie Chouinard's Orpheus and Eurydice

On Sunday I’m going to see Orpheus and Eurydice at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.  This time it will be a dance/performance piece created by “the high priestess of the avant-garde”,Marie Chouinard.  I don’t really know what to expect, except to say it is certainly going to be unlike the other two adaptations of the same myth I’ve seen in less than a year.  I have to admit the first two have been rather great.  So Chouinard, you have big shoes to fill.  I mean Ricky Ian Gordon rocks my face off and so does Chicago Opera Vanguard.  And Sarah Ruhl got a pretty great production at Victory Gardens.  What you got Chouinard?  And why this sudden onslaught of Orpheus and Eurydice?  It is just coincidence or do the morals and themes have a particularly current relevance? Anyone? Anyone?

Sarah Ruhl's Euridice at Victory Gardens

Ricky Ian Gordon's Orpheus and Eurydice at Chicago Opera Vanguard

Alejandro Cerrudo

This weekend is Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Spring Series.  Woot! I can’t wait.  Alejandro Cerruda has a world preiere called Off Screen.  I’ve been pretty smitten with his work Extremely Close, so my dance pants are tingling.  His movement is so organic and weird and wonderful.  His movement for partners is light and so so complicated.  Check out clips of both of those works here. I wonder if he has any interest in an Artisitc Director or Associate Artistic Director at title.  What is to happen as Artistic Director Jim Vincent departs in June?

Men of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

I’m so bummed.  Tonight is the opening of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Auditorium Theatre and I”m in Philly.  So in my absence you should go check them out.  They are premiering a couple of new pieces in Chicago and tonight only they are performing with Sweet Honey in the Rock live….that is too much awesomeness for one stage i think.  Here is the feature i did for Newcity with some fun links.
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“There was such a great energy in the theater; the performance was so magical,” Antonio Douthit says about dancing for President Barack Obama and his family earlier this year.   The young dancer from St. Louis has been with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) for five seasons now and from the time he signed his contract he has been living dream moments like this one.

AAADT is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary through 2009.  Since its inception, the company has become one of the most recognizable names in American dance. A U.S. Congressional resolution recently recognized the institution as a vital “American Cultural Ambassador to the World.” Barbie even got into the action this year with the first doll inspired by a dance company. Generations of young people, specifically young African Americans like Douthit, have grown up with the solitary dream of one day joining the company of modern dancers known for their strength , athleticism and grace.

“I knew this is where I wanted to be when I started dancing,” Douthit says.  He was 16 and performing at a school dominated by young white girls when he remembers discovering AAADT. “I was taken to a whole other place I never thought dance could go.  I had never been around a group of men that performed like men and looked like men and that was something I wanted to do.”  And so go the dreams of young artists all over the country.

Now Douthit finds himself on a fifty-city U.S. tour celebrating a golden anniversary.  This week is stop fifteen, five days at the Auditorium Theatre.  With an ambitious series of programs, AAADT will be dancing pieces that range from the company’s iconic centerpiece, Ailey’s “Revelations,” to contemporary work like that of Robert Battle’s “Unfold.” In addition, Chicago will get a first chance to see company member Hope Boykin’s “Go in Grace,”  a collaboration with Grammy Award-winning female a capella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock.  The ensemble will accompany the dancers live on stage opening night.  Though the dancers are not even to the halfway mark of their marathon tour, it is bold programming like this that keeps them invigorated.

“We get tired.  It is the organization that keeps you going,”  says Douthit.  “I feel like we always give dance back to the community. Dance is so accessible on television and the Internet, people are learning more about the company than they ever have before.  He [Alvin Ailey] would be so thrilled that his dance is for everyone.” (William Scott)

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs at Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress Parkway, through April 5.

Geneva (Carol Enoch) and Jennifer (Nancy Freidrich) give a funeral to a dead cat found by the road

RECOMMENDED – see my original post on newcitystage.com

The Strange Tree Group’s current production of Emily Schwartz’s The Dastardly Ficus and other Comedic Tales of Woe and Misery has been getting a lot of buzz within theater circles and there is a clear reason.  This artfully constructed gem, directed by Amanda Berg Wilson, is the kind that you want to take home in your pocket so you can get a closer look whenever its macabre imagery pops in your head, which will be often.  Everything I love about Edward Gorey, Roald Dahl, and any fairy tales with wicked stepsisters or spinster aunts is currently living warmly in the basement of the Chopin Theater, nestled in the lovely scenic work of Kate Nawrocki and the playwright.  The story is that of the Derbyshire sisters, Geneva (Carol Enoch), the buttoned-up matriarch and Jennifer (Nancy Freidrich), the disheveled free spirit who would rather be bogging for dead things than suffering under her sister’s conservatism.  The series of scenes in the first act sets up a codependent, dysfunctional family relationship that comes to a whirling cacophony when Jennifer invites home a gentlemen suitor for Geneva in the second act. What makes The Dastardly Ficus so fun is the talent of these two women.  Enoch can stare daggers through a coffee table and elicit fear from a potted plant while Freidrich is devilishly childlike in a way that leaves the most delicious taste in your mouth.  This production is a special engagement of the show that started the company five years ago and I’m left with one big question.  Where is the sequel?  These characters have way more life in them.

At The Chopin Theater, 1543 W. Division, (773)598-8240, strangetree.org. Through April 4.

Dancers in traditional Himalayan costumes in "The Rite of Spring"

You have until March 1 to make it to Joffrey Ballet’s Winter Program.  Totaling four works in all, the cornerstone of this season’s program is Vaslav Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring), originally danced by the famed Bellets Russes. The work reenacts a sacrificial fertility rite in which a young woman dances herself to death.  Tribal and raw, Nijinsky’s dance is set to Stravinsky’s iconic score with scenery and authentic Himalayan costumes by Nikolai Roerich.  When the work premiered in 1913, audiences were so outraged they rioted and stormed the streets.  When was the last time you experienced that in a theater?  The Rite of Spring disappeared after its debut and was only revived by Robert Joffrey in 1987 with the meticulous research of husband and wife dance historian team Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer.  Presented as part of the centennial celebration of the Ballets Russes, if you are into dance you have to see this.  It changed ballet forever and paved the road for modern approaches to a classical form.  If you are just into history that’s another great reason to go.  Visit the Joffrey Ballet website to watch a short video on the history of the work.

While we are on the topic of The Rite of Spring, I would be remissed if I didn’t include a link to a piece done on the riot it caused by my friends at WNYC’s Radiolab.  What could be better than learning more on The Rite of Spring from one of the most exciting shows on the radio (or iTunes)?  Well stop asking questions so I can tell you.  Not only will you hear about the dance, but you will also hear one of my favorite Radiolab degments, “Sound as Touch”.  Click here and enjoy!

Go see "Stupid Kids"

I must admit, I went into About Face’s production of  Stupid Kids with very high expectations and knowing it would be hard to meet my standards.  I read John C. Russell’s play in high school and it stuck to me.  As a young gay kid from Alabama coming to terms with my sexuality, the show’s stylized pining and frenzy of bad poetry was the answer to my classmate’s 90210 and Dawson’s Creek.  What co-directors Bonnie Metzgar and Megan Carney gave me was a multimedia, teen angsty, dancing ball of kinetic energy that churns up those gloriously provocative and vomit inducing memories of high school.   I loved it. The story is of a gay kid that goes by Neechee, played balls to the wall by Patrick Andrews.  Neechee has a hard on for Jim (Tony Clarno), the new guy in town with a major attitude and a motorcycle.  Neechee’s best friend is Erin Neal’s Kim, a Patti Smith obsessed revolutionary with a crush on Judy (Whitney White), an A-lister with a totally rad wardrobe.  Jim and Judy are going out and Neechee and Kim are determined to break them up through a 1980s rollercoaster of self-discovery, first kisses, and killer bongs.  It’s way complicated, way hilarious, and way to close to home.  And taking a big risk, Metzgar and Carney have added a contemporary cast of high schoolers using text messages and video diaries to offer a counterpoint to the insane proceedings.  Though it took me a bit to buy into this shadow cast, I came out feeling like its use made the show relevant to an entirely new generation.  For that I’m grateful. I hope this show hangs around.

At the Hoover-Leppen Theatre at Center on Halsted,  3656 N Halsted ,773.784.8565, through March 8. aboutfacetheatre.com

Anthony Moseley

“With this new reality we thought it would be important to make sure arts organizations weren’t becoming isolated, burrowing in, attempting to go it alone in meeting their financial and operational challenges,” shares Peter Kuntz, executive director of the Arts & Business Council of Chicago. Last month his organization, along with the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Illinois Arts Alliance, hosted a forum titled “Break on Through: The Creative Response to Tough Times.”  The objective was to get the arts community to jumpstart a dialogue that might lead to innovation in product and infrastructure.  Though Chicago has not escaped the quake of the economic landscape, the creative vitality that has distinguished the city’s art makers for so long may lead the way out of the financial muck.

“We are a receptor,” says Kuntz, “a community of common experiences, a collective resource if and when we want to be that.”  His sentiments echo the larger conversations currently facing our nation. Our new administration’s mission to restore transparency and encourage bold action may create trickle-down inspiration that gives some Chicago groups the optimism to make it out alive.

“I firmly believe that Barack Obama plus the economic crisis does equal a revolution and it is one we needed badly,” says Anthony Moseley, executive artistic director of Collaboraction, a multidisciplinary performing arts organization that is best known for the Sketchbook Festival of short performances. Moseley’s unusual title positions him in charge of the creative and administrative strata of the company.  A concept he believes to be integral to weathering financially turbulent times ahead.

“I think it is finally time to dissolve the imaginary line between the business and art sides of our company.  It does not exist so stop pretending it does,” asserts Moseley.  “We need more creative thinking in the business meetings and more savvy business smarts in our creative meetings. Ideas are our currency.”

Collaboraction has seen creativity turn directly into dollars by developing a profit center based on existing assets.  The company calls it Experience Design.  Event conceptualization, design, casting and management form the bones of this project that has already proven to be a profitable venture.  The program follows a similar path to Redmoon Theater’s event work, work that is transitioning to a primary focus for the company. This year will see an annual calendar of public events for Redmoon.  Less emphasis on producing shows in their space. Both Collaboration and Redmoon see public engagement as critical steps to ensuring long-term viability and maintaining importance within the community.

In addition to strategic creative moves, companies are also faced with establishing infrastructure that can withstand the turbulence.  As belts tighten, individual giving will decrease and the hunt for foundation, corporate and government money will become increasingly competitive. For the past eleven years, Timeline Theatre has operated with a cash surplus, a record the Timeline staff intends to carry on despite these difficult conditions.  The staff believes transparency is vital to establishing resiliency.

“You can’t avoid it.  It wouldn’t be prudent to not talk about it,” tells Timeline director of marketing Lara Goetsch.  “We created ‘Inside Story’ for people we consider to be investors.  This document gives the supporters an honest assessment of what is going on.”

“Inside Story” is a brief newsletter, financial report and call to arms.  The document will be published quarterly throughout 2009 as a way to keep the general perception of this smaller mid-sized company accurate.  With Timeline’s fortunate economic situation and consistently high quality of production, it would be easy for patrons to turn their attentions elsewhere when making contributions.  Timeline wishes to make it abundantly clear that sustained growth is only possible with the continued support of such individuals.  This and other strategies recently garnered the company the Richard Goodman Strategic Planning Award in the nonprofit category by the Association for Strategic Planning.

“Timeline has always been a calculated risk taker,” says Goetsch. “We don’t want to pare down. We want to be smart and do things we hope stand out. At the end of the day we aren’t being safe, we are being realistic and planning carefully so that we are in good shape.”

In the coming weeks, months and perhaps years, stories of arts organizations scaling back, merging or shutting down will be told. However, stories of nimble, creative problem solving, like the ones above, will also surface.  It is this creativity that will prove Chicago organizations are properly suited up with realistic optimism that will define the city’s cultural DNA into the future.