Chicago Spotlight: November 2005

Among the most anticipated productions of November — indeed, of the year — is after the quake, a new work from Tony Award winning director and adapter Frank Galati, based on short stories by contemporary Japanese author Haruki Murakami. As the name suggests, the work dramatizes the survival of a community — the city of Kobe — following a devastating earthquake. For his all-Asian cast, Galati brought in talent from across the country to audition. Curiously — or perhaps short-sightedly — the world-famous Steppenwolf Ensemble, which now stands at 37 members, does not include a single actor of Asian heritage. after the quake plays through February 19 in the remodeled Steppenwolf Upstairs Theatre, where patrons will find new plush seats in the intimate, 299-seat house.

The month’s other big world premiere is Manuscript Found in Saragossa at Lookingglass Theatre Company, another one of Chicago’s famous ensemble troupes. This, too, is an adaptation from a foreign language work of fiction, the novel by Jan Potocki as adapted and directed by Lookingglass ensemble member Christine Dunford. The work is described as a “fever dream of bandits, gypsies, holy men, and thieves” and is a series of stories within stories. The show runs October 30- December 11.

Other world premieres on the docket in November are: The Amazing Adventures of Scott and Earnest, a tale of Hemingway and Fitzgerald by Sean Miller, presented by the Journeymen, Nov. 10-Dec. 18; also A Still Life in Color by Philip Dawkins, an exotic love fairy tale told with Kabuki trappings, presented by The Utopian Theatre Asylum (TUTA), Nov. 17-Dec. 18 (and then it’s off to New York for an Off-Off-Broadway engagement).

The month is unusually short on antique classics, with only three notable exceptions. Chicago Shakespeare Theatre plays host Nov. 22-27 to the great Piccolo Teatro di Milano in their famous adaptation of Goldoni’s Arlecchino, Servant of Two Masters. A few days later, the Bohemian Theatre Ensemble will take a crack at Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Nov. 26-Dec. 18. The odd duck among the classics is German author Frank Wedekind’s Lulu, performed without dialogue in the manner of a silent film, Nov. 12-Dec. 18 by the appropriately named Silent Theatre in association with The Journeymen. We might squeeze in a fourth, a stage adaptation of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, at First Folio Shakespeare Company, Nov. 19-Dec. 18. First Folio has made its name as a summertime, outdoors company but now also is presenting cold-weather shows in a cozy 80-seat house created in the library of a grand Tutor-style mansion.

Many troupes are eschewing the really old in favor of the merely old, dipping into the 20th Century repertory. Robert Bolt’s drama about Henry VIII and Thomas More, A Man for All Seasons, is being presented by TimeLine Theatre Company, Nov. 5-Dec. 18. From the 1920’s, there’s Miss Lulu Bett by Zona Gale, first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama. It’s revived by Keyhole Theatre Company, Nov. 11-Dec. 18. Also from the 1920’s, the fine Remy Bumppo Theatre ensemble offers Aren’t We All, by the impeccable stylist, Frederick Lonsdale, Nov. 27- Jan. 8.

More contemporary work is represented by David Lindsay-Abaire’s Kimberly Akimbo, A Red Orchid Theatre, Nov. 6-Dec. 18; Neil Labute’s The Distance from Here, Circle Theatre, Nov. 9-Dec. 18; British author Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis, The Hypocrites, Nov. 11-Dec. 23; Caryl Churchill’s Cloud 9, Infamous Commonwealth Theatre, Nov. 12-Dec. 18. There’s also Charles L. Mee’s Wintertime, Reverie Theatre Company, Nov. 12-Dec. 18; Sam Shepard’s masterwork, Buried Child, Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company, Nov. 13-Dec. 18; Lanford Wilson’s Talley and Son, Eclipse Theatre, Nov. 15-Dec. 18; and Naomi Wallace’s Slaughter City, Ground Up Theatre Company, Nov. 20-Dec. 17.

Two recent Pulitzer Prize laureates also are featured this month, with shows opening the same night. Victory Gardens Theater presents Nilo Cruz’s Cuban memory play, Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams, Nov. 14-Dec. 18, while Next Theatre offers Paula Vogel’s The Long Christmas Ride Home, which is anything but a warm-and-fuzzy holiday show.

It’s a distinctly unchallenging — if pleasant — month for musical theater; rather a treasury of the familiar. Theo Ubique Theatre Company, an intimate Off-Loop company, rolls out The Fantasticks, Nov. 4-Dec. 11; The Sound of Music takes up residence at Theatre at the Center, Nov. 3-Dec. 18; and The Boy Friend touches down, but barely, for a quick one week at the much-too-vast-for-this-show Chicago Theatre, Nov. 15-19. The presenters have been promoting the fact that Julie Andrews directed it, and you can be sure many ticket buyers somehow will be expecting to see her in Chicago, which they won’t.

November in Chicago also means the annual Dance Chicago Festival at the Athenaeum Theatre, one of the premiere dance events of the year. Dance Chicago 2005 runs Nov. 5-Dec. 4, offering performances by 300 dance troupes and individual artists in nine different programs ranging through classical and modern ballet, jazz dance, percussive dance, folk dance and various fusions forms. Dance Chicago 2005 will feature several of its signature programs, among them Dance for Kids, Too! and the popular Dance Slam in which anyone can dance his/her/their finest five minutes, with the audience determining the winners.

Just about everyone who’s anyone participates in Dance Chicago, including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago and the Joffrey Ballet. A few of the many other featured troupes are: Chicago Dance Crash, Chicago Dance Latin, Cerqua-Rivera Experience, Bob Eisen, Funkadesi and Stone, Hedwig Dances, Hip Hop ConnXion (sic), Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, Kalapyria Dance, Mad Shak, River North Chicago Dance, the Rope Warrior, Salt Creek Ballet, Same Planet Different World Dance Theatre, Thodos Dance, Trinity Irish Dance and on and on and on. My feet are getting sore just listing them all.

It’s not too early for Holiday Fare to begin to kick in, although it’s not as fast-and-thick as it will be come December. The physical theater troupe 500 Clown kicks in with 500 Clown (sings) Christmas Carol(s) at the City owned Storefront Theater, Nov. 18-Jan. 7; the Piccolo Theatre in Evanston (not to be confused with Teatro Piccolo di Milano) presents an original English-style holiday pantomime, Jack and the Wild Goose Chase, Nov. 26-Dec. 17; and Redmoon Theatre presents something new for its annual holiday offering, From Nothing, Nov. 30-Dec. 23. All of these may be considered family-friendly. In true ecumenical spirit, Evanston’s Piven Theatre offers A Festival of Jewish Stories, Nov. 10-Dec. 18.