Clef Notes Journal Spring 2015 Issue Digital Edition

Clef N tes

ARTS & EDUCATION Profile of the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago

Chicagoland Journal for the Arts

Steppenwolf Theatre giving a delightfully contemporary take on a familiar French royal in David Adjmi's new play,

Marie Antoinette SCOTTISH BALLET Tackling Tennessee Williams classic A Streetcar Named Desire at Harris Theater this spring

Spring 2015

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The Robots Are Coming!

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Preview the new exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry

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Contents Spring 2015

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FEATURES

20 Meet Baxter: A Versatile, Thinking Robot Coming to a Workplace Near You

Imagine meeting a coworker for drinks after a long week at the daily grind. Now imagine that coworker a state-of-the-art thinking robot with an 8-foot wingspan that works just feet from you every day. Drinks may be science fiction but that’s the only part of this scenario that is, and a new exhibition at The Museum of Science and Industry reveals just why.

28 Flower Power

With the rise in temperatures comes the time honored tradition of Chicago’s love affair with all things floral. We’ve got a rundown of some of the best flower shows throughout the city this spring.

On the Cover/Above: Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member Alana Arenas stars as Marie Antoinette in David Adjmi's contemporary take on the legendary Queen of France (photos

by Lorenzo Gregorio).

30 Marie Antoinette 2.0

Playwright David Adjmi’s new, contemporary take on the tragic French royal is getting its Chicago premiere on the Steppenwolf stage, and we sit down with the production’s director, Robert O’Hara, and star, Alana Arenas, to see just what’s behind this re-telling of one of history's most compelling women.

5410 Questions for Actress Nambi E. Kelley

Starring this spring in Goodman Theatre's production of Two Trains Running (part of the theater's 2015 August Wilson Celebration), Nambi E. Kelley was good enough to tackle 10 questions that look to get to the heart at what makes her so prolific on stage and screen.

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From the Publisher’s Desk

Photo by Andrew Ross

It’s really quite interesting how differently we perceive things when we are forced to look at them from a different perspective. Quite literally, viewing a person head on and then seeing their profile from the side view can even yield a very different picture. Likewise, it’s interesting how examining concepts, stories and ideas from a new perspective unlocks so much more meaning than you thought was there. This spring issue of Clef Notes Journal is a great example of the many ways in which arts and culture do just that. Examining centuries-old stories through new and fresh lens can birth new insights one might never have realized. Such is the case with Steppenwolf Theatre’s spring production of Marie Antoinette.

When playwright David Adjmi sat down to examine the story of the tragic, but legendary French royal, he quickly began to realize that many of today’s own icons bare much more in common with the beleaguered French queen than anyone might have guessed. And as such, he began to flesh out nuances in her life and story that audiences today could readily relate to, bringing new meaning and poignancy to a narrative whose societal context, on the face of it, might otherwise offer little more than a history lesson. Leslie Price had a chance to sit down with the play’s director, Robert O’Hara and get some intriguing insight into just what makes the young queen such a compelling figure for today’s audiences.

We also had a chance to get an inside look at one of the most highly anticipated dance performances this spring, A Streetcar Named Desire.

Scottish Ballet is giving audiences a powerful new look at Tennessee Williams’ fiery drama in a way only dance could. Giving the tumultuous story new life, film director Nancy Meckler and international choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa have unveiled layers of emotion through choreography and staging that brings new perspective even to the field of dance, itself.

And Fred Cummings’ interview with Carrie Above: Scottish Ballet in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Newcomer sheds new light on the real potency of music, discussing the many ways the international folk star has helped to work for social change through song. It’s a fascinating interview.

In so many ways, spring is another opportunity to view the city we call home in a new light. Shrouded in cold and snow these last few months, we now get to watch the city come to life with new growth and the activity that comes with it. And there’s certainly no better time than spring to get out and open yourself to the myriad new perspectives Chicago culture always invites. Here’s hoping we can be a catalyst for at least some of that enlightenment.

Enjoy!

D. Webb Publisher

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Clef N tes Chicagoland Journal for the Arts Spring 2015

Publisher D. Webb

Editorial Editor in Chief

Patrick M. Curran II

Associate Editors Fred Cummings Scott Elam Christopher Hopper

Editorial Support Rachel Cullen

Staff Writers and Contributors Kathryn Bacasmot Raymond Benson David Berner Martin Henke Laura Kinter Leslie Price Jordan Reinwald Donna Robertson Andrew Sheffield

Art & Design Art Director

Carl Benjamin Smith

Contributing Photographers Colin Lyons Lorenzo Gregorio

Graphics & Design Chelsea Davis Angela Chang

Advertising

Adam McKinney Adam.McKinney@ClefNotesJournal.com Jason Montgomery Jason.Montgomery@ClefNotesJournal.com Subscriptions Clef Notes is published quarterly (March, June, September and December) each year. An annual subscription to the magazine may be purchased by mailing a check or money order for $18 to Clef Notes Publishing, Inc., 5815 N. Sheridan Road, Suite 1107, Chicago, IL 60660. Bulk rates are also available. Credit card purchases may be secured online at ClefNotesJournal.com or by calling 773.741.5502. © 2015 Clef Notes Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the USA.

Contents

Photo by Jim McGuire

Spring 2015

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DEPARTMENTS

10 Luminary: Q&A with Singer/Songwriter Carrie Newcomer

Fred Cummings sits down with folk artist, poet and international music ambassador Carrie Newcomer in advance of her March 8 performance at City Winery. Newcomer will perform works of her recent album release, A Permeable Life.

16 Arts & Education: Building A Niche

How Chicago Arts Institute is carving out a prominent space for little known classical genres art song and vocal chamber music through comprehensive education of young artists and also audiences in the city.

40 Shall We Dance?: A Novel Approach

Scottish Ballet traveled a unique road to infuse a highly revered Tennessee Williams play with dance, telling a well-known story without words. Harris Theater audiences will enjoy the fruits of that labor when the company performs A Streetcar Named Desire this spring.

Above: Prolific singer/songwriter and poet Carrie Newcomer will bring songs from her 2014 release A Permeable Life to Chicago's City Winery this spring.

Read Fred Cummings' Q&A with the artist on page 10 of the Spring 2015 Issue.

48 Curator's Corner: The Stories They Tell

The Smart Museum of Art unveils a new exhibition that peels back layers on the many of the objects and artifacts it has amassed in its 40 years. A collaborative effort, Objects and Voices is a massive exploration that seeks to get behind the meaning of art and the knowledge it brings us.

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Letters from our readers...

Designing Appreciation

Spread from Clef Notes' "Art by Design: featuring pairing outerwear with abstract works from the Richard Koppe exhibition on view this winter at the Elmhurst Art Museum.

chatter room What a great (Art by Design) feature in the winter issue of (Clef Notes Journal)...It was a fabulous example of how ideas translate from the arts in the strictest sense to the broader world around us.

The juxtaposition of the styles and designs you selected with the artwork (by Richard Koppe) showed a real parallel that otherwise might have gone unnoticed by the untrained eye.

Judy Walton Highland Park, IL

I picked up your recent issue...and had to write in about how much I loved the idea of pairing fashion with art!

The article included a gorgeous collection of clothing designs and the art of Richard Koppe played a really great canvas for the concept.

I was particularly thrilled to see clothing by Evanston native Annie Andrews. I actually attended a recent runway show featuring her work in Millennium Park and immediately took to her understated style and soft pallet...I hope you'll continue to do more in this arena. It was great to see fashion lifted up beyond the commercial platform it typically inhabits.

Patricia Hartman Evanston, IL Cover of Clef Notes' Winter 2015 Issue featuring "Art By Design," pairing Chicago fashions and the work of artist Richard Koppe at the Elmhurst Art Museum.

Photo by Todd Rosenberg

Generation Next

Hubbard Street 2 dancer Jules Joseph

Thank you so much for spotlighting Hubbard Street 2 in the winter issue of Clef Notes. Young dancers in Chicago have a long road to navigate and I know full well just how tough it is to get that opportunity to perform professionally, and the work that Hubbard Street is doing to provide that opportunity to aspiring young artists is just invaluable.

It can actually make or break a career, just having an opportunity to test your metal in a real-world, professional setting like HS2...The troupe deserves the attention and support your article gave it!

Thanks, Kyle Siegel Hyde Park - Chicago

Readers may submit letters to Feedback, Clef Notes Publishing, Inc. 5815 N. Sheridan Road, Suite 1107, Chicago, IL 60660 or via E-mail to Scuttlebutt@ClefNotesJournal.com.

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No portion of this publication may be reproduced without the express written consent of the publisher. Clef Notes Publishing makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the magazine’s content.

However, we cannot be held responsible for any consequence arising from errors or omissions.

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Out and About

Photos by Tina Smothers

O

n February 7 Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras (CYSO) presented its annual gala, “The Noteworthy Night: An Evening with The Second City,” at Chicago’s Four Seasons Hotel. T.J. Shanoff, writer/ director/musical director for The Second City emceed the formal affair co-chaired by Jim and Ginger Meyer of Chicago.

Highlights of the evening included separate and collaborative performances by the CYSO’s Symphony Orchestra led by CYSO music director Allen Tinkham and members of The Second City including Brad Einstein, Nicole C. Hastings and Charles Clark Pettitt. The evening also featured the presentation of the 2015 CYSO “Note of Excellence” awards to Northern Trust and Jim and Ginger Meyer.

The gala was attended by a capacity crowd of 300 and raised more than $260,000 for CYSO’s music training and education programs.

T.J. Shanoff, writer/director at The Second City serves as Emcee for the CYSO gala event.

Karen Hedberg, Diane Bruce, CYSO Board of Trustee and Gala Committee Member John Schladweiler and JoyceSchladweiler.

CYSO Music Director Allen Tinkham, Chas Davis (Program Officer for Northern Trust), Deborah Liverett (Senior Vice President and Director of Community Affairs for Northern Trust), and CYSO Executive Director Joshua Simonds.

Nate Dufort (Producer at The Second City), Allen Tinkham and Joshua Simonds.

From The Second City Ensemble: Nicole, Thurman, Annaliese Toft and Brad Einstein.

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O

Photos by John Wheeler

n January 24 the Museum of Science and Industry hosted its 32nd Black Creativity blacktie gala. The special event raised $500,000 to support the annual Black Creativity programming and events, which pay tribute to the culture, heritage and science contributions of African Americans and help motivate youth in the sciences.

The event was attended by 750 guests and featured the annual Black Creativity Juried Art Exhibition with more than 100 original works of art from African American artists from across the country.

Gala Co-chairs Anne Pramaggiore and Cheryl Harris.

Pam and Kelvin Oliver and Melonese and Kevin Brookins.

Toni Preckwinkle, David Mosena and Cheryl Harris.

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Luminary

By FRED CUMMINGS

Carrie Newcomer Singer/songwriter Carrie Newcomer is what people in the industry call a “musician’s musician.” Her inspiration springs not from record sales or revenues but from a probing desire to take the tools she has and make an impact in the world around her. Perhaps that comes from an innate sensitivity or the spiritual connection she sites with the other people that call this planet home. Whatever its origin, it’s what makes here one of the most compelling artists on the folk music circuit today.

If my recent interview with Newcomer taught me anything, it’s that there’s so much more beyond the surface of this artist, and what powers her is capable of making more of a potent impact than anything that tops the charts or fills a stadium on its best day.

Q. Rolling Stone Magazine noted that you ask “all the right questions” in your music. Where does this probing introspection so prevalent in your work come from?

A. Good questions are great companions and I guess I’ve always been more interested and drawn to good questions than easy answers. I guess I’ve always been one of those people who watched and listened, and then needed to ponder what I heard and saw.

Q. What exactly was it like for you touring India as cultural ambassador for the American Embassy?

A. It was an amazing life-giving and lifechanging experience. I love our differences; thank goodness we are all not exactly the same, and that cultures and landscapes are rich with personality and diversity. I was also deeply touched by the common human thread that pulls between us. Songs about family, grief or struggle, joy or a faithful and gritty kind of hope are immediately recognizable.

I loved creatively working with students at the Embassy Schools in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. It was also amazing to travel all over the country with the American Embassy’s cultural outreach program. I sang for Indian audiences and visited community service organizations, particularly those that involved young Indians.

During my first tour in the country, I met Amjad Ali Khan, and his two sons, Ayaan and Amaan Ali Khan, who are the three world masters of

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the Indian classical sarod. I was invited to his home and met his lovely family. We shared songs and talked about music all afternoon, and even though we were grounded in very different musical traditions, there was an immediate spiritual connection...

There is something about music that transcends the boundaries of our spiritual traditions. Music comes up out of the deepest parts of us. It moves us and speaks of our human condition and deepest longings.

Q. How cathartic was it for you, then, to “debrief” artistically following the tour with the subsequent benefit album, Everything Is Everywhere, collaborating with artistic masters of Indian genres and developing such a signature blend of voices for the one-ofa-kind recording?

Q. With such a pondering soul, there has to have been incredible growth in both your music and your own personal walk. Where did you start in terms of your approach to music,and perhaps even life, and where has your journey taken you?

A. I have always been drawn to creative endeavors like music, story, poetry and visual art. I guess I was a pretty sensitive kid and a voracious reader. I’ve also always been fascinated with people. I’ve said for a long time that love itself is actually kind of simple, but people, people are kind of complicated. They will surprise and inspire you, bewilder and disappoint you. I really do love people, which in some circles is unfashionable to say. But honestly, most folks are doing about the best they can, and I’ve never met a person yet without an amazing story to tell.

I didn’t go to school for music; I think I wasn’t ready at that time to risk what I loved the most. I think some of us have to get ready to risk what is at the center of our hearts. But I continued to write and play my songs in coffeehouses, bars and where ever.

After college, I had to follow this thing I loved so much. I had

no idea what that was going to look like. I just knew it was what author Parker J. Palmer calls true vocation, “the thing you cannot, not do.” I think there are things we were born to love; when we engage in these things we lose all track of time. We can learn to do a lot of things well, but the closer we get to what we love deeply and truly, the more potent our work becomes. It may not look like you expected. I mean if to have a successful, satisfying life in music you had to become the next household name on the charts, that’s a very narrow picture. I just think if you follow your true heart, it will take you where you need to go. That may not be where you expected, but it will be where you needed to go.

Q. What is on tap for guests of your March 8 City Winery performance? Can we expect to hear songs from your April 2014 release, A Permeable Life?

A. Yes, I’ll be performing songs from my new album as well as songs that have become old friends, and brand new songs that have not been recorded and released to the public yet.

I always love returning to the Chicago region. I grew up in northern Indiana and it always feels like coming home. w

Photo by Jim McGuire

A. Everything is Everywhere was definitely a project of love.

When I returned from India, I had notebooks filled with poetry, lyrics, essays and other reflective writing. The Khan family was going to be touring in the United States that summer, and so we decided to go into the studio together. It was an interesting challenge to write for this collaboration. I don’t compose Indian classical music and so the songs would all need to be written in a western contemporary folk format. In that sense the songs are accessible to the western ear. But at the same time, I wanted to honor the Khan family’s incredible musicianship, leaving space for what is unique and powerful in the Indian classical tradition. It was an exciting project; some of most magical moments in the studio I’ve ever encountered happened in the making of Everything is Everywhere.

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Arts & Education

Apps & Culture Want to bone up on your knowledge of music history, get a preview of the latest Andrew Pollack or maybe even get an advance reading on the program notes for the CSO concert you’re planning to attend tomorrow night? Well, there’s an app for that. And we’ve got some of the best ways to build your knowledge of culture and the arts with just the touch of a finger.

History of Jazz by Amped, Inc.

PlayShakespeare.com

As the app’s designer notes, reading a book on jazz is much like “learning how to fly a kite indoors.” History of Jazz offers users a platform for chronological study of the art form in an interactive experience that’s rich with video, audio and vibrant design. From seminal figures in jazz history to essential styles and genres within jazz, History of Jazz sets the stage nicely for a thorough study of America’s original musical idiom.

Shakespeare Pro is an all-inclusive app that engages all levels of appreciation for the Bard. With the complete works of Shakespeare in tow (41 plays, 154 sonnets and 6 poems, including doubtful works), users can search the concordance to find an exact word or phrase, or use the “relaxed” searching function to find words close to their search term. The app also includes an integrated and easy-to-access (within screen) glossary of terms, and there’s even a series of 20 short versions of Shakespeare’s plays aimed at getting younger audiences charged about Shakespeare’s works.

Find it on: Apple iTunes® Music Ace by iDocodi Felling left out in an intermission discussion with your aisle mates on the opening work of a symphony concert? Never fear, Music Ace by iDocodi will get you up to speed on many of the terms often bandied about in your typical concert program notes. The nifty app is packed with a comprehensive library of music theory and composition lexicon. And you don’t even need a strong Wifi connection to access the data. Once downloaded, Music Ace gives you access to all its knowledge off line.

Find it on: Apple iTunes® The Shakespeare Pro by

iPad Screenshots (L-R): The History of Jazz home screen; Bill Evans page from The History of Jazz App; Arles with Irises by Vincent Van Gogh page on artCircles App; iPhone Screenshots (L-R): Art Institute of Chicago App; The Field Museum App; The Joffrey Ballet App; Musicality App; Exhibitions page in The Field Museum App; Calendar page in Chicago Symphony Orchestra App (photos courtesy of respective app creators).

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Find it on: Apple iTunes® and Google Play®

Above (L-R): Jazz trumpeter Winton Marsalis (photo courtesy of Chicago Symphony Center); members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (photo courtesy of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra); Cast of Chicago Shakespeare Theatre's Short Shakespare! MacBeth (photo by Liz Lauren); Sue the Dinosaur at The Field Museum (photo courtesy of The Field Museum).

artCircles™

by Art.com For art lovers out there, Art. com brings you an app that helps you discover the art you love in a brand new way. artCircles takes art social with a community curated selection of art from which to browse and create your own virtual gallery of works to share with family and online friends.

As the developer notes, just “select a color, theme or room type from the spinnable selection wheel, and let your fingers wander across a palette of curated art, and your new favorites—from classic masterpieces to contemporary prints.”

As your virtual collection grows, share it with the broader online community or even purchase framed artworks directly from your device.

Find it on: Apple iTunes®

Chicago Arts & Culture At Your Fingertips Of course, Chicago arts lovers will want direct access to their favorite Chicago cultural institutions, and there’s, of course, an app (or two) for that also. Many of the Windy City’s great theaters, museums and ensembles offer apps with an insider’s view into their programming.

Apps from organizations like Broadway In Chicago, Steppenwolf and Goodman Theatre let you browse upcoming events, performance details (times, dates repertoire and artists) and give you instant access to program notes before you even hit the lobby. And, of course, you can buy tickets with the swipe of a finger.

Apps from local museums like The Field offer an opportunity to tour their exhibitions digitally and discover behind-the-scenes stories through broader examinations of concepts and histories. With audio clips, videos and commentary by curators and scientists, users can get even deeper learning and insights about topics presented and then share them through handy links to social media profiles.

Take the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with you on the go with their interactive app that helps you browse their extensive media libraries, watch videos, indulge insightful podcasts and explore upcoming Symphony Center events.

And get ahead of the game with Joffrey Ballet’s own app, which gives an insider’s view of their performance season with biographies, videos and background on everything from the company’s founders to the renowned Joffrey Academy of Dance and their numerous programs.

So even when the weather outside is indeed frightful, a delightful tour of Chicago’s rich culture can still be at your fingertips.

Above from top: Goodman Theatre's marquee (photo by Jeff Goldberg); Conductor Riccardo Muti leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (photo by Todd Rosenberg).

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Arts & Education

Space to Create

By ANDREW SHEFFIELD

P

ivot Arts and Loyola University’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts (DFPA) continued their partnership this winter with a unique Performing Arts Incubator Program for artists which included valuable mentorships for Loyola undergraduates. The program provided companies and individual artists time and space to develop work that is innovative and often blurs the boundaries between music, dance, theater and other disciplines. Students worked alongside professional artists on each project as performers, assistant directors, dramaturgs and production managers.

This year’s incubator included works by Isaac Gomez, Laboratory for the Development of Substitute Materials (LDSM) and Vanessa Valliere.

The program culminated with a free public showing of works-in-progress on Monday, February 23 at Loyola University's Mundelein Center for the Fine and Performing Arts.

While there have long been solid development programs for playwrights at established Chicago theaters, Pivot Arts and Loyola’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts (DFPA) have teamed up to provide valuable creative space to ensembles and partners who need time to develop original and collaborative work. This is the third year of the Incubator Program. Last year’s artists included: Blair Thomas, Mark Guarino and Jon Langford, Heart and Brains and The Dilettantes.

The program began with playwright and literary manager of Victory Gardens, Isaac Gomez, who is developing a play that integrates traditional Mexican music as a core storytelling component. Entitled The Women of Juarez, this ethnographic piece focuses on the mass murder of women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, using testimonials of real women from the city, resulting in a multidisciplinary work that challenges the boundaries of traditional storytelling. terraNOVA Collective continued development of Don Chipotle, a 14•CNCJASpring 2015

multi-medium play written by award winning playwright and performer Juan Villa. Inspired by the classic tale, Don Quixote, and by Villa’s own experience growing up in the violent atmosphere of lower East Side Manhattan, Don Chipotle uses puppetry, music, song and dialogue to create a magical adventure about an uninhibited child who has his childhood taken away.

Laboratory for the Development of Substitute Materials (LDSM) developed Structural Remains: A Memory Experiment, a devised piece based on abandoned buildings and the memories that remain. Particularly unique to the Chicago theater landscape, LDSM is a devised theater collective that seeks to make collectively devised, research-based work that explores issues arising from scientific research and the built environment using the tools and techniques of theater.

Other works developed in this year’s incubator included Nice Try by Vanessa Valliere. The work combines puppetry and dance in an interactive clown show based around the idea of an impaired performer. Amidst an adventure of dolls, a burlesque show and mashed potatoes, Valliere’s well-meaning clown aims to please, and her utterly unique failure is inevitably a delight to the audience. A performer, and clown, Valliere calls herself a “ proud nerd-cheerleader” for Chicago’s own thirtypiece marching band, Mucca Pazza.

To learn more about Pivot Arts or their collaborative incubator program, visit pivotarts.org.

Above: Cast of The Women of Jurez by playwright Isaac Gomez (photo courtesy of Pivot Arts); Right: Participants of The Second City's Adult Immersions Workshop (photo courtesy of The Second City).

Second City Program Giving Adults Immersive Improv Training This Summer

T

By ANDREW SHEFFIELD he Second City Training Center welcomes adults from around the city and around the world to learn new skills, meet new friends and take advantage of Chicago’s rich comedy scene through their innovative educational program, Summer Adult Immersions. The dynamic improve workshop features four levels of Improvisation and Sketch Writing classes offered to adults 19 and up in weeklong sessions over the course of the summer months.

The program aims to give students an overview of Second City’s trademark method of improvisation and exactly how they use it to create something from nothing. Participants are guided to dive into the principles, techniques and exercises that Second City actors typically use to generate characters and scenes in their work. Students may complete all four levels, or visit for a week or two during the 12 weeks of sessions. Tuition for the program includes a ticket to a Second City or UP Comedy Club show.

According to Kerry Sheehan, President of the Second City Training Centers and Education Program, the approach not only helps participants to hone skills for creativity on the stage but also has applications that can benefit us all. “The Second City Training Center offers adults a unique opportunity to take a crash course in the philosophies and methods that Second City uses to find, explore, and create material,” says Sheehan. “Whether you’re a business professional looking to improve your presentation skills or a student looking to meet new friends, these immersions are a great way for people of all levels to come together and have some fun, all while exploring the fundamentals of improv.”

The first session of this year’s Adult Immersions improve training begins Monday, June 1, and new sessions will continue every week for 12 weeks, ending August 28.

Registration information and class descriptions are available at secondcity. com.

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Buildinga

Arts & Education

Niche

By DONNA ROBERTSON

C

Chicagoans are indeed fortunate to have a cornucopia of opportunities to experience the arts at their fingertips.

In spite of such artistic wealth, however, there are still some niches waiting to be discovered on a larger scale. One young arts organization is striving to bring one of those niches to our attention and making great strides to that end.

Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (CAIC)—founded in 2010 by pianists Nicholas Hutchinson and Shannon McGinnis and tenor Nicholas Phan—is working hard to bring the beauty of art song and vocal chamber music to the Chicago public. Performed by professional or professionally trained classical singers and accompanists, art song seamlessly marries music and poetry. A composer strives to interpret and create an auditory vision of the written words.

That interpretation is then conveyed to an audience through the collaborative duet between singer and accompanist.

CAIC was founded because, as artistic director Nicholas Phan explains, “We saw there was a need for education on all fronts—artists, singers, pianists, musicians—in this repertoire of classical art song and vocal chamber music.” Thus, education remains the core of CAIC’s mission.

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Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago is helping art song stand out amid a crowded field of classical music genres through intensive training and abundant performance opportunities, creating artists who are more communicative and adept in the style and audiences who have a deeper appreciation of the field.

Shannon McGinnis, director of education, and her colleague, executive director Nicholas Hutchinson, oversee the numerous educational activities CAIC has taking place throughout the year. As it has been from the beginning, the day-to-day activities center on vocal coaching.

Together, McGinnis and Hutchinson work with college-aged singers and emerging young artists, preparing them for auditions, recital programs, operatic roles and the like. They also work from time to time with solo pianists who want to enhance their skills as collaborative pianists.

Beyond their daily activities, CAIC presents its anual multi-day Collaborative Works Festival each September, in which they conduct a master class for singers, featuring one of the festival artists as the pedagogue. At their first festival in 2013, operatic countertenor David Daniels led the master class, and this past September, the class was taught by mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung.

A second annual master class is offered in the spring (this year on February 27), usually featuring veteran pianist and accompanist Martin Katz and singer-pianist duos. This year’s class focused on French mÊlodie and featured duos from around the Chicago area.

All master classes are free and open to the public. There is no cost

to participate or attend. Past participants have included both amateurs and emerging professionals, ranging from college-aged or master degree students to young performing artists to everyday attendees of an operatic performance.

The third special educational program offering CAIC presents is the Winter Workshop. This past December, the workshop comprised a three-day event, focused exclusively on Czech art song and local chamber music repertoire, featuring nine singers and one pianist and led by University of Michigan professor Timothy Cheek. Cheek wrote the definitive guide

Left: CAIC students undergo professional coaching with institute teachers; Above: Artists and students perform in the CAIC Collaborative Works Festival, an annual event each September featuring masterclasses and recitals with the art song genre as their focus.

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Arts & Education “We couldn’t take for granted that people knew what this repertoire was, so that’s become a real part of our mission as well, (to) build audiences for the art form.”

- Nicholas Phan, CAIC Artistic Director to Czech lyric diction and local repertoire.

New this year is the addition of the Vocal Chamber Music Fellowship, a dynamic 30 week residency (with the option to renew for a second season) for young singers and pianists.

Currently, CAIC is working with four singers and one pianist in helping them prepare for recitals and other performances in and around Chicago. The CAIC artistic staff offers fellows coaching on a weekly basis, help with program building, and entrepreneurship training such as marketing, grant research, and incorporation. In return, the fellows act as ambassadors for CAIC and the art song repertoire through their start-up ensemble, Fourth Coast Ensemble.

Although CAIC sprang from the desire to educate singers, the organization quickly recognized the need to educate audiences as well. According to Phan, “We couldn’t take for granted that people knew what this repertoire was, so that’s become a real part of our mission as well, (to) build audiences for the art form.” As Phan explains, with music education being increasingly cut from school budgets, fewer young people are being exposed to this type of music at a very pivotal time in their lives, and they are growing up with little or no knowledge of classical forms of music. In addition, today’s technology presents a double-edged sword; while music is readily available to be downloaded instantly, for art song in particular, this has presented a difficulty because “the words are so important, and without liner notes, people digest music in a different way; they don’t have that added resource of text and translation in front of them, so, as a result, people listen to music in a different way.

We browse things rather quickly as opposed to taking the time to absorb it and listen.”

To counteract the lack of early education and programming notes, CAIC strives to provide educational experiences that are relaxed and enjoyable for audiences. Most of CAIC’s concerts are presented salon style, including their house concert series Left: Some of the diverse performance experiences of the CAIC platform include intimate, salon style concerts as well as collaborations with area institutions like the Poetry Foundation and University of Chicago Presents Series (photos by Elliot Mandel)

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Above: A long time University of Chicago resident ensemble, the acclaimed Pacifica Quartet will perform as part of the University of Chicago Presents' Centenary Weekend, one of the collaborative events CAIC has worked together with the university to present during the 2014-2015 season (photo courtesy of The Pacifica Quartet).

and intimate lieder lounge recital series. The programs are on the shorter side. Wine and refreshments are usually provided, and the concerts are held in intimate spaces where audiences can meet the artists afterward and discuss the works with them. This casual context provides people with the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of this art form through conversation and experience, and, according to Phan, “It’s the most personal connection you’ll probably get with a singer as an audience member.”

Another successful avenue for bringing in new audience members is CAIC’s collaboration with other organizations in Chicago.

Capitalizing on the obvious, natural connection between art song and poetry, CAIC and the Poetry Foundation have developed an on-going relationship. For the past two years, the opening concerts of the Collaborative Works Festival have been held at the Poetry Foundation in their salon space. The two organizations worked together to develop programs built around poetry or poets and exploring various composers in relation to the poets. The collaboration has been quite successful, with the 2014 concert selling out within minutes.

CAIC also collaborates with University of Chicago Presents, which is one of the largest Chicago presenters of internationally renowned classical and jazz concert artists. During the weekend of April 10-12, University of Chicago Presents is showcasing a World War I festival, "Centenary Weekend: The Crossroads of WWI and Music," which will explore chamber music connected with the war and that time period, and CAIC is creating the vocal component for this festival.

As Phan explains, art song is a way to pull at the heart strings “through immediate and direct connection, and through subtlety and shared experience, in a much more personal way. That’s what I find so powerful about it, and, as a performer, what I love about it, (is) that you get a chance to really connect directly with the audience; you’re relating this poetry through yourself, sharing your experience with the people in the room who are moved because they share something of that experience too.”w

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MEET Baxter Imagine going out for drinks after a long work week with your closest colleague who just so happens to be a versatile, 8-foot thinking robot. Far fetched? Perhaps, but the possibility of working along side an 8-foot thinking robot isn't, and a new exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry looks to shed some light on why.

By MARTIN HENKE

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Today, the personal computer is just about Baxter is a most versatile thinking robot that is capable of a sundry manufacturing tasks and already works alongas ubiquitous as the Venti Mocha Latte side people (photo courtesy of The Museum of Science and Industry). and the flat panel television screen. Just about every home, school and office have with humans, and the perfect specimen to help tell the story of (at least) one, and they don't cost nearly as Robot Revolution, the newest exhibition at The Museum of much as when they first made their splash on the marketplace.

Science and Industry this spring.

Just like personal computing in the 1970s, robotics today is With support from internet giant Google, Robot Revolution on a fast track to ubiquity and few people really know what to make of it all. will explore just how these products of human ingenuity will ulEnter Baxter, a “revolutionary milestone robot” with an 8-foot wingspan, the timately become our companions and colleagues, changing how capability to perform a wide range of manufacturing tasks and work side-by-side 20•CNCJASpring 2015

we play, live and work together. The exhibit will allow guests to step into a visionary world where robots are not just a curiosity, but a vital asset, interacting with robots that have rarely been shown to the public before.

In a society drowning in sci-fi fantasy (and perhaps a little technological apprehension), the exhibition presents a unique opportunity for the museum to de-mystify the perception of robotics and the impact the in-

dustry will have on our everyday existence. Says John Beckman, director of exhibit design and development for the museum, “We wanted to create an exhibit that would showcase how and why robots will be an asset to humankind—how they can and will help improve our lives.” Having worked closely for the past several years with leading robotics companies and industry groups to celebrate National Robotics Week each April, the Spring 2015CNCJA•21

Already used in manufacturing circles worldwide, Baxter is extremely versatile, having the ability to interpret tasks at hand and then react accordingly, making him the go-to guy for industrial facilities handling low-volume, high-production responsibilities. museum has tapped a well honed network to help tell the story of Robotics Revolution and the many functions robots will assume in our every day lives.

Not only an informative platform for a fast growing industry, Robot Revolution is also part of a growing trend in museum science to motivate future technology professionals. “We believe it is vital to inspire the next generation of engineers and tech entrepreneurs, so that we can continue to see technology change the world,” noted Jim Lecinski, head of Google's Chicago office.

Robot Revolution will feature 40 robots on loan from a wide selection of global robotics partners and spread across five distinct sections that map out ways in which the industry will impact and maybe even enhance our lives.

In paring down the many options to include, the museum consulted with a small panel of robotics experts who helped to cull a collection of examples that represented where the technology currently is and where it is headed in coming years. “We ultimately chose (robots) that would have the ability to interact with guests in a meaningful way or would help further tell the story of robotics in our world,” said Beckman.

The exhibition will explore "Cooperation," a section that will reveal ways in which robots can work to assist and enhance our lives; "Skills," which will shed light on ways in which robots can mimic and “often surpass” human capabilities; "Locomotion," which explores the varieties of ways robots can get around and gain humans access to places we ourselves can’t venture; and there’s "Build-aBot," which gives museum-goers

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an opportunity to test out their own ingenuity by assembling the robots and making them perform; and finally, there’s "Smarts," which shows guests just how these machines are able to sense, plan and then take action, all the while comparing and contrasting how we ourselves learn.

And this is where we find Baxter. Already used in manufacturing circles worldwide, Baxter is extremely versatile, having the ability to interpret tasks at hand and then react accordingly, making him the go-to guy for industrial facilities handling low-volume, high-production responsibilities.

One of the many interactive subjects of the exhibition, guests will be able to challenge Baxter in a game of Tic Tac Toe and see just how he learns how to beat you.

Another “Smarts” challenge will show how a robot is able to solve a Rubik’s Cube, while another robot, ROBOTIS OP, will reveal how it can actually track guest’s faces and kick a soccer ball.

Medical robots like the ESKO exosekeleton and the Da Vinci surgical system will also be on hand to shed light on how advances in robotics have and will impact the medical care we receive.

With a myriad of applications to our own lives, robotics is perhaps a field we all should learn more about, and soon.

In just a few short years, these technological wonders will be at work in our everyday lives. Robots Revolution offers Chicagoans a unique opportunity to introduce ourselves to what quite possibly could be our next coworker, companion, dare I say it, friend. (It could happen.)

Robot Revolution opens May 21 at the Museum of Science and Industry.w One of 40 robots featured in Robot Revolution, Baxter has an 8-foot wingspan and learns from human interaction, making it extremely adaptable (photo courtesy of The Museum of Science and Industry).

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Photo by Christie Williams

Around Town

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Who: Davina and the Vagabonds What: New 2015 Release Sunshine When: April 5, 2015 Where: City Winery How: Visit citywinery.com/chicago

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The newest release for Twin-Cities based Davina and the Vagabonds is as brash as the scintillating jazz blues band that recorded it. Entitled Sunshine, and recorded in authentic analog, the record is a bold testament to the last century in American music with a sound that is about as original as it gets.

From the New Orleans kick of “Red Shoes” to the soulful lilt of “Away from Me,” every track is statement song, all underscoring the authenticity of the band’s namesake and lead singer Davina Sours and the musicians that made their sound the toast of the 2012 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and marked the band as “…easily among the breakout stars” at the 2013 Monterey Jazz Festival (The Monterey Herald).

Just hearing the band is an experience all its own. Their spring Chicago appearance at City Winery should provide a nice thaw for a city that’s been chilled for just a bit too long this winter.

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EXPO ON TAP

Tidbits Smooth Tunes Elgin Community College (ECC) Arts Center has added a Mother’s Day weekend engagement of the hit production Under The Streetlamp to their 2014-2015 season. Exuding the rapport of a modern-day Rat Pack, the Streetlamp quartet delivers an electrifying evening of doo-wop, Motown, and rock ‘n’ roll, including favorites from The Drifters, The Beach Boys, The Beatles and a show-stopping salute to the Four Seasons.

Under the Streetlamp harmoniously blends the talents of Michael Cunio, Michael Ingersoll, Christopher Kale Jones and Shonn Wiley—all recent leading cast members of the Tony Award-winning musical Jersey Boys.

Together the group has filmed two PBS Specials, recorded three albums and performed to packed houses throughout the country.

Performances of Under The Streetlamp will take place on Saturday, May 9 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, May 10 at 3 p.m. at the ECC Arts Center, located at ECC’s Spartan Drive Campus, 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin.

Dynamic Duo

Singer/songwriter duo Dala will bring their eclectic brand of folk music to the ECC Arts Center Campus April 18 at 7:30 p.m.

Winners of the 2010 Canadian Folk Music Award for Vocal Group of the Year, Dala’s Amanda Walther and Sheila Carabine write and sing in a harmony hailed by Exclaim Magazine as, "ethereal, eloquent and downright beautiful.” Dala draws upon influences like The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Bob Dylan, bringing a diverse perspective to a genre that thrives on authenticity.

For tickets or more information, call 847.622.0300 or visit elgin. edu/arts.

EXPO Chicago (The International Exposition of Contemporary and Modern Art) will make its return for the fourth year to Navy Pier’s Festival Hall September 17 – 20, 2015. Attracting more than 32,500 visitors in 2014, EXPO Chicago continues to showcase the city as an international cultural destination, while highlighting the region’s contemporary arts community and vast collector base.

Tony Karman, the exposition’s President and director has high expectations that the show will eclipse even last season’s showing and noted that the organizers remain “focused on presenting a strong list of leading international dealers and expanding our critically acclaimed programming to attract collectors and curators to the city of Chicago.”

Expect 140 leading international galleries in both the main exposition as well as the Exposure section, showcasing younger galleries.

And expect the return of key programs including the /Dialogues panel and lecture series presented in partnership with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, along with the popular opening night gala benefit supporting the Museum of Contemporary Art, Vernissage.

For more information or for tickets, visit expochicago.com.

Back to Bach The 42nd annual edition of the Chicago area’s Bach Week Festival will feature all six of Bach’s beloved Brandenburg Concertos, a first for the festival. Performed in the course of concerts April 10 at Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston and May 1 and 3 at Anderson Chapel at North Park University on Chicago’s north side, this year’s festival is a collaboration between Bach Week and North Park’s School of Music.

Richard Webster will conduct the Bach Week Festival Orchestra and Chorus and North Park University Chamber Singers.

Guests will not want to miss the intimate, late-evening Candlelight Concert in Evanston on April 10 that will present music for recorder and theorbo, another festival first.

Clockwise from top right: Participants enjoy the excitement of Vernissage 2012, the opening night gala of Expo Chicago at Navy Pier (photo courtesy of Expo Chicago); Acclaimed conductor Richard Webster will lead the Bach Week Festival Orchestra in the 42nd annual Bach Week Celebration (photo courtesy of Bach Week Festival); Joffrey Ballet in The Nutcracker (photo by Herbert Migdoll); Acclaimed singer/songwriter Dala (photo courtesy of ECC Arts Center); Cast of Under the Streetlamp (photo courtesy of ECC Arts Center).

Changing Traditions Ashley Wheater, artistic director of The Joffrey Ballet, announced an

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epic 60th Anniversary Season of Celebration in 2015-2016 that includes three world premieres, the North American premiere of Sylvia by John Neumeier, the Joffrey premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s Fool’s Paradise, and the return of Frederick Ashton’s lavish Cinderella. Notably, 2015 will also mark the farewell season of Robert Joffrey’s The Nutcracker. The Joffrey has commissioned Christopher Wheeldon, whose An American in Paris is Broadway-bound this spring, to re-envision a major new Nutcracker to receive its World Premiere here in December 2016. A final chance for Chicagoans to experience the enduring legacy of the beloved Chicago holiday tradition may sadden dance lovers in the Windy City, but the excitement over a new, magical Nutcracker should heal heavy hearts nicely.

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Blooming This Spring

After the harshness of a Chicago winter, there’s nothing better for rebuilding our relationship with the outdoors than the blooms of spring, and the Windy City has some of the most spectacular flower shows in the Midwest.

Spring Flower Show (Saturdays through May 10) Lincoln Park Conservatory 2391 N. Stockton Drive Chicago, Illinois 60614

Sun Showers pring Flower Show Garfield Park Conservatory (Daily through May 10) 300 North Central Park Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60624-1945 Sun Showers, the Spring Flower Show at the Garfield Park Conservatory, just west of the Chicago Loop, opened this February in the conservatory’s newly renovated Show House. The exhibit highlights their impressive collection of azaleas, camellias and a bounty of spring blooms. Running through Mother's Day, May 10, the exhibit is a great way to enjoy some of the most beautiful blooms of the season and usher in spring in fine fashion.

The Orchid Show (Daily through March 15) Chicago Botanic Gardens 1000 Lake Cook Road Glencoe, IL 60022 The dazzling family Orchidaceae headlines Chicago Botanic Garden’s second annual Orchid Show. A month-long slate of orchid events and classes will keep everyone in the family fascinated from kids to adults, including several sessions on the least known but best loved orchid, vanilla. Who knew?!

Judy Istock Butterfly Haven (Daily ongoing exhibition) Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum 2430 North Cannon Drive, Chicago, IL 60614 Get yourself an eyeful of 75 species of exotic butterflies and awe-inspiring bird species from the Southern hemisphere in the museum’s greenhouse filled with flowers, tropical trees and 1,000 butterflies, some of which have never before been seen in our region.

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Lincoln Park Conservatory has its own annual flower show that boasts some pretty rare sights, including a direct descendant of the great azaleas that once bloomed at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893.

In addition, this year's shows will feature a changing selection of spring blooming plants from flowering annuals to perennials right in the heart of Chicago’s bustling Lincoln Park.

Garden Gourmet Series 2015 Chicago Flower and Garden Show at Navy Pier Where “chef whites” meet spring greens, this year the popular Garden Gourmet series features the city’s top chefs returning to the Chicago Flower and Garden Show at Navy Pier.

The list of presenting chefs reads like a “who’s who” of the sizzling Chicago culinary scene.

Presenting sponsor Mariano’s will host recipe demonstrations by their corporate chefs and “Tastemaker” partner chefs every day of the show at 11:30 a.m.

But amid the flowers and the food, don’t miss the closing weekend (March 21-22) when the Garden Gourmet area transforms into cake studio, where plain cakes are turned into works of art during the national cake decorating finals competition, marking the first occasion where the national cake decorating contest will be held in Chicago.

Clockwise from bottom left opposite page: Garfield Park Conservatory entrance (photo courtesy of the Garfield Park Conservatory); An orchid from the annual Chicago Botanic Garden's Orchid Show (photo courtesy of the Chicago Botanic Gardens); Entrance Garden of the Chicago Flower and Garden Show at Navy Pier 2013 (photo courtesy of the Chicago and Garden Show); Chef's hat (photo by Pixel Robot); The Lincoln Park Conservatory (photo courtesy of the Chicago Park District); Monarch Butterfly from the Judy Istock Butterfly Garden at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum (photo courtesy of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum).

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MARIE 2.0 ANTOINETTE

Steppenwolf Theatre has unveiled a new contemporary take on the infamous young Queen of France and you'll be surprised at just how relevant her ilk is today when you take a look at the historical icon's life through the lens of playwright David Adjmi.

By LESLIE PRICE

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Steppenwolf's Chicago premiere of Marie Antoinette aims to entertain audiences with the tale of the woman who could actually be considered the original celebrity train wreck. In fact, Justin Bieber, Britney Spears and the entire Kardashian brood have nothing on the young queen of France whose extravagance and excess gained her legions of fans and simultaneously sealed her fate.

Led by talented director Robert O'Hara, Marie Antoinette is a contemporary take on the historic figure. Part fashion show and part historical drama, the production combines the opulence of 1700s French royalty with modern day language and a healthy dose of rock and roll. “The 30•CNCJASpring 2015

story is told with a very different take than a historical drama normally is told,” says O'Hara. “It's funny, it's fierce, it's fast and furious. It's a spectacular experience that is a huge speeding train that we know will end in a glorious wreck.”

The story begins partway into Marie Antoinette's marriage to Louis XVI and is told in brief vignettes—glimpses into the queen's life that O'Hara thinks audiences will find quite familiar. “We're used to sound bites,” he says. “I think that because of all the reality television shows and all the celebrity love fests we have, we're used to seeing these morOpposite page: Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member Alana Arenas stars this spring in the titular role in David Adjimi's contemporary take on the French icon, Marie Antoinette.

Photo by Lorenzo Gregorio

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sels of truth about Beyonce…and Angelina Jolie or whatever and diving into their story in whatever way that we can...That context allows the audience to get in touch with the story.”

It's a story that—on the surface—isn't typical Steppenwolf fare. Marie Antoinette is an over-the-top comedy that explores a historical figure through outrageous costumes and situations with a sound track that mashes up French hip hop with classical music.

Definitely not exactly what Steppenwolf is known for.

Or is it?

“It's a dark comedy,” laughs O'Hara. “It's funny until the head starts to be chopped off. We're all very excited to see what happens. It actually fits right into Steppenwolf's standard domestic realism. It's just that Marie Antoinette's domestic situation is she lived at Versaille. Her level of domesticity is crazy to us.”

Steppenwolf's production takes things even further by casting company member Alana Arenas in the title role. “You don't usually see African-Americans playing European royalty,” says O'Hara. He suggested the script to Steppenwolf with Arenas in mind, and there was no hesitation from the theater about the non-traditional casting. He explains, “The wonderful thing about her being African-American is that it really parallels Marie Antoinette's life because Marie Antoinette was not French. She was Austrian. She was an outsider in her own kingdom.” It doesn't hurt that Arenas has some major acting chops, too. Raves O'Hara, “She's a thrilling performer.”

Like many people, Arenas first thought of Marie Antoinette's outrageous style and how much fun that would be to explore. “Robert gave me the play to read, and I really liked it,” says Arenas. “I do know that she enjoyed being a girl and I really enjoy being a girl, I immediately leapt to the fun of the character.”

Opposite page: (left to right) Ericka Ratcliff (Yolande De Polignac), Tamberla Perry (Therese De Lamballe) and ensemble member Alana Arenas (Marie Antoinette) in Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s production of Marie Antoinette.

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Photo by Michael Brosilow

“We're not interested in doing some sort of Masterpeice Theatre museum piece of Marie Antoinette. It's Marie Antoinette told through a contemporary lens, but we're not resetting it in 2015. There will be a mashup of periods and contemporary looks and feels and sounds.”

- Robert O'Hara, Director

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Fun and fashion are, indeed, a major part of this production. Though be profited if I didn't try my best to understand who this person was and the concept and the language are contemporary, there's no shortage of bring forth my interpretation of that.” extravagant clothing complete with Rococo-inspired dresses that are alThough the production aims to be big and bold, the journey of Marie most impossible to sit in. With the audience positioned on two sides of Antoinette is what really holds the play together, and Arenas thinks that the stage, “It's almost like a runway show,” explains O'Hara. “From the there's a lot more to the notorious queen—and, by extension, to famous moment you walk into the theater, you're going to be put into this high personalities in general—than most audiences realize. “People feel like end, haute couture fashion show.” just because (celebrities) get a lot of attention, that it's all enviable. I don't Although fun is importhink we make allowances tant in the world of Marie for people who understand Antoinette, equally important that, yes they have a public to O'Hara and Arenas is creatrole...but it doesn't mean ing a story that is compelling they enjoy it.” to watch—a story that's more For audiences who than just a parade of flamboythink a modern take on ant dresses. “I'm just dealing Marie Antoinette has alwith trying to bring her to life ready been tackled in Sofia as I would with any other perCoppola's 2006 film, Robert son,” says Arenas.

O'Hara urges them to think Adds O'Hara, “The cosagain. “That (film) would tumes are all part of the fun of be a springboard to what exploring the drama of celebyou're going to experience rity and society's fascination when you see the play at with it.”

Steppenwolf,” he says. “If Arenas has some experithat was 180 degrees, then ence bringing a real person to our play is 360 degrees from life on stage. At Lookingglass what you think of as the stoTheatre in 2007, she played ry of Marie Antoinette.” the title character in Black O'Hara continues, “We're not interested in doDiamond—the real life leader ing some sort of Masterpeice of a band of young Liberian Theatre museum piece of female freedom fighters.

Marie Antoinette. It's Marie “Black Diamond was a lot Antoinette told through more daunting because that a contemporary lens, but woman is actually alive... we're not resetting it in 2015.

There's more room for people There will be a mashup of to scrutinize,” says Arenas. periods and contemporary Creating the character of looks and feels and sounds.”

Marie Antoinette has proven With fashion inspired to be a different sort of chalby both history and modern lenge, however. “This is haute couture, music that's challenging,” she explains, evokes past and present, and “because I'm up against eva focus on the cult of celeberyone else's perception of rity both in the 18th century Marie Antoinette. There are so and in today's world, Marie many different accounts about Antoinette is filled with imher life. Sometimes you don't ages and ideas that are cerknow what source is credible, Ariel Shafir (Axel Fersen) and Alana Arenas (Marie Antoinette). tainly thought-provoking so you have to choose what and wide-ranging. With so you believe. I still have to really much to offer, Steppenwolf is hoping that the production appeals to its rely on imagination. I have no idea what it's like to be a queen, and I don't typical audiences along with a new group of theatregoers. know any queens that are (so) accessible that I can just say, 'Hey, tell me Says O'Hara, “(The play) appeals to a young, hip crowd with eclectic what it's like to walk a day in your shoes.'” tastes. People who are interested in fashion, people who are interested in Although much may be said about an African-American actress celebrity gossip, and people who are interested in history. This is a play playing Marie Antoinette, Arenas has chosen to focus squarely on bringthat has great music, great fashion, and a great story. It's fast, it's adult, ing the character to life based on the tools the playwright has given her. and it's exciting.”

“More than anything, the fact that Marie Antoinette in her role as the Queen of France was a foreigner is one way of (how) I am playing this Marie Antoinette runs at Steppenwolf Theatre's Upstage Theatre role can inform the character,” she says. “But I'm not a person who looks through May 10. w at a character and thinks that I need to bend them to my reality. (Marie Antoinette) is a historical figure, and I don't know that the story would Opposite page: (left to right) Ensemble members Alan Wilder (Sheep) and Alana Arenas (Marie Antoinette).

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Photos by Michael Brosilow

Around Town 36•CNCJASpring 2015

Who: Blue Heron Vocal Ensemble What: University of Chicago Presents Series When: April 17, 2015 Where: Rockefeller Chappel, University of Chicago How: Visit chicagopresents.uchicago.com/edu or call 773.702.8068

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Photo by Liz Lender

Hailed by The New Yorker for the “expressive intensity” of its interpretations, Boston-based vocal ensemble Blue Heron combines a commitment to vivid live performance with an assiduous study of original source materials and authentic historical performance acumen. With a specialty in early choral repertoire ranging from 15th century English and Fraco-Flemish polyphony to 16th century Spanish works, Blue Heron has carved out an international reputation of excellence that serves as a standard bearer in the early music choral space.

The ensemble’s Chicago performance at The University of Chicago Presents series this spring treats audiences to a program from Tudor England including a “characterful, quirky and entirely anonymous” Mass from the Peterhouse Partbooks (c.1540).

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a Novel

approach The acclaimed Scottish Ballet is bringing its bold, dance-infused telling of Tennessee Williams' dysfunctional drama, A Streetcar Named Desire, to Harris Theater this spring.

But how they approached telling the familiar story is at least as intriguing as the story itself.

By JORDAN REINWALD Photos by ANDREW ROSS

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Scottish Ballet, of Glasgow, will bring its bold creation, A Streetcar Named Desire, as part of a larger North American tour to The Harris Theater’s 10th anniversary season this spring. By May, when audiences have grown tired of the Chicago winter and crave a lively and colorful introduction to springtime, award winning Streetcar definitely fits the bill.

While the work does, indeed, deal with some difficult issues like mental health and domestic violence, this fresh take on presenting the classic Tennessee Williams play will liven theater-goers’ perception on the story. Artistic director Christopher Hampson explains that Scottish Ballet is no stranger to bold choices and new ways of working, keeping each new work exciting and interesting from start to finish. Streetcar enjoyed its United States premiere in New Orleans in 2013 and Hampson is excited to share it with broader audiences during this 2015 U.S. tour. As an added bonus, well-versed Chicago dance fans will recognize choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa from her work with previously beloved Chicago company Luna Negra.

Hampson was appointed as Scottish Ballet’s leader in August 2012 and shared with me that his tenure began after the initial stages of Streetcar. Though he was not the individual to actually commission the project, his ties with the American South have contributed to an admitted pleasure in bringing the work to fruition.

During his time in rehearsal for the new commission, he drew from his experience creating Ballet Black, an original ballet on an acclaimed British company that shares Streetcar’s setting in the southern U.S. territory.

In addition to teaching as a guest teacher at Atlanta Ballet, Hampson has also spent some time in Storyville, New Orleans researching the area and the culture.

As he puts it, “It’s truly a special place and such wonderfully colorful characters are all around you.” In carrying the excitement and color of these “characters” into Streetcar, Hampson explains that this particular work characterizes the company 38•CNCJASpring 2015

Scottish Ballet's Sopie Martin as Stella and Tama Barry as Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Shall We Dance?

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quite well. The story deals with risky subject matter and brings a large group of artists to collaborate, something he says Scottish Ballet is certainly proud of.

A Streetcar Named Desire features the work of acclaimed theater director, Nancy Meckler with emerging choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, as well as an original score by Peter Salem and a stylized set by designer Niki Turner.

The team faced challenges they had not previously encountered in converting an iconic play into potentially the very first rendition of the story as a ballet. In their “making of” video the company produced for its Website, Meckler explains the challenge she felt in creating a production and explaining a story without the use of words. In rising to this challenge, the dancers and Meckler began first by researching and understanding the characters within the story. This initial approach—a technique usually employed more by actors than by dancers—helped the team to develop a strong sense of character very early on. Meckler also explains that to her, the challenge was very exciting, as she

From top: Eve Mutso as Blanche with the Scottish Ballet; Amy Hadley, Nathalie Dupouy and Constance Devernay as the Showgirls; Adam Blyde as Mitch and Eve Musto as Blanche.

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Eve Musto and Erik Cavallari in Scottish Ballet's production of A Streetcar Named Desire.

worked in collaboration with Turner to find and create brand new images that would insinuate the story without relying on words and heavy lines to express the complex tangle of ideas within the show. In employing this technique of characterizing without dance steps first, dancers faced the challenges of finding ways to express concepts without their main form of expression: movement. And so Meckler was as challenged by the lack of her own customary tool: words, as the dancers were by the lack of theirs.

Since this process began for the company in 2012, they have also worked closely with choreographer Matthew Bourne on another piece, Highland Fling, in a similar fashion, approaching the work from an actor’s perspective. The method has had the serendipitous results of creating a more multi-dimensional collective of dancers—dancers who are

finding themselves even more hall e ance desirable to work with for many choreographers.

Curiously enough, playwright Tennessee Williams originally intended to call his classic work The Moth. Upon learning this, Meckler and Lopez Ochoa began to play on Williams’ interest in the delicate creature that is so drawn to light and flame. As “the moth,” (the main character, Blanche) possesses many qualities that can transform into powerful movement and images within the construct of the ballet. As written in the play, Blanche has an indelible attraction to bright light or “desire,” but she also knows that it can damage her if she gets too close. As her character struggles with her pulling desire, we watch it bring her to her demise.

To aid in emphasizing Blanche’s delicate nature, the artistic team worked with Turner to create a rough, industrial-looking set with bare bulbs hanging from steel pipe structures and grey and black boxes placed creatively to mimic any and all set pieces. In making this choice, the team created a cold and stark environment, but also one that allowed for endless imagination with the insinuation—and not the articulation—of objects that would otherwise be present on the set of a live stage play.

In many new artistic processes, the room for creativity can be explored as a storyline evolves and creates itself.

Understanding that the team was tied to the already existing (and well known) Streetcar plot, Meckler explains that while “working around the issues of how to tell the story through movement, the play actually lent itself to the process and allowed for a lot of room to play within the confines of plot points.”

In opening it up to make it into a ballet, small changes in the way the team chose to interpret certain elements were flexible, allowing the choreography to tell the story in a new light.

Hampson says of the novel approach to the choreographic process, “To be honest, almost nothing surprises us anymore. We’ve worked in so many different styles.” To be sure, the “jump-in and create this work spirit” of Streetcar’s team has made Hampson’s bold statement come to life quite organically.

As for the notion of bringing the new work to Chicago, Hampson notes a palpable excitement about revisiting a city he’s known for such “fantastic architecture and wonderful art.”

There’s no doubt that the bold, new approach to a treasured theater classic will leave that art richer still.

Ballet Scottland will bring A Street Car Named Desire to the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park May 7 through 9. w

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Happenings...

The Chicago Academy for the Arts has announced that "A Taste for the Arts Gala" will return to the Harris Theater and Millennium Park Terrace Tuesday, May 12. This deliciously artful evening, hosted by Donna LaPietra and Bill Kurtis, will feature a performance by the emerging artists of the academy alongside the dazzling cuisine of some of Chicago’s hottest chefs, including Curtis Duffy (Grace), Matthew Kerney (Longman & Eagle) and Tony Priolo (Piccolo Sogno/Piccolo Sogno Due).

Guests will be treated to a performance at the Harris Theater at 6 p.m. and will proceed to the Millennium Park Terrace at 7:30 p.m. for silent and live auctions, tastings from 10 chefs, signature cocktails from popular Chicago mixologists, mingling and music by the academy’s Jazz Ensemble throughout the evening.

For more information on tickets or sponsorship opportunities, contact specialevents@chicagoartsacademy.org.

Tasteful Celebration

The Chicago Human Rhythm Project (CHRP) will debut the new "Chicago Rhythm Fest" April 14-May 13, spotlighting the city’s exceptional and diverse percussive dance community while celebrating African, Irish, Mexican, Spanish and American cultural traditions. The inaugural event is an eclectic citywide celebration of the rhythmic arts connecting diverse communities through rhythm.

Opening the Chicago Rhythm Fest is Stomping Grounds, a series of free events in five distinct communities showcasing some of Chicago’s most accomplished percussive arts companies, including CHRP’s resident ensemble, BAM!, Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theatre and Mexican Dance Ensemble.

Each performance will feature two host companies with cameos by members of the other three participating ensembles.

As the culminating event of the Chicago Rhythm Fest, CHRP re-imagines its inaugural National Tap Dance Day concert 25 years ago, featuring all five companies in concert May 13, 7:30 p.m. at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University.

Part of a citywide celebration, this unique collaboration closes the Auditorium Theatre’s “Made in Chicago” Dance Series sponsored by The Boeing Company.

Tickets are $27–67 and are on sale at AuditoriumTheatre.org, 800-982-ARTS and the Auditorium Theatre box office, 50 E. Congress Parkway.

Global Rhythms

Peace Through Art The 2015 Peace on Earth Film Festival (POEFF)—presented by Transcendence Global Media, NFP, in partnership with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special events—will showcase a captivating exploration of film in the areas of nonviolence, tolerance and social justice (with corresponding panels and filmmaker Q&As) at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Claudia Cassidy Theater, 78 East Washington, Thursday, March 19 through Sunday, March 22.

Features from the upcoming festival include the Chicago premiere of J Street: The Art of the Possible, an urgent political story told with the intimacy of cinema vérité, and the youth orchestra documentary, Crescendo!.

Directed by the daughter of Leonard Bernstein, the film chronicles the social transformation of three disadvantaged children through music.

All screenings are free and open to the public. No reservations necessary. Individual screening dates and times will be announced in the coming weeks. Learn more at: www. peaceonearthfilmfestival.org.

Power of Prose Young Chicago Authors (YCA), producers of "Louder Than A Bomb" (LTAB), the world’s largest youth poetry festival, will present a day-long series of special events to celebrate its 15th anniversary Sunday, March 1. Featuring co-hosts Alec Baldwin, Alfre Woodard and hip-hop composer Ali Shaheed Muhammad (aka Ali from A Tribe Called Quest), the benefit starts with an intimate Sunday brunch at the Soho House, 125 N. Green St. from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. with a screening of segments of the Louder Than A Bomb documentary and live spoken word poetry performances in the 30-seat Soho House screening room.

Clockwise from top right: Behind-the-scenes look at the filming of Fading Valley (photo courtesy of the 2015 Peach On Earth Film Festival; Actor Alec Baldwin (photo courtesy of Young Chicago Authors; Members of The Chicago Human Rhythm Project Resident Ensemble BAM! (photo courtesy of CHRP); Chef Curtis Duffy opens tastings for A Taste of The Arts Gala 2013 (photo courtesy of The Chicago Academy of the Arts).

The Steppenwolf Auxiliary Council is set to host one of Chicago’s most anticipated spring cultural social gatherings, the 2015 Red or White Ball. The gala takes place on Friday, April 10, 2015 at 9 p.m. (with the popular VIP Reception beginning at 7:30 p.m.). Hundreds of young arts supporters will gather at Chicago’s sleek, contemporary Venue One in Chicago's west Loop for a high-energy celebration supporting Steppenwolf’s nationally recognized arts education program, Steppenwolf for Young Adults (SYA).

Last year’s Red or White Ball raised nearly $60,000 for Steppenwolf arts education programming. Steppenwolf for Young Adults is a comprehensive educational initiative that annually serves 15,000 students, teachers and families. It provides access to the theater for a broad base of Chicago’s youth, ages 12 – 19, and schools throughout the Chicago metropolitan area with a strong focus on partnering with Chicago Public Schools.

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Red Hot Gala

Spring 2015 Cultural Almanac

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The CNCJA Cultural Almanac listings are representative of schedules from participating institutions available at time of publication.

Photos from left: Del McCoury Band (photo courtesy of the Del McCoury Band)'; River North Dance Chicago (Photo by Todd Rosenberg); The Seldoms (Photo by WIlliam Frederking; COnductor John Nelson (Photo courtesy of Soli Deo Gloria)

Music & Dance

Music & Dance

Disney's Beauty and the Beast

Photos from left: Musician Ben Sollee (photo by Matt Flatley); Choir of Kings College Cambridge (Photo by Gerald Place); Cast of Disney's Beauty and the Beast (photo by Joan Warren); Rehearsal of Two Trains Running at the Goodman Theatre (Photo by Liz Lauren).

Theater

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Art Museums

Theater

46•CNCJASpring 2015 The CNCJA Cultural Almanac listings are representative of schedules from participating institutions available at time of publication.

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San Francisco Museum of Modern Art examines the impact of the Steins Family and and the passion they inspired in the appreciation of modern art.

a Legacy unveiled

Interview with Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member K. Todd Freeman

Lens of authenticity

Chicago Shakespeare Theatre celebrates a quarter century celebrating Shakespeare.

25 YEARS & COUNTING

A preview of the historic Paris OpĂŠra Ballet as they kick off their American Tour at Harris Theatre.

Paris Comes to Millennium Park

Chicagoland Journal for the Arts

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Andreas Mitisek takes the helm of Chicago Opera Theater with a new collaborative model that just may take COT to a whole new level

A Tale of Two Cities

Stephen Petronio Company is just one of our picks for the best and the brightest in Chicagoland's amazing new cultural season!

GTheuide

they

Curator's Corner the

StoriesTELL

New, collaborative exhibition at The Smart Museum of Art unveils the meaning and knowledge we gain from objects and art works amassed throughout its 40 years.

By MARTIN HENKE

T

he Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago turns 40 this year and, as anyone over the age of 40 will attest, after 40 years one amasses a large quantity of objects, and each of those objects, no matter how insignificant they may seem, has a distinct story to tell. That is why it’s so appropriate that the museum continues its 40th Anniversary season with Objects & Voices: A Collection of Stories. Currently on view at the Smart, Objects & Voices showcases 17 micro-exhibitions by 20 guest curators that include distinguished professors, young scholars and Smart alumni—all offering their own personal and professional perspectives on works in the collection, to reveal just how objects and stories are intertwined.

Objects & Voices aims to explore the multiple ways one works with, learns from and enjoys objects of art. The unique Smart collection-based exhibition is divided into a series of small thematic presentations, each overseen by different guest curators. These vignettes reveal the very diverse perspectives, passions and expertise of their curators while raising larger questions about the interpretation of creative and cultural objects, the role of audiences and communication through the medium of art.

This 40th Anniversary exhibition takes over the entirety of the Smart Museum—permanent collection and special exhibition galleries alike— and mixes traditional and non-traditional presentations of the Smart’s collection of Modern, Asian, European and Contemporary art.

The exhibition speaks singularly to the Smart’s collaborative process and evolution over its 40 years and how the resulting art curation can inspire new points of view. Says Anthony Hirschel, the museum’s Dana Feitler Director, “Throughout its 40 year history, the Smart has been shaped by deep collaborations with members of the University community and beyond. Through a multitude of projects, Objects & Voices reveals how these rich, diverse collaborations open up new perspectives and tell compelling stories—showing how we all can connect with and be inspired by our experiences with art.”

Among the mini-exhibition highlights will be Visual Elements of Narrative, in which a fifth-grade class from the Beasley Academic 48•CNCJASpring 2015

Center on the city’s South Side works with a teaching artist to develop new ways to present and interpret four objects in the Smart’s collection; War Portfolios in Teaching, in which a University of Chicago professor reflects on using powerful works of art in the classroom; and Paintings and Evidence, organized by two University of Chicago graduate students, which considers the material and documentary evidence—inscriptions, labels, condition, provenance, exhibition history—that art historians bring to bear in authenticating and studying works of art.

These and other projects illustrate just how objects and stories are intertwined, preserved, re-interpreted, discovered and re-invented at a university art museum like the Smart.

Objects & Voices is the second of two museum-wide projects commemorating the Smart’s 40th Anniversary; the first, Carved, Cast, Crumpled: Sculpture All Ways, ran last fall and encompassed some 174 pieces of three-dimensional artwork and a handful of drawings by sculptors.

Augmenting Objects & Voices is GalleryX, a flexible space installed in the center of the museum throughout the 40th anniversary year.

Developed by Range Design, this participatory hub invites and encourages public discussions of art and ideas, and it houses The Art of Experience: the Smart Museum, designed by the Smart’s Interpreters in Residence, 500 Clown.

The Smart Museum of Art has always led the pack in evolving the ways in which we view, interact with and glean meaning and knowledge from art. Objects & Voices is just another step in that evolution, further allowing voices to speak succinctly through objects we experience in art today.

Objects & Voices will be on view at the Smart Museum of Art through June 21, 2015.w Above: After works by Alphonse Mucha, The Primrose (La Primvère) and The Pen (La Plume), c. 1900, Cast bronze plaques with gilt and polychrome decoration. Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Purchase, Gift of Dr. Burton J. Grossman, M.D. '49 in memory of his beloved mother, Neva Grossman, 1980.54 and 1980.53.

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Art Galleries

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The CNCJA Cultural Almanac listings are representative of schedules from participating institutions available at time of publication.

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Museums

The CNCJA Cultural Almanac listings are representative of schedules from participating institutions available at time of publication.

Music & Dance Spring 2015CNCJA•53

10 questions for

Nambi E. Kelley

The actress stars this spring in Goodman Theatre's production of Two Trains Running, part of the theater's spring August Wilson Celebration exploring the works of the legendary playwright.

By ANDREW SHEFFIELD

A

As part of its highly anticipated August Wilson Celebration, commemorating the legacy of the legendary and thought-provoking playwright, Goodman Theatre will present one of the jewels of Wilson’s catalogue, the Tony-nominated work Two Trains Running. And at the center of this civil rights drama that explores the tensions at work at the micro level within the African-American community is an unassuming, yet compellingly thoughtful waitress, Risa, whose emotions fuel much of the drama.

Returning to the Goodman to take on that role is Jeff Award-nominated actress Nambi E. Kelley. With international stage credits, television roles in such shows as Elementary and Person of Interest and her own budding playwright career, Kelley brings a world of depth to Wilson’s Risa, and that’s a good thing, too.

Because Risa has to communicate a complex range of emotions without the aid of expansive dialogue, something only a seasoned actress could possibly hope to pull off.

I had a chance to pose 10 ques-

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tions to the actress and found, as I think you will, more depth and focus than even Risa commands. Kelley’s process is a layered and multi-dimensional one. And she devotes the entirety of her considerable powers to her work whatever the medium. Because of that, one can only expect a fully matured approach to Wilson’s compelling and thought-provoking role this spring.

1) Between an extensive stage career and a growing body of work on the small screen, you've seen both sides of the coin. What are the merits of one versus the other as you see them?

I consider myself an interdisciplinary artist, so my view isn't one versus the other, but more of a "yes, and" approach. Both take an incredible degree of skill. Both require a community of people very good at what they do to surrender to the process to create a viable product. Both, at their core, are about storytelling on various scales.

2) Tell me about workshopping your own play at the Goodman? Did the process of developing and maturing your own work with live actors impact your own craft at all?

It is my greatest pleasure as an artist to be in a room full of people willing and ready to create together. The sum of the whole is much greater than the individual parts, and actors are key elements in infusing any work with veracity and life.

Left: Actress Nambi E. Kelley and Actor Alfred Wilson in rehearsal this spring for the Goodman Theatre production of Two Trains Running by August Wilson (photo by Liz Lauren).

3) What would you be doing now if you had not chosen to pursue a career in acting?

My dream as a child was to either be an artist or a psychologist.

4) Back at DePaul University’s Theatre School, where you would study for your BFA, like all other students studying for a career in the arts, I’m sure you were wide-eyed and maybe even a little naive about the industry. After a celebrated career on stage and screen that’s taken you all over the globe, what would Nambi now tell Nambi then?

I would tell Then Nambi to be unafraid to dream.

5) Who were you biggest inspirations back then?

I was deeply inspired by Ntozake Shange, Adrienne Kennedy, George Wolfe, and a lot of Chicago theater, especially work done at Victory Gardens and the Goodman.

6) What was your first profession role on the live stage?

My first professional role was in McKinley Johnson's Train is Comin’ playing the role of Eliza opposite Two Trains cast member, Chester Gregory. It was also Chester's first professional show.

7) This spring you’ll take on the role of Risa in August Wilson’s Two Trains Running. Risa has relatively few lines, but remains one of the most powerful characters in the play, making her one of the most complex characters to portray. How do you tackle this kind of complexity in your approach to the stage?

My approach to Risa starts with learning who she is before I decide to impose any of my ideas on who she should be. First I read the play. Then I circle any and everything that is said about her, as well as what she says about herself. I then outline how she feels about the things she says about herself, and I make a decision about whether or not what other characters say about her is true. All of this happens while I am learning the lines, discovering in rehearsal how she moves, how she connects to other characters. I then journal about Risa and discover while writing how I, Nambi, am similar to Risa, as well as how I am different. Lastly, I create a journal for her, written in the first person as Risa, fleshing out everything Risa feels about what is in the play, as well as creating a thorough backstory for everything about her that is not in the play. Once all this work is done, I then go to rehearsal and do my best to let it all go, and play.

8) What’s your favorite dessert?

Vanilla Caramel Fudge Ben & Jerry’s ice cream with Chocolate Lava Cake a close second.

9) When you’re away from the stage and all-things-theater, what engages your interests most?

When away from the theater, I am mostly engaged by all things natural. I love animals, trees, wind, and especially the lake.

10) What was it like working with Phylicia Rashad in playwright Ifa Bayeza’s Charleston Olio at the National Black Theatre Festival?

Phylicia watched me try and try again to shake my shimmy in a particular scene. Needless to say, I was not succeeding. She pulled me aside and taught me the mechanics of the movement.

Yes, Phylicia Rashad taught me to shake my shimmy!

You can see Kelley in Goodman Theatre’s production of August Wilson’s Two Trains running in Albert Theater this spring March 7- April 12.w

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Theater

The CNCJA Cultural Almanac listings are representative of schedules from participating institutions available at time of publication.

Spring 2015CNCJA•57

Around Town

Who: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre What: Chicago Two Week Residency When: March 6-15, 2015 Where: Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University How: Visit auditoriumtheatre.org or call 800.982.ARTS (2787)

A

After three seasons at the helm, artistic director Robert Battle has created an indelible stamp upon one of America’s most revered dance companies. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre has emerged from the changing of the guard richer and with a deeper artistic reverence for Ailey traditions as well as a mastery of newer styles still.

Bringing new Chicago premieres, along with classic favorites, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre’s 9-day residency will serve as one of the highlights of the Auditorium Theatre’s stellar 125th anniversary season this spring.

Photo by Andrew Eccles

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The crooner talks life, music and bringing his Large Band to Ravinia

Lyle's Large Life

SUMMER 2011

Chicagoland Journal for the Arts

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San Francisco Museum of Modern Art examines the impact of the Steins Family and and the passion they inspired in the appreciation of modern art.

a Legacy unveiled

Chicago Shakespeare Theatre celebrates a quarter century celebrating Shakespeare.

25 YEARS & COUNTING

A preview of the historic Paris Opéra Ballet as they kick off their American Tour at Harris Theatre.

Paris Comes to Millennium Park

A ProgrAm of

merit

II

Merit Music’s incredible contribution to the city’s music education legacy

By Patrick M. Curran

the Uncommon

DivA

A look at opera star Frederica von Stade as she prepares for her last staged Chicago performance

Mayor Daley’s grand vision for a revitalized Chicago Theater District has been a long time and Broadway In Chicago coming, significant role in making has had a that a reality.

Bringing Broadway to chicago

Winter 201 0

Concert Journal for the Arts

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Stirring UP LAUght er Chicago’s 2009 Humanitie Festival and its celebrations of the many sides of laughter

Chicagoland Journal for the Arts

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The CNCJA Cultural Almanac listings are representative of schedules from participating institutions available at time of publication.

Listings for permanent and ongoing exhibits at museums listed within the Almanac may be found on pages 46, 47, 51& 52

Art Galleries

Music & Dance Spring 2015CNCJA•59

Music & Dance

Theater

60•CNCJASpring 2015 The CNCJA Cultural Almanac listings are representative of schedules from participating institutions available at time of publication.

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Smart Museum exhibit focuses on the national identity

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the Uncommon DivA A look at opera star Frederica von Stade as she prepares for her last staged Chicago performance

A ProgrAm of merit Merit Music’s incredible contribution to the city’s music education legacy

By Patrick M. Curran II

Mayor Daley’s grand vision for a revitalized Chicago Theater District has been a long time coming, and Broadway In Chicago has had a significant role in making that a reality.

Bringing Broadway to chicago

Winter 2010

Concert Journal for the Arts

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Stirring UP LAUghter Chicago’s 2009 Humanities Festival and its celebration of the many sides of laughter

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Philanthropy & The Arts

Alonzo King's LINES Ballet returns to the Windy City

BETWEEN the LINES

Chicagoland Journal for the Arts

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World's finest cultural newborns slated for Chicago audiences this winter

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NEWBIES

Preeminent Sondheim interpreter Gary Griffin mounts two highly anticipated productions of the composer's works at Shakespeare Theater this season.

Griffin's Take

JOAN ALLEN

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Rest your head at the epicenter of dance this summer

at the

SUMMER PILLOW

We go one-on-one with the artist as she gets set to make her Ravinia debut this summer.

Summer 2013

Chicagoland Journal for the Arts

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Listings for permanent and ongoing exhibits at museums listed within the Almanac may be found on pages 46, 47, 51& 52

Art Galleries

Karen Peterson's Exhibition Picks

Spring 2015 Picklists

Chicago Styled: Fashioning The Magnificent Mile Chicago History Museum Chicago Styled features more than twenty ensembles from the Chicago History Museum’s costume collection to tell the story of the growth of the landmark Michigan Avenue shopping district. The garments hail from a wide range of retailers: independent boutiques; high-end designer shops; and luxury department stores. The clothes and the buildings on the Mag Mile were considered cutting-edge and innovative and had a symbiotic relationship. As more upscale retailers flocked to the area, developers built impressive structures fit to house them.

Set against a shifting cityscape, pieces by noted designers such as Norman Norell, Adolfo, Christian Lacroix, Yohji Yamamoto, and Chanel evoke memories of the Mag Mile and the stylish people who shopped there. The exhibition runs through August. For more information, visit chicagohistory. org or call 312.642.4600.

Rainforest Adventure The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum A multi-sensory introduction to tropical rainforests around the world, with Rainforest Adventure, visitors will encounter a variety of ways to learn about rainforests and how people can make a difference in their preservation. Created by Stepping Stones Museum for Children, the exhibition also features live rainforest animals and objects from the collection of the Chicago Academy of Sciences. Sponsored by the US Forest Service, Rainforest Adventure is an ongoing exhibition. Visit naturemuseum.org or call 773.755.5100 for more details.

Shatter Rupture Break Art Institute of Chicago Shatter Rupture Break, the first exhibition in The Art Institute's Modern Series, explores the manifold ways that ideas of fragmentation and rupture, which permeated both the United States and Europe amid the rapid change experienced in the early 1900s, became central conceptual and visual themes in art of the modern age. Responding to the new forms and pace of the metropolis, artists such as Robert Delaunay and Gino Severini disrupted traditional conventions of depth and illusionism, presenting vision as something fractured. The theme of fragmentation was ubiquitous as inspiration for both the formal and conceptual revolutions in art making in the modern age.

Shatter Rupture Break unites diverse objects from across the entire holdings of the Art Institute—paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, decorative arts and designed objects, textiles, books and films—to present a rich cacophony that exemplifies the radical and generative ruptures of modern art. Shatter Rupture Break is on view at the Art Institute through May 3. Visit artic.edu or call 312.443.3600 for more information.

Above left: Umbo (Otto Umber).

Untitled, 1928. Julien Levy Collection, Gift of Jean and Julien Levy. Copyright 2014 Phyllis Umbehr/Galerie Kicken Berlin/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Keren Cytter Museum of Contemporary Art Featuring eight videos from the past decade, Keren Cytter is the first large-scale presentation of the artist’s work in the United States. The MCA’s exhibition also includes a new series of drawings and live performance works from the artist.

The exhibition is organized by the Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark. The Chicago presentation is accompanied by a new anthology of all of Cytter’s film treatments—judged, by invitation of the artist, as “the best” or “the worst” by Jacob Fabricius, exhibition curator and Director of the Kunsthal Charlottenborg, and Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator Naomi Beckwith, who is coordinating the exhibition at the MCA. See the exhibition March 28 through October 4. Visit mcachicago.org or call 312.397.4010 for more information.

Before the Dinosaurs: Tracking the Reptiles of Pangaea The Field Museum Journey across the globe with a Field Museum paleontologist and his team in search of what life was like before dinosaurs roamed the Earth. On this special expedition, see firsthand what it takes to find the perfect dig site and what supplies to pack - then start fossil hunting. See how a single rock layer can preserve hundreds of fossils, and then back in the lab, decide which fossils should be studied first.

Examine the subtle features on a fossil bone that scientists use to figure out what species it is and how that species is related to other animals.

Explore how the greatest extinction event of all time made room for the animals we know today. And learn how scientific collaborations like this let us unravel the mysteries of the evolution of life on Earth. The exhibition runs through April 2. Visit fieldmuseum.org or call 312.922.9410 for more information.

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Adam McKinney's Theater Picks

Sense and Sensibility Chicago Shakespeare Theater Full of wit, passion and infused with beautiful song, Jane Austen's charming romance receives its world premiere as a new musical from Tony Award-nominated composer Paul Gordon. The work, specially commissioned

by CST for the 2014-2015 season, beautifully traces the lives of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood—two sisters whose fortunes change following their father's untimely death. One cool and deliberate, the other consumed by youthful passion, their quest for suitable husbands unfolds in a period-perfect production that will set your spirits soaring. The world premiere musical runs at Chicago Shakespeare Theater April 18 through June 7. Visit chicagoshakes.com or call 312.595.5600 for more details.

The Secret Garden Court Theatre at University of Chicago After a vicious cholera outbreak in the British Raj claims the lives of both her parents, ten year-old Mary Lennox is sent back to England to live at her estranged uncle’s estate. Orphaned and alone, Mary finds herself haunted not only by the ghosts of her own past, but by those of her melancholy uncle, Archibald Craven. As Mary begins to find her way through her uncle’s maze of secrets, she makes an incredible discovery that unlocks a wellspring of hope and renewal for them both. Winner of the Tony Award for Best Book and adapted from the beloved 1911 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden reunites artistic director Charles Newell and music director Doug Peck (Porgy and Bess) for this exquisitely beautiful musical about hope blooming from the darkest of places. See the performance May 21 through June 21 at Court Theatre. Visit courttheatre.org or call 773.702.7005 for more information.

Outside Mullingar Northlight Theatre in Skokie Anthony and Rosemary are two introverted misfits. Anthony has spent his entire life on a cattle farm in rural Ireland, oblivious to the longing of his neighbor, Rosemary, who hopelessly pines for him as the years slip away.

With Anthony's father threatening to disinherit him and a land feud simmering between the families, Rosemary fears romantic catastrophe. These two eccentric souls scramble their way towards happiness in a compassionate, delightful tale of how surprising love can be. See Outside Mullingar at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts March 13 through April 19. Visit northlight.org or call 847.673.6300 for more details.

Marie Antoinette Steppenwolf Theatre Before Britney Spears and Justin Bieber, there was Marie Antoinette. In David Adjmi’s contemporary take on the young queen of France, Marie is a confection created by a society that values extravagance and artifice. But France’s love affair with the royals sours as revolution brews, and for Marie, the political suddenly becomes very personal. From the light and breezy banter at the palace to the surging chants of "Liberte! Egalite! Fraternite!" in the streets, Marie Antoinette holds a mirror up to our contemporary society that might just be entertaining itself to death. See Marie Antoinette at Steppenwolf Theatre through May 10. Visit Steppenwolf.org or call 312.335.1650 for more details.

From top: Sharon Rietkerk and Megan McGinnis in Sense and Sensibility at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre (photo by Jeff Sciorino). Tori Whaples in The Secret Garden playing at Northlight Theatre (photo by Joe Mazza); Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member Alana Arenas as the young Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, in the new play by David Adjmi at Steppenwolf Theatre.

Spring 2015CNCJA•63

Fred Cummings Music Picks St. John Passion, BWV 245 Conductor John Nelson and the Chicago Bach Project Harris Theater for Music and Dance Grammy Award–winning conductor John Nelson returns to lead the fifth annual Chicago Bach Project in a performance of J. S. Bach’s powerful St. John Passion, featuring top-tier Chicago musicians in the Chicago Bach Choir (Donald Nally, chorus master) and Orchestra, with a world-class roster of soloists. Since its inauguration in 2011, the Chicago Bach Project performances, sponsored by Soli Deo Gloria, “are among the highlights of the classical music season.” — Chicago Tribune. See the performance March 20 at Harris Theater. Visit harristheaterchicago.org or call 312.334.7777 for more details.

Spring 2015 Picklists

Haitink Conducts Mahler | The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chicago Symphony Center Former CSO Principal Conductor Bernard Haitink leads one of Mahler’s most enigmatic, yet enticing symphonies. Abandoning the programmatic stories of his early symphonies, Mahler presents a vividly orchestrated, magical tour following his own dictum: “A symphony must be like the world—it must embrace everything.” Unforgettable are the haunting horn calls, which open the second movement’s “night music,” awakening a throng of animated sounds. Hear the performance April 10. Visit cso.org or call 312.294.3000 for more details.

Del McCoury Band City Winery Where the Del McCoury Band’s last two projects—2012’s tribute to Bill Monroe (Old Memories) and 2011’s collaboration with the Preservation Hall Band, American Legacies—were built around themes, The Streets Of Baltimore shows McCoury and his award-winning band at their most relaxed and free-form. “I just put together a group of songs that I liked,” says Del. “And then we got into the studio and tried to make them sound good.”

The Streets Of Baltimore is a masterful performance—exactly what one would expect from a close-knit, supremely talented group led by a man universally acknowledged as a national treasure. It’s a long way from the streets of Baltimore to where Del McCoury’s music has taken him these days, but today, just as he was then, Del McCoury is right where he needs—and wants—to be. See the band in concert at City Winery March 14. Visit citywinery.com/Chicago or call 773.733.9463 for more details.

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Emerson String Quartet Harris Theater for Music and Dance Chicago gets its first opportunity to hear the new Emerson String Quartet, now with newly appointed cellist Paul Watkins, marking the quartet’s first membership change in more than three decades. Watkins replaces former Emerson String Quartet member and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Coartistic director David Finckel, one of today’s foremost classical cellists.

Described by Fortune magazine as “arguably the world’s best group of chamber musicians,” the quartet performs alongside members of CMS in a cocommission project, celebrating works by Mozart, Liebermann, and Tchaikovsky in the final performance of CMS’s expanded 2014–2015 season. Hear the performance May 20 at Harris Theater. Visit harristheaterchicago.org or call 312.334.7777 for more information.

From top: Grammy-winning conductor John Nelson (photo courtesy of Soli Deo Gloria); The DelMcCoury Band (photo courtesy of the Del McCoury Band; Members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (photo courtesy of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center).

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Brittany Rice's Dance Picks A Streetcar Named Desire The Scottish Ballet Based on the Pulitzer Prize–winning American drama by Tennessee Williams, Scottish Ballet’s 2012 contemporary adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire—created in conjunction with the play’s 65th anniversary year—is considered a modern gem of contemporary dance. The impressionable Blanche DuBois and the temperamental Stanley Kowalski find themselves in constant turmoil in this suspenseful take on lust, desire, and betrayal as only dance can inspire. Conceptualized by theater and film director Nancy Meckler, and choreographed by international dance star and National Dance Award (UK) winner Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, A Streetcar Named Desire delights in its cross-disciplinary style in this one-of-a-kind take on an American classic, presented as part of the company’s Chicago debut. See the dance May 7 through 9 at The Harris. Visit harristheaterchicago.org or call 312.334.7777 for more information.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago – Spring Series Harris Theater for Music and Dance Examine the nature of gender identities and relationships with a specially curated, unique program at the Harris Theater. The company performs, for the first time, the “precision-crafted and multi-layered” (The Observer) choreography of Crystal Pite; Cloudless, a duet called “perfection in its unification of choreography, music and lighting” by Germany’s Main Post; and two polar opposites by Jirí Kylián: Sarabande and Falling Angels. See the performance March 12-15. Visit harristheaterchicago.org or call 312.334.7777 for more information.

Grupo Corpo Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University World famous Brazilian dance troupe, Grupo Corpo, makes their Chicago debut.

The National says Grupo Corpo “shows the happy marriage between dance, music and visual arts as well as the innovative and seamless blend of Brazilian dance traditions and western modern dance styles.” Grupo Corpo choreographer, Rodrigo Pederneiras notes, “I’m guided by a Brazilian way to see the life which is colorful, rhythmic and always looking forward.” (Houston Chronicle). See the performance February 28 and March 1. Visit auditoriumtheatre.org or call 800.982.ARTS (2787) for more information.

Joffrey Academy of Dance Winning Works: Choreographers of Color MCA Stage at The Museum of Contemporary Art The Joffrey Academy of Dance, Official School of the Joffrey Ballet, performs its fifth annual program of world premieres by ascendant choreographers of color. The winners, Stephanie Martinez (Chicago), Jennifer Archibald (New York) and Abdul Latif (New York) showcase the powerful and innovative works they have created in three exhilarating performances, along with Windy Sand, a new work from Joffrey Academy artistic director Alexei Kremnev, featuring original music by Karen LeFrank.

Each of the three choreographers are selected through a national competition reviewed by Ashley Wheater, artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, as well as Kremnev and fellow co-artistic director of the Academy Anna Reznik. With the speed, precision and individuality audiences recognize from the Joffrey Ballet, the remarkable Trainees and Studio Company members from Asia, South America, Europe, and the US perform these works for the first time in the Edlis Neeson Theater. See the dance May 7 through 8.

Visit mcastage.org or call 312.397.4010 for more details.

From top: Members of Scottish Ballet, from Glascow, Scottland (photo courtesy of Scottish Ballet); Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (photo courtesy of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago); Dancer from the Joffrey Academy of Dance (photo by Herbert Migdoll).

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Spring 2015 Picklists

Editor's Picks

Two Trains Running Goodman Theatre The civil rights movement is sweeping across Pittsburgh’s Hill District in 1969, but the promise of a better tomorrow hasn’t quite reached all of the city’s residents, some of whom gather daily at Memphis’ diner to gossip about the neighborhood, dream about their futures and confront the brutal realities of the present. Now Memphis must decide if he should allow the government to take over his building or sell the property to a ruthless businessman. In one of his most affecting plays, legendary writer August Wilson explores a time of extraordinary change—and the ordinary people who get left behind. Two Trains Running, directed by Chuck Smith, runs at Goodman Theatre through April 7. For more information, visit goodmantheatre.org or call 312.443.3800.

Power Goes The Seldoms MCA Stage at The Museum of Contemporary Art Set off by current political gridlock, Hanson’s astute study of power—how it is acquired, taken, wielded; how it is expressed by the body; how it can be deployed for progressive action or conversely create gridlock—is a breakthrough in dance and theater collaboration. Hanson created the work with playwright Stuart Flack, the Seldoms dancers, visual artist Sarah Krepp, designer Bob Faust, sound designer Mikhail Fiksel, costume designer Jeffrey Hancock, lighting designer Julie Ballard and historian Michael J. Kramer.

The Seldoms developed Power Goes in part through the MCA Stage New Works Initiative, which provides commissioning support and a production design residency.

The New Works Initiative was established in 2014 and meaningfully expands MCA Stage’s ongoing commitment to supporting artists and bringing important new performances to our audiences. See Power Goes March 20 through 29 at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Visit mcachicago.org or call 312.397.4010 for more information.

Publisher's Picks Crossroads I/Passing from the Romantic Era University of Chicago Presents Series Clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein, with "a warm tone and powerful technique" (The New York Times), joins violinist Amaud Sussman (“[his] tone was a thing of awe-inspiring beauty” – Pioneer Press), the charismatic and captivating pianist Anna Polonsky, and pianist Orion Weiss (“an effortlessly brilliant performer” -The Arizona Republic).

Together they present a program of music that shows the passing of an era, from the Romantics of the late nineteenth century through the pivotal years of World War I. This program launches the University of Chicago Presents’ “Centenary Weekend: The Crossroads of WWI and Music.” Hear the performance April 10. Visit chicagopresents.uchicago.edu or call 773.702.8068 for more information.

Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock Symphony Center Presents Jazz Groundbreaking bandleaders, trailblazing composers and restless innovators Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock are two of the most influential musicians in jazz history. They have had extraordinary careers, both having worked extensively with Miles Davis, contributed to numerous Blue Note classics and acted as cornerstones of the jazz-rock fusion movement of the 1970s and ’80s. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see two virtuosos of the piano perform on one stage. Hear the concert April 17 at Symphony Center.

Visit cso.org or call 312.294.3000 for more details.

From top: Alfred Wilson (Holloway) in rehearsal for Two Trains Running by August WIlson, directed by Chuck Smith at Goodman Theatre this spring (photo by Liz Lauren); The Seldoms in Power Goes (photo by William Frederking); Violinist Arnaud Sussman (photo courtesy of University of Chicago Presents).

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