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BEST LOCAL STAGE DIRECTOR READY FOR NEXT BIG STEPS
Georgette Verdin
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few years ago, I wrote a story for American Theatre on Chicago as a great town for stage directors. One name that wasn't totally on my radar then has since become a top favorite. Georgette Verdin, who has been managing artistic director for Interrobang Theatre Project since 2015, has a special gift for bringing stories of what she describes as "identity, grief, unprocessed trauma, and the intimate lives of women" to compelling life onstage. A short list of plays helmed by Verdin (who is queer and Cuban American) demonstrating that gift includes 2021's This Wide Night (by Chloë Moss), about two former "cellies" sharing a squalid bedsit in London; last spring's Spay (by Madison Fiedler) about two sisters in West Virginia dealing with the reality of opioid addiction; and September's Enough to Let the Light In (by Paloma Nozicka), in which two women in love confront secrets both supernatural and entirely too human. She also won raves last fall for her production of James Sherman's Chagall in School with Grippo Stage Company. Verdin doesn't need to rely upon conceptual flourishes to make a splash. Instead, she builds the relationships between characters and text with careful attention to each small moment that reveals bigger truths about grief, joy, and everything in between, bringing audiences right up to the jagged edge of those emotional revelations. Her local profile has been growing: she was the Michael Maggio directing fellow at Goodman last year and was just
named interim artistic associate at Northlight. I'd hate to lose her entirely, but Verdin gets my vote as a Chicago director who deserves national attention too. —KERRY REID
BEST ART SHOW ON THE SOUTHEAST SIDE'S ECOLOGY
Norman W. Long at Glass Curtain Gallery
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t can be hard to wrap your head around the complex ecological makeup of the areas surrounding the Calumet and Little Calumet rivers. Formerly heavily concentrated sites of industry, parts of these southeast neighborhoods are now in the slow process of getting cleaned up, via the green development of places like the Marian R. Byrnes Natural Area and Big Marsh Park. Making sense of this area has been an important part of the artistic practice of Norman W. Long for several years. In “Calumet in Dub,” Long’s solo exhibition at Columbia College’s Glass Curtain Gallery, the South Deering–based artist used a range of materials to make the area’s ecology tangible. The front room featured an eight-speaker installation that played Long’s signature soundscapes: field recordings layered and looped with the artist’s illbient-inspired synth-made beats. Two back galleries displayed some of Long’s research materials, including newscasts on environmental justice in Chicago, photos and field recordings of important historical sites in the Calumet region, and data on water quality and ecological life, which Long translated into sound. Long works with sound for its ability to
BEST STAGE DIRECTOR First Place: Katrina Dion
Second Place: Sam Locke Third Place: Xavier M. Custodio
BEST THEATER BAR OR LOBBY First Place: Steppenwolf Second Place: Chicago Magic Lounge Third Place: The Annoyance
BEST THEATER DESIGNER (SETS, LIGHT, SOUND, ETC.) First Place: Sam MacNerland Second Place: Conchita Avitia Third Place: Karen Wallace
BEST THEATER PRODUCTION First Place: Pocus Hocus: A Virgin’s Revenge
JONATHAN MICHAEL CASTILLO
70 CHICAGO READER - APRIL 6, 2023
Second Place: CIC Theater Third Place: Newport Theater
BEST VENUE FOR THEATER First Place: Steppenwolf Second Place: Goodman Theater Third Place: Chopin Theatre
BEST VIRTUAL PLAY First Place: Party Hotline Live! 18 Days of Jest (Playground Social)
Second Place: Same Time, Next Year (Act Your Page) Third Place: The Christians (Act Your Page)
Second Place: The Wizards Third Place: Raks Geek
represent time and take up space. “Layering, echoing, looping, and reversing sounds speaks to how memory and history are synchronic,” he told Columbia. “How memories and histories are layered and can be covered or uncovered.” His ongoing work tracking these ecological sites and histories, making them readable and accessible, helps draw attention to the reality of these areas, regardless of what any government document might say. —KERRY CARDOZA
BEST ART SHOW THAT FLEXED ON CHICAGO'S PLACE IN THE NEW MEDIA LANDSCAPE
“Local Legend” at Co-Prosperity
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"Norman W. Long: Calumet in Dub" at the Glass Curtain Gallery, Columbia College Chicago
BEST THEATER TRAINING PROGRAM First Place: The Annoyance
very Chicagoan knows this city is the underdog of major metropolises. There’s no shortage of things we don’t get enough credit for. When it comes to art, I’m of the mind that our most unsung heroes right now are our new media artists—creators who are pushing technology’s creative applications and imagining new ways to blur the boundaries between analog and digital. I saw a lot of impressive stuff in this realm last year. (Ava Wanbli’s performance about avatars and transitioning from the consumer to the consumed at an underground fundraiser was a standout.) But one new media exhibition that’s especially stuck with me was Bun Stout’s fashion show Local Legend, which debuted at Co-Prosperity last July. The self-described “mixed-reality wearable
art collection” includes five sculptural looks inspired by Stout’s experiences as a trans person who’s grown up traversing the stretch of highway between Indianapolis and Chicago. Referencing iconic local visuals like the “Hell Is Real” billboard along I-65, Stout’s clothes emphasize the body as a site where local cultural terrain can be absorbed and remade, literally carrying the weight of this landscape while responding to it with playfulness and imagination. Each look includes augmented reality triggers that, when scanned, reveal fragments of poetry like bits of artificial dandelion blowing in the breeze. The collection is about the ephemeral moments that represent raucous queer joy, punk rock spirit, and extravagance amidst hostile territory. Modeled by nightlife personalities and contextualized with projections and electronic music, the powerful multimedia showcase that was “Local Legend” became the stuff of local legends. —MICCO CAPORALE
BEST BOOK ABOUT WOMEN IN PUNK BY A LOCAL AUTHOR
Hit Girls: Women of Punk in the USA, 1975-1983
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istory is supposedly written by the victors. Most devotees of early American punk and hardcore could probably rattle off the travails of Henry Rollins’s time in Black Flag or Ian MacKaye’s memories of the 80s D.C. hardcore scene, as the two have
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