Sat 31 Oct, 2009
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Comments (0) Filed under: GeneralTags: CHICAGO STAGE REVIEW Exclusive Images, Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween from Chicago Stage Review!
Graceland Cemetery images by Venus Zarris
Tags: CHICAGO STAGE REVIEW Exclusive Images, Happy Halloween!
Thu 1 Oct, 2009
Halloween Plays 2009!
Comments (0) Filed under: FeaturesTags: Fear On Stage, Halloween Plays, Happy Halloween!, Haunting Eerie Halloween Flavor, Spooktastical!, Trick or Treat!
By Venus Zarris
You can feel the dark magic in the air, right along that pending chill. Tiss the season for things that go bump in the night and Chicago theater gets in the spooky spirit with a plethora of scary seasonal offerings. Here’s a list of staged shows to add to the spooktastical fun!
Happy Halloween from ChicagoStageReview.com!
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DEATHSCRIBE 2009
The Second Annual International Festival
of Radio Horror Plays
Monday, October 5th - 8:00PM
Music Box Theatre
3733 N. Southport Ave, Chicago
WildClaw Theatre - Bringing Horror and the Supernatural to the Chicago Stage
Lights Out Alma
Thru - Oct 29, 2009
Thursdays 8:00pm
Price:$10
Show Type: Comedy/Drama
Box Office: 773-561-4665
The Annoyance Theatre & Bar-4830 N Broadway Chicago IL 60640
The Flaming Dames in Vamp II
Presented by New Millennium Theatre Company
Fridays @ 10:15pm Thru - Oct 30, 2009
@ The Spot
4437 N Broadway St, Chicago
Show Type: Performance Art
Box Office: 312-458-9083
New Millennium Theatre Company of Chicago
Plans 1 Through 8 From Outer Space
Presented by New Millennium Theatre Company
Thru - Oct 31, 2009
Fridays: 11:00pm
Saturdays: 11:00pm
@ National Pastime Theater
4139 N. Broadway, Chicago
Box Office: 312-458-9083
New Millennium Theatre Company of Chicago
An Apology For the Course and Outcome of Certain Events Delivered by Doctor John Faustus on This His Final Evening
Presented by Theater Oobleck
Thru - Oct 24, 2009
@ Chopin Theatre
1543 W. Division Chicago
Price:$12 or pay-what-you-can
Show Type: Comedy/Drama
Box Office: 773-278-150
Night of the Living Dead: The Musical
Thru - Oct 31, 2009
Fridays:
8:00pm
Saturdays:
8:00pm
Price:$12-$15
Show Type: Musical
Box Office: 630-897-9496
Splatter Theater
Thru - Oct 31, 2009
Saturdays: 10:01pm
@ Annoyance Theater
4830 N. Broadway, Chicago
Show Type: Comedy
Box Office: 773-561-4665
The Annoyance Theatre & Bar-4830 N Broadway Chicago IL 60640
Bucket of Blood
Thru - Oct 31, 2009
Saturdays: 8:00pm
@ Annoyance Theater
4830 N. Broadway, Chicago
Show Type: Musical
Box Office: 773-561-4665
The Annoyance Theatre & Bar-4830 N Broadway Chicago IL 60640
Fear
Thru - Oct 31, 2009
Thur, Fri, Sat: 7:30pm
@ The Neo-Futurarium
5153 N. Ashland Avenue, Chicago
Show Type: Comedy
Box Office: 773-275-5255
Trick or Teets!
Oct 2 - Oct 30, 2009
Fridays: 11:00pm
Pub Theater at Fizz Chicago
3220 n. Lincoln Ave, Chicago
Box Office: 773-904-8777
Spooky Stories: An Evening of Stories and Songs
Oct 2 - Oct 3, 2009
Fri, Oct 2: 7:00pm
Sat, Oct 3: 7:00pm
Greenman Theatre
232 S. York, Elmhurst
Box Office: 630-464-2646
Nightmares on Lincoln Ave
Oct 2 - Oct 31, 2009
Wed thru Sat: 8:00pm
Cornservatory
4210 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago
Box Office: 312-409-6435
Salem! The Musical
Regular Run: Oct 2 - Oct 30, 2009
Fridays: 8:00pm
Annoyance Theatre
4830 N. Broadway,Chicago
Box Office: 773-561-4665
Sleepy Hollow
Presented by Theatre-Hikes
Oct 3 - Nov 1, 2009
Sat & Sun: 3:00pm
Morton Arboretun
4100 Illinois Route 53, Lisle
Box Office: 847-968-0074
The Castle of Otranto
Previews: Sep 30 - Oct 2, 2009
Regular Run: Oct 3 - Nov 1, 2009
First Folio Theatre
1717 W. 31st St Oak Brook
Box Office: 630-986-8067
Faust
Oct 5 - Nov 7, 2009
Lyric Opera
20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago
Box Office: 312-332-2244
Rhymes With Evil
Presented by InFusion Theatre Company
Previews: Oct 5 - Oct 7, 2009
Regular Run: Oct 8 - Nov 8, 2009
Storefront Theater
66 E. Randolph St, Chicago
Box Office: 312-742-8497
Disturbed
Previews: Oct 9
Regular Run: Oct 10 - Nov 1, 2009
Oracle Theatre
3809 N. Broadway, Chicago
Box Office: 773-244-2980
Dracula
Oct 9 - Oct 16, 2009
Fri, Oct 9: 8:00pm
Fri, Oct 16: 8:00pm
Oak Park Theatre Festival
Stage: Pleasant Home
Box Office: 708-445-4440
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: A New Folk Musical
Presented by Filament Theatre Ensemble
Oct 16 - Nov 9, 2009
The Viaduct
3111 N. Western Avenue, Chicago
Box Office: 773-296-6024
Anna, In The Darkness
Oct 19 - Nov 1, 2009
Dream Theatre
556 W. 18th St, Chicago
Box Office: 773-552-8616
Frankenstein
Presented by The Hypocrites
Oct 21 - Nov 1, 2009
Museum of Contemporary Art
220 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago
Box Office: 312-280-2660
Macabaret
Presented by Porchlight Music Theatre
Oct 22 - Nov 1, 2009
Theatre Building Chicago
1225 W Belmont Ave, Chicago
Box Office: 773-327-5252
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Check out these Halloween related ChicagoStageReview Features:
Stories from a Haunted Stage - Chicago Stage Review
FEAR ON STAGE - Chicago Stage Review
DESTROY ALL MONSTERS - Chicago Stage Review
Images of a Haunting Stage - Chicago Stage Review
Top, Lyric Opera and bottom images by Venus Zarris.
Fri 31 Oct, 2008
Wed 29 Oct, 2008
Images of a Haunting Stage
Comments (3) Filed under: EXCLUSIVE PHOTO ESSAY, FeaturesTags: Chicago Stage Review Exclusive, Debbie Dodge, Happy Halloween!, Haunting Eerie Halloween Flavor, Photo Essay, Preservation Chicago, Uptown Theater
By Venus Zarris
Uptown Theater Photo Essay By Debbie Dodge
Chicago is filled with storied of haunted places and haunted theaters. From tiny black boxes to lavish, large scale venues, stories are told of strange occurrences. The old Iroquois, Biograph and Music Box Theaters all have chilling stories, both real life and supernatural. I am sure that there are folks out there with spooky tales to tell about Chicago’s decaying Uptown Theater. But more so than hauntED, this enchanting old movie palace proves to be hauntING to so many who have fought tirelessly to preserve it.
Closed to the general public since 1981, this architectural and historic landmark has inspired the imagination and passion of scores of people who have never even been inside. I first saw images of its ornate and crumbling interior when my dear friend, photographer and historic preservationist Debbie Dodge, shared them with me after gaining access to the inside a few years back. It was love at first sight.
The images evoked and Ivan Albright decay on top of an opulent extravagance. That is to say, a quintessential Chicago feeling. Debbie had the opportunity to go back to the Uptown Theater with the new owner last week and her latest series of evocative images struck me as a beguiling gift during this haunting season and a lovely tribute to this haunting theater.
Chicago Stage Review is honored to be the first to share this brief but beautiful photo essay with you.
For Information on Architectural Preservation in Chicago go to Preservation Chicago
Wed 29 Oct, 2008
Stories from a Haunted Stage
Comments (5) Filed under: FeaturesTags: Ghost Story, Happy Halloween!, Haunting Eerie Halloween Flavor
By Venus Zarris
My love of Halloween theatrics started when I was quite young. There was one particular Halloween when my parents decided to have a trick waiting for the costumed neighborhood kids instead of the standard candy treats.
The front door of our house opened inward onto a view of the stairway that led up to our second floor. One of my older siblings would lay upside down on the stairs towards the top. They would have a generous amount of ketchup poured over their head and torso. Then a single candle was lit and set on the top step, casting an eerie light over the twisted body.
The house was made dark except for the one candle and when the trick or treaters knocked, the door would be slowly opened from behind revealing the murderous scene. As soon as the unsuspecting kids had time for their eyes to adjust to the light and take in the bloody carnage my mother would let out a bloodcurdling scream from just behind the front door which sent the kids running. I remember hearing them warning each other up and down the streets of our neighborhood, “Don’t go near that big dark house on Dorchester! No seriously, there’s somebody dead there!”
We all speculated that they came up with this plan to avoid buying treats but what my parents saved on candy that year they spent on ketchup. My brothers and sister took turns throughout the night playing the corpse so that everyone could still pull in their hall of sweet loot. Plus it wasn’t a comfortable position as too much blood rushing to your brain combined with the massive sugar intake from sampling your candy stash all night could make one a bit queasy.
But it was a brilliant piece of theater executed several times over the course of that night. For the kids that dared to knock on our door, the veil was lifted between the living and the dead. It was fun, it was frightening and it was a harmless trick.
It wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school that I experienced something theatrically frightening again. Only this time it wasn’t fun. It wasn’t fake and it wasn’t harmless.
It was the fall and we were in the final week of rehearsals for our big musical, The Boyfriend. The Friday before opening we were scheduled to have an after school rehearsal. I got out of class and was backstage by 3:15. Shortly thereafter we received a call from our choreographer. Pat had fallen suddenly ill and was not going to come in. She was fine the day before but said that something made her very sick to her stomach and she was in no condition to work with us that night. She promised that she would do everything in her power to be ready to come in for the all day Saturday rehearsal. Our director thought it best that we called it a day and instructed us to go home and get some rest so we could put in a long day on the boards starting at 9 AM.
We got there the next morning and Pat was there as she had promised, looking a little worse for wear but determined to make it through the tough job of polishing the show. Several odd little accidents started happening. One set change, that had been practiced a couple dozen times in the darkness of a blackout, found two students colliding. This resulted in a minor injury when a nail punctured the hand of one the kids. During the rehearsal of a big dance number that had most of the cast on stage doing the Charleston our choreographer ventured too close to the edge and fell backwards off of the stage. We took a ten minute break as she assessed her condition and fortunately came away with little more than a bruised butt and ego. We thought, ‘Oh, Pat’s just a little off from being sick the night before.’ And went on.
Smaller little mishaps occurred here and there that we chalked up to being tired after a long week of late night after school rehearsals. Nothing seemed unexplainable until our first full run through. For those not savvy to rehearsal talk, a full run through meant that you treated it like an actual performance. No stopping if a mistake was made or a line was dropped. You treated any problems as if you had a full audience expecting a complete show.
The pit band was off stage and down on our right. It consisted of our musical director Patti on the piano (not to be confused with Pat the choreographer), a drummer and a bass player. We were into the second act singing and dancing our hearts out in another cast number. All of a sudden we heard a loud sound that resembled the noise made when someone sits on the keyboard of a piano, pressing down several keys at once to create an off key discord of notes. After that the music stopped. We were a little befuddled as up until this point we stopped for nothing but when we looked over to see what happened in the pit we realized that a huge wooden pillar, part of the set that hadn’t yet been installed, had fallen right onto the hands of the piano player!
Now a few things should be said of this pillar. First, it was very heavy. So heavy that it took at least two of the strongest guys to carry it. Second, it was leaning at an angle against the proscenium wall so that there was no way it would fall. Even if bumped, an NO ONE was near it, it might slide down to the side. But to land the way that it did it had to move to an upright position and then fall in the opposite direction of the wall. Had it landed on anyone’s head it could have killed them. As it was it landed on Patti’s hands breaking some of her fingers so that piano keys were left a bloody mess.
Our director called a lunch break as Patti had to be rushed to the nearest hospital. We were, to say the least, shaken by the event. I walked through the darkened auditorium towards the lobby to get a drink from the water fountains. When I opened the doors the light poured in from the blinding sunlight making it’s way through the lobby’s long line of outside doors. It took a minute for my eyes to adjust as I had spent the past few hours in a world without sun.
While in the lobby I noticed that something was missing. The walls were covered with awards, filled trophy cases and framed photos from all of the dozens of shows produced over the past few decades. But right smack dab in the middle of the center wall was a conspicuously empty space. I tried to remember what had been hanging there and then it dawned on me. It was a memorial plaque dedicated to a student who had died about ten years earlier in a car crash his senior year. It had his photo on it and listed his many contributions and accomplishments in the theater department. Jeff had been Stage Manager and played leading roles in several productions both on and off the stage.
I knew that the plaque couldn’t have been gone for long. It was one of those fixtures that you peripherally noticed every day. Perhaps because it was the only evidence that most of us had seen up until that point in our sweet short lives of the potential for our own mortality. There was something honorable about it. You could look at the other dated photos and be catty about the hairstyles or fashions, but Jeff’s image carried with it something timeless. We knew how much we loved this place. For many of us, if we died it would be the place where we would miss the most. It was our adolescent playground and we were still children holding on to that amusement while being thrust into adulthood. Kicking and screaming for some of us but Jeff never had to leave. He was suspended in this place that we all loved so much. And there was even a strange unspoken envy we had for him. This was his pinnacle. He didn’t have to venture out and start all over again. He remained in this place where we all knew that we would have to leave at some point. That plaque carried a lot of weight. Perhaps even more than we could have imagined.
Once our director returned from the hospital and we were getting ready to resume rehearsal, minus the music, I asked him if he knew about the missing plaque.
“Yes, I took it down myself.” He said to me. He told me that he was planning on putting a Lifetime Achievement Award up for Sam, the director of the theater department for three decades who had just retired the year before.
“I wanted to have it up in time for the opening of this show.” He said.
“When did you take Jeff down?” I asked and I just called it Jeff because we all oddly felt that he was a part of that place since we had always seen his face there.
“I took him down yesterday just before 3 PM.” He said.
“OK, let me get this straight. You took it down Friday just before three and at about 3:20 Pat called in and said that she was suddenly too sick to work. We come in today and there are stupid accidents, Pat falls off the stage during a DANCE number and then a huge pillar leaning against the proscenium wall rights itself and then falls backwards directly onto the HANDS of Patti while she is playing the piano.” I broke it down for him. He looked at me digesting what I suggested.
“Where is Jeff’s plaque right now?” I asked.
“It is in my office leaning against my desk.” He answered.
“I don’t want to be presumptuous here but I’m going to make a suggestion. Why don’t you take Jeff out of your office and put him back on the wall where he has been hanging, at least until the show is done with its run. THEN you can find a very nice alternative location for it, preferably with a good view, and put the other plaque up in its place.” I proposed.
At first he looked at me as if I were crazy. Then I could actually see the mechanisms in his brain going over the time line of events for the last 24 hours. He took a deep breath, held it in for about a minute, still pondering it all and then simply said, “I understand.”
Without fan fair or any attention drawn to himself he quietly walked into his office, gathered up Jeff’s plaque, walked to the lobby and put it back in it’s original spot. The rest of the rehearsal went off that day without a hitch. We were able to find a replacement piano player to cover for Patti and the show was a success.
To this day, some twenty years later, when I am with my theater friends from high school all anyone has to mention is, what became known as, ‘The Curse of Jeff’. Those of us who were in that production are then immediately transported back to that bright Saturday spent inside of a theater that was perhaps a little darker than our corporeal eyes could perceive at first glance.
(these and other amazingly creepy antique Halloween images can be found in the Halloween in the Time of Cholera gallery) Halloween #1 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!