through chat rooms and strip clubs, honesty becomes a performance. In a dense and tangled network, Alice, Anna, Dan, and Larry capture and negotiate their many loves by any and all emotional means. And the London streets look more and more like a Möbius strip. Will this loop return them to the truth? Directed by Scarlett Kim. Advance $6, door $8 (773-702-ARTS or ticketsweb.uchicago.edu). Presented by Theater & Performance Studies & University Theater. Performance by LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs Fri, Nov 7, 8pm Film Studies Center, Cobb Hall, room 306 Harlem-based artist Diggs brings together words, sounds, and video to present a vibrant multimedia performance that traverses popular media and history, codeswitching, and cultural inclusivity. As a performer, she has been featured at The Kitchen, Exit Art, Recess Activities Inc, The Whitney, and MoMa. As a curator and artistic director, Diggs has staged events at El Museo del Barrio, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Brecht Forum, Symphony Space, Dixon Place, and BAM Café. Free. Presented by the Program in Poetry and Poetics and the Renaissance Society.
Henry V by William Shakespeare Thu–Fri, Nov 13–14, 7:30pm; Sat, Nov 15, 2pm and 7:30pm Reynolds Club, Francis X. Kinahan Theater The Dean’s Men play a ragtag chorus of Shakespearean players take our stage and introduce our story: the defense of a dynasty under newly-crowned King Henry.
Endgame by Samuel Beckett Thu–Fri, Nov 20–21, 7:30pm; Sat, Nov 22, 2pm and 7:30pm Logan Center, Theater West Cruelty is mundane and everyone is claustrophobic in Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, directed by Julia Santha. A bare interior confines four humans, protecting them from a quiet apocalypse outside. Language lacerates and longs in quick succession, as a game of minimums unfolds between the characters, each of them desperate for ways to pass their time. Depression gives way to comedy gives way to more lust for life than you came with. Advance $6, door $8 (773-702-ARTS or ticketsweb.uchicago.edu). Presented by Theater & Performance Studies & University Theater. Macbeth by William Shakespeare Thu–Fri, Dec 4–5, 7:30pm; Sat, Dec 6, 2pm and 7:30pm Logan Center Theatre East Dreams can contaminate the day, and in director Éamon Boylan’s Macbeth, the wilds outside are something of a dream. Driven mad by the normative imperatives of a waking world, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth want self-fulfillment and happiness at any cost. Weird words affirm their ambition, and they decide to kill the normativity oppressing them. A brutal mixture of Shakespearean verse and German Expressionist gesture and movement, Macbeth will murder sleep. Maybe yours. Advance $6, door $8 (773-702-ARTS or ticketsweb.uchicago.edu). Presented by Theater & Performance Studies & University Theater. Muntu Dance Theatre: Lest We Forget’s Thu–Fri, Dec 11–12, 10:30am (youth matinee) Sat, Dec 13, 7:30pm, Sun, Dec 14, 3pm Logan Center, Performance Hall Muntu’s annual winter performance benefit supports its core programs, which include professional performances, comprehensive community arts programs, and public classes. Thu/Fri youth matinees $9 (one free adult ticket per 25 youth), Sat/Sun performances $30. Presented by Muntu Dance Theatre and the Logan Center.
Court Theatre isn’t the only
organization reaching a landmark year. UChicago Arts celebrates five major milestones between now and fall 2015. All located on UChicago’s campus, these professional organizations have been presenting world class art for decades.
Court Theatre
The Center for Classic Theatre’s 60th season boasts two world premieres, Ron OJ Parson directing Waiting for Godot, and Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis, the first installment in a three-year cycle of Greek plays, followed by Aeschylus’ Agamemnon and Sophocles’ Electra.
COURT THEATRE’S NATIVE SON KICKS OFF UCHICAGO ARTENNIAL The world premiere begins a year of anniversaries for campus-based arts organizations
Smart Museum of Art
Carved, Cast, and Crumpled, on view September 27–December 21, is the first in a series of special projects celebrating the Smart Museum of Art’s 40th year. The exhibition takes over the entirety of the museum, transforming both spaces normally dedicated to temporary exhibitions as well as those that are home to longer-standing installations of the Smart’s collection.
Contempo
A pair of mid-season concerts on January 24 and March 1 punctuates Contempo’s 50th season with the work of innovative composers affiliated with the cutting edge contemporary chamber program. Performed masterfully by the award-winning ensembles eighth blackbird and Pacifica Quartet, among others.
Bells of Summer
The venerable Rockefeller Chapel presents the 50th anniversary its Bells of Summer program. Visitors flock from all corners to hear the world’s largest carillon and this beautiful bells series.
The Renaissance Society
Expect radical things in fall 2015 as executive director and chief curator Solveig Øvstebø continues to make her mark and the renowned contemporary
When Court Theatre opened its production of Native Son, a world premiere adaptation by Chicago’s own Nambi E. Kelley, the company also kicked off a year-long celebration of the anniversaries of five campusbased arts organizations.
UChicago Artennial runs through fall 2015 as contemporary art museum The Renaissance Society enters its 100th year. “I am so excited to be part of Court Theatre as we arrive at our sixtieth anniversary season—and as the University recognizes the anniversaries and tremendous work of these organizations,” says longstanding Artistic Director Charles Newell. “From our origins as an outdoor summer festival on the University of Chicago quad to a leading Center for Classic Theatre, the ambition and scope of this landmark anniversary season celebrates the audiences and artists who have defined, sustained, and inspired Court Theatre’s community for sixty years.” Newell and his colleagues frequently cite their organizations’ relationship with the University of Chicago as another uniquely defining factor. UChicago faculty members frequently collaborate or consult on Court Theatre productions, such as this year’s The Good Book. Similarly, they make curatorial, programmatic, and artistic contributions to the Smart Museum and The Renaissance Society. Not only has Contempo featured the work of student and faculty composers, its longtime artistic director is Shulamit Ran, Andrew
MacLeish Distinguished Service Professor of Music at UChicago. Speaking to these organizations’ leaders––even exploring their past seasons––it is clear that the University of Chicago’s distinct culture has created an intellectually and creatively rich environment that has contributed to decades of critically lauded work. In addition to the world premiere of Native Son, adapted from Richard Wright’s classic novel by Nambi E. Kelley and coproduced with American Blues Theater, the company’s ambitious 2014/15 season will include Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis translated by Nicholas Rudall and directed by Newell; Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, directed by resident artist Ron OJ Parson; and the world premiere of Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s The Good Book, directed by Lisa Peterson. Closing out the anniversary season is Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon’s The Secret Garden, based on the beloved novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett and directed by Newell with music direction by Doug Peck. Purchase tickets for Court Theatre’s Native Son, running through October 12, by calling 773-753-4472 or visiting tickets.courttheatre.org. Learn more about UChicago Artennial below and online at artennial.uchicago.edu.
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30 THEATER, DANCE & PERFORMANCE | arts.uchicago.edu
Entre Marta Y Lope Wed–Thu, Nov 5–6, 7:30pm Logan Center, Theater West This passionate evening of theater explores the intricate relationship between Lope de Vega, one of the most luminous writers of Spanish literature during the Golden Age, and his last lover, Marta de Nevares. Written by Santiago Miralles and Gerardo Malla, Entre Marta Y Lope is a coproduction of La Fundación Siglo de Oro and Teatro Español. Performed in Spanish. General $15, students $5. Presented by the Logan Center, Theater & Performance Studies, and the Department of Romance Languages & Literatures.
Just as the brave new monarch prepares to win an impossible victory against the French, the brave players prepare to perform an impossible spectacle with only a few blocks and some moxie. Wars will wage, bombast will blast, and your spirits will most certainly rouse. Directed by Jonathan Sorce. Advance $6, door $8 (773-702-ARTS or ticketsweb.uchicago.edu). Presented by Theater & Performance Studies & University Theater & Dean’s Men.
