Illinois

In accepting the single story that "God’s Work" does not belong in a downtown Chicago theater, do we contribute to the silencing of the voices of our youth? I believe "God’s Work" is just as worthy of embodiment on stage as "Our Class" or any other current Chicago production, regardless of the age of the ensemble members telling it.

Dani Snyder-Young writes about the Chicago-based Albany Park Theatre Project, a youth theatre ensemble. She reviews APTP's 2014 remounted production of God's Work, at the Goodman Theatre.

We usually consider a fight choreographer’s job to be staging the fights so that they are safe. Certainly safety is essential: actors should not be getting hurt in the exercise of their art. But a violence designer is far more than a mere “safety foreman.” Like any other artist working in the theater, the violence designer’s primary role is doing interpretive work: making choices that help tell the story. Not the story of Hamlet, but the story of this Hamlet: that is to say, the story that this production of Hamlet is telling.

Dani Snyder-Young reviews the (now closed) Next Theatre Company production of Kirsten Greenidge’s Luck of the Irish in the context of Evanston, Illinois

The Great Chicago Fire Festival is a new signature event for the City of Chicago. It is a citywide spectacle, co-produced by Redmoon Theater and the City of Chicago. It will be Mayor Emanuel’s first major cultural initiative and is wedded to his federally funded effort to convert the Chicago River into a hub of downtown recreation. What Mardi Gras is to New Orleans and the Running of the Bulls is to Pamplona, that’s what The Great Chicago Fire Festival will become to the Windy City. This article is part of a series of four articles on Creative Placemaking publishing in conjunction with the 2014 ArtPlace America Grantee Summit. The Summit will livestream Mon, March 3 to Wed, March 5 on HowlRound.TV. In Twitter, use #ArtPlace to participate in the conversation. View the full series, the schedule, and archive here: http://bit.ly/artplace2014.

Dani Snyder-Young looks at the world premiere of Joel Drake Johnson’s Rasheeda Speaking, and reflects on seeing a play about race, with a mostly white audience. 

In this installation, playwright and artistic dirctor Jamil Khoury reflects on the controversey spurred over the adaptation of The Jungle Book, which opened this summer in Chicago.

Dani Snyder-Young reviews Silk Road Rising's world premiere of Motti Lerner's Paulus, and explores the modern ramifications for a play about religious inclusivity in Israel.

Kati Sweaney interviews Michael Rohd about what and how the Catalyst Initiative promotes arts-based practices in meaningful community activities.

Dani Snyder-Young reviews Steven Simoncic’s Broken Fences at 16th Street Theater, and highlights the play's message... and how audiences have failed to recieve it.

Josh Sobel investigates the relationship between critics and Chicago's theatre community.

Dani Snyder-Young reviews Janine Nabers' Annie Bosh is Missing at Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

A look into how director Mary Zimmerman brought The Jungle Book, steeped in racial contexts of British Colonization and 1960s America, to today’s conversation of what has and hasn’t changed.

Dani Snyder-Young writes about The Miss Neo Pageant, and how - even though the ideas presented permeate much of the media about women - we still struggle with the ideas of female competition, jealousy, and distrust.

Dani Snyder-Young discusses The Happiest Song Plays Last by Quiara Alegría Hudes, and asks: how do we invite diverse audiences into this exploration?