Meet the women of Shakespeare

It’s easy to figure out who wrote the script and cast the roles for “Shakespeare’s Female Women” at Gorilla Tango’s Skokie Theatre. Alicia Queen plays the main character, who is embarking on a journey. Ever Mainard plays the 131 characters that she meets along the …

Set designer is having a banner year

By all rights, Chicago-based theatrical set designer Kevin Depinet should be lounging on a beach somewhere, recharging after a year of living in creative overdrive. But he is not.

Instead, when we chatted recently, he was nursing some painful dental surgery and speaking animatedly about …

Writers’ Theatre in Glencoe energized by ‘Hamlet’ cast

“When you put together a brilliant actor and a great play, it attracts other great actors to the project,” says Michael Halberstam, artistic director at Writers’ Theatre in Glencoe.

He should know. That happens with some regularity at Writers,’ and looks to be happening again …

Passionate Quixote drives powerful show

The pivotal moment in “Man of La Mancha” is Don Quixote’s song “The Quest,” better known as “The Impossible Dream.” It should break our hearts with its passion and hope. And we must be convinced that our slightly “mad” knight-errant believes every word. Happily, that …

Evanston’s Light Opera stages ‘Man of La Mancha’

James Harms has spent a lot of time tilting at windmills the last three years. It comes with the territory when you play Don Quixote in “Man of La Mancha.” Harms has starred as the gallant, albeit delusional, knight in productions with Chamber Opera Chicago …

Shakespeare’s dark politics in daylight

It’s a presidential election year, so it’s only natural that Evanston’s Muse of Fire Theatre Company chose Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” for its annual outdoor summer production. “The fascinating thing about this play in terms of what’s going on in this country right now is that …

Chamber opera offers ‘Don Giovanni’

Don Juan, the classic bad boy of the arts, is a fictional libertine hapless women love to love. He first appeared in literature in the 17th century, and he has been chronicled in song and story ever since. Never so memorably, however, as in Mozart’s …