BLOOD BATH If you thought you saw red when the Hypocrites staged Oedipus in
2009 (above), wait until the troupe brings the mayhem in Sophocles: Seven
Sicknesses.
THE FIVE
Don’t-miss picks for Wed 09.07.11 through Tue 09.13.11:
| 1 |
theatre Sophocles: Seven Sicknesses |
| 2 |
theatre The Guys ALSO THIS WEEK: Fulcrum Point New Music Project joins the New Classic Singers in an interfaith concert featuring a work by the Pulitzer winner Aaron Jay Kernis 9/11 at the Harris. And at Chicago History Museum, Laura Washington of the Sun-Times and Steve Bynum of WBEZ’s Worldview participate in a panel on 9/11’s local legacy; admission is free. |
| 3 |
dance The Other Dance Festival ALSO THIS WEEK: Momix’s artistic director, Moses Pendleton, is an avid gardener, so it’s only natural that in Botanica, 9/9–10 at Ravinia, the troupe’s acclaimed dance illusionists re-create floral landscapes—opening like orchids, blooming like marigolds—while a score of Vivaldi-meets-chirping-birds tweets in the background. |
| 4 |
rock/pop Manu Chao ALSO THIS WEEK: The Del McCoury Band plays traditional bluegrass with a vengeance, with Robbie Fulks and Nora O’Connor opening, at the Old Town School of Folk Music on 9/10, while the mandolin master Chris Thile expands bluegrass’s boundaries with the guitarist Michael Daves at Lincoln Hall the same night. |
| 5 |
gardens/parks Honeybee Weekend |
WHAT I’M DOING THIS WEEKEND
Kevin Coval
Up next in our series of weekend plans from notable, in-the-know locals—a.k.a. people we like: Kevin Coval, the poet, teacher, author, and cofounder and artistic director of Louder Than a Bomb: The Chicago Youth Poetry Festival. Coval will read from his new book, L-vis Lives! Racemusic Poems, out this month from Haymarket Books, at a release party and concert 9/14 at Metro.
“I’m finishing this book I’m loving, by Martín Espada, called The Lover of a Subversive Is Also a Subversive: Essays and Commentaries. Martín, he’s one of the people whose work taught me that the poet is an advocate—that the poet is political and that poetry can be political. I’m really feeling it right now. A book of his poems, probably his most well known, Imagine the Angels of Bread, taught me how to write books of poems. Prior to that, whenever I read poetry collections, I felt like I was reading random bits of work written over five years or ten years and then assembled by a poet or an editor into a book. Martín’s book felt more like a novel, like it had a discernible narrative arc. That book allowed me to think about why poems make sense together, in one collection.
“And then I have a whole calendar of events . . . Is it a cliché to say I’m going to the Renegade Craft Fair?”
Read Kevin’s unabridged weekend agenda in The 312.
FREEBIES OF THE WEEK
festivals Berwyn Historic Route 66 Car Show
Where Chicago ends, the spirit of the open road begins: Some 300 classic cars, trucks, and motorcycles line suburban Berwyn, just a few miles from the historic byway’s starting point. We can feel the wind in our hair already.
GO: 9/10 from 10 to 4. Ogden from Oak Park to Ridgeland, Berwyn. berwynrt66.com
ALSO THIS WEEK: More than 300 DIY vendors set up shop down the center of Division Street for the ninth annual Renegade Craft Fair, 9/10–11, while the city’s most authentic Oktoberfest—the German American Festival, featuring the 46th annual Von Steuben Parade—tunes its tubas 9/9–11 in Lincoln Square.
opera Stars of Lyric Opera of Chicago at Millennium Park
The grande dame soprano and the Lyric’s recently designated creative consultant, Renée Fleming, makes her Pritzker Pavilion debut with the leads of the company’s new season, including the tenor and native Evanstonian Matthew Polenzani, who sings the title role in October’s season opener, The Tales of Hoffmann.
GO: 9/10 at 7:30. Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, Michigan and Washington. lyricopera.org
literature Collection and Cocktails
When the Poetry Foundation threw itself a star-studded bash celebrating its new digs back in June, most of the high-profile readings—Elizabeth Alexander, Sandra Cisneros—filled up faster than you could say “free verse.” So if you haven’t seen the inside of the new $21.5 million building yet, go this week, for a decidedly lower-wattage but lovely-sounding night designed to introduce locals to the 30,000-volume library. Scheduled diversions include poetry fortune telling, a scavenger hunt among the stacks, and wine and snacks.
GO: 9/7 from 5:30 to 8:30. Admission is first come, first served; RSVP recommended: collectionandcocktails.eventbrite.com. Poetry Foundation, 61 W Superior. poetryfoundation.org
theatre Free Night of Theater
September 9 marks the first day you can sign up to win free tickets for as many as five different local productions on stage in October. How it works: Go to freenightchicago.com, peruse the list of participating theatres, and pick the top five plays you’d most like to see next month. The only stipulation: Since the point of the promotion is to get new bodies in seats, you’re asked to choose theatres where you haven’t previously attended a play. The ticket distribution will take place at the end of September, and voilà: If you’re lucky, you and a friend could see a handful of new plays.
GO: Submit your top five picks between 9/9 and 9/23. More details: freenightchicago.com
Photography: (HYPOCRITES) Paul Metreyeon; (COVAL) Rebekah Raleigh