NORMAL, ILLINOIS Middletown, by the Pulitzer finalist Will Eno, opens 6/26 at
Steppenwolf.
THE FIVE
Don’t-miss picks for Wed 06.22.11 through Tue 06.28.11:
1 |
theatre Middletown ALSO THIS WEEK: One Thousand and One Nights, the touring production that was scheduled to open 6/25 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, has been postponed due to visa issues. Stay tuned for updates. |
2 |
theatre Chinglish ALSO THIS WEEK: Behind door number 2: Steve Scott directs David Henry Hwang’s drama about a playwright whose initials are DHH. Yellow Face, a coproduction of the Goodman and Silk Road Theatre Project, runs through 7/17 at the Chicago Temple. |
3 |
dance Eiko & Koma |
4 |
rock/pop Green Music Fest |
5 |
rock/pop Jimmie Dale Gilmore |
WHAT I’M DOING THIS WEEKEND
Keith Huff
Up next in our series of weekend plans from notable, in-the-know locals—a.k.a. people we like: the playwright and screenwriter Keith Huff, whose A Steady Rain starred Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman on Broadway after debuting at Chicago Dramatists in 2007, and whose latest, The Detective’s Wife, is onstage now in its world premiere at Writers’ Theatre.
“My wife’s birthday is next week, so my daughter and I will probably be shopping at Old Orchard this weekend for the perfect gift—which we somehow never manage to find. We live in the Wildwood community of Chicago (Devon-Lehigh-Caldwell), so we typically head north to the burbs, where we never have to fight (or pay) for a parking spot. Breakfast at Kappy’s in Morton Grove is a regular stop for us. I heartily recommend the Oatmeal Royale.
“We just got a new dog, a terrier mix, from Wright Way Rescue in Niles, and Saturday is our first class in obedience training with the terrific dog trainer Frank DeMarco. So we’ll all be there first thing Saturday morning and hopefully all of us will come home housebroken.
“If we get a break from all this rain, my daughter and I will go bike riding in Caldwell Woods on Saturday or Sunday. After that, I’ll burn something on the grill. If we don’t get a break from the rain, I’m anxious to finish reading Cloud Atlas, a brilliant, playful book by David Mitchell. I’ve only got two chapters to go. After that, I’ve got Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 sitting on my bookshelf, which I plan to read next.”
GO: The Detective’s Wife has been extended through 8/7 at Writers’ Theatre, 664 Vernon, Glencoe. Tickets run $50–$65: writerstheatre.org
FREEBIES OF THE WEEK
rock/pop Low, Glen Hansard
Downtown Sound, Millennium Park’s Monday-night concert series, continues its winning streak with a don’t-miss double bill: the Minnesota trio Low, which has expanded beyond but not abandoned the slowcore genre it pioneered, with the charming Frames frontman, Glen Hansard, opening.
GO: 6/27 at 6:30. Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, Michigan and Washington. millenniumpark.org
ALSO THIS WEEK: The jazz violinist and MacArthur genius Regina Carter performs Billy Childs’s Violin Concerto on 6/22 as part of the Grant Park Music Festival.
lit/lectures Poetry Foundation Open House
It’s hard to say which is the bigger draw: the world-class poets (Elizabeth Alexander, who penned Obama’s 2009 inaugural poem; Robert Hass, the Pulitzer Prize winner; Sandra Cisneros, the Chicago-born writer of The House on Mango Street) or the foundation’s sparkly new $21.5 million digs, outfitted with poetry-friendly squeak-free chairs and a reverie-inducing urban grove.
GO: 6/25 from 10 to 6; 6/26 from 10 to 7:30. Many events are full; visit the website to add your name to the individual waiting lists. No tickets necessary for book signings or to visit the building. Poetry Foundation, 61 W Superior. poetryfoundation.org/openhouse
Photography: (MIDDLETOWN) Michael Brosilow; (HUFF) Georgette Huff