Displaying items by tag: Bernard Gilbert
How to Catch Creation? See this play and make a step in that direction
The dynamic clashes of three couples living parallel lives fuels Christina Anderson’s delightful new play, How to Catch Creation. With dialog that is fresh, arresting, and completely natural, Anderson captures and holds our attention throughout the 90-minute show. We quickly become invested in the characters, want to know how things will turn out for them.
Particularly strong were the portrayals of Griffin (Keith Randolph Smith is spectacular), and his bosom buddy and best female friend Tami (Karen Aldridge in an electric performance).
Griffin is a middle-aged man recently released from prison after being wrongfully convicted, trying to reclaim his life – with a settlement to get him started. Tami is an academic administrator in the fine arts department, whose life as an artist is now in abeyance – and likewise for her love life, which trends toward women.
Tami and Griffin have that most special intimacy, one that allows for unsparing honesty, and in the best of all possible worlds could be the basis for a rock-solid marriage. But nothing suggests they are headed in that direction. But your antenna will rise as the dialog between these two, sparklingly well written, suggests a special energy – and the chemistry between these two accomplished actors is unrelentingly magnetic.
In the course of the action, Tami pairs up with Riley (Maya Vinice Prentiss) a computer technician and electronic musician. Complicating things is the fact that Riley is involved with Stokes (Bernard Gilbert). Without spoiling the plot and reveals, we discover a thread of connections through two generations, and through coincidences and fate, paths cross and the complicated fabric of the drama is woven.
The presentation of the play is fast-paced and technically wonderful – Anderson’s script sets great production challenges, as it mimics the fast-paced, quick-cut style of a film – with vignettes, short scenes, and jumps back in time. To accomplish this, director Nigel Smith seamlessly integrated scenery and staging (Todd Rosenthal) lighting (Allen Lee Hughes) and sound (Joanna Lynne Staub, with composition by Justin Ellington).
In How to Catch Creation, Anderson reminds us that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The title tips us off to the parallels within these couples, and the pursuit each holds in common of creation – in painting, writing, procreating – and the quest for love. As if to underscore it all, Anderson gives us several pairs of scenes that run concurrently, with identical dialog spoken sometimes simultaneously, sometimes sequentially, by couples in different times and of different ages. The effect is marvelous.
One couple is shown living in the 1960s and 1970s, Ayanna Bria Bakari (Natalie), Jasmine Bracey (G.K. Marche) and Anderson is very specific about the timing of scenes: one takes place a few days after the specific reference to the September 15, 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama; the scene references the killing of four little girls in the church. Another takes place years later, with a very specific presentation of an ad at a bus stop for an Apple computer (a perfect replication of the real thing), setting it in the late 1970s, when Apple first began advertising.
The other two couples inhabit 2014, but also with a specificity. “It’s 2014,” says Riley. “If you have the money, you can have can have a kid.” Perhaps by rooting the action in concrete details, Anderson wants to make it more credible. But she has accomplished that already, with the dialog in this wonderfully written work. Highly recommended. How to Catch Creation runs through February 24 at Goodman Theatre.
Steppenwolf's Adirondack Chair Circle: The Joke Lands. Then What?
03 November 2026 in Theatre in ReviewI went into Adirondack Chair Circle wondering what a new play about book bans could add to a conversation whose…
Nov. 23 at the MAC: "An Evening with Gary Sinise" Author of "Graceful Warrior" to Benefit WSFDV
03 November 2026 in Theatre BuzzWest Suburban Foundation for Disabled Veterans (WSFDV) presents "An Evening with Gary Sinise," Author of "Graceful Warrior" at the McAninch Arts…
David Salsbery Fry returns to Chicago Opera Theater for fourth production with company in Chicago Premiere The Importance of Being Earnest - December 2-6
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Rick Bayless, Anthony Rapp, Jeff Tweedy and More Join Goodman Theatre's Holiday Season
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Oil Lamp Academy Announces the Schedule of 2027 Youth and Adult Winter and Spring Class Offerings - Tickets Now On Sale
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Remarkable Production Makes 'The Royale" a Knockout Show
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A Call You Want To Answer: Jerker, Or The Helping Hand speaks volumes in Uptown
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A Mystery of Mysteries : David Parr: Time Traveler Transcends Logic at Chicago Magic Lounge
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ROMEO + JULIET FILM IN CONCERT Coming to Broadway In Chicago January 30th, 2027
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The Beloved Holiday Classic, "Ruth Page's The Nutcracker," Celebrates 60 Years at Four Chicagoland Locations This Holiday Season, December 5–20
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Guarneri Hall announces two-day series REVOLUTIONS on the intersection between music, politics, and social change November 11-12, 2026
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The Front Theatre announces casting for the North American Premiere of Sap February 25 - March 27, 2027
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Chicago Magic Lounge's Mister Danny Reveals How It's Done in New Artist-in-Residence Show
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Hyde Park School of Dance presents annual performances of The Nutcracker December 11–13 at Mandel Hall
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Holiday Hilarity! Paramount presents The Second City’s Nut-Cracking Holiday Revue at downtown Aurora’s Copley Theatre, Nov. 20-Dec. 23
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Mary, A Holiday Dansical Returns for one performance only at Logan Center December 13th
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The Gift Theatre's Hayward: A Floridian-Style Shiva
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Chicago Shakespeare Makes Winter’s Tale a Story Worth Telling
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Steppenwolf Theatre Presents JESSIE MUELLER WITH SETH RUDETSKY – December 18 & 19, 2026
20 October 2026 in Upcoming TheatreSteppenwolf Theatre Company and Mark Cortale are pleased to announce the return of Tony Award-winning Broadway star Jessie Mueller (Beautiful:…
Remy Bumppo’s Mud Row: A Family Haunted by the Past
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A Joe & Melanie Thing Theatre Company announces The Hanukkah Humbug at Greenhouse Theater Center - December 3-6
20 October 2026 in Upcoming TheatreThe world premiere of The Hanukkah Humbug brings ghosts, history, tradition, and a whole lot of family fun to the…
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Steppenwolf's Adirondack Chair Circle: The Joke Lands. Then What?
Written by Maddie BurroughsI went into Adirondack Chair Circle wondering what a new play about book bans could add to a conversation whose arguments most of its audience could probably already recite. A world premiere at Steppenwolf seemed worth giving the benefit of… -
Nov. 23 at the MAC: "An Evening with Gary Sinise" Author of "Graceful Warrior" to Benefit WSFDV
Written by Buzz Center StageWest Suburban Foundation for Disabled Veterans (WSFDV) presents "An Evening with Gary Sinise," Author of "Graceful Warrior" at the McAninch Arts Center (MAC) located on the campus of College of DuPage, 425 Fawell Blvd. Monday, Nov. 23 at 6:30 p.m. Sinise, an… -
Remarkable Production Makes 'The Royale" a Knockout Show
Written by Bill EslerWriters Theatre scores a knockout production with Marco Ramirez’s 2013 play, The Royale. Under the direction of Tyrone Phillips, we see this widely-produced script (it played New York’s Lincoln Center a decade ago) executed to perfection. Centered on boxing legend… -
David Salsbery Fry returns to Chicago Opera Theater for fourth production with company in Chicago Premiere The Importance of Being Earnest - December 2-6
Written by Buzz Center StageDavid Salsbery Fry sings the role of Rev. Canon Chasuble in the Chicago Premiere of Chicago Opera Theater’s (COT) production of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s humorous and final stage work – a “sparkling operatic adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s beloved play and a joyful tribute to…
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