Friday 6/27 – Thursday 7/3
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28 SATURDAY Modernist painter Helen Torr saw her work shown only twice during her lifetime, and she had to share one of those exhibits–in 1933, at Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery An American Place–with her husband, the better-known Arthur Dove. During the Depression the pair of struggling artists lived on a sailboat, at a yacht club, and in a former roller rink before landing in a tiny Long Island cottage. Torr, who specialized in flat, rhythmic still lifes and landscapes, put aside her work to care for her husband after he fell ill in 1938. He died in 1947, and she became a recluse; before she passed away in 1967 she requested that all her work be thrown out. Luckily her sister, Mary Rehm, didn’t obey her wishes. Instead, Rehm brought Torr’s paintings to the director of Long Island’s Heckscher Museum of Art, which soon mounted the first museum exhibition of her work. The Heckscher purchased the couple’s cottage in 1998, and now the museum’s put together Out of the Shadows: Helen Torr, A Retrospective, 60 of her pieces. It comes to the Terra Museum of American Art, 666 N. Michigan, today and runs through August 17. Gallery hours are Tuesday 10 to 8, Wednesday through Saturday 10 to 6, and Sunday noon to 5. It’s free, but there’s a suggested donation of $5; call 312-664-3939 or see www.terramuseum.org for more information.
Wade Robson, choreographer to Britney Spears and ‘N Sync, is the latest semicelebrity to launch an American Idol-type contest of his own. MTV’s The Wade Robson Project will feature 80 amateur dancers battling for a cash prize of over $20,000 and the chance to either appear in a music video, tour with a musical act, or perform live at some event like the Super Bowl half-time show. Open auditions will be held today from 11 to 6 at Vision, 640 N. Dearborn, for hopefuls who are 18 or older, are legally able to work in the U.S., and have never been paid for shakin’ it. Organizers strongly suggest arriving early to get in line; call 310-752-8877.
“It was wild. One night we had to turn 30 people away,” says a spokesperson for the Gene Siskel Film Center about the March run of Bonhoeffer, Martin Doblmeier’s documentary about the German theologian and World War II resistance fighter who was part of a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The film broke Siskel Center box office records during its weeklong run and has returned for a two-week engagement that ends July 10. Doblmeier, who’s also made films about Cardinal Joseph Bernadin and Thomas Jefferson and is working on a television series called Catholics in America, will attend tonight’s 7:45 screening at 164 N. State. Tickets are $8; call 312-846-2800.
3 THURSDAY Although Independence Day falls on a Friday this year–meaning most people won’t have to get up early the next day–the city is again staging its Grant Park fireworks display on July 3. The free pyrotechnics start around 9:30 at Monroe and the lakefront and will last about 20 minutes. As usual, the explosions will be set to live music by the Grant Park Orchestra, directed by Christopher Bell and featuring the U.S. Air Force Singing Sergeants; selections include John Philip Sousa’s “The Belle of Chicago,” Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” and Tchaikovksy’s 1812 Overture. The fireworks will be simulcast on WFMT and Channel 32. At 7:30 the orchestra (and the sergeants) will also perform selections like “The Star-Spangled Banner” and other American fare at the Petrillo Music Shell at Columbus and Jackson as part of Taste of Chicago (see the sidebar in Section Three for a complete schedule of Taste of Chicago music performances). For more information call 312-744-3370.
