Friday 2/21 – Thursday 2/27
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“Much of the contemporary dance presenting that’s going on right now in the U.S. is dominated by work from New York and abroad,” says Phil Reynolds, executive director of the Dance Center of Columbia College. “But there is in fact a wealth of very interesting new work coming out of the west coast, and San Francisco is the hub of that.” The Dance Center’s new “Into the West” series features three cutting-edge Bay Area companies, including Robert Moses’s Kin (which makes its Chicago debut on March 6) and the Joe Goode Performance Group (March 20). The series kicked off last night with Sara Shelton Mann–whom Reynolds calls “a seminal force in the Bay Area scene”–and her company Contraband performing the evening-length Feast of Souls–part two of her multimedia trilogy, Monk at the Met. Additional performances are tonight and tomorrow, February 22, at 8 at the Dance Center, 1306 S. Michigan. Tickets range from $20 to $24; for more information call 312-344-8300 or see the Critic’s Choice in Section Two.
22 SATURDAY The Ford Center for the Performing Arts sits on the site of the old Iroquois Theater, where a fire killed over 600 people in 1903, just five weeks after the venue opened. In 1926 the Rapp and Rapp-designed Oriental Theatre movie palace opened on the site; it fell into disrepair in the 70s and closed in ’81. The restoration, which won a 1999 award from the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects, is a destination on three different tours all starting at 10 AM today in conjunction with the city’s Theater Fever weekend. A free city-sponsored behind-the-scenes tour starts at the theater, 24 W. Randolph; other free backstage tours will take place simultaneously at the Chicago, Noble Fool, Cadillac Palace, and Goodman theaters. Call 312-742-1079 for more information. The Chicago Architecture Foundation’s walking tour of the north Loop theater district costs a sawbuck ($5 for students and seniors) and covers the exteriors of the Goodman, Oriental, and Noble Fool as well as the interior of the Chicago. That tour starts at the south end of the latter at 175 N. State; call 312-922-3432. The $50 Chicago Neighborhood Tours entry includes lunch and a bus trip that will head south to the New Regal Theater, then hit the Chicago and the Oriental. It leaves from the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington (312-742-1190). For more on Theater Fever, which includes half-price tickets to downtown shows as well as free performances, classes, games, and workshops, call 312-742-1079, go to www.chicagoplays.com, or see the listings in Section Two.
26 WEDNESDAY “We think of baseball as essentially an American game that embodies American values,” says Northwestern University lecturer and baseball expert Bill Savage. “But American values always come down to who gets to be an American.” He points out that Jackie Robinson, who in 1947 became the first black player to sign to the majors, wrote in his autobiography that upon hearing the national anthem at the beginning of the 1947 World Series he thought, “This time…it is being played for me as much as for anyone else. This is organized major league baseball and I am standing here with all the others; and everything that takes place includes me.” Savage will examine how identity and transformation play out in baseball narratives at tonight’s lecture, Defining American Identity in Baseball Fiction and Film. It’s held in conjunction with the exhibit “Baseball as America” at the Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Dr. (312-665-7400). It starts at 6; admission is $12, $10 for students, seniors, and educators.
