Wading Back In

Submitted by Tony on Mon, 12/08/2008 - 6:59pm

Stepping back in the water lightly, but so much to talk about. A couple of things I missed:

Apparently in a time where all businesses are having difficult times, both for and non-profits; only one House of self-importance keeps Chicago from sliding towards being St. Louis with a Lake. Why save the world when you could save the House?

Another critic leaves at intermission. She f-ed up. That is certain, and the responses didn't help her case. But it kinda seems like her editor left her out to dry on this one. More on that soon.

The parent company of the Reader is in bankruptcy, Tribune declared bankruptcy today, TimeOut Chicago's up for sale, not a great time to be a journalist in Chicago.

Chris Jones isn't into Genet:

But progressive Genet plays such as “The Maids,” penned in 1947, became staples of modern drama classes at American universities from the 1960s onward. And even though his body of work is, to say the least, weird, these outre dramas are still very much around. . .

. . .You can see the play as a prescient exploration of the erotic intersection of sex and power—a nexus over which many modern writers obsess, but that was mostly unchartered territory in 1947. Or you could see it as a look at the way we fill meaningless lives with an endless succession of petty gratification like games of power and control. Or—perhaps most accurately—you can see the play as the kind of worldview that inevitably evolves when you spend too many years in prison.

Tonight only, I'll make my first onstage appearance in almost four years. I'll be playing Sanata #3 (aka Santa Whoop-ass) tonight in N.U.F.A.N.'s. Seven Plays in Seven Days. Don't call it a comeback.