Loading Up Your April Basket

April always seems to be a big month for entertainment -- it's when people peek outside looking for shows after a winter spent inside, when theatre companies announce their new seasons and start hawking subscriptions, when TV shows gear up for spring sweeps, and new work starts cropping up at festivals around the country.

First, let's just get Mad Men out of the way right off the top. AMC's amazing piece of television history begins its final season this Sunday night, with ad man Don Draper and his colleagues, wives, lovers and kids taking a trip to the 70s. Watch out for polyester, plaid and a major infusion of facial hair. Where will Don and Peggy and Roger and Joan end up? Given what we've seen so far, happily ever after doesn't seem likely. Neither does Don ending up as D. B. Cooper, but that doesn't stop people from continuing to guess it.

Speaking of new work... I will be making my annual trip to Louisville for Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival of New American plays next weekend. No better spot to wallow in theatre for an entire weekend. There will be six full-length shows, a program of three new 10-minute plays, parties, panels and impromptu discussions. I'll let you know what I thought about all of that as soon as I get back. But in the meantime...

I don't think there is any particular Tennessee Williams anniversary or event that we're celebrating this month, but it's not like the work of this quintessentially American playwright ever goes out of style. Thomas Lanier Williams, AKA Tennessee, was born March 26, 1911, and here he is, 104 years later, with his plays still a hot item on the stage. In fact, from Normal to Urbana, there is a Tennessee Williams Trifecta available this month. You can easily do all three if you have a hankering to compare/contrast, from the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire to perennial favorite The Glass Menagerie and upstart Not About Nightingales, all within a 50-mile radius.

Elia Kazan's 1951 movie version of A Streetcar Named Desire was nominated for a dozen Oscars, winning four, including Best Actress for Vivien Leigh as Blanche, Best Supporting Actress for Kim Hunter as Stella and Best Supporting Actor for Karl Malden as Mitch. Kazan had also directed the Broadway version of Williams' steamy drama, with Marlon Brando, Hunter and Malden in the same roles. There is much to admire and much to chew on in the movie, too, with Leigh almost translucent as poor, fading Blanche, and Brando giving a Method acting clinic as crude, sexual, red-meat-eating Stanley Kowalski. When Blanche and Stanley are thrown into conflict in a tiny, stifling, much-too-crowded New Orleans apartment, something's got to give, and we all know it won't be pretty. This Streetcar plays four times on the screen at the Normal Theater, 7 pm each night between April 2 and 5.

Streetcar on film is a perfect appetizer for The Glass Menagerie, which will be live on stage at Heartland beginning April 9. ISU professor Connie de Veer portrays Amanda Wingfield, another faded Southern belle fallen on hard times. Unlike Blanche DuBois, Amanda has children. But her relationship with theme is just as constricted and unsuccessful as anything Blanche attempts. Son Tom wants nothing more than to get out of the apartment to live a life of his own, but if he goes, he will have to leave his fragile sister Laura behind. Don LaCasse director Glass Menagerie for Heartland, with Joe Faifer as Tom, Elsa Torner as Laura and Patrick Riley as the Gentleman Caller. Performances continue through April 26, with a talkback with the cast scheduled after the Sunday matinee on April 19. For all the details, click here.

The Urbana part of the Tennessee Williams equation is a lesser-known work called Not About Nightingales, directed by Tom Mitchell at the Studio Theatre inside the University of Illinois' Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Nightingales opens April 9, as well, with performances through the 19th. Williams wrote this play in 1938, supposedly inspired by a real-life Pennsylvania case of abuse and death inside a prison. In the fictional prison, inmates go on a hunger strike and eventually riot as conditions become unlivable.

Illinois State University moves far away from Tennessee Williams, into a land of fantasy and folklore with Selkie: Between Land and Sea a lyrical drama by Laurie Brooks, directed by Jessika Malone for ISU's Westhoff Theatre from April 9 to 18. Olivia Candocia plays the mystical girl/seal creature called a Selkie, while Dave Lemmon and Eddie Curley portray the men in her story. For more information, try this link.

David Ives' All in the Timing is pretty much a perfect program of 10-minute plays, combining humor, commentary on modern relationships, and even a few barbs pointed in the direction of 20th century Russian politics. I'm looking at you, Leon Trotsky! Illinois Central College in East Peoria takes on All in the Timing April 10 to 19, with the Ives' collection directed by Rob Fulton, Julie Peters and Doug Rosson for the Studio Theatre in ICC's Performing Arts Center.

Eureka College's Pritchard Theatre is a fairly intimate setting, making it an interesting choice for Tracy Letts' sprawling, messy, dark family comedy August Osage County. There is a very large house at the center of August as well as several generations of the Weston family. Will that fit at Pritchard? Time and Eureka's production will tell the tale from April 14 to 18. Joel Shoemaker directs the Westons and their swirl of family troubles.

The Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts is big on improv, which means Broadway's Next Hit Musical, an improvised piece of musical comedy, is right up their alley. You can offer your own suggestions and see if the improvisers spin a new show out of your idea on April 16 at the BCPA.

If you like being involved in the show, you may be able to take it a step farther than just pitching ideas out of the audience. You can act, too! Or at least audition. Heartland often uses its annual 10-minute play festival to widen its pool of actors. And why not? There are more than 20 roles up for grabs in nine short plays, with characters ranging from a pair of 18-year-old high school students to a 90-year-old nun. Auditions for Heartland's 10-minute play festival will be held from 7 to 9:30 pm on April 20 and 21 at Heartland Theatre.

Appropriate, a firecracker of a play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, brings its creepy post-Colonial sins of the father to Urbana's Station Theatre from April 23 to May 9. Is its title referring to the verb "appropriate," meaning to steal, to seize, to convert to one's own possession? Or the adjective "appropriate,"meaning suitable or fitting? I think it's the former, given the plantation setting and thhe echoes of its racist past that continue to plague it. Like August: Osage County, Appropriate centers on a large family home. And the Station Theatre is even smaller than Pritchard over in Eureka. How will the overgrown plantation fit? It's a mystery! Appropriate is directed by Mike Prosise for the Celebration Company at the Station Theatre.

Back home in Bloomington-Normal, New Route Theatre offers Black N Blue Boys/Broken Men by Dael Orlandersmith. Look for Black N Blue April 24 to 26 and May 1 to 3 at New Route's new space at 814 Jersey Avenue in Normal. Don Shandrow directs Claron Sharrieff in this one-woman show, an examination of "the captivating life stories of six unforgettable male characters of diverse backgrounds whose inescapable connections tie them together through traumatic pasts."

Say Hello to 2013!

It's January 2. I took a whole day off! That's a reflection of my new 2013 unhurried, unscheduled blogging technique.

But, of course, there are things to do and see, even in January, which is traditionally a slow month for theaters and hotels, if not for restaurants or shopping malls.

So what's to do in January, now that your holiday sugar rush is wearing off, It's a Wonderful Life is put away and everybody's Nutcrackers have danced over the fiscal cliff?

Champaign's Art Theater is showing a film called The Other Dream Team, about the intersection of basketball, politics and pop culture (including the Grateful Dead) in 1992, when the Lithuanian national basketball team made their first-ever appearance in Olympic competition. Yes, that's the same year the real Dream Team, with Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan on board, was formed. They cruised to a gold medal. But the Lithuania team was there, recording triumph of its own and making a stand for freedom from Soviet oppression. The Other Dream Team tells that story, and the Art is showing it tonight and tomorrow.

Hyde Park on Hudson, a portrait of FDR and one of his lady loves during a weekend in the country when the King of England came to visit, follows The Other Dream Team at The Art. The other president (Lincoln) in this year's film crop is expected to steal all the Oscar glory, but you never know. Bill Murray's Franklin Roosevelt may just sneak in there for a nomination of his own.

Illinois State University doesn't open its first production of the winter till February, but in the meantime, they're taking last semester's Mother Courage and her Children to the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival regional event in Saginaw, Michigan, from January 8 to 12. Break a leg, MoCo & Co!

The American-history-as-outrageous-rock musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson hits the black box running at Urbana's Station Theatre on January 17. Mikel L. Matthews, Jr. directs this provocative cowboys-and-Indians show that features music and lyrics by Michael Friedman and a book by Alex Timbers. It's all about America's 7th president, imagined as a sulky, sexy rock star (usually portrayed in leather pants) who works to put himself in power and annihilate Native Americans as a form of populism by way of greed and ignorance. Matthews' take on Andrew Jackson plays from January 17 to February 2, with all shows at 8 pm.

Booker T. Jones, the same Booker T. of Booker T. and the MGs, is coming to the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts on January 19. Booker T. was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He's made the charts as a solo artist as well as a producer, and he still plays with the MGs and his own Booker T. Jones Band, winning a Grammy for his 2011 album "The Road to Memphis."

The Russian National Ballet Theatre brings Don Quixote, Chopiniana, Romeo and Juliet and Swan Lake to the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Urbana on January 22 (Quixote), 23 (Chopin and R & J), and 24 (Swan Lake). Elena Radchenko and her company will perform in Krannert's Tryon Festival Theatre at 7 pm each night. You are invited to "Get swept away by Cervantes’ imperfect hero, Siegfried’s misplaced affections, the neighborly struggles of the Montagues and Capulets, or the simple poetry of Chopin-inspired dance with the Russian ballet tradition."

The Pavilion, by Craig Wright, plays at Eureka College from January 24 to 26, in a production directed by Eureka student Erin Cochran. The Pavilion involves Peter and Kari, once sweethearts, as they see each other again at a 20th high school reunion. She's married to someone else now, she has resentments about how they parted in the past, and nothing is the same as it was. "Wright's perceptive, gently witty writing...makes this familiar situation fresh and thoroughly involving," said the Philadelphia Inquirer. You can call the box office at 309-467-6363 or email boxoffice@eureka.edu for more information.

Community Players opens Lend Me a Tenor, the Ken Ludwig farce about too many tenors on the loose at the Cleveland Opera, on January 25, with performances continuing through February 3. Players' Tenor stars Tom Smith and Brian Artman as the two tenors in the piece, with Joe Strupek, Hannah Kerns, Opal Virtue, Thom Rakestraw, Wendi Fleming and Reena Artman adding to the general hilarity. For ticket information, click here.

And don't forget that Heartland Theatre will accept entries in their Package, Parcel & Present 10-Minute play contest through February 1. Get your entry in now if you want to have a chance at seeing your words on stage next summer. But remember: It needs to be ten minutes long, and it needs to have a package or parcel of some sort involved in the play. We're talking an actual, physical box, bundle, carton, container, crate... Not a metaphorical one. But a real, live package, parcel or present. The kind of thing that was arriving at your door for Christmas a few weeks ago. If you've got a play about one of those in your back pocket, take it out and send it in. Details here.

With November Here

Pack way the Halloween costume -- November is here for real. And it's starting with a veritable onslaught of theatrical options.

From November 1 to 18 Heartland Theatre Company offers the local premiere of Red, the Tony-Award winning Best Play from 2010, which concerns artist Mark Rothko and his attempt to finish an important commission for New York's posh Four Seasons restaurant. As Rothko works with his assistant, Ken, he also questions his own choices, artistic integrity, and whether it's possible to create in the face of mortality. Christopher Connelly directs Dean Brown as Rothko and Rian Wilson as Ken for this production. Note that there is a special post-show discussion with artists Harold Gregor and Ken Holder after the Sunday matinee on November 11. Click here for showtimes and here for ticket information.

The Maids also opened last night, and it runs through the 10th in the small space tucked inside Illinois State University's Centennial West 207. Second-year MFA directing candidate Vanessa Stalling directs Jean Genet's disturbing play about class, gender and repression, with Fiona Stephens and Elizabeth Dillard as the sisters playing dangerous dress-up games while their employer is away. You can visit ISU's Facebook page for the play here. (As a side note, the poster image you see here for The Maids may be my favorite graphic of the season.)

Lanford Wilson's Home Free!, directed by Leah Cassella, is the second ISU show with November 1 as its start date. It's a short one-act (coming in at about 35 minutes) so the School of Theatre and Dance at ISU has scheduled it with a 5:30 pm curtain so you can see it before you head off to either The Maids or Noises Off. Given its uncomfortable subject matter -- an incestuous and agoraphobic brother and sister -- it's probably a better fit with The Maids. Just a thought! Click here for more info on Home Free! and its four performances.

November 2 is opening night for New Route Theatre's for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, Ntozake Shange's  "choreopoem" that deals with the many angles and identities of African-American women. You are invited to join New Route at the YWCA on Hershey Road in Bloomington to "Rediscover the REAL you, reclaim YOUR stuff, put a melody to your dance, be born and handled warmly..." Don Shandrow and Phil Shaw are co-directing the show, with Lyndetta Alsberry choreographing. Performers include Leola Bellamy, Jennifer Cirillo, Melissa James-Shrader, Gabrielle Lott-Rogers, Jennifer Rusk, Claron Sharrieff and Christie Vallela.

And then there's Noises Off, a show I absolutely love, which opens November 2nd and plays through the 10th at ISU's Center for the Performing Arts. It's a farce, it's hilarious, and it's a great introduction to theatre as we see all the wheels come off a very bad production of a terrible sex farce called Nothing On. The Noises Off Facebook page is available if you have questions. Your only real question should be, "How do I get tickets to this laugh fest?"

The musical theatre options at Illinois Wesleyan University are almost always top-notch, and with Scott Susong, head of the Musical Theatre program at IWU, directing 9 to 5: The Musical, it's bound to be a good one. The musical version of 9 to 5 is pretty much the same as the 1980 movie, with Dolly Parton's score adding more music like the bouncy title song to its all-in-good fun female empowerment plot. For IWU, Kate Rozycki, Lizzie Rainville and Christine Polich play the three fed-up, feisty businesswomen who take matters in their own hands after their sexist pig of a boss pushes their buttons one too many times.What a way to make a living! Performances begin November 13 at IWU's McPherson Theatre, continuing till November 18.

Mid-month, Rhys Lovell directs A Kind of Alaska, Harold Pinter's one-act play about a woman who awakens from a 30-year coma, for Eureka College Theatre, with performances November 13-18. Pinter's play deals with Deborah, now middle-aged on the outside but still 16 inside, as she tries to come to terms with the fact that she and the world around her have changed considerably since her last conscious moments.

Getting a jump on the holiday season, ISU's Civic Chorale performs Handel's Messiah at 8 pm on November 14 with John M. Koch conducting at the Center for the Performing Arts.

The National Theatre Live project brings Timon of Athens direct from London to Champaign's Art Theater on November 16. This is a filmed version of the stage show directed by Nicholas Hytner and starring Simon Russell Beale as the titular Timon, who is popular with the fashionable set while he is doling out the bucks, but on his own as soon as the cash is gone.

The Shop Around the Corner, the exquisite little romantic comedy about pen pals who don't know they're also bickering co-workers, hits the big screen at the Normal Theater November 17 and 18. You may know the plot from later versions like You've Got Mail and the musical She Loves Me, but Shop Around the Corner stands apart, an elegant, lighter-than-air confection given the "Lubitsch touch" from director Ernst Lubitsch.

Keeping up the holiday spirit, the Normal Theatre adds The Bishop's Wife with Cary Grant as a ghost/saint/guardian angel for Loretta Young on November 22 and 23,  the Judy Garland musical Meet Me in St. Louis November 24 and 25, and the amazing Fred Astaire hoofing it up with Bing Crosby in Holiday Inn on November 29 and 30.

What better way to close out the month than a little Astairiffic magic?

All About October on Area Stages

Yes, it really is October. No fighting it. It's here.

But that means even more theatre options, as more fall seasons begin and productions open up all over. Including tomorrow night!

Illinois Wesleyan is the one with the Tuesday opening night, for Barbara Lebow's A Shayna Maidel, a heartfelt drama about the effects of separation and trauma on family. Rose Weiss has carved out a nice life for herself in America, a life that begins to unravel when Lusia, the sister who got left behind in Poland and swept away to a Nazi death camp, arrives in New York. A Shayna Maidel reunites the sisters, raising issues of what it means to be related, if it's possible to repair a schism that deep, and whether blood really does run deeper than water. Nancy B. Loitz directs IWU's A Shayna Maidel, with performances from October 2-6 at McPherson Theatre. Click here for ticket information.

Naomi Iizuka's Anony(mous) began performances last week at Illinois State University's Center for the Performing Arts, with a visually striking production directed by Richard Corley. The story of one boy's journey across America, looking to survive long enough to find some sense of home and family, continues through October 6, with 7:30 pm performances on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Iizuka's writing is beautiful and profound, and Anon(ymous) is definitely worth a look.

Opening October 4 at Community Players, Leaving Iowa by Tim Clue and Spike Manton may prove a sweet and funny choice for Baby Boomers. It's about a road trip taken by a guy named Don who needs to find a suitable place for Dad's ashes. The trip brings up memories of family vacations by car in the past, with a little nostalgia and a few tears around the curves.

Sally Parry directs Leaving Iowa for CP, with Gary Strunk as Don, Bob McLaughlin as Dad, Nancy Nickerson as Mom, and Blair Wright as Sis. It will be here for only four performances, closing with a 2:30 pm matinee on Sunday the 7th. Click here for more information or to start the ticket-buying process.

Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive shows the opposite side of families and cars. This compelling memory piece, which revolves around the damage inflicted by family dysfunction and sexual abuse, opens on the 4th at Urbana's Station Theatre. The play won a Pulitzer Prize for Vogel in 1998, with the original production taking home a slew of Obies and Drama Desk Awards. That production was directed by Mark Brokaw, who himself has ties to the Station Theatre. How I Learned to Drive plays at the Station from October 4 to October 20, with all performances at 8 pm.

ISU's second show of the year begins on that very popular 4th, as well. It's Rebecca Gilman's disturbing play, The Glory of Living, which looks at a young woman who has admittedly committed horrible crimes, including abetting rape and killing in cold blood. How can blame -- through the judicial system or otherwise -- be assigned for these heinous crimes? Did she ever have a chance? Was her life destined to be a horror show before it had even begun? Matthew Campbell directs The Glory of Living inside the intimate space at Centennial West 207, with performances from October 4 to 13.

And in case you thought there couldn't possible be any more shows opening on October 4... Au contraire! U of I's Department of Theatre is offering 44 Plays for 44 Presidents, a political "phantasmagoria of presidential impressions" that includes all 44 U.S. Presidents, from George Washington to Barack Obama.The Krannert Center website indicates that at least 44 colleges and universities are performing this play that comes from Chicago's Neo-Futurist troupe in conjunction with the 2012 presidential election.

Continuing this weekend is the annual Discovery Walk at Evergreen Cemetery, with costumed actors portraying historical figures from the community. The weather was absolutely gorgeous for this outdoor event last Saturday and Sunday, with record turnout both days. Expect crowds again this weekend if the weather holds. Tickets are on sale at the McLean County Museum of History, the Garlic Press, Casey's Garden Shop, and at Evergreen Memorial Cemetery itself.

Eureka College Theatre steps up to the plate with The Man Who Came to Dinner, the classic Kaufman and Hart comedy, playing October 9-14. I seem to recall Holly Rocke acting in ISU's production back a few years, which should give her an inside track on directing this new production in Eureka.

Can you spell ADORABLE? I love The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a musical with audience participation about kids striving to spell. Spelling Bee is the Champaign-Urbana Theatre Company's first fall production. Since the CUTC doesn't have a space of its own, the show will be performed at Parkland College Theatre, with performances at 7:30 pm October 11 through 13 and at 2:30 pm on October 14.

Meryl Streep as Mother Courage in 2006

Bertolt Brecht's bold anti-war play, Mother Courage and her Children, hits ISU's Westhoff Theatre on October 18, with Sandi Zielinski directing a cast that includes Abby Vombrack in the title role. Mother Courage, AKA Canteen Anna, is a survivor, that's for sure, selling wares during wartime and making a tidy profit. But what does it gain her to collect cash if she loses all her children to the same conflict that fills her coffers?

A touring production of Fiddler on the Roof comes to the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts on October 27 for one night only. Tickets range from $55 for primo seats in great locations to only $20 for kids in the back. The performance will take place at 7:30 pm with pre-show activities at 6:45. The BCPA isn't saying what particular Fiddler company this is, but it looks very much like the one that came through Peoria in 2010.

You may need to make some hard choices on the 4th, but otherwise... Lots and lots of nifty theatrical options await in October.

Welcome to September!

September traditionally marks the start of the fall season for local theater companies. This year, Eureka College, Community Players and New Route jumped the gun on September, with "Five Women Wearing the Same Dress" last night and tonight only, "You Can't Take It With You" bowing on August 30 at CP, and "Fabulation" opening last night at New Route.

Alan Ball is most famous as the creator of TV's "Six Feet Under" and as the screenwriter behind the Oscar-winning movie "American Beauty." Before that, he wrote a play about Southern bridesmaid dysfunction called "Five Women Wearing the Same Dress," which Eureka College's theatre department chose as its season-opener. EC senior Becky Collins directs this not-all-that-romantic comedy for two (and only two) performances, of which there is one left. Tonight is your only chance to see Ball's dark, twisted take on bridesmaids, which features a pretty funny and slightly raunchy script.

"You Can't Take It With You" and its tale of the crazy Sycamore family keeps on keeping on through September 9, with a cast that includes Bruce Weise, Judy Stroh, Tom Smith, Melissa Fornoff and Spencer Powell under the direction of Jeremy Stiller.

Over at New Route, this new production of "Fabulation, or the Re-education of Undine,"stars Melissa James-Shrader as the Undine in the title, who goes from a fabulous life at the top of the heap to being back in the projects with Mom and Dad before you can say "Bad Boyfriend Stole All My Dough." Undine gets her comeuppance and then some, as she realizes that status and pretense aren't really enough to sustain her. Gregory D. Hicks both directs and plays a role in "Fabulation," which runs through September 9 at the YWCA of McLean County on Hershey in Bloomington.

Heartland Theatre returns for show #2 of its 2012-13 season (the annual 10-Minute Play Festival was show #1 back in June) with Melanie Marnich's "These Shining Lives," a play that is both heartbreaking and uplifting, exploring the value of life and women's work as well as the carelessness and perfidy of corporations exploiting their workers. "These Shining Lives" opens on September 7 with a special Pay-What-You-Can preview, followed by performances from September 8 to 23. This show is sponsored by the Bloomington-Normal Trades and Labor Assembly (AFL-CIO). As labor unions increasingly come under attack from politicians, we'd all do well to remember why they got traction in the first place. Because employers like the Ottawa watch factory in "These Shining Lives" willfully and knowingly poisoned the ladies who worked for them.

And speaking of perfidy... Charlie Chaplin's "Monsieur Verdoux" takes the screen at Champaign's Art Theater as the noon show on September 8 and 9, with another showing at 2:30 pm on September 12. This dark comedy turns Chaplin into a ladykiller (literally -- he kills the ladies he romances) as it takes sharp aim at the shortcomings of capitalism and the folly of war. Chaplin's Verdoux is a devoted family man who loses his job, so he makes ends meet -- and then some -- by marrying and killing rich old ladies. It's a brilliant movie, one that wasn't all that popular in the US in 1947 and isn't revived that often.

Timed to match its title to the date, "8," a play by Dustin Lance Black about Proposition 8, the ballot proposition and constitutional amendment that sought to eliminate gay marriage in California, gets a staged reading at Illinois State University's Center for the Performing Arts on September 8. That's one performance and one performance only of "8" on the 8th, with a cast that includes retired Chicago judge Tom Chiola and a collection of ISU faculty members, actors and alums. You can read about "8, the Play" here, with more info about the ISU production here and here. This staged reading is sponsored by the Prairie Pride Coalition as well as ISU’s School of Theatre and Dance, University Housing Services, Diversity Advocacy, and the LGBT/Queer Studies and Services Institute.

A different panel of improv comedians from "Whose Line Is It, Anyway?" played the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts under the "Whose Live Anyway?" moniker last year, but this time it will be Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops, Chip Esten and Jeff B. Davis. That means you can see a whole new "Whose Live Anyway?" show at 7:30 pm on September 8 at the BCPA. Stiles was a staple on "The Drew Carey Show" and "Two and a Half Men" as well as "Whose Line," Proops has been all over the game show world as a host and guest star, and Davis memorably popped up on "The Sarah Silverman Show." Still, Chip Esten is my favorite of the four and the reason I'd go to "Whose Live;" he played the boss at the Stamford branch of Dunder-Mifflin on "The Office," and he'll be showing up in the new "Nashville" coming to ABC this fall. Tickets for "Whose Live" are pricey, ranging from $29.90 to $55, depending on who you are and where you want to sit.

Mid-month, the University of Illinois Department of Theatre offers its biennial costume and prop sale held inside the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. I nabbed a hoop skirt there once, as well as a crazy military outfit from "Macbeth." This costume-and-prop bonanza is scheduled for Saturday, September 15, at 9 am. A ticket is required if you want to shop first (from 9 am to 11:30 am) but the sale continues with no entry fee after 11:30 am. They'll keeping going until either 4 pm or every item has been sold, whichever comes first. Costumes will be displayed inside the Studio Theatre, with props and other items in the hallway on the second-floor rehearsal level. Note that tickets for the early entry portion of the event only cost $3 and are very much recommended; they go on sale at 10 am on September 10th. Call 217-333-6280 for more information.

Illinois State University's Department of Theatre and Dance gets a later start than most, with Naomi Iizuka's "(Anon)ymous" on stage at the Center for the Performing Arts from September 28 to October 6.  Richard Corley directs Iizuka's contemporary take on "The Odyssey," with young Anon, played by Owais Ahmed for ISU, set adrift in an unfriendly world, trying to find his way back to his mother, here a seamstress in a third-world sweatshop. It's an excellent play with lots of opportunity for vivid character work from ISU's student actors. Click here for ticket information.

Finishing up the month, the McLean County Museum of History, Illinois Voices Theatre and Bloomington's historic Evergreen Memorial Cemetery join forces to bring you the annual Discovery Walk, where costumed actors portray real people who once lived in Bloomington-Normal. You can take the Discovery Walk over the weekend of September 29-30 or October 6-7 this year, getting up close and personal with former Bloomingtonians ranging from a fortune teller to a race car driver and a restaurateur. Click here for information about this year's selection of characters and how to get tickets to the Walk.

And, as always, stay tuned for more information about these shows and whatever else comes up as the month wears on. There's always more!

Hot, Hot August Coming Up in Area Theaters

Yes, it's true. August is here, and a whole lot of hot entertainment comes with it. As well as my birthday and my wedding anniversary, in case anyone wants to send me a gift. Look at the shows below for gifting possibilities!

If you haven't been out to Ewing Manor yet, time's a-wasting. The Illinois Shakespeare Festival continues performances of "As You Like It," "Othello" and "The Rivals" through August 11, with a little "Comedy of Errors" on the side. Evening performances start at 7:30 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, with an 8 pm curtain on Fridays and Saturdays. Theatre for Young Audiences presentations of "The Comedy of Errors" are completely free and performed on the grounds at Ewing Manor on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10 am. These special short-form Shakespeare shows last about 45 minutes. Click here for the Festival calendar and ticket info.

The BCPA/Bloomington Parks and Rec production of "Cats" outside at Miller Park also continues this weekend, with 8 pm performances on August 3 and 4. If you'd like a sneak peek at the Feline-O-Rama, you can look at the Cats 2012 album posted on their Facebook page.

Champaign-Urbana Theatre Company begins its production of "Legally Blonde," the musical version of the movie about a seemingly vapid blonde who takes law school by storm, tomorrow night at Parkland Theater. Director Garth Gersten kept a blog for the show, which stars Arri Pittman as the titular blonde. You have a choice of performances on August 2, 3, 4, 9, 10 and 11 at 7:30 pm, or August 5 and 12 at 2:30 pm.

You can see the baseball musical "Damn Yankees" from Prairie Fire Theatre this weekend, with shows August 4-5 and 10-12 on the Normal Community High School stage. Jennifer Lumsdon directs "Damn Yankees," with Kyle Wynn as the devilish Mr. Applegate, Whitney Spencer as Lola the temptress who always gets what she wants, and Chris Stanford as baseball phenom Shoeless Joe from Hannibal Mo. You gotta have heart for this one!

"Moonrise Kingdom," a movie I absolutely loved, comes to the Normal Theater August 9-12, followed by "To Rome With Love," the newest film from Woody Allen, August 16-19. "Rome" is the latest in Allen's series of European love stories, this one starring Allen himself, along with Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page in separate stories about an opera director and his wife visiting Italy to meet their daughter's fiance, an overnight sensation hounded by his sudden fame, an American architect with a girlfriend who is tempted by a new roommate, and a pair of newlyweds led astray by a movie star and a high-class hooker. "Rome" hasn't received the same kind of acclaim as "Midnight in Paris" did last year, but it's worth a look if you're an Allen fan.

The classic comedy "You Can't Take It With You" sneaks into the end of August at Community Players, opening with a pay-what-you-can preview on August 30, with performances continuing through September 9. Jeremy Stiller directs a cast that includes Judy Stroh and Tom Smith as Mom and Pop Sycamore, and Melissa Fornoff and Spencer Powell as young lovers Alice and Tony.

Also opening August 30 is the Alan Ball bridesmaid play "Five Women Wearing the Same Dress" as the first show in Eureka College's fall season. Although he's written a few plays, Ball is better known for his screenplay for "American Beauty" and as the creator behind "Six Feet Under" and "True Blood" on HBO. "Five Women" is an offbeat piece of Southern Gothic, and it will be directed by Eureka College senior Becky Collins for three performances from August 30 to September 1.

Rounding out the month is the return of Lynn Nottage's "Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine" from New Route Theatre. Last time, director Gregory D. Hicks staged the show for one night only in the intimate confines of the Eaton Gallery; this time it will be a full production at the YWCA from August 31 to September 9. Melissa James-Shrader plays Undine, with an ensemble cast that includes Leola Bellamy, Jennifer Cirillo, Corey Hardin, Gabrielle Loft-Rogers, John D. Poling, Miles Spann, and Skylar Tempel. Check out rehearsal photos here and my thoughts on the first New Route incarnation of "Fabulation" here.

Happy August!

With April Upon Us...

I am a day late in setting up your theatrical options in April, but at least this way you know I'm not making it up. Everything here is really scheduled to happen on area stages and screens in April. Put on your roller skates. It's going to be a busy month!

First up, tomorrow night we've got "Promenade," the absurdist musical about two prisoners (played by IWU students Will Henke and Isaac Sherman) escaping into a world that seems crazier than the one they left, at Illinois Wesleyan's McPherson Theatre. "Promenade," with music and lyrics by Cuban-American avant garde artist María Irene Fornés and book by Al Carmines, is directed by Jean Kerr, associate professor and choreographer at Illinois Wesleyan. If you want to see "Promenade," you'll need to get to McPherson Theatre this week, as the final performance is Saturday the 7th at 2 pm.

"Picnic" continues at Illinois State University's CW 207 through April 7,  with "La Bohème" in the Center for the Performing Arts, also through the 7th. "Picnic," directed by Lori Adams, has been selling out (it's in a small venue) so you are well-advised to make reservations if you can. And Connie de Veer's take on "La Bohème" is not to be missed, either, even though the CPA allows a little more breathing room when it comes to available seats. Just in case you still don't have your fill of ISU Theatre, Shakespeare's timeless political drama "Julius Caesar," directed by Christopher Dea, opens on the 5th, with performances until the 14th. See "Picnic," "La Bohème" or "Julius Caesar" now; do your taxes later.

The Art Theater in Champaign is showing lots of amazing things this month, including a restored print of Georges Méliès' "A Trip to the Moon," which was showcased in last year's "Hugo," at 7:30 pm on April 4. The Art is also offering "Cave of Forgotten Dreams," Werner Herzog's documentary about the drawings inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France, "capturing the oldest known pictorial creations of humankind in their astonishing natural setting." This cave painting documentary comes to the Art on April 7 at 5 pm and April 8 at noon. On Sunday, April 15, look out for the filmed version of Oliver Goldsmith's comic romp "She Stoops to Conquer" from Britain's National Theatre Live program. I'm guessing that will also be a noon show, as their other National Theatre Live programs have been.

Here in Normal, the Normal Theater continues to highlight Oscar-nominated (and winning) films, with boffo Best Picture winner "The Artist" back on screen from April 5 to 8. All shows are at 7 pm. That's followed by "Albert Nobbs," the cross-dressing Glenn Close pic about a woman in Ireland in the mid-19th century who remakes herself as a man in order to find work in an uncertain world. "Albert Nobbs" runs April 12 to 15. The Tilda Swinton showcase "We Need to Talk About Kevin," a searing examination of parenthood and children who go wrong, is up next from April 19 to 22.

Heartland Theatre opens its production of Tracy Letts' "Superior Donuts" on April 12 with a special Pay-What-You-Can preview, with performances continuing through April 29. This "sharp little bite of Uptown life" is set in Chicago, and it involves the owner of a faded doughnut shop and the eccentric little family he's created for himself, including the Russian down the street, a couple of cops, and a homeless woman who isn't all there. Arthur Przybyszewski (pronounced more like Shubershevski) and his Superior Donuts have settled into a world-weary rut, but then new employee Franco Wicks comes along, bringing a spark of life and the hard reality of the outside world into Arthur's doughnut shop. Michael Pullin stars as Arthur, with Gregory Hicks as his new pal Franco. "Superior Donuts" is directed by Eric Thibodeaux-Thompson.

Also opening on the 12th over in Urbana is the Station Theatre's production of John Logan's "Red," about painter Mark Rothko and his tortured relationship with art and artistic integrity. Will he paint a mural commissioned for New York's posh Four Seasons restaurant, with its huge commission and murky ethical waters? Or will he try to keep his art above the petty demands of financial gain? Celebration Company Artistic Director Rick Orr directs Gary Ambler as Rothko and Jesse Angelo as his assistant in the two-hander that won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Play.

On Saturday, April 14, the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts offers "Say Goodnight, Gracie," a one-man show featuring Alan Safier as George Burns, telling stories about his long life and his lifelong love for his comedy partner and wife, Gracie Allen.

"Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day," a musical stage adaptation of Judith Viorst’s award-winning children’s book, comes to Eureka College Theatre April 17 to 21. All performances are scheduled for 7:30 pm in Pritchard Theatre on the Eureka College campus. "Alexander" is directed by EC Theatre Professor Holly Rocke, someone you may've seen acting on area stages. (She's very good.) Her direction is also excellent as a matter of course and should create interest in the show whether you have children or not.

David Sedaris, billed as a "best-selling author, humorist and contributor to This American Life," brings his wry and entertaining musings to the Peoria Civic Center on Friday, April 20, celebrating the release of his newest book, "Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary." The book, which was released in September 2010, contains "acerbic, outrageously funny fables, featuring animals with unmistakably human failings." This "Evening with David Sedaris" is a one-night only event, and tickets are available at the Peoria Civic Center box office, online at ticketmaster.com, by phone at 800-745-3000. Travelzoo is also offering a discount on tickets if you don't have yours yet.

I have no particular information on anything happening to celebrate Shakespeare's birthday, usually attributed to April 23, but maybe we can rustle up a cake with 448 candles. I myself will be going to Chicago to see Simon Callow's one-man Shakespeare show, not on the 23rd, but close. Another option would be to take that day to order your subscription or single tickets to this summer's Illinois Shakespeare Festival, which will be offering "Othello" and "Comedy of Errors" from Shakespeare and Sheridan's "The Rivals," as well.

And that is most of April. I'm sure I will be adding things as the month progresses, so stay tuned.

Eureka College's "Birds" Take Flight

I'll be honest -- when I first thought about reviewing Eureka College's "The Birds," I was thinking it'd be the parody version of the Alfred Hitchcock movie that's been done on stage in Chicago. I was really looking forward to seeing how they dropped all those birds on their actors' heads.

It only occurred to me that it was more likely to be the Greek comedy a few days ago. Even though Aristophanes was going for political and philosophical humor and Hitchcock was going for horror, they do have their central fowl in common, and there is pecking and attacking of humans in both. But that's pretty much where they part ways.

Aristophanes (AKA "The Father of Comedy") wrote his "Birds" in about 414 BC to lampoon Athenian society. In the play, two Athenians frustrated by the rules and regulations and financial obligations of their lives set out on a journey to reach the kingdom of the birds far above their heads. They're looking for a place with no debt, no taxes, just the joy of being free. In other words, they're kind of like the teabaggers of Ancient Greece.

After some difficulty, they get to meet the King of the Birds himself, and the wilier of the two, Pithetearus, comes up with a plan to elevate the birds, so long pawns of humans down below and gods up above, to the ultimate status -- rulers of the universe. He (or she, in the Eureka College production) proposes that they build a bird city to block the gods' access to earth as well as demanding a share of their tribute from the humans below.

Things go swimmingly until certain unwelcome folks from Athens pop up. Once again, Pithetearus comes to the rescue, convincing the birds to round up and dispose of the grabby Athenian poet, prophet, lawyer, tax agent and real estate developer before they can ruin the new city of Cloudcuckooland, too. And then they have to face off with the gods themselves, who are not pleased to have their airspace cut off.

This style of ancient comedy isn't easy for today's actors or audiences, but guest director Mark Baer does his best to make it all seem current and fresh, and costume designer Linda Schuerman deserves special mention for the bright and varied array of capes and ponchos and headgear that makes up the bird outfits, from the king (a crowned Hoopoe) to a red-winged blackbird, a pink flamingo and a toucan that looks like Groucho Marx.

Becky Collins and Cat Davis are the Athenian ne’er-do-wells (called “slackers” in the program) who put the whole plot into motion, and they’re both as energetic and fizzy as they need to be. Others in the cast who make an impression are Blisse Stanford and Chris Funk as mouthy (beaky?) birds, Justin O. Stewart and Betsy Snobeck as pesky troublemakers from Athens, and Jacob Coombs and Jason Hasty as amusingly quirky Olympians.

“The Birds” is played for fun, and it works pretty darn well, considering it’s 2400 years old and most of its cast is hovering around 20. Catch it while you can -- "The Birds" continues at Eureka College's Pritchard Theatre through February 28th.

Cast:
Becky Collins, Cat Davis, Hilary Schneider, Kerri Rae Hinman, Erin Cochran, Erica Lawver, Sable VanDermay-Kirkham, Hillary Thomas, Blisse Stanford, Chris Funk, Kelly Beaty, Jacob Coombs, Jason Hasty, Sami Hubbard, Betsy Snobeck, Justin O. Stewart.

Production Staff:
Director: Mark Baer
Assistant Director: Nicole Zare
Set Designer: Kenneth Johnson
Lighting Designer: Grace Maberg
Costume Designer: Linda Schuerman