Displaying items by tag: niegel smith
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.
'Sanctuary Stories' Ventures Into Emotional Drama Behind the News on Immigration
13 October 2026 in Theatre in ReviewSanctuary Stories plumbs the line between theater and journalism, and the powerful human dramas both can depict. Funded by a Northwestern…
Inside Six Strange Worlds: Exquisite Corpse VI: LULLABIES
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Robert Falls Directs a Sinfully Satisfying Don Giovanni at Lyric Opera of Chicago
11 October 2026 in Theatre in ReviewLet he without sin cast the first stone, Lyric’s “Don Giovanni” seemingly says when they bring up the house lights…
BrightSide’s Addams Family Musical Revives the Wonderfully Weird World of the Addams Clan
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Chicago City Opera Delivers a Rare Operatic Haunting with Der Vampyr
08 October 2026 in Theatre in ReviewWith Halloween creeping closer, there’s something fitting about revisiting one of opera’s earliest flirtations with macabre horror - especially in…
Avalanche Theatre stages the world premiere of They Broke Up by Skyler Tarnas November 6–22, 2026
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Celebrate 100 Years of the Cadillac Palace and James M. Nederlander Theatres
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Oil Lamp Theater Announces the cast and creative team for the return of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY, Nov. 20 - Dec. 27
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Adults-only holiday fun: Who's Holiday! brings R-rated Cindy-Lou Who back to Theater Wit for her sixth year, Nov. 27-Dec. 27
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Two-Time Tony Award-Winning Actress Victoria Clark To Receive the Sarah Siddons Society Award at Annual Benefit on Monday, November 9, 2026
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Goodman's Dead Girl’s Quinceañera: When Fifteen Meets the Adult World
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Steppenwolf Theatre's ADIRONDACK CHAIR CIRCLE In Rehearsal – Playing October 22 – December 6, 2026 – World Premiere!
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Hell in a Handbag Productions Announces 25th Anniversary Season!
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Chicago’s Theater Wit introduces new Watchword closed captioning system, dramatically improving access in all three of its theaters
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Paramount Theatre’s reimagined A Christmas Carol promises to be a dazzling new, all-ages spectacle for Chicago’s holiday theater season, November 11-January 3
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"John C. Reilly is Mister Romantic" Returns to Steppenwolf Theatre - December 10 – 13, 2026
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Saint Sebastian Players Open 45th Season With A Murder Is Announced by Agatha Christie Classic Miss Marple Mystery Runs Oct. 23–Nov. 15
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Announcing "The Goodman, For Good" Campaign
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Two Edge Theater Company to stage A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE as its inaugural Chicago production, December 4 through January 10
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Frankenstein at Studebaker Theater adds performances for Halloween run
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ANY REBELLION OF WILL - Trap Door Theatre - Through November 1st
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Chicago-Area World Premiere of Liana Sonenclar's The Years Between Us - October 15-18
05 October 2026 in Upcoming TheatreJonathan James Productions presents the world premiere of The Years Between Us, a new play by Liana Sonenclar, directed by…
Oil Lamp Theater Announces its 2027 Season
05 October 2026 in Upcoming TheatreOil Lamp Theater, currently presenting the highly recommended Dial M for Murder, through November 1, is proud to announce its…
Dial M for Mastery: Oil Lamp’s Thriller Tightens the Screws
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ARTEMISIA REVEALS PLAYWRIGHTS AND DIRECTORS FOR THE 2026 WEWOMEN PLAY FESTIVAL At Bramble Arts Loft from Nov 16 - 18th
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Operation Mincemeat: A Smart, Scrappy Musical That Shines When Its Cast Takes the Wheel
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Backyard Theatre Company’s Red Bike - Berger Park Coach House Theatre - Through October 24th
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SANCTUARY STORIES - A JOURNALISM THEATER PROJECT - Athenaeum Center for Thought and Culture - Through October 18th
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Red Theater presents the world premiere of CHURCH HURT October 24 - November 21, 2026
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Ballets Jazz Montréal Makes Chicago debut at THE AUDITORIUM Saturday, November 7th
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