Uptown happenings. Theater news. Cool new or new-to-us things people we know or just met are doing.Uptown.
The Designer Resale Store (1303 W. Wilson, 773/907-3480), a fundraising vehicle for the New Vision of Hope Foundation, an organization that focuses on HIV education, awareness, and prevention announces their fall fundraiser. Join them Saturday, September 10, noon–3 p.m., for an afternoon of entertainment, refreshments, and shopping. For a suggested $10 donation, meet actress, singer, and producer
Maggie Brown (daughter of jazz master
Oscar Brown, Jr.), enjoy the poetry of Chicago's Mama Brenda Matthews and Lena Edwards, take $2 chances on lovely raffle items, and eat inexpensive snacks all while doing some clothes shopping (most things 50% off during the fundraiser).
Uptown. Theater.Another fun, original community event in Uptown takes place this Saturday, August 20, to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the landmark
Uptown Theatre (Broadway, just north of Lawrence). It's the
Uptown Community Portrait 2005. Uptown neighbors and fans of the Uptown entertainment district are invited to pose for a classic photograph (free) in front of the neighborhood's namesake historic theater at noon.
Marc Smith, creator of the
Uptown Poetry Slam at the
Green Mill, will emcee the event and begin directing photo posers at 11:30. The aim is to duplicate with the 2005 photographs historical views of the theater taken on opening day in 1925. Co-sponsored by several community groups, copies of the present and past photographs can be ordered there for $15–$25, presumably to raise money for their projects. There will also be free snacks and drinks and information on local organizations.
Theater.So, last Sunday my theater friend Sue and I scored some more free play tickets (through a three-degrees-of-separation situation) and discovered a new downtown theater we hadn't heard about.
Drury Lane Theatre (they're still operating in
Oak Brook Terrace, too) has opened up in the old movie theater space off Chestnut Street in
Water Tower Place. When we arrived, they were unaware of our supposed comps but ended up giving us 5th-row, center seats anyway. Thus we enjoyed prime seats for
Morning's at Seven (with
Who's the Boss?'s
Katherine Helmond) amidst a half-full, very senior audience. Folks on either side of us were using sleek hearing devices provided by the theater, which they were very pleased with.
Theater. People Doing Stuff.Sure, your kid is great. There's no one like him in the entire world. He's unique, caring and—most of all—he's your favorite. You probably tell him so every night before putting him to bed. But he sure is one ugly little sucker. The thing is, you're too close to him to see that. And even if you could see it, you'd never say it. That's where we come in.
The latest venture of the multi-talented brothers
Dan and David Facchini (collaborators with their father, Rocco Facchini on
Muldoon: A True Chicago Ghost Story: Tales of a Forgotten Rectory) is the comic, "brutally honest sketch review,"
Your Favorite Kid Is Ugly, at
Second City's
Donny's Skybox Theatre (1608 N. Wells, Piper's Alley, 4th Floor, 312/337-3992), Thursdays, August 25–September 22, at 10:30 p.m. $8 general admission, $4 students, $3 Second City students. Dan co-wrote, and David's directing.
People Doing Stuff.I've met some people serendipitously through e-mail in the past few weeks doing cool things with a Chicago touch, and I hope to be able to keep up with their projects. First, there's
That Rabbit Girl, a biblio-centric blog by fourth-generation Chicagoan and cool librarian Alice Maggio. She also covers books, authors, and more for
The Gaper's Block.
My exasperating search for someone to write a book on the early days of Chicago house music led me to a column by Chris Brown, who lived through those days. He and Darius Anthony Hines are the leaders of DSGroupe, a communications consulting company with an online magazine,
Diamond Suite, aimed at "conscious, professional, active, sophisticated, ambitious and upwardly mobile adults from all walks of life" who are "highly curious and aware of the world they live in." Is that you??
And I think I like to walk . . . Finally, my passion for walking recently led me to Bonnie Fortune's
Free Walking, which is all about "the shared experience of going places on foot." Free Walks this summer traipsed through the Kinzie Industrial Corridor and sniffed out traces of Billy Caldwell/Chief Sauganash. This gal seems tied into too many cool walking things to get into, but they include all sorts of artistic, academic, abstract, hands-on, and feet-to-the-ground explorations of walking. She and a group are about to embark on the 200-some-mile walk to Champaign-Urbana, part of a larger investigation into perceptions of human/non-human, urban/rural, natural/not-natural, etc. boundaries and spaces. For more on their trek and a great aerial visual along these lines, visit
Walking in Place.
