By Sally Magallanes

A few years ago I was in a downtown hotel and started speaking with two very interesting young women. They asked me if I knew of Redmoon Theater. Eager to educate me and to have an opportunity to market this unique artistic entity, I listened as they tried to describe what Redmoon was all about. However, many cultures and art forms must be personally experienced, as a verbal description alone cannot do them justice.

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By Matt McDermott

Idris Goodwin has written, produced and directed over a dozen plays in such Chicago venues as The Cultural Center, Athenaeum Theater, The Museum of Contemporary Art and Prop Thtr. In 2004 he was awarded a NEA/TCG Playwright in Residence grant to explore hip-hop aesthetics with Free Street Programs. His play BRAISING was selected in the 2005 National New Plays Showcase at Stanford University and received a world premiere production by Tricklock Theater Company in Albuquerque, NM in February 2006.

As part of the Rhinoceros Theater Festival 2007, his Danger Face Trilogy was presented by Hermit Arts at PROP THTR. Cultural Chicago conducted this interview in the run up to that production.

By Matt McDermott

BackStage Theatre company presented Euripides' classic tragedy, Medea, from June 24th through July 23rd, 2006 at the Chopin Studio Theater in Wicker Park. The production highlighted the cultural estrangement present in Euripides' haunting analysis of love, hate, treachery and retribution through its mixture of spoken English and American Sign Language (ASL). On July 2nd, 2006 BackStage performed a fully sign interpreted performance.

By Matt McDermott

From March 6-11, 2007, Bradley University in Peoria was the place to be if you are interested in the future of theater. Elmer Rice's "The Adding Machine" was brought into the 21st Century by an able student and faculty group who integrated live theater, multimedia environments and actors performing from remote locations in Ontario and Florida.

Modern theatrical improvisation began in Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s with the first theatre games of Viola Spolin, a children’s theatre director, and from there evolved quickly into an independent art form worthy of presentation before a paying audience.