THREE LOCAL LEADING LADIES were named among 10 actors around the country as 2012 Lunt-Fontanne Fellows. E. Faye Butler, Susan Moniz, and Hollis Resnik join seven other actors from around the country in July for a prestigious week-long master class on American musical theater.
They were chosen by the Ten Chimneys Foundation, located at the National Historic Landmark estate of Broadway legends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin.
This year’s fellows will be led by Joel Grey and Rob Fisher, whose many credits include serving as the founding music director and conductor for the celebrated Encores! series at New York City Center.
Butler was jointly nominated for the fellowship by the Goodman Theatre and Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage. Resnik was nominated by the Goodman, and Moniz was nominated by Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
TAKING A PAGE from the Joseph Papp playbook, Chicago Shakes is offering “Free for All” Shakespeare in Chicago parks this summer.
From July 29-August 19, a traveling 75-minute production of The Taming of the Shrew, will play 11 different locations, “rain or shine” throughout the city. It was adapted and directed by Rachel Rockwell and originally presented as part of the “Short Shakespeare!” programming at Navy Pier,
Click here for the full schedule.
KATE AND PETRUCHIO’S al fresco marital fireworks will get some outdoor competition from Redmoon. With Urban Interventions, the company tours a series of original spectacular events designed to “intervene” with the normal routine of city life.
The pieces, collaboratively conceived and designed by Redmoon’s Jim Lasko, Frank Maugeri, and Alex Balestrieri, include engineered objects that serve as centerpieces for a story.
They include The Hawkman and his Entourage, in which the Hawkman Prince perches atop a 30-foot ladder, accompanied by his 22 Punk Bird Entourage; Dis/Re Placement, which features two giant forks that lift and move rooms that appear to have been ripped out of a foreclosed building while dancers and performers deliver an “architectural ballet” above the audience’s heads; and DJ Fire, in which a mobile DJ’s samples of live music create jets of flame from a pipe organ.
Follow “interventions” schedule here. They’re slated to run through October.
CHICAGO CHILDREN’S THEATRE gives up its intinerant status next season and settles in at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts. The Dearborn Street auditorium previously served as the home for Chicago Shakespeare (back when it was still called Shakespeare Repertory) and for Lookingglass Theatre.
Chicago Children’s, which has performed at a variety of venues since its inaugural production in 2006, will present three shows at the Ruth Page, beginning in October with a new musical version of Harold and the Purple Crayon, directed by Sean Graney.
IN DANCE NEWS, Frank Sonntag was named executive director of Chicago Human Rhythm Project, the nation’s top tap outfit.
He most recently oversaw the opening of Minneapolis’ $42 million Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts, and he also served as executive director for New York’s Parsons Dance Foundation and Dance St. Louis.
He’ll be partnering with Chicago Human Rhythm Project founder and director Lane Alexander as the company moves forward with plans for the Collaborative Space for Sustainable Development. It’s envisioned as an education, rehearsal, and administrative facility to be shared by several arts organizations.
The company hosts “Rhythm World,” its annual festival of performance and community outreach, at the Fine Arts Building July 23-August 5.
Send your news to kerryreid@comcast.net.
