Friday photo rescue

Blues for an Alabama Sky, from the current Pearl Cleage season (this is from a tech rehearsal a few days before the show opened).

Ethnicity in Theatre

Last summer Time Out Chicago had a feature article discussing the race barrier in Chicago. Prior to the articles publication Eclipse had already announced their 2007 season playwright, African American writer Pearl Cleage. A mostly white theater company producing an entire season of theater by an African American playwright. Could this [...]

Recurring Characters

As I have been reading through several of Cleage’s novels, starting with What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day and recently finishing Babylon Sisters. I was amazed and slightly caught off guard when characters from prior novels kept recurring. Crazy and I Wish I Had a Red Dress use a prominent character in both [...]

Watch the acceptance speeches from the Jeff Awards

In case you weren’t at the Park West for the 34th annual Jeff Awards a few weeks ago, our friends at stagechannel have put together a compilation of all the acceptance speeches throughout the evening.
First up is Alfred Kemp, who barely had a chance to settle in before getting called up on stage to accept [...]

34th annual Jeff Awards

Congratulations to everyone who was honored with nominations and Citations from the Joseph Jefferson Committee this past Monday night, and especially to those we were fortunate enough to have the chance to work with - Eclipse finished the evening with five Citation Awards: 
Outstanding Production: Blues for an Alabama Sky
Outstanding Direction: Steven Fedoruk, Blues for an [...]

Post-show discussion - Friday, March 23

The first post-show discussion of the 2007 season set the bar pretty high - playwright Pearl Cleage took center stage and answered questions from the audience after the show ended. It was an honor to have her with us, and an exciting night for me, for the actors, and for the audience.
Pearl talked about the [...]

Pearl Cleage Day

I must have missed the official announcement, but today was definitely Pearl Cleage Day in Chicago. We spent the day traveling the city with the wonderful playwright and novelist, celebrating and discussing her works. The day really began last night, when Pearl joined us for a post-show discussion after Blues for an Alabama Sky. The [...]

Hey, we’re on TV!

Stage Channel has two clips of Blues for an Alabama Sky currently running here.
If the link doesn’t take you right to the video, you may need to search for “Blues for an Alabama Sky” on the Stage Channel site.
This is TayLar and Terrance Watts, playing Angel and Leland, as they sit by the window and [...]

Opening night

Blues for an Alabama Sky opened on Sunday night, after a couple of fantastic previews. We got some great feedback from our preview audiences, kept making improvements right up to the end, and we’re all excited that the show is now off and running.
Our first post-show discussion is this Friday evening, and it will feature [...]

A hollering place

It’s a fun month (and year) for Pearl Cleage fans in Chicago - our production of Blues for an Alabama Sky opens tonight at the Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theater, Flyin’ West opened at Court Theatre yesterday, and Ms. Cleage herself will be in town next weekend, attending performances of each production and public discussions of [...]

Previews for Blues for an Alabama Sky begin tonight

Last night was final dress rehearsal - our first audience comes in tonight for a preview performance, and we’ll have previews at 8:00 this Friday and Saturday before the big opening Sunday night. The pictures here are from the last few days of tech rehearsals, as the actors and the design team have been putting [...]

Why Pearl Cleage knocks me out, part two

Because of dialogue like this:
ANGEL: How hot does it get in Alabama?
LELAND: It’s pretty near always this hot down there. One way or another.
ANGEL: Well, it’s not always this hot in Harlem, but today it is. (A beat) Do you know what I mean?
LELAND: I’m not sure that I do.
ANGEL: What I mean is, it’s [...]

Why Pearl Cleage knocks me out, part one

I had this grand idea that I would spend the month of January, our brief down time in between seasons, to write regular posts explaining who Pearl Cleage is and why - in my opinion - she was chosen as our 2007 season playwright. As the cold month wore on, and the day job and [...]

A backstage tour of Spinning into Butter

Gerardo Cardenas, who played Patrick Chibas in our production of Spinning into Butter this past summer, shared with me a collection of pictures he took during the final week of rehearsals.
His pictures are beautiful - they’re intimate moments with the cast and crew as they make their final preperations. Take a look through the photo [...]