Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/461818
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL BROSILOW (THE HERD). STYLING BY BRIAN STANZIALE/10 MGMT (THORNTON) Cardigan ($649), dress shirt ($190), denim pants ($495), and Flat 6 Auto Chronograph watch ($5,750), Porsche Design. The Shops at North Bridge, 520 N. Michigan Ave., 312-321-0911; porschedesign.com CHICAGO HAS BEEN A THEATER HAVEN for ages, but there's no denying the scene is stronger now than ever. Eight years ago, August: Osage County premiered at the Steppenwolf Theatre before heading to Broadway and collect- ing five Tony Awards, including one for Best Play. That, in turn, has lead to an even greater presence on The Great White Way for Steppenwolf: Airline Highway, which finished its Chicago run in February, debuts on Broadway in the spring. Add to that the fact that Chicago is the city with the most Regional Theatre Tony Awards (five) and that there are 250 theater companies in the city at any given time, and it's clear why the local stage scene has theater lovers nationwide lining up to see what comes next. WHY THE GIFT THEATRE IS DIFFERENT: "We're the most intimate Equity theater in Chicago. You're talking about only 40 seats, and that's kind of an economic paradigm." STAGE VS. SCREEN: "I consider myself a theater guy, but fi lm provides an opportunity to practice what you preach in terms of trust. Actors have all these buzz- words like 'Take everything off your scene partner.' With a fi lm, it's like, 'OK, are you really going to stick to that when the script just changed an hour ago and we switched out loca- tions and reversed the order of how we're going to shoot?'" DON'T FENCE ME IN: "We set ourselves into these distinctions like 'theater actor,' 'fi lm actor,' 'playwright,' 'screenwriter,' but it's a bit silly. We're all just trying to tell a story and point to what it means to be a human being on this planet." FAVORITE CHICAGO ACTORS: "Keith Nagle and Cyd Blakewell. I'd follow them anywhere just to see them read the phone book." THE MULTI-HYPHENATE Michael Patrick Thornton, actor/Gift Theatre artistic director Epicenters of Cool: Theater FOUR MOON TAVERN: This Roscoe Village bar was opened by four local actors and draws a theater-friendly crowd. 1847 W. Roscoe St., 773-929-6666; fourmoontavern.com THE MISSION THEATER: Serious and comic actors alike flock to the new home of improv vets and local favorites TJ Jagodowski and David Pasquesi, otherwise known as TJ & Dave. 1501 N. Kingsbury St.; 773-880-0199; missiontheaterchicago.com WATERSHED: Chicago Emmy nominee Allison Tolman (Fargo) is among the local actors who call this River North basement bar—a downtown spot that doesn't feel like a tourist trap—a fave. 601 N. State St., 312-266-4932; watershedbar.com Celebrating the poetry slam, a performance art form born in the Windy City. Louder Than a Bomb, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year, started in Chicago and is the nation's premiere youth poetry slam. Nate Marshall, LTAB Teaching Artist and coeditor of April's The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip Hop, speaks to the slam poetry scene's relevance. "When you think of art and culture in Chicago, so many of the local artists who are doing big things in other parts of the performance community started in the slam poetry scene," he says. "Chance the Rapper frequented open mics as a student; Kristiana Colón, who won the National Latino Playwriting Award last year, started with slam poetry in high school; even Kanye West. Poetry slam was invented in Chicago, so it's really an art form that belongs to the people here." The 15th anniversary Louder Than a Bomb will be held March 28 at the Arie Crown Theater; youngchicagoauthors.org/blog/ltab THR EE FAVOR ITE SPOTS FOR CHICAGO'S IN-THE-K NOW STAGE CR EWS. You may know Michael Patrick Thornton from L.A. drama Private Practice, but the actor is a hard-core Chicagoan. Born and raised in Jefferson Park, he is the cofounder and artistic director of The Gift Theatre in that same neighborhood. The Jeff Award winner is a director (he assistant directed August: Osage County), playwright, and improviser who's been a staple of Chicago theater for 15 years. In his second solo show, he's heading to Michigan Avenue's Lookinglass Theatre for his star- ring role in Title and Deed, a one-man play written by Will Eno. Says Thornton, "It's going to be fun to get back into that expe- rience where there's no net to catch you when you fall." Get your tickets now to these three much- anticipated productions. A Wonder in My Soul: It's 1960s Chicago in this world-premiere musical play about a feuding R&B group that reunites for a 35th-anniversary concert. Premieres April 3 at Victory Gardens Theatre. 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., 773-871-3000; victorygardens.org The Herd: Tony winner John Mahoney (Frasier) stars in the US premiere of this witty drama about a British family with a disabled child, which opens April 2 at Steppenwolf. 1650 N. Halsted St., 312-335-1650; steppenwolf.org Sense and Sensibility: The Jane Austen classic gets the musical treatment in this world premiere from composer Paul Gordon at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. 800 East Grand Ave., 312-595-5600; chicagoshakes.com Made in Chicago Coolest Spring Theater // THEATER // Catch the next Broadway smash here fi rst. 122 MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM