Daily Schedule and Locations
Wednesday, May 18
6:00 PM Opening Reception & Exhibition
The Chicago Public Library cordially invites you to the Opening Reception for Chicago: Theatre Capital of America – Past. Present. Future. Wednesday, May 18, 6-8 p.m.
LOCATION: Reception Hall, Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State Street, Chicago, Illinois
R.S.V.P. specoll@chipublib.org
6:30 PM Chicago Theatre: A Conversation
Richard Christiansen, former chief critic, Chicago Tribune; author, A Theater of Our Own: A History and a Memoir of 1,001 Nights in Chicago
Martha Lavey, Artistic Director, Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Board President, Theatre Communications Group
Thursday, May 19
All daytime sessions take place at Columbia College Chicago Film Row Center, 1104 South Wabash, 8th floor9:30 AM Opening Remarks, Auditorium
Allen Turner, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Columbia College Chicago;
Eliza Nichols, Dean, School of Fine and Performing Arts, Columbia College Chicago;
John Green, Chair, Theatre Department Columbia College Chicago
10:00 AM Chronicling History to Chart the Future, Auditorium
Introductory Address: “Mrs. O'Leary's Cow, the Ferris Wheel, and the Theatre: Quintessential Chicago”
Featured Speaker: Harvey Young, Vice President, Association for Theatre in Higher Education; Associate Professor of Theatre, Northwestern University; author, Embodying Black Experience: Stillness, Critical Memory, and the Black Body and Performance in the Borderlands
Researching Historic Chicago Theatre: The Playbills (1848-1922) Chicago Public Library Database Project
Sarah Zimmerman, Chicago Public Library, Special Collections Division
Northwestern University Press and Chicago Theatre
Mike Levine, Acquisitions Editor, Northwestern University Press
Action Plan
An agenda-setting talk about the challenges facing theatre scholars and theatre makers who want to chronicle Chicago theatre history as a foundation for building its future. What new kinds of theatre history may be needed to tell the story of Chicago theatre? What facets of Chicago theatre will be missed or distorted by theatre scholars and theatre makers relying on habitual practices rather than critically assessing them? What new methods should be devised to capture and analyze Chicago's theatrical innovations?
Arvid Sponberg, Professor of English, Valparaiso University; author, Broadway Talks: What Professionals Think About Commercial Theatre in America; director, Chicago Theatre History Project
Early planning for the symposium and the participation of Professor Sponberg and Valparaiso University was made possible in part by a $10,000 Philip and Miriam Kapfer Endowed Faculty Research Award.
11:00 AM – 11:15 AM BREAK
11:15 AM – 12:30 PM The Impact of Chicago on Chicago Theatre, Room 801A
This conversation will delve into how the kind of city Chicago is – philosophically, philanthropically, socially, etc. – has influenced the kind of theatre we do and the theatrical institutions that exist, and what we can expect will continue to feed the flowering of the Chicago theatre scene.
Moderator: Deb Clapp, Executive Director, League of Chicago Theatres
Panel: Peter Handler, Program Director, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation; Nick Rabkin, Research Affiliate, Cultural Policy Center/National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, former director of the Center for Arts Policy at Columbia College Chicago, and former Deputy Commissioner, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs; Kathryn Lamkey, Central Regional Director, Actors' Equity Association; Madeline Murphy Rabb, Board of Trustees member, Columbia College Chicago, and former Executive Director, Chicago Office of Fine Arts.
11:15 AM – 12:30 PM Four Chicago Playwrights, Auditorium
Sarah Ruhl's Chicago Roots: Improvisation and Literary Adaptation
The work of Sarah Ruhl bears strong traces of improvisational form and style. The aesthetic of the acclaimed playwright was shaped, as she grew up in the Chicago suburbs, to a great extent by her experience with the Piven Theatre Workshop of Evanston. Joyce Piven and her late husband Byrne founded the workshop more than 35 years ago, and it has been turning out a steady stream of notable theatre practitioners since. Much of their training is based upon not only improvisation, but also literary adaptation; hence the traces of improvisational form and the emphasis on transformation, discovery, and playfulness in Ruhl's plays, coupled with a deep respect for language. James Al-Shamma, Belmont University; author, Sarah Ruhl: A Critical Study of the Plays and Ruhl in an Hour.
Drama and the Law: Sandra Seaton’s Music History Sandra Seaton’s most recent play, Music History, builds on her depictions of earlier eras of African-American life in A Bed Made in Heaven, The Will, and The Bridge Party. Music History brings to life the aspirations and values of African American students from the South Side and West Side of Chicago at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1963. Seaton’s characters variously go through sorority and fraternity initiations, cope with Northern segregation, and join the civil rights struggle in the South. Her characterization, setting, and dialogue capture the times and help us understand the human cost of the struggle for civil rights in ways nothing other than theatre can do. Ronald Primeau, Professor of English, Central Michigan University
Of Lunatics, Devotees, and Sinners: The Plays of Tanya Saracho
This presentation examines the work of Chicago-based Mexican-American playwright Tanya Saracho, co-founder and former artistic director of Teatro Luna, resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists and Teatro Vista, and author of El Nogalar, Our Lady of the Underpass, Kita y Fernanda, and other plays.
Melissa Huerta, Ph.D. candidate, Hispanic Literary and Cultural Studies, Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies, School of Literatures, Cultural Studies, and Linguistics, University of Illinois at Chicago
How to Get From Here to There: Poetic Connections in Tracy Letts’s Man From Nebraska, August: Osage County, and Superior Donuts With its blend of American modern and British "in-yer-face" dramatic style, dark comedy, Shakespearean themes, and allegorical figures, the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago playwright Tracy Letts interrogates contemporary white middle-class America. The allusions and intertextual references to the poetry of Pablo Neruda, T.S. Eliot, and Langston Hughes in these three plays create a “poetic” quality that thematically connect them and result in a contemporary dramatic trilogy dismissive of the traditional American "narrative." Deborah Kochman, Graduate Assistant/Writing Center Consultant, University of South Florida
11:15 AM – 12:30 PM From Small to Big: Collaboration Across Generations of Chicago Theatre Companies, Room 801B
Moderator: Rebecca Rugg, Associate Producer, Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Panel: Krissy Vanderwarker, Dog & Pony Theater Company; David Perez, Pavement Group; Madrid Saint Angelo, UrbanTheater Company; Polly Carl, Director of Artistic Development, Steppenwolf Theatre
11:15 AM – 12:30 PM Bag O’ Tricks: Methods, Room 801C
Chicagoturgy
Richard Pettengill, Chair, Department of Theatre, Lake Forest College; and LaRonika Thomas, freelance dramaturg
Sustaining Chicago Theatres Through Artistic Convergence: From Movies to Mainstage to Media
This presentation examines how theaters (buildings, as well as the artists and businesspersons who design and build them) must adapt to a multimedia model. Mary Filice, Associate Chair and Assistant Professor, Arts, Entertainment, & Media Management Department, Columbia College Chicago; and Susannah Young, Creative Associate, The August Jackson Company
Response panel, The Inconvenience: Ryan Bourque, John Holt, Walter Briggs
12:30 LUNCH
12:45 PM —1:45 PM Brown Bag Lunch Discussion, 8th Floor Lounge
Topic: Arts Leadership
Moderator: Kristin Larsen, Executive Director, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company; Katie Kurcz, Program Manager, Arts and Business Council;Dan Cox, Managing Director, Chicago Opera Vanguard
12:45 PM —1:45 PM Stage Combat Demonstration, Room 801B
David Woolley, Senior Lecturer, Columbia College Chicago; Fight Master, Society of American Fight Directors
AFTERNOON SESSIONS
1:45 PM – 3:00 PM David Mamet as a Chicago Playwright, Auditorium
The early works of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet (Sexual Perversity in Chicago, American Buffalo, The Water Engine, Glengarry Glen Ross) helped to define Chicago theatre—and Chicago itself—in the 1970s and 1980s. This program examines the impact of this iconic Chicago theatre figure. David K. Sauer, Professor, Spring Hill College; President, David Mamet Society; author, David Mamet: A Resource and Production Sourcebook and "Misreading Mamet: Scholarship and Reviews" in The Cambridge Companion to David Mamet; David Pasquesi, actor (Glengarry Glen Ross at Steppenwolf Theatre, The Old Neighborhood at Northlight Theatre); Mike Nussbaum, actor (American Buffalo at St. Nicholas Theatre, Glengarry Glen Ross on Broadway and at Steppenwolf Theatre) and director (The Old Neighborhood at Northlight Theatre, Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? on Broadway); Steve Scott, Associate Producer, Goodman Theatre
1:45 PM – 3:00 PM Histories on Display, Room 801A
Amerindians and the World's Columbian Exposition Rosemarie K. Bank, Professor of Theatre, Kent State University
Negro Day at the Fair: African-American Performance at the Chicago World's Fair of 1933 as Reported in the Chicago Defender
In August of 1933 the Chicago Defender newspaper announced that Governor Henry Horner had proclaimed August 12 as official Negro Day at the Century of Progress, Chicago’s World’s Fair of 1933-34. The event was to feature an impressive parade, a beauty queen contest, a track meet, and the pageant “Epic of a Race.” Due to political disagreements, infighting, and lack of financial support, the event was an embarrassing failure. A year later producers organized a similar event titled “O Sing a New Song,” which featured a cast of five thousand people and performers such as Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, W.C. Handy, and Richard B. Harrison. The Defender declared the event to be “the greatest pageant ever staged by members of the Race.” This presentation concerns the Chicago Defender's coverage of these two events, examining the critical response to the racial and aesthetic issues of such events as expressed in an exclusively black newspaper that was dedicated to reporting and recording African-American arts and culture in Chicago and the nation. Rhona Justice-Malloy, Chair and Professor, Department of Theatre Arts, University of Mississippi; editor, Theatre History Studies
1:45 PM – 3:00 PM Theatrical Darwinism, Room 801B
Survival Through Adaptation in Chicago Theatre: Why some off-Loop troupes have continued over the decades while others have folded as their artistic leaders moved on.
Moderator: Albert Williams, Senior Lecturer, Columbia College Chicago; arts critic, Chicago Reader
Panel: PJ Powers, Artistic Director, TimeLine Theatre; Jenny Avery, Artistic Director, Next Theatre, former Managing Director, Roadworks Productions, and Associate Artistic Director, Strawdog Theatre Company; Larry Neumann, former Managing Director and Ensemble Member, Blind Parrot Productions and Famous Door Theatre Company; Allison Cain, Ensemble Member and former Executive Director, Factory Theater, and Managing Director of Lifeline Theatre; Juan Ramirez, former Artistic Director, Latino Chicago Theatre Company; David Barr, Board President, Pegasus Players,former Associate Artistic Director, Chicago Theatre Company; Roell Schmidt, Director, Links Hall.
1:45 PM – 3:00 PM Chicago Directs: Stories, Styles, and Working Methods of Chicago Theatre Directors Room 801C
Ann Shanahan, author of a forthcoming book about Chicago theatre directors, leads a discussion with several leading artists in the field.
Moderator: Ann Shanahan, Assistant Professor of Theatre, Loyola University Chicago
Panel: B.J. Jones, Artistic Director, Northlight Theatre; Sandy Shinner, Associate Artistic Director, Victory Gardens Theatre; Chuck Smith, Resident Director and Artistic Collective member, Goodman Theatre; Mark Lococo, Director of Theatre, Loyola University Chicago; Aaron Todd Douglas, Instructor of Theatre, Loyola University Chicago; Jennifer Markowitz, Guest Director, Theatre School, DePaul University, and Associate Lecturer, University of Plymouth.
3:00 PM – 3:15 PM BREAK
3:15PM – 4:30 PM The Ecology of Chicago's Storefront Scene, Auditorium
This panel will address the network of relationships, individuals, and institutions that supports storefront theatre -- including artists, the press, educational institutions, funders, and audiences. Topics include the way storefront theatres invest in risky and experimental approaches to producing and promoting theatre, including the use of social media and found spaces.
Moderators: Nick Keenan and Dan Granata, co-founders, Chicago Theatre Database
Panel: Madrid Saint Angelo, Urban Theater Company;
Kris Vire, Theatre Editor, Time Out Chicago; Peter Handler, Program Director, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.
3:15 PM – 4:30 PM Chicago Theatre in the 1950s and 1960s, Room 801A
We Hold for Planes: The University of Chicago's Drama Program and the Development of Court Theatre under James O'Reilly and Robert Benedetti
Robert Benedetti and James O’Reilly ran the drama program at the University of Chicago from the late 1950s through the turbulent 1960s, bringing such internationally famous artists as Tyrone Guthrie and the Living Theatre to Mandel Hall and the Reynolds Club. They developed the Hutchinson Commons outdoor stage into “The Court Theatre,” and mounted some of Chicago’s most innovative and spirited “firsts,” including Romeo and Juliet with a white Romeo and a black Juliet strategically placed among the Civil Rights and SDS demonstrations of the time. By assembling professional level acting, directing, production and design elements, period research and original music, they developed an audience that supported a theatre that would move beyond university walls. Court Theatre, in its current form as a leading professional theatre in the city, has its roots in their efforts at combining both tradition and originality. Cecilie O'Reilly, Associate Professor, Columbia College Chicago
Who's Your Daddy? Lessons Learned From Bob Sickinger’s Hull House Theatre, 1963-1968
The community theatre program directed by Robert Sickinger under the auspices of Hull House Association in the mid-1960s laid the groundwork for the explosion of professional Off-Loop theatre. "I believe in the grass-roots theater,” Sickinger declared. “You can't build an interest in the theater in a city by importing shows. You've got to grow them from within." This manifesto—along with the radically innovative productions Sickinger staged and the new theatre spaces he helped to build—inspired a generation of artists who chose to remain and work in Chicago rather than heading for the coasts. Stuart J. Hecht, Associate Professor of Theatre, Boston College; former resident dramaturg, Wisdom Bridge Theatre; author, Hull-House Theatre: An Analytical and Evaluative History; editor in chief, New England Theatre Journal
The Whole World Was Watching: Theatre, Chicago, and 1968
During the months that preceded the turbulent 1968 Democratic National Convention, three important progenitors of the Off-Loop theatre movement offered productions responding to the anticipated events of this historic week. Second City co-founder Paul Sills set up shop in the old Second City space directly across from Lincoln Park and offered free performances of his first Story Theatre production, The Blue Light, allegorically responding to the abuse of authority. June Pyskacek, later artistic director of the Kingston Mines Theatre, directed a new play called The Emperor's Parade or Our Boy Dick, a satire that directly poked fun at “Hizzoner,” Mayor Richard J. Daley. And Robert Sickinger directed Flora the Red Menace at the Uptown Hull House's Lerner Theatre, offering a politically themed musical in time for a landmark turning point in Chicago--and U.S.--culture and politics. Cat Gleason, Lecturer, Department of Performing and Visual Arts, University of Wisconsin-Platteville
Introduction: Jim Jacobs, coauthor, Grease, and former Hull House Theatre actor
Special Guests: Robert Sickinger, former Artistic Director, Hull House Theatre; June Pyskacek, former Artistic Director, Kingston Mines Theatre; Sheldon Patinkin, Chair Emeritus, Theatre Department, Columbia College Chicago, representing Paul Sills
3:15 PM – 4:30 PM Why We Come Back: "Alumni" Artists on Chicago's Scene, Room 801B
Moderator: Anne Nicholson Weber, author, Upstaged: Making Theatre in a Media Age ; host, Talk Theatre in Chicago; contributor, TheatreinChicago.com
Panel: David Cromer (via Skype), director, Our Town (2009 Obie and Lucille Lortel awards); Andre De Shields, Broadway actor (The Wiz, Ain't Misbehavin', The Full Monty, Play On!) and former ensemble member, Organic Theater (Warp!); Kate Buddeke, Broadway actress (Superior Donuts) and ensemble member, American Blues Theater; Anna D. Shapiro, director, August: Osage County (2007 Joseph Jefferson Award and 2008 Tony Award for Best Director), resident director, Steppenwolf Theatre, professor and director of MFA Directing Program, Department of Theatre, Northwestern University; Ian Barford, ensemble member, Steppenwolf Theatre.
3:15 PM – 4:30 PM Musical Theatre in Chicago: History, Current Practice, and a Future Vision, Room 801C
The term “Broadway musical” instantly conjures images of lavish spectacles devoted to stories with commercial appeal and high entertainment value. What images could the term “Chicago musical” conjure in people’s minds, 5, 10, 15 years from now? Original, thoughtful, literate, small-cast musicals penned by Chicago librettists and composers have already won national recognition. Countless Chicago musical theatre performers have worked on Broadway and toured nationally and internationally. Chicago is now becoming the market of choice for pre-Broadway tryouts of large scale musicals -- and the show that put Chicago's off-Loop theatre scene on the national map was a musical, Grease. Yet while Chicago’s diverse and accomplished musical theatre artists have emerged on the national scene as a force to be reckoned with, the city has yet to be recognized as a musical theatre town. This discussion explores a vision for the future of Chicago as a theatre community with as robust a musical theatre scene as its non-musical theatre scene. What needs to shift for this transformation to occur? In addition to the panel discussion, the session will feature performances by Chicago musical theatre artists of songs from award-winning musical theatre projects written by Chicagoans.
Moderator: Cheryl Coons, Resident Playwright, Chicago Dramatists
Panel: Michael Weber, Artistic Director, Porchlight Music Theatre; Roberta Duchak, musical director and Adjunct Faculty, Columbia College Chicago; Lili-Anne Brown, director; Mark Nutter, author/composer and former member, Friends of the Zoo; Douglas Post, Resident Playwright, Victory Gardens Theater;Eric Reda, Artistic Director, Chicago Opera Vanguard. Featuring musical performances of original work by Dave Hudson, Paul Libman, Karen and Steve Multer, and others.
4:30 PM – 5:00 PM BREAK
5:00 PM – 6:45 PM Allen and Lynn Turner Theatre Chair Naming Celebration and Reception, Theatre Center, 72 E. 11th Street, Studio 404. RSVP required by Friday, May 13 to 312-409-8477 or dfeiferis@colum.edu for invited guests and Symposium registrants only.
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM Writing Music for Chicago Theatre, 1964-2011, Theatre Center, New Studio, lower level
Note: This performance is free and open to the public.
Performance and conversation by Alaric Rokko Jans
Guest Artists: Elliott Delman, Dora Washington, Erich Buchholz, Kathryn Kamp
Co-presented by Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Stage and film composer Alaric Jans is a six-time Joseph Jefferson Award winner for his work in Chicago theatre. Besides being resident composer at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, he has worked at St. Nicholas Theatre, Hull House Theater, Organic Theater, Provision Theatre, and other Chicago companies. His Broadway credits include the musical Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? and the drama The Water Engine, by David Mamet, in which he also appeared. His film scores include House of Games, Things Change, Homicide, and The Winslow Boy, all directed by David Mamet, as well as the film version of The Water Engine.
Introduction: Alida Szabo, Director of Audience Development, Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Friday, May 20
9:30 AM – 10:15 AM "First or Second? How Chicago Imagined an Ideal Theatre," Auditorium
Featured Speaker: Todd London, co-author, Outrageous Fortune: The Life and Times of The New American Play; editor, An Ideal Theatre; former managing editor, American Theatre; lecturer, Yale School of Drama; artistic director, New Dramatists
10:30 AM – 11:00 AM Chicago’s Regional Theatre Tony Award Winners – Rewards and Responsibilities , Auditorium
Chicago is home to five theatres that have won the annual Regional Theatre Tony Award, presented by the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League based on recommendations by the American Theatre Critics Association. This panel explores the distinct differences among these five theatres – the Goodman, Steppenwolf, Victory Gardens, Chicago Shakespear Theater, and Chicago Shakespeare Theater – as well as their common mission and the rewards and responsibilities that accompany this prestigious honor.
Moderator: Todd London
Panel: Barbara Gaines, Artistic Director, Chicago Shakespeare Theater; David Schmitz, Managing Director, Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Roche Schulfer, Executive Director, Goodman Theatre; Andrew White, Artistic Director, Lookingglass Theatre; Dennis Zacek, Artistic Director, Victory Gardens Theater
11:00 AM – 11:15 AM BREAK
11:15 AM – 12:30 PM Beyond the Method: Chicago Teachers and Their Impact on Chicago Theatre – Improvisation and Story Theatre, Auditorium
Viola Spolin Papers
Viola Spolin, the “mother” of Chicago-style improvisational theater and author of the now-standard text Improvisation for the Theatre, formalized the concept and techniques of theater games while creating many games still used today. Paul Sills, Spolin’s son, co-founded the Compass Players and Second City, working closely with his mother to develop a theater based on improvisation. Spolin’s papers, collected at Northwestern University Library, offer a new lens with which to view the evolution of Chicago-style improvisational theater.Charlotte Cubbage, Humanities Coordinator and Subject Specialist in the Performing Arts, Northwestern University Library
Josephine Raciti Forsberg
Pioneering improv teacher Jo Forsberg, a member of the Playwrights Theatre Club with Paul Sills, was part of the Second City family since its inception. (She missed the Second City's opening night on December 16, 1959, however, because she was giving birth to her son, Eric.) She worked with Viola Spolin teaching at the Second City, then took over Spolin's training program and created Shakespeare for Children, which became the Children's Theatre of the Second City, running for 35 years. In 1971 she opened the Players Workshop, the first independent school of improvisation in the country. Her students include Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Robert Townsend, George Wendt, Betty Thomas, and Bonnie Hunt. She also operated the Theatre Shoppe on Lincoln Avenue, which hosted outside theatre companies as well as presenting its own productions. In the early 1980s, she invited Compass Players co-founder David Shepherd to Chicago to start ImprovOlympiad, forerunner of today's iO. Eric Forsberg, director, playwright, former director at Second City Training Center, screenwriter and film director
The Pivens: Present When It All Began and Still Going Strong
As “Chicago’s First Family of Theater,” Byrne and Joyce Piven and their children played a significant role in Chicago’s rise as a dynamic theatre town. The Pivens were there fifty years ago when the Chicago theatre renaissance began and their influence is still felt today. The Pivens contributed to the development of Chicago theatre on a number of fronts—as professional actors and directors, as early collaborators with Paul Sills, as the founders of the Piven Theatre Workshop (founded in 1971 and still going strong), as early proponents of theatre games and improvisation, and as teachers and mentors to generations of Chicago theatre artists. Susan Applebaum, Adjunct Professor of Theatre, Loyola University Chicago
11:15 AM – 12:30 PM The Teeming Shores: Chicago’s Early Immigrant Theatre, Room 80lA
Chicago as American City versus the Primary Site of Ethnic Community-based Theatre: Performance as Identity and the History of the “American-ness” of Chicago Theatre
Megan Geigner, Ph.D. candidate, Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Theatre and Drama program, Northwestern University; professional dramaturg
The Greek-American Theatre Was Born in Chicago
Aikaterini Diakoumopoulou-Zarampouka, University of Macedonia for Economic and Social Sciences
A Humble Synagogue: Joseph Buloff’s Jewish Art Players of Chicago and the Aesthetics of Modernist Yiddish Theatre (1928)
In 1928, the Polish-born actor Joseph Buloff left Maurice Schwartz’s renowned Yiddish Art Theater in New York to direct an amateur experimental Yiddish theatre company of his own: the Jewish Art Players (Yidishe dramatishe gezelshaft) of Chicago. The “humble synagogue” of Chicago’s famously experimental (and less overtly commercial) theatre scene drew Buloff westward in search of a better, truer theatrical aesthetic for the Yiddish stage. And Chicago – as a geographical location and as an aesthetic concept – played a major role in the development of an experimental, modernist aesthetic on the American Yiddish stage. Debra Caplan, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University
11:15 AM– 12:30 PM On the Other Side of the Fourth Wall: Audiences, Pricing, and Sustainability, Room 801B
What Price Is Right for Theatre? The Case of Lookingglass
Matching price and value has always been difficult, particularly in the arts. The aesthetic value of a cultural product is eminently personal and subjective. Demand/price elasticity for the same cultural product can vary from one consumer segment to another. Demand for a product can also vary from one time period (a day, a week, a month) to another. Lastly, price itself influences value perception: Since all that is rare is expensive, we often assume that what is expensive is rare. Lookingglass Theatre has built a strong following with its thrilling productions which merge a theatrical narrative with acrobatics and dance. But the company is not immune to the ongoing economic crisis. After two years of shrinking contributions, it started to question the “one price fits all” policy it had adopted since its creation. With the help of Paula Colletti, a graduate student in the Arts Entertainment and Media Management Department of Columbia College, it reviewed its pricing strategy to better reflect its true artistic value. This discussion will explore the methodology and share the results of this collaboration between Lookingglass and Columbia.
Paula Colletti, Academic Coordinator, Photography Department, Columbia College Chicago; Philippe Ravanas, Chair, Arts, Entertainment & Media Management Department, Columbia College Chicago; Erik Schroeder, Director of Marketing, Lookingglass Theatre
The Show Is Not Enough: Understanding Patron Experience
Jim Lasko, co-Artistic Director, Redmoon Theater
Valuing the Art: Putting People First
Michael Halberstam, Artistic Director, Writers’ Theatre
11:15 AM – 12:30 PM Chicago’s Established Alternatives: Collective, Irreverent, and Flourishing, Room 80lC
Case studies of five thriving alternative theatres: The Neo-Futurists, Theater Oobleck, Curious Theatre Branch, Prop Thtr, and the Annoyance Theatre.
Panel: Erica Milkovich, independent scholar; Tony Adler, Arts Editor, Chicago Reader; Kerry Reid, Adjunct Faculty, English Department, Columbia College Chicago, and theatre critic, Chicago Reader and Chicago Tribune; Matt Fotis, University of Missouri.
12:30PM – 1:45PM LUNCH
12:30PM – 1:45PM Brown Bag Lunch Discussion, 8th Floor Lounge
Topic: Why is Chicago Theatre (Still) So White?
Moderator: Chris Piatt, former Theatre Editor, Time Out Chicago
AFTERNOON SESSIONS
1:45PM – 3:00PM Institutional Development of Plays and Playwrights, Auditorium
Moderator: Russ Tutterow, Artistic Director, Chicago Dramatists
Panel:Carlos Murillo, Head of Playwrighting, The Theatre School, DePaul University; Lisa Schlesinger, Assistant Professor and Coordinator, Playwriting Program, Theatre Department, Columbia College Chicago; Polly Carl, Director of Artistic Development, Steppenwolf Theatre
1:45PM – 3:00PM The Playwrights Theatre Club and Studebaker Theatre in the 1950s, Room 801A
Founded in 1953, the Playwrights Theatre Club was an early attempt to create a professional local theatre as an alternative to Broadway road shows and summer stock. The company--mostly students and former students of the University of Chicago--included Artistic Director Paul Sills, producers David Shepherd and Bernard Sahlin, and actors Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Edward Asner, Byrne and Joyce Piven, Barbara Harris, Eugene Troobnick, and Sheldon Patinkin. In close to two years of operation, Playwrights Theatre Club produced almost 30 plays, most of them classics and new works. A few years later, Sahlins took over the Studebaker Theatre in the Fine Arts Building at 410 S. Michigan to present a season of plays with local actors (including Mike Nichols and Harvey Korman) and visiting stars (including Geraldine Page, Hurd Hatfield and Sir Cedric Hardwicke). The repertory included Shaw's Androcles and the Lion, O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms, and the Chicago premieres of Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.
Moderator: Jeff Ginsberg, Associate Professor, Theatre Department, Columbia College Chicago.
Panel: Bernard Sahlins, former producer, Playwrights Theatre Club, Studebaker Theatre Company, and Second City; Sheldon Patinkin, Chair Emeritus, Theatre Department, Columbia College Chicago.
1:45PM – 3:00PM Arts Leadership, Room 801B
Arts Leadership for the '10s: One Step Back, Two Steps Forward
Alan Salzenstein, Associate Professor, DePaul University; director of MFA program in arts leadership, The Theatre School, DePaul University
Sustainability as It Is Applied in Theatres of Color
Malik Gillani, Executive Director, Silk Road Theatre Project; M.N.A. candidate in Non-Profit Managemant program, North Park University
1:45PM – 3:00PM African-American Theatre Since the 1960s, Room 801C
Moderator: Harvey Young, Vice President, Association for Theatre in Higher Education; Associate Professor of Theatre, Northwestern University; author, Embodying Black Experience: Stillness, Critical Memory, and the Black Body.
Panel: Chuck Smith, Resident Director and Artistic Collective member, Goodman Theatre; co-founder and former Artistic Director, Chicago Theatre Company; former facilitator, Theodore Ward Prize playwriting contest at Columbia College Chicago; editor, Seven Black Plays and Best Black Plays; board member, African American Arts Alliance of Chicago; and Sydney Chatman, founder, Tofu Chitlin' Circuit
3:00PM – 3:15PM BREAK
3:15PM – 4:30PM Chicago Playwrights and How They Got That Way, Auditorium
Why are we here? What is it about Chicago that has drawn so many writers for the American theatre to live and to work in a city that is so distant from the two coasts? How has this town influenced us and how have we, in turn, influenced this “Midwestern mud pit” we call home?
Moderator: Douglas Post, Resident Playwright, Victory Gardens Theater; Chicago Regional Representative, Dramatists Guild of America
Panel: Gloria Bond Clunie, Resident Playwright, Victory Gardens Theater; Lisa Dillman, company member, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble; Laura Jacqmin, Resident Playwright, Chicago Dramatists; Joel Drake Johnson, Resident Playwright, Victory Gardens Theater; James Sherman, Resident Playwright, Victory Gardens Theater; Regina Taylor, Artistic Collective member, Goodman Theatre. Co-sponsored by the Dramatists Guild of America.
3:15PM – 4:30PM Chicago Theatre in the 1970s and 1980s, Room 801A
Onstage at the Creation: The Role of Clergy in the Early Off-Loop Theatre Movement
Terry McCabe, Senior Lecturer, Theatre Department, Columbia College Chicago; Artistic Director, City Lit Theater
Making Holy Whoopee in Chicago and Its Suburbs: 1971-1976
Former Chicago costume designer Julie Jackson considers the accomplishments and collaborations of director/actor Frank Galati and producer/director Bill Pullinsi between 1972 and the landmark Bicentennial year of 1976. Pullinsi and Galati are children of the ‘60s, who had a raucously good time -- in the words of Norman D. Dietz – “making holy whoopee about what it means, as we see it, to be human, to be alive together in a world full of strangers.” Julie Jackson, Chair, Department of Theatre, Marshall University
Dennis Zacek and Victory Gardens Theater
As the longest tenured Artistic Director in Chicago theatre, Victory Gardens Theater’s Dennis Zacek remains one of the most important forces in challenging the city’s stark racial segregation. Theatre has become Zacek’s spiritual bridge to connect Chicago’s many cultures. It is with fervor and passion, ingrained in childhood experience and refined in scholarly study, that Zacek articulates his vision for Chicago’s emancipated future. Daniel Moser, Senior Lecturer, McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, Northwestern University
The Influence of the Steppenwolf Script
This presentation explores the influence that the success of Steppenwolf Theatre Company had on companies that came later, focusing on three Off-Loop troupes that formed in the early 1980s: Stormfield, Immediate, and Lifeline. Shannon Epplett, M.A. candidate, Illinois State University
Introduction: Albert Williams, Senior Lecturer, Theatre Department, Columbia College Chicago, and former ensemble member, Chicago Free Theatre.
3:15PM – 4:30PM Why We Came? Why Stay?, Room 801B
A discussion among artists whose steadfast and creative commitment to Off-Loop theatre over many years exemplifies the rock upon which Chicago theatre is built and one of the major reasons why it continues to flourish.
Moderator: Lynn Baber, Artistic Administrator, Northlight Theatre
Panel: Michael Patrick Thornton, Artistic Director, Gift Theatre; Paul D'Addario, Associate Artistic Director, Gift Theatre; Kirsten Fitzgerald, Artistic Director, A Red Orchid Theatre; Michael Menendian and JoAnn Montemurro, co-founders, Raven Theatre; John Mossman and Kathy Scambiatterra, co-founders, Artistic Home.
3:15PM – 4:30PM Theatre Beyond Theaters: Performance in "Non-Traditional" Spaces, Room 801C
This panel features curators, performance artists, actors, and spectacle-makers who specialize in staging performance beyond theatrical stages.
Moderator: Coya Paz Brownrigg, Assistant Professor, Theatre Department, Columbia College Chicago.
Panel: Jyl Fehrenkamp, Poonie’s Cabaret, FLOF; Amanda Delheimer, 2nd Story; Shannon Matesky, Louder Than a Bomb; Sage Morgan Hubbard, Words, Beats, and Life; Chris Piatt, The Paper Machete Show.
EVENING PERFORMANCES
7:00PM Song of Myself: An Evening of Solo Performance, Conaway Center, 1104 S. Wabash, 1st floor
Note: This performance is free to the general public
Three of Chicago's leading solo performers share a stage.
“If You're Feeling Blue, Paint Yourself A Different Color,” from The Flesh Market, originally mounted by BoyGirlBoyGirl at the 2010 Rhinoceros Theater Festival – Stephanie Shaw, Senior Lecturer, Theatre Department, Columbia College Chicago; member, BoyGirlBoyGirl; former member, Neo-Futurists; former theatre critic, Chicago Reader
“No Gender Left Behind” – Rebecca Kling, instructor, Piven Theatre Workshop; board member, Pride Films and Plays
Excerpt from Confusion: a lip-synch opera - Jeff Abell, Associate Professor, Interdisciplinary Arts Department, and Director, Interdisciplinary Arts MA Program, Columbia College Chicago; former Time Arts Editor, New Art Examiner; former Assistant Director, Randolph Street Gallery
8:00PM Told by the Wind, Dance Center, Columbia College Chicago, 1304 S. Michigan*
*This is a ticketed performance. Symposium Registrants can obtain comp tickets using ticket code proved before their arrival. Tickets may be secured through the Dance Center's online ticket site.
Performance by Philip Zarrilli and the Llanarth Group, resident artists; followed by post-performance reception
Phillip Zarrilli, co-founder of the Welsh theatre/performance company the Llanarth Group, is a director, performer, and teacher who employs psychophysical training and unique artistic collaborations to produce international theatre. Zarrilli is internationally known for training actors in psychophysical process through Asian martial/meditation arts. In addition to his professional work, Zarrilli is an award-winning author and editor of numerous books on acting, including When the Body Becomes All Eyes: Paradigms and Practices of Power in Kalarippayattu, Acting (Re)Considered, When the Body Becomes All Eyes, Kathakali Dance-Drama: Where Gods and Demons Come to Play, and Martial Arts in Actor Training.
Saturday, May 21
9:00AM – 9:30AM "21st Century Chicago Theatre: The Noughties and Beyond," Auditorium
Featured Speaker: Lisa Portes, Associate Professor, The Theatre School, DePaul University; director of DePaul’s MFA directing program and artistic director of the Theatre School’s Chicago Playworks for Families and Young Audiences series; as a director with a particular interest in new plays and musicals, she has worked with some of the Chicago area’s leading theatres, including the Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Teatro Vista, the Rivendell Ensemble, and Next Theatre, as well as Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, the Public Theater, the New York Theatre Workshop, New Dramatists, and the Guthrie Theatre.
9:45AM – 11:00AM Beyond the Method: Chicago Teachers and Their Impact on Chicago Theatre – From the South Side to the North Shore, Auditorium
Inspirational and Influential Chicago Teachers and Leaders
An overview of teachers who helped shape Chicago's theatre artists, including Winifred Ward, Bella Itkin, Sister Gregory Duffy, Sulie and Pearl Harand, Ralph Lane, and Sheldon Patinkin. Kathleen Perkins, Associate Professor, Columbia College Chicago
Alvina Krause, Humanities, and the Anti-Conservatory
What is the basis of theatre? Alvina Krause, acting teacher and director at Northwestern University from 1930 to 1964, would say it was the astonishment of living. Krause created a legacy for actors and theatre companies grounded in the essence of the humanities. Her pedagogical beliefs were rooted in active inquiry, the freedom to fail, constant observation of the world around you, rigorous discipline, attainment of technique, and an interdisciplinary focus. This presentation the relationship between Krause’s work -- as well as the effects of a liberal arts education at institutions such as the University of Chicago and Northwestern University -- and the humanist strain found in mid- and late 20th-century Chicago theatre. Kathleen Sills, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Visual and Performing Arts, Merrimack College; co-founder, Lifeline Theatre
Robert Breen and the Rise of Narrative Theatre in Chicago
Examining the legacy of Northwestern University teacher Robert Breen, developer of the Chamber Theatre form and an influence on generation of Chicago theatre artists. Paul Edwards, Associate Professor and Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence, Department of Performance Studies, Northwestern University; author, Unstoried: Teaching Literature in the Age of Performance Studies
9:45AM – 11:00AM Ghetto-ization in Chicago Theatre: Programming of Stories and Storytellers, Room 801B
Panelists from a range of Chicago Theatres discuss the pros and cons of community-specific programming.
Moderator: Coya Paz Brownrigg, Assistant Professor, Theatre Department, Columbia College Chicago
Panel: Mica Cole, Free Street Theater; Alex Meda, Teatro Luna; Tony Adams, Halcyon Theatre; Andrea J. Dymond, Resident Director, Victory Gardens Theater, and Adjunct Faculty, Theatre Department, Columbia College Chicago
9:45AM – 11:00AM Comedy and Improv – Part 1, Room 801C
From Chicago to the World: The Chicago Improv Festival as a Performing Archive
The Chicago Improv Festival is the largest and most distinguished gathering of improv performers in the United States, in large part due to its location in the city widely acknowledged as the mecca of improv performance. The producers of the festival create and maintain a narrative of Chicago improv that de-emphasizes perceived hierarchical standards between different improv forms as well as theatres, styles and instructors. While invited performers present perspectives from around the world to the Chicago improv community, they take away a comprehensive sense of the city’s performative history and present that reinforces Chicago’s status as the preeminent place to study and perform improv. Travis Stern, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Theatre, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Chicago Comedy, From Founders to Future
A candid conversation about the changing climate of comedy in Chicago over the past 30 years.
Moderator: Angie McMahon, founder and Marketing Director, Chemically Imbalanced Comedy
Panel: Jimmy Binns, instructor, Second City Training Center, and cofounder, Improv Institute and Noble Fool Chicago; Matt Elwell, Artistic Director, ComedySportz Chicago; Jason Geis, Artistic Director, pH Productions, and founding member, Low Sodium Entertatinment; Marz Timms, founder, Pimprov.
Introduction: Margaret Hicks, author, Chicago Comedy: A Fairly Serious History
11:00AM BREAK
11:15AM – 12:30PM Outspoken and Deeply Rooted: Youth Ensembles Predict the Future of Theatre Aesthetics, Auditorium
Moderator: Coya Paz Brownrigg, Assistant Professor, Theatre Department, Columbia College Chicago
Panel: Luis Gutierrez, Emmanuel Gutierrez, and Zulema Ortiz, Teatro Americano; members of About Face Youth Theatre and Free Street Theater.
11:15AM – 12:30PM Downtown and Around Town: Legacies of Culture and Space in Chicago Theatre, Room 801A
The Times Square of the Midwest: The Garrick, Woods, Selwyn, and Harris Theatres
Joshua Polster, Assistant Professor, Emerson College; author, Reinterpreting the Plays of Arthur Miller
When It Comes to African-American Theatre, the Chicago Renaissance Is No Step-Sister to the Harlem Renaissance
Vanita Vactor, Associate Professor, Department of Visual and Performing Arts, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
The Chicago Passion Play (Theatre, Race, and Politics)
By the time that playwright, producer, and musician Willa Saunders Jones died in 1979, her Passion Play had appeared almost every year for over five decades in the Chicago Opera House and other civic theatres. A product of Chicago’s African-American community, the Passion Play blurred the boundaries between professional, community and sacred theatre. It primarily drew upon the talents of amateur performers and the support of area churches, but also utilized professionals, such as vocalists Mahalia Jackson, Dinah Washington, and the Barrett Sisters. While the production nurtured the shared faith of audiences and performers alike, in the late 1960s and early 1970s supporters, sponsors, and the media framed the play as an event that resonated beyond the sacred realm. Newspapers documented the play’s shift from an expression of Black Nationalism to a symbol of interracial amity, reflecting the period’s dramatic social changes, while city leaders attempted to co-opt the power of the play for their own ends. Brian Hallstoos, Adjunct Instructor, Kirkwood Community College
11:15AM – 12:30PM Critical Condition: The Role of the Critic in Influencing the Development, Health, and Direction of Chicago Theatre, Room 801B
The Shakespearean director Sir Tyrone Guthrie (after whom the Guthrie Theatre is named) once said: “Everyone who goes to the theater has a right to his own opinion--but he doesn't have a right to have it taken seriously." What standards of quality still exist in the field of theatre criticism today? Do readers and theatres simply want fast, simple, quote-heavy consumer-guide content? Or is there a place for serious, analytical, interpretive, intellectually challenging theatre criticism -- criticism that can actually help shape the cultural climate of our society as well as the art, craft, and industry of theatre? If there is still a place for serious criticism, how can standards of quality be established given the unstable terrain of contemporary media? And why is it that in contemporary Chicago -- indeed, in the United States -- there are almost no major theatre critics of color at work?
Introduction: Albert Williams, Senior Lecturer, Theatre Department, Columbia College Chicago; arts critic, Chicago Reader; former ensemble member, Chicago Free Theatre.
Moderator: Alton Miller, Associate Dean, School of Media Arts, Columbia College Chicago.
Panel: Chris Jones, theatre critic, Chicago Tribune; Hedy Weiss, theatre and dance critic, Chicago Sun-Times; Kerry Reid, theatre critic, Chicago Reader and Chicago Tribune, and Adjunct Faculty, English Department, Columbia College Chicago; Kensli Brown, Julia Kulovitz, and Cindy Avila, participants, Cindy Bandle Young Critics program, a joint venture of the Goodman Theatre and the Association for Women Journalists
11:15AM – 12:30PM Comedy and Improv, Part 2, Room 801C
Del Close, iO, and the Development of Long Form Improv
Kim “Howard” Johnson, author, The Funniest One in the Room: The Lives and Legends of Del Close; Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation (with Del Close and Charna Halpern); The First 20 Years of Monty Python; Life Before and After Monty Python: The Solo Flights of the Flying Circus; Monty Python's Tunisian Holiday; and Charna Halpern, producer, iO
The Practical Theatre Company
Members of one of Chicago's most popular comedy theatres recall their experiences as part of the storefront theatre explosion of the 1980s. Paul Barrosse, Victoria Zielinski, and Brad Hall, founding members, Practical Theatre Company
Introduction: Margaret Hicks, author, Chicago Comedy: A Fairly Serious History
12:30PM – 1:45PM LUNCH
12:30PM – 1:45PM Brown Bag Lunch Discussion, 8th floor lounge
Topic: Who Critiques the Critics?
Introduction: Caroline Dodge Latta, Professor, Theatre Department, Columbia College Chicago
Moderators: Jonathan Abarbanel and Kelly Kleiman, WBEZ Dueling Critics
12:30PM – 1:45PM Comedy and Improv, Part 3, Room 801C
The Second City: Anatomy of an Artist-Driven For-Profit Theatre in Chicago
Anne Libera, Adjunct Faculty and Director of Comedy Studies, Theatre Department, Columbia College Chicago; Director of Comedy Studies and Head of Directing Program, The Second City
Introduction: Margaret Hicks, author, Chicago Comedy: A Fairly Serious History
1:45PM – 3:00PM Internationalism in Chicago Theatre, Auditorium
Compared to New York or Los Angeles, Chicago may not seem an obvious destination for international interaction. But in the world of theatre, artists and producers have traveled to and brought work here from around the globe. How has that work affected home-grown work and local audiences?
Moderator: Susan Padveen, Associate Professor, Columbia College Chicago; former Director of Educational and Community Programs, International Theatre Festival of Chicago.
Panel: Phillip Zarrilli, Llanarth Group; Jane Sahlins, former Executive Director, International Theatre Festival of Chicago; Barbara Gaines, Artistic Director, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre; Henry Godinez, resident artistic associate, Goodman Theatre, and curator, Goodman Theatre Latino Theatre Festival; Nicole Wiesner, Artistic Associate, Trap Door Theatre; Patrizia Acerra, Artistic Director, International Voices Project
Response: Dana Dajani, alumna, Columbia College Chicago
1:45PM – 3:00PM From Bars to Festivals: Getting Things Started, Getting Things Done, Room 801A
Moderator: Steve Scott, Associate Producer, Goodman Theatre
Panel: Beau O’Reilly, co-founder, Rhinoceros Theater Festival; Brian Posen, Executive Producer, Chicago Sketch Festival, Artistic Director, Stage 773, and Adjunct Faculty, Columbia College Chicago; Anthony Moseley, Executive Artistic Director, Collaboraction; Kate Buddeke, ensemble member, American Blues Theater
1:45PM – 3:00PM Future Aesthetics in Latino/a Theatre, Room 801B
In this panel, representatives from Equity, Non-Equity, and community-based companies examine the current landscape of Latino/a performance in Chicago within its historical context(s) and discuss the changing aesthetics and politics in works by and about Latino/as.
Moderator: Coya Paz Brownrigg, Assistant Professor, Theatre Department, Columbia College Chicago
Panel: Eddie Torres, Artistic Director, Teatro Vista; Alex Meda, Executive Director, Teatro Luna; Marilyn Camacho, Artistic Directoe, UrbanTheater Company; Yvonne Esther Nieves, founding ensemble member, Vida Bella; Oswald Calderon, company member, Aguijon Theater
1:45PM – 3:00PM Comedy and Improv, Part 4: The Origins and Flowering of Improvisational Theatre in Chicago, Room 801C
Recalling the pioneering predecessors of Second City, including the Compass and Nichols & May.
Jeffrey Sweet, Resident Playwright, Victory Gardens Theater; author, Something Wonderful Right Away
3:15PM – 4:30PM Long History, Vibrant Present, _____ Future? Emerging Theatre Artists Respond to the Symposium, Auditorium
Action Plan Revisited
A wrap-up discussion revisiting the issues raised in Thursday morning's agenda-setting talk about the challenges facing theatre scholars and theatre makers who want to chronicle Chicago theatre history as a foundation for building its future.
Arvid Sponberg, Professor of English, Valparaiso University
Emerging Artists Respond
Moderator: Samantha Bailey, Actor, Graduating Senior, BA Acting Program, Theatre Department, Columbia College Chicago
Panel: Ryan Bourque, actor, fight choreographer, composer, and photographer, with credits ranging from the Hypocrites, Griffin Theatre Company, Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company, and Jackalope Theatre Company to The Inconvenience (ensemble member and Marketing Director); Esteban Andres Cruz, actor, director, choreographer, and educator, with credits ranging from the Factory Theater to the Lyric Opera; Rose Freeman, Production Manager, Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, and freelance director and stage manager; Andrew Burden Swanson, company member and resident playwright, Jackalope Theatre; Tonika Todorova, co-founder and Artistic Director, Silent Theatre; Peter Oyloe, ensemble member and Marketing Director, Filament Theatre Ensemble, and company member, Redtwist Theatre; Leslie Ann Shepard, Suitcase Shakespeare Company; Dani Davis, Sophie de Oliveira and Michael Phillips, NeuroKitchen.
EVENING PERFORMANCE
8:00PM Told by the Wind, Dance Center, Columbia College Chicago, 1304 S. Michigan*
*This is a ticketed performance. Symposium Registrants can obtain comp tickets using the ticket code proved before their arrival. Tickets may be secured through the Dance Center's online ticket site.
Performance by Philip Zarrilli and the Llanarth Group, resident artists
Phillip Zarrilli, co-founder of the Welsh theatre/performance company the Llanarth Group, is a director, performer, and teacher who employs psychophysical training and unique artistic collaborations to produce international theatre. Zarrilli is internationally known for training actors in psychophysical process through Asian martial/meditation arts. In addition to his professional work, Zarrilli is an award-winning author and editor of numerous books on acting, including When the Body Becomes All Eyes: Paradigms and Practices of Power in Kalarippayattu, Acting (Re)Considered, When the Body Becomes All Eyes, Kathakali Dance-Drama: Where Gods and Demons Come to Play, and Martial Arts in Actor Training.
