Big Ticket
Just for Kicks
BIG TICKETIt’s time for football season! Don’t worry; we’re not touting the Cowboys’ preseason game here. No, we mean English soccer, which starts up this weekend. NBC already broadcasts a late game at 11am on most Saturdays, but...
Short Takes
BIG TICKETEarly August is when SceneShop comes out of mothballs and puts on its annual production of short plays. This year’s collection takes work as its theme and is entitled J.O.B. Quite a variety of workplaces enter into the evenin...
Beautiful Creatures
BIG TICKETWe’ve stated before in these pages that we don’t believe that Hayao Miyazaki is actually retired. Nevertheless, it’s never a bad time to revisit his weird, gorgeous animated films. The Modern now gives you and your kids t...
Bright Eyed Joy
BIG TICKETOne of America’s best composers for the stage, Ricky Ian Gordon is a musician who has followed Leonard Bernstein’s lead in blurring the distinctions between Broadway and opera, writing music for the concert hall in a style ...
Girl on a Bike
BIG TICKETWhen Wadjda hit American theaters last year, everyone said, “Oh! Look at that!” That’s because it wasn’t just a film from Saudi Arabia, a country where no film had ever been entirely shot before, but also because it was...
The Rhinoplaster’s Tale
BIG TICKETA man is asked by his daughter why he’s an unlicensed plastic surgeon, so he spins a fantastic fable about how his profession started with one enterprising young man in the Middle Ages who sought to confer happiness on lords ...
Workin’ Like a Dog
BIG TICKETWhile our nation celebrates the anniversary of its independence, our former colonial oppressors are marking another anniversary. This weekend is the 50th anniversary of the release of A Hard Day’s Night, the greatest rock ’...
In Memoriam
BIG TICKETChristine Marie Hay passed away last November at the age of 53. The choreographer for Ballet Concerto had created more than 10 ballets for the troupe in the last 15 years. In her memory, Ballet Concerto will perform several of ...
Love (and Other Things) in an Elevator
BIG TICKETMichael Hollinger’s new stage work, Hope & Gravity, was originally entitled Ups & Downs and set largely on an elevator. We’re really glad he changed the title, and while the elevator remains part of the play, it’s...
All That Jazz
KRISTIAN LINA New Orleans native who adopted Chicago as his hometown, Archibald Motley Jr. (1891-1981) never lived in Harlem, and yet he became one of the leading artists of the Harlem Renaissance, the great African-American cultural flowe...