Steve Leary - Page 10

The Artistic Home at 3914 North Clark Street 2008/2009 season consists of three mainstage productions: Look Homeward Angel by Ketti Frings, Modigliani by Dennis McIntyre, and The Latent Heterosexual by Paddy Chayefsky. The Artistic Home Acting Studio will also produce two productions: The Fox by Alan Miller and another production to be announced.

If you're a die-hard fan of classic American musicals, then grab your checkbook and a few supportive friends and buy your way to stardom at Victory Gardens Theater's 27th Annual Casting Auction, Saturday, November 15 at 6 pm at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago.

Jake Ehrenreich's autobiographical 'comedy musical', A Jew Grows in Brooklyn comes to the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts (9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie) for a limited one-week engagement this November. A Jew Grows in Brooklyn played for fifteen months to sold-out houses and broke box-office records, first at the historic Lamb's Theatre in the heart of Broadway's Time Square, and then for 15 weeks at the Cuillo Centre for the Arts in West Palm Beach Florida. Universal in its appeal, ABC-TV exclaimed A Jew Grows in Brooklyn "speaks to anyone hoping to live out the American Dream," and the New York Times raved "you don't have to be Jewish or Brooklynish!" This Rock N' Roll true story will premiere in Chicago at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie for a limited one-week engagement November 5 - 9, 2008.

Writers' Theatre Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Executive Director Kathryn M. Lipuma announce Jean Genet's The Maids directed by Jimmy McDermott. The production runs November 18, 2008- April 5, 2009, at Writers' Theatre, 664 Vernon Avenue, Glencoe. The official press performances are December 3 and 4, 2008, at 7:30 p.m.

Theatre at the Center's Theatre for Young Audiences, 1040 Ridge Road, Munster, Indiana, will present The Christmas That Almost Wasn't, the 'behind the scenes' story of Christmas written for children, by children performed by Child's Play Touring Theatre. The Christmas That Almost Wasn't will run December 1 through December 15.

Greasy Joan & Co. launches its 13th year of producing innovative productions of classic plays with the world premiere comedy CHEKHOV'S LIFE IN THE COUNTRY, from short works by Anton Chekhov, with translations by Paul Schmidt, Ryan McKittrick and Julia Smeliansky, and directed by Interim Artistic Director Libby Ford. CHEKHOV'S LIFE IN THE COUNTRY will play Chicago's Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., November 7 through December 21, 2008. The press opening is Sunday, November 9 at 3:30 p.m.

Experience the New Residents' Showcase, January 10, 2009 at Chicago Dramatists. The new Residents in this 30th anniversary season are Mary Ruth Clarke, Cheryl Coons, Christopher De Paola, Sarah Gubbins, David Scott Hay, and Jon Steinhagen.

In just one night, learn the Sparkle Sisters secrets to keeping their curves! From Sondheim to Berlin, this hilarious musical evening will inspire you to find your own inner sparkle through a cabaret revue of story songs. 7 Secrets of Highly Effective Chicks will make audiences laugh, cry and go home happy.

Million Dollar Quartet, the new musical inspired by the famed 1956 recording session that brought together legendary rock 'n' roll icons Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley, will move to the Apollo Theater at 2540 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, immediately following the conclusion of its limited engagement at the Goodman's Owen Theatre. Performances in the Owen continue through October 26, 2008; preview performances at the Apollo Theater begin Friday, October 31, 2008. The official Apollo opening is Wednesday, November 5, 2008, at 7:30 p.m.. Tickets for the Apollo run are currently on sale through January 4, 2009.

Village Players Theater for Youth seeks singer/actors with strong operatic vocal technique and dancer/singers with strong lyrical/ballet training for its 5th annual production of Humperdinck's opera Hansel and Gretel. Roles sought are:

Carla Gordon in Hotsie Totsie A Salute to Sophie Tucker.

A special signed performance of the holiday musical A Wonderful Life, sponsored by Munster High School's American Sign Language Club, will be hosted on December 5 at 8 p.m. at Theatre at the Center, 1040 Ridge Road. Tickets for the interpretive section of the theatre are available by contacting Lynn Schumacher at lcschumacher@munster.k12.in.us by November 12. All other tickets can be purchased through the Box Office at 219.836.3255 or Tickets.com at 800.511.1552.

Hold on tight, because Victory Gardens Theater's smash hit winter musical The Snow Queen - conceived by Chicago folk music legend Michael Smith, Tony Award-winning director Frank Galati, and master puppeteer Blair Thomas & Co - is sledding back into town for her third season as Chicago's #1 alternative to traditional holiday fare.

A collection of sketch comedy and improvisation from Second City and iO actors, 'Santa's Great American Depression Holiday Show! America.' is a hilarious hour where the holidays bring out the worst (and best) in a wide array of characters, where Batman comes to terms with economics, a bomb is loose in an American city, Santa gets no rest, and Thomas Jefferson rediscovers what it means to be an American. For mature audiences only.

The Texas Chainsaw Musical will be adding two 12:30 am productions for closing weekend (Oct 31 - Nov 2) -- Saturday, Nov 1 - 12:30 am, Sunday, Nov 2 - 12:30 am The Flaming Dames in Hell's Belles -- Adding a Halloween Midnight Show Saturday November 1 at 12:00 am-(FORTHIS NIGHT ONLY -- Immediately following the 10:30 pm show currently scheduled/listed on October 31) -- Extending run an extra week through November 14. Show will now close on Friday November 14.

Following three sold-out performances opening weekend, Village Players has added two performances to meet additional audience demand for tickets. Additional performances will take place Friday, November 21 at 8 PM and Sunday, November 23 at 3 PM.

Theo Ubique Theatre Co. (in association with Michael James) presents another exciting new work with the Premiere of Belle Barth: If I Embarrass You, Tell Your Friends. This original musical reaches its first staged performance at the No Exit Café after highly noted workshop performances during the 2008 Stages Festival of New Musicals at Theatre Building Chicago. Clever original songs underscore funny and touching scenes from the life and bawdy, raucous humor of the 1950s iconic sensation, Belle Barth, who sold millions of records with her audacious 'too-blue-for-Ed-Sullivan' comedy that stood in acute contrast to prude and proper 1950's.

New Millennium Theatre Company (NMTC) presents The David Bowie Hepzikat Funky Velvet Flarney Solstice Spectacular, Live... From Space! (David Bowie's Christmas Special 1977)

Broadway In Chicago encouraged Chicagoans to 'Skate to the Box Office.' The first 20 people to roller skate to the Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place box office (175 E Chestnut St) received a XANADU CD and a free pair of tickets to the first performance on Friday, January 16, 2009.

Ten Chimneys Foundation, the National Historic Landmark estate of Broadway legends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, has chosen Mary Beth Fisher as one of its eleven inaugural fellows to participate in the LUNT-FONTANNE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM, a groundbreaking national program to serve regional theater actors and the future of American Theater. Fisher, who was nominated by Goodman Theatre, will receive a cash fellowship and participate in an intensive week-long master class and retreat at Ten Chimneys with a world-renowned and respected master teacher; acclaimed actress Lynn Redgrave will be the first master teacher in the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program. In addition to a prolific, award-winning career on Broadway, in London, and in film and television, Ms. Redgrave was named in honor of Lynn Fontanne - making her a particularly meaningful choice to launch this important program.