Arts Features

The Illinois State Museum is a fitting place to gather in honor of Earth Day with its displays of human and environmental history, its stories of habitat evolution and more recent, rapid disturbances. On April 20, the museum will open its doors and auditorium to representatives of the Illinois Audubon Society, Lincoln Memorial Garden, Springfield […]

A bit of personal history: A very long time ago, when I was an art major, one of my favorite painters (like so many others…art major or not) was Vincent van Gogh. He still is. His bombastic painting style, his poetic letters to his brother, his death at an early age, spoke to my young, […]

The Christians, the 2015 play by Lucas Hnath, opened at the Hoogland Center for the Arts March 24 and will be presented again this weekend. The play is suitable for all audiences and runs about 90 minutes with no intermission. Performances are in the Peggy Ryder Theatre on the third floor of the Hoogland. It […]

Phil Funkenbusch will be directing The Christians by Lucas Hnath at the Hoogland Center for the Arts starting Friday, March 24, and running two weekends: Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. The 2014 play by the Tony and Outer Critics Circle award-nominated playwright takes place in a modern megachurch and […]

After taking Broadway and the world by storm, Dixie Longate, the fast-talking, funny and heartfelt Tupperware hostess-with-the-mostest, returns to Springfield for three shows March 10-12 that are sure to entertain. If you’ve already seen Dixie’s show, you’re probably a fan of Dixie. For those curious to know more, I caught up with the Tupperware Queen […]

“Murder isn’t all fun and games – or is it?” says a character in Agatha Christie’s play The Mousetrap, currently receiving a sprightly, elegant production by Spencer Theatre Company at the Hoogland Center for the Arts in downtown Springfield. The fact that this 70-year-old play is being performed here isn’t out of the ordinary, but […]

This year is the 100th Scholastic Art Awards, the premier art competition in the United States for students in 7th-12th grades. Regional winners will be honored Feb. 5 at Springfield High School (SHS), and their artwork will be exhibited at the Springfield Art Association (SAA) February 5-23. Many passionate individuals make this competition possible. Rosemary […]

Maestro Vince Lee stepped ably into the role of guest conductor for the Illinois Symphony Orchestra last Friday, Nov. 18, with an enjoyable and occasionally galvanizing concert at the UIS Performing Arts Center. Former ISO music director Ken Lam has departed for a position at the Juilliard School in China. Lee currently wields the baton […]

This week a recent Broadway musical makes its Springfield debut as Fun Home opens Friday at the Hoogland Center for the Arts, running Friday-Sunday, Nov. 11-13, as well as next week, Nov. 18-20. Directors Joe-Michael Jackson and Ginny Racette began planning this even before the pandemic. The wait is well worth the time. Alison Bechdel […]

Don’t be fooled by the title. While Kinky Boots might sound a little…well…kinky, the show is really a touching story about two unlikely friends who team up to help save a failing business and, along the way, come to terms with each other’s complicated relationship with their fathers. Told through the book by Harvey Fierstein […]

Basements are synonymous with sentimental hoarding. Oh, the things we can’t part with but don’t want in our “upstairs” lives. Buyer & Cellar, the 2013 comedy by Jonathan Tolins, takes this universal conundrum to a superstar level. The setting involves the very real mall in the basement of Barbra Streisand’s Malibu barn. As detailed in […]