Arts Features

“It was strange the way it happened… one of those quirks of fate, really,” says Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Show. That’s a little how we think of it when it comes to Rocky Horror and how we ended up codirecting.  A conversation one day about writing for Illinois Times, some convenient timing, […]

An exceptionally well-written article – sorry, essay – about the suicide of a 16-year-old boy who jumped from the observation deck of a Las Vegas casino has the potential to breathe life into a struggling magazine. The demanding editor-in-chief hires a millennial fact-checker to verify the essay’s content before publishing. The deadline is very tight, […]

The current exhibition at the Springfield Art Association is nontraditional in many ways. In contrast to a juried exhibition, Pillsburied: Multiple Resurrections is the result of an open invitation for any artist to create a work of art using objects from the Pillsbury site or inspired by the ruins of the Pillsbury Mills plant. No […]

I’m guessing most people are familiar with some aspect of the show Mary Poppins: either the beloved children’s book by P.L. Travers, the iconic Walt Disney film, or at the very least, the fact that Dick Van Dyke is still alive and entertaining at 98 years old. The live production captivated Broadway audiences for over […]

I showed up to a recent Capital City Improv workshop at the Hoogland Center for the Arts without realizing I would be a participant. I’ve never done improv before and hadn’t planned on it. As a writer, I like to meticulously edit my work, then edit again, then stare at it with existential dread and […]

Most of us know the rhyme about the unfortunate fates of Henry VIII’s six wives: “Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived.” After seeing the all-city teen production of the musical SIX, codirected by Morgan Kaplan and Andrew Maynerich, you can add “revived” to the end of that poem. SIX reimagines Henry’s wives as a glam-pop, […]

Summer means baseball. Whether you are a baseball fan or prefer art over baseball, there is a not-to-be-missed opportunity this summer to experience baseball at the Springfield Art Association (SAA). Springfield artist Rod Buffington has teamed up with nationally renowned sports illustrator James Fiorentino to take you out to the ballpark while also seeing some […]

The Springfield Area Arts Council has announced its three recipients of the 2024 City Arts Grants: Reggie Guyton for performing arts, Devin Larson for visual arts and Jaliyah Ross for literary arts. Each of these artists will receive $3,000 to develop their craft and enhance the vibrancy of Springfield’s art community and culture. The selection […]

When it debuted in 1964, Hello, Dolly! set a record for the most Tony Awards, which it held for the next 37 years. (The Producers moved into the top spot when it won 12 awards in 2001). The cast recording of the original Broadway production reached No. 1 on the Billboard album chart in 1964 […]

The Muni’s Jersey Boys is an impressive, energy-packed romp documenting the many decades of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. It is brilliantly structured, with each of the original Four Seasons narrating a different “season” of their lives. The story begins on the seedy streets of their youth and transitions to their 1960s Top-40 glory […]