And now for something completely different: Springfield Theatre Centre’s Active and Creative Teen Theatre troupe is giving us a play to think about this weekend: Boiling People in My Coffee, by Jonathan Yukich, a theater professor at New York University. It runs Friday and Saturday, July 29 and 30, at the Hoogland Center for the […]
Arts Features
Posted inArts & Culture
theater
Eric Thibodeaux-Thompson moved to Springfield three years ago to help build a theater program at University of Illinois-Springfield with his wife, Missy Thibodeaux-Thompson, a fellow actor and director and part-time assistant professor of theater at Illinois College in Jacksonville. Before their move to the capital city, the couple’s pursuit of work in the theater had […]
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backstage pass
So much theater is being performed in the region right now, it’s impossible to see it all. Fortunately, I was able to enjoy three excellent productions last week that prove central Illinois a great theater center: Beauty & the Beast in Sullivan, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in Bloomington, and Broadway, a delightful relic of the Roaring […]
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art seen
Native American artist Arloa Wheeler of Springfield works exclusively in pen and ink. “I like the contrast,” she says. “It’s total opposites: black ink on white paper. You take something that’s total opposites and you create a piece of art that looks harmonized, and, for me, that’s almost spiritual.” Born in Illinois and a resident […]
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backstage pass 6-30-05
The show of the summer is Ragtime. The musical opened last Friday at the Springfield Muni Opera and runs through this Sunday, July 3. There is not one weak performance in this production. In fact, this is one of those times when every single part is absolutely right. Ragtime features Mary Jo Curry, Tony D. Young, […]
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art seen 6-23-05
If you’ve always thought that an artist waited deep inside you, eager to burst forth, now may be the time to tap that latent passion and make the most of it. It’s also the time to wrestle the Nintendo and TV away from the kids, introduce them to new friends, and discover talents you’ve suspected […]
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backstage pass 6-16-05
Great things are happening on summer stages. I just saw 42nd Street in Sullivan at the Little Theatre on the Square. Having seen back in 1980 the original Broadway production, which began with a slow curtain rising on what seemed to be 100 pairs of tap-dancing feet, I wondered how effective the opening would be handled […]
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art seen 6-9-05
For 40 years, John T. Crisp Jr. has been known on the East Side for his art and for his work in youth education. In the past, when people west of 11th Street wanted to interact with artists of color, they came to him. Crisp, who grew up on the East Side (“Back then, if […]
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backstage pass 5-26-05
I’m playing town crier this week for the comedy Rounding Third, which finishes a two-weekend run at the Hoogland Center for the Arts this Friday and Saturday, May 27 and 28. It’s the first production of the just-formed ADHD Productions, and local actors Jason Goodreau and Mac Warren are performing this must-see play by Richard […]
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art seen 5-19-05
Almost every artist I’ve interviewed for this column has explained how he or she made a connection to the visual arts early in life. To better understand how an elementary-school art class might influence that early focus, I recently visited with Shirley Frankowiak, who has taught art going on 30 years. “Miss Frank,” as her […]
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backstage pass 5-12-05
Springfield gets its first look next week at Rounding Third, a new comedy by Richard Dresser that played off-Broadway and has been a hit in theaters around the country. Jason Goodreau and Mac Warren, two local actors, are responsible for the Springfield production, and they play the lead roles. Rounding Third follows Don, a tough, blue-collar, […]
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art seen 5-5-05
Oh the Places I’ve Been, the newest exhibit at Prairie Art Alliance, features paintings by Springfield artists Tiffany Beane, Shirley Caldwell Smith, and Leonard Gaither. I visited with portraitist Beane recently as she moved one of her latest creations from its new home at Prairie Heart Institute to the PAA Gallery. Her portrait of cardiologist […]
