Theatre News Wire

In a first-of-its-kind event, an international congress of theater scholars and practitioners are set to chronicle the history and chart the future of Chicago theater in "Chicago - Theatre Capital of America: Past. Present. Future." Programming has now been announced for this May 18-22, 2011 event, presented by the Theatre Department of Columbia College Chicago.

The symposium's historical view dates to the World's Columbian Exposition, but the programming primarily focuses on Off-Loop theatre, the self-renewing movement that began in the 1950s with Compass, Second City and Playwrights Theatre Club, then gathered steam in the '60s until the local theater scene exploded in the 1970s and continues to thrive today.

Among the themes addressed during some 70 symposium sessions include:

• The work of Chicago playwrights, including Sarah Ruhl, Regina Taylor, Tanya Saracho, and Pulitzer Prize winners David Mamet and Tracy Letts
  
• A celebration of Chicago's five winners of the special Tony Award for Regional Theatre: Goodman, Steppenwolf, Victory Gardens, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and Lookingglass
  
• An in-depth look at some of Chicago's leading alternative and storefront theatres
  
• The rich history of African-American, Latino, Yiddish, Greek-American and Arab-American theater in Chicago
  
• Ancestors and antecedents of contemporary Chicago theatre (including the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, the 1933 Century of Progress Chicago World's Fair, the historic Loop theater district, the pioneering improv troupes and comedy artists of the Eisenhower era, and the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s.

Featured speakers include Martha Lavey, artistic director of Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Harvey Young, director of Northwestern University's interdisciplinary doctoral program in theatre and author of Embodying Black Experience: Stillness, Critical Memory, and the Black Body; Lisa Portes, head of DePaul University's MFA directing program; Todd London, coauthor of Outrageous Fortune: The Life and Times of The New American Play and former managing editor of American Theatre magazine; and veteran Chicago arts critic Richard Christiansen, author of A Theater of Our Own: A History and Memoir of 1,001 Nights in Chicago.

Also on hand will be guests Jim Jacobs, co-author of Grease; Bernard Sahlins, co-founder of Second City; Robert Sickinger, pioneering director of Hull House Theatre in the 1960s; Tony Award-winning director Anna D. Shapiro; and actors Andre De Shields and Kate Buddeke, who will discuss why "alumni artists" of Chicago theatre return to work here while carving out careers on Broadway. In addition, the Symposium will present performances by guest artists including composer Alaric "Rokko" Jans and solo performers Stephanie Shaw, Jeff Abell, and Rebecca Kling.

International perspectives on Chicago theater will be provided by scholars and guest artists from overseas including Phillip Zarrilli, actor, director and prize-winning author of Psychophysical Acting: An Intercultural Approach After Stanislavski. Zarrilli, with his company The Llanarth Group from Wales, will stage the American premiere of his latest work, "Told By The Wind," at The Dance Center of Columbia College.