In live theatre, no two performances are exactly the same. But occasionally, a night at the theatre takes that singularity to new heights, and you know that you and your fellow audience members are sharing a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Often, the uniqueness is due not only to what’s on stage, but also to special circumstances surrounding the event at that particular time and place. Here’s our list of those experiences that stand out for us as compelling and unrepeatable.
(in alphabetical order)
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow, adapted by David Auburn, at Court Theatre on 5/9/19: Due to a scheduling log jam, we had changed our date to see Augie March from our regular subscription time to the first preview. We started the day at our home in Champaign, drove to Theatre at the Center in Munster, IN to catch the matinee performance of Dames at Sea, and then made a mad dash to Hyde Park for a quick supper followed by Augie March’s first ever performance in front of an audience. (And yes, Dames at Sea and Augie March have to be our strangest double-header pairing ever!) Court artistic director and the show’s director Charles Newell began with a rare curtain speech, in which he explained that the actors had received a number of script changes earlier that day, so “you’ll see things I’ve never seen” here tonight. He also cautioned that consequently we would hear actors calling for lines during the performance. So we were prepared (and eager) to see an understandably rocky first viewing of a massive adaptation/work-in-progress. What we actually saw was a 3-1/2 hour tour de force of brilliant story telling and movement, with not a single instance of an actor needing a memory jogger for a line! Both cast and audience were exhilarated, with the sense that we had been present for the theatrical birth of David Auburn’s phenomenal adaptation. We loved the show all over again when we saw it several weeks later (in an inevitably more fluid, deeper, and tighter version), but we will forever treasure that unmatched first-preview experience.
Interesting note: Court Theatre casting director Becca McCracken credited “the caliber of Chicago’s acting community as pivotal to breathing life into Augie March.” The article “Casting an Epic” provides an inside glimpse into how the remarkable ensemble that pulled off the first-preview miracle (and successful extended run of the show) was chosen.
Follies by Stephen Sondheim, in a concert presentation at Ann Arbor’s classic Michigan Theatre on 1/5/03: Thirty-two years after the original Broadway production of Follies, this 2003 concert reunited the four actors who had played the young versions of the lead characters on Broadway, now playing the older Phyllis, Ben, Sally, and Buddy. The icing on the cake was Broadway veteran Donna McKechnie as Carlotta Campion, and the gorgeous concert staging accompanied by a 39-piece orchestra. To get the details on how this special reunion performance was conceived, how the actors from the original Broadway production were enlisted, and why Donna McKechnie just happened to be in Michigan at the right time, check out the Follies section of our page of Favorite Sondheim Musicals!
An Iliad by O’Hare and Peterson, produced by Court Theatre on 2/26/20 at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute (OI, subsequently renamed to Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures): We had seen An Iliad on four previous occasions (described in our page of Definitive Productions), in 2011, 2013, 2014, and 2015. This one-performer adaptation of Homer’s Iliad had never failed to move us deeply, as it laid bare the utter capriciousness of war and its unspeakable human toll. But we had never experienced the performance so viscerally as in the 2020 site-specific staging by Court Theatre, directed by Charles Newell and performed (as in 2011 and 2013) by Timothy Edward Kane, this time in the galleries of the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute. We were there for the limited run’s first performance, which began when the audience was ushered into the Khorsabad Gallery as Kane, already present, began reciting An Iliad. The acoustics of the massive gallery reverberated the actor’s voice, adding palpable weight to his words. We stood just feet away from a 40-ton statue of an Assyrian lamassu (a protective spirit; this one guarded the entrance to the throne room of King Sargon II approximately 2,700 years ago). The tangible presence of artifacts from the region and era of the play’s story made every word Kane uttered that much more real and the tragedy more affecting.
With no pause in the narrative, we moved into the Persian Gallery, as the play proceeded to the depiction of the Trojan War’s tenth and final year. Under the watchful eye of a massive bull head excavated in Iran by OI archaeologists, and using museum moving crates and scaffolding as the set pieces (lit by single-bulb portable lights that cast evocative shadows, giving the scene an ethereal, other-worldly character befitting the recounting of war), the play reached its heartbreaking conclusion. The climactic recitation of the planet’s major wars had grown ever longer since we’d last seen the play five years earlier.
On the way out of the gallery after the performance, we viewed an Egyptian papyrus, excavated in the late 19th century, that preserves part of the text of Homer’s Iliad (specifically, a portion of the Catalogue of Ships that the Greeks had amassed for the assault on Troy). Seeing this artifact further heightened our sense of having been transported to another time and place, and we’re infinitely grateful that Court Theatre and the Oriental Institute came together to create this unparalleled marriage of theatre and context.
School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play by Jocelyn Bioh, produced by Goodman Theatre on 3/13/20: March 13, 2020, the day before the pandemic lockdown in Illinois, was a surreal day for many people. We were about halfway through a 15-day Chicago visit, with 17 shows booked (see calendar). School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play had been in previews at Goodman Theatre, directed by Lili-Anne Brown, preparing for an imminent opening. But when the pandemic intervened, Goodman arranged for a special performance on lockdown eve that would be recorded for archival, and as it turned out, subsequent online viewing (strongly recommended: Terry Teachout’s review of the streamed video). Thanks to a fortuitous opportunity, we spent our last hours before the pandemic lockdown in the Goodman’s Albert Theatre, as part of the audience for the recording of the show.
And what a show! Jocelyn Bioh’s fabulous script, inspired in part by her mother’s boarding school experiences in Ghana, did more than entertain and inform—it transported us. For 80 minutes, we lived in that school with the young women, getting to know their individual hopes, insecurities, and personalities. Rarely have we seen an ensemble play where each and every character was captured so fully and distinctively. Lili-Anne Brown’s direction and each actor’s performance had a beautiful specificity, always in perfect sync with each other and the zeitgeist of the play. (Recommended reading: a compendium of short articles about the play and the playwright, assembled by Portland Center Stage)
After the show, we said goodbye to our many friends among the audience, cast, and crew members. General expectations were that the lockdown would last a couple of weeks, and then life would resume its usual rhythm and activities following the untimely hiatus. Consequently, the stunning School Girls set, designed by Yu Shibagaki, was not dismantled, but remained on the Albert stage in anticipation of a timely resumption of performances. When we left the theatre, walked to our apartment, packed our car, and drove to our home in Champaign, we had no idea that our next in-person show would be 601 days hence.
A silver lining was that our last pre-pandemic theatre experience was so strikingly affecting, life affirming, brilliantly conceived and executed, and shared with an audience that appreciated the value of theatre and the human connections it engenders.
REUNION READINGS
On a few occasions, we’ve seen noteworthy readings in which original cast members reassembled to revisit an iconic production one more time. The occasion might be a particular milestone for the producing company, a special fundraiser, or a historically significant anniversary. We’ve found these once-in-a-lifetime reunions deeply moving not only because of the power of the original material, but also thanks to the dedication of the casts, often traveling many miles to reconnect with the play and valued colleagues. Usually, the ephemeral nature of theatre means that when a production closes, it’s gone forever. Here are two shows that we were able to relish one more time, plus one that we had regrettably missed the first time around:
- Hit the Wall by Ike Holter: Produced by The Inconvenience in 2012, directed by Eric Hoff, with a reunion reading at Steppenwolf’s 1700 venue on 6/28/19 (produced by Ike Holter and Missi Davis), on the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots
- Our Town by Thornton Wilder: Produced by the Hypocrites in 2008, with a reunion reading at Steppenwolf on 1/22/17 (both directed by David Cromer)
- Parade by Jason Robert Brown: Produced by Bailiwick Repertory Theater in 2004, with a 10-year anniversary reading at Mercury Theater on 5/12/14 (both directed by Dennis Zak)
