View Our Facebook PageView Our Facebook PageView Our Facebook Page
Your Guide to Cultural
Arts in America
Art Museums, Theater, Dance
& Music Happenings in 90+ Cities!
or go to

Art News

Chicago Shakes Founder Barbara Gaines is a Magician

Okay, not explicitly; she doesn’t remove her thumb or ask people to pick a card. Maybe she’s more of a puppeteer, in fact. Because Chicago Shakespeare Theater founder and Artistic Director Barbara Gaines takes 400-year-old plays and makes them resonate like last week’s episode of Parks and Recreation, and that’s got to involve some serious string-pulling. (Seriously: love Shakespeare all you like, because he is of course Shakespeare, but there’s just a bit of disconnect between the Elizabethan era and this one. Picture someone from Shakespeare’s era looking at Netflix. They’d think it was sorcery. Then you would be burned at the stake.) Anyway, Chicago Shakes is now a quarter-century old and at the top of its game; see its Timon of Athens now, while you can. (FULL ARTICLE: Joel Henning, Wall Street Journal)