Press & Reviews

Gillian and Claire taught up and coming Country Artist/Song Writer Audrey Tucker what it takes to win STARTING OVER.

Daytime's first reality series comes to television with STARTING OVER. Set in Chicago, STARTING OVER follows a diverse and ever-changing group of women as they attempt to make extraordinary changes in their lives - all while living together under the same roof. The women are joined by two life coaches, Rhonda and Rana, who will help them define their goals and outline the steps needed to achieve those goals. As each woman achieves - or fails to achieve their goals, she will leave the house and a new woman will arrive to attempt to start her life over.

Explicit Lyrics. Bailiwick Repertory. This joyfully naughty revue offers a humorous take on sex for sex's sake. The 21 snappy tunes, well chosen by director Daryl Nitz, range from a 1920's number called "Let's All Be Fairies" (performed in a tutu) to contemporary cabaret songs to a Madonna ditty about kink. Nitz has made sure there's something for everyone: a song about threesomes, one on bisexuality, and several detailing intimate moments in gay and straight sex.

The four ensemble members have an easy rapport with one another and with the audience; stories of their own embarrassing sexual escapades, told between songs, give the show a gentle warmth. Gail Becker, whose rendition of a tune about masturbation brought down the house, has a voice with a crystalline Broadway edge, as does the flirty, boy-crazy Jared Leal. The elegant Kristofer Simmons has more of a sexy roughness, and Gillian Kelly--the most charismatic performer--was a little hoarse on opening night but nevertheless put her creamy voice to fabulous use. Accompanist Claire Bigley gets in a few wisecracks and even solos on a number about sexual deprivation. Only sex itself could be more delightful. - Jennifer Vanasco - The Chicago Reader

"THE MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT" A large, 16-person strong ensemble plays out director's Kathy Scambiatterra's timely production of Jean Giraudoux's 1943 satirical comedy about a crazy woman who stops a scheme to turn Paris into an oil field. This is a work rarely produced because of the cast size and difficulty of the material. The work requires a pointed balancing of comedy and drama while keeping the action brisk, the characters well-delineated and the dark, underlying social commentary light yet allowing its foreboding message to shine through. That doesn't seem to be an issue for Scambiatterra's group, the Artistic Home; it makes this challenging material quite accessible and marvelously fun knowing that beneath the circus-like antics of their environment lays a seriousness of equal importance. Giraudoux blends the line between sanity and insanity, keeping us well aware that there's a fine thread that separates the two. As he layers his politically piercing work with other commentary on the dramatic differences between men and women, rich and poor, life and death, and greed and power, Giraudoux tells us that the more things change, the more things remain the same. Scambiatterra sets this up with exceptional aptitude and then equally stated by her committed ensemble that portray a vast array of characters that include evil prospectors, corrupted politicians, police, a deaf mute, a juggler, café workers and other outlandish madwomen. At the heart of all of this lunacy is the Madwoman of Chaillot, portrayed gloriously by Gillian Kelly. With her operatic trained melodious voice, a cherubic face that sits below a large auburn wig of curls and on top a swelling of fabrics, scarves and pearls, Kelly luxuriates in being the center of attention, a well-deserving place to be. She's charming and commanding, playful yet stern, giving her diva, nutcase persona great charisma. She personifies the true spirit of Giraudoux's intent. It's a while before the grand dame makes her entrance. Prior to that, the expositional nature of the writing takes its turn, with the audience being introduced to the conspirators and the various entertaining folk who provide rich atmospheric support, either lounging at the café tables or interrupting the plotters. Matt Roben is particularly lovable here as a juggler who interacts with the audience with his great showmanship and later bothers the more serious characters with his tricks. When Kelly enters, the action picks up. She decides to invite her other madwoman (Susan Burke and Miranda Zola) to her cellar apartment to assure that beauty and happiness is restored to the world, the thrust of Act II. The first half ends with a curtain speech by Irma, a café worker (the lovely Maria Stephens), about love and reminding us that in the midst of this chaos a love story plays out between her and an unwilling henchman to the prospector, Pierre (Luis Crespo). The standout performances among the supporting cast include Tera Dunlap, in a Jane Hathaway-like spirit, as the Madwoman of La Concorde, who leads the carnival-style trail in the second act; Roben as the aforementioned juggler; Zola as the Madwoman of Passy, comforted by her invisible dog; Gerald Jamroz as the evil Prospector; Ed Krystosek as the idealist Ragpicker, who takes precedence during the trial; and Eustace Allen as the sweet natured mute. This is really difficult material for any non-Equity group, but Scambiatterra's collection works hard to make this "Madwoman" believable. Please note that two Equity members reside in this cast. Again, one must marvel at the maneuvering of them in the company's postage stamp-sized playing space located on Irving Park. While watching Artistic Home's well-executed work, you can't help but compare Giraudoux's plotting to bomb Paris for oil, thus creating war, to that of the same plotting occurring today in the Middle East. Though Giraudoux's silly and sweet telling reminds us not to worry, I wish I could say the same about our current situation. This purposeful reflection on the world us is what producing great, timely theatre is all about. (***1/2) - reviewed by Tim Sauers.

Based on Anton Chekhov's short story, "In the Hollow," the play is a harrowing and heart-felt tale of innocence and compassion in the face of small-town greed and cruelty. Linney, raised in Madison Tennessee, reinterprets the Russian original through the American experience, setting the play's action in the foothills of 1920's Appalachia. The play incorporates traditional Appalachian song and music, evoking colorful American traditions and themes.

Reviews:

My familiarity with the Steppenwolf gang goes back to when they were still a non-Equity company (yes, I'm old). The fact that Steppenwolf made the transition from non-Equity to an internationally-honored institution continues to inspire current young theatre artists in Chicago. I had a chance to see one of these newer groups when I visited the Artistic Home.
In their 40-seat theatre, I saw this group of non-Equity players (with an Equity guest artist in the person of Gary Houston, who has appeared in a couple of my plays) take on Romulus Linney's Unchanging Love, an adaptation of a Chekhov story transposed to an Appalachian setting. The tale of a corrupt family that, not content to exploit the town it dominates, begins to victimize its own members, it was given a tough, clear-eyed staging by director Gillian Kelly. A few of the players were a little young for their roles, but the work was as bracing as my early memories of Malkovich, Sinise, Metcalfe before they became household names. I didn't see more than a half dozen production in New York last season that stirred me as much.
The Chicago theatre renaissance got started in the middle 1970s. If the work of the Artistic Home is anything to go by, it's still going strong thirty years later. - Jeffrey Sweet, playwright and friend of Romulus Linney (http:/www.backstage.com)

"Unchanging Love reasserts Linney's standing as a playwright of uncommon humanity." - New York Newsday

"...what director Gillian Kelly has accomplished is a feat of significant proportions." - The Chicago Tribune

"...director Gillian Kelly allows the talented actors to colorfully embody their characters without embracing Appalachian cliches." - Chicago Sun Times

"…[W]hat director Gillian Kelly has accomplished is a feat of significant proportions…they give performances of meaningful range, revealing moments of sly humor that offset the incredible failings of these characters." - Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune

“...[A] combination of Arthur Miller in its concern for moral rectitude, and Tennessee Williams in its southern, smoldering gothic melodrama stuff because it’s a play about pervasive corruption…done with the intensity, and clarity, and honesty, and intelligence that you can always count on from Artistic Home...a big piece…you should see it!” - Kelly Kleiman, WBEZ Chicago

“I like the work that The Artistic Home does…go see it...” - Jonathan Abarbanel, WBEZ Chicago

"Artistic Home, Chicago’s delivery system for underrated American classics, continues to best its own ensemble achievements with director Kelly’s charcoal portrait of tribal rural life. Stage vet Houston’s lived-in performance, preternatural in its realism, suggests an amiable man who may be chapped by his decades of survival, but whose unrealistic expectations for his clan are informed by his uniquely American good fortune. Meanwhile, soft, slow-eyed McKnight haunts as a naive kid oblivious to what she’s saying 'I do' to. And her honeyed vocals linger like mountain smoke." - Chris Piatt, Time Out-Chicago

Salome in just her scarves? Mimi in only her makeup? Aida in the altogether? Chicago's hottest young opera company says yes, and in OperaModa Uncovered: The Calendar, its women are showing off more than just their voices. See why Violetta and Rusalka stopped hearts. See why Carmen and Delilah are among the ultimate femmes fatale. And see why, behind the curtain, everything at OperaModa must be seen to be believed.

Support Chicago's youngest opera company and see Gillian Uncovered at www.lulu.com/content/419656