427 stories by "Kevin Greene"
RECOMMENDED Rough House Puppet Theater's "Sad Songs for Bad People" is titled correctly although, truth be told, I do not feel like a particularly bad person. Then again, anyone who enjoys h…
RECOMMENDED As you sift through the heaps of holiday shows, be sure you don't leave American Blues Theater's "It's A Wonderful Life: Live In Chicago!" off your must see list. More than a pla…
RECOMMENDED The Hebrew word hasbara literally means "explanation." But to modern-day Israelis it connotes something more like spin: the massaging of facts or almost-facts into propaganda for…
By Kevin Greene First published in 1843, Charles Dickens’ novella “A Christmas Carol” has since gone on to be one of the most popular Christmas stories of all time. Furt…
RECOMMENDED For all but the cult-like fans of "Mr. Show," the appearance of "W/ Bob & David" on Netflix is likely little more than a curiosity. For the inquisitive, I recommend a quic…
RECOMMENDED Economy drives creativity. That force is strong in Hansol Jung’s “No More Sad Things,” currently making its world premiere with Sideshow Theatre Company. …
By Kevin Greene I'll admit that there are still some parts of the theatrical creative process that I take for granted as a critic. Toward the top of that list is the anxiety a critic's prese…
RECOMMENDED Misery: it’s what’s for dinner in “Pocatello,” MacArthur winner Samuel D. Hunter’s play about the decline of a chain restaurant in the titular Idaho…
With the holidays descending quickly upon us, you might be dreading all of the time you’ll be spending with your family in the next six weeks. Cousin Joey might corner you in the livin…
 RECOMMENDED Violence is a peculiar type of thoughtlessness. Even well plotted attacks stem from the sheer failure to consider consequences, channel empathy or rationally question oneR…
RECOMMENDED Every person who sees blasphemy in a red Starbucks cup that lacks the adornment of decorated pine trees and jolly old St. Nicholas ought to sit down for a nice, long chat w…
RECOMMENDED With a few high-profile exceptions, Scandinavians aren’t exactly known for their sunny dispositions. Artists like Jens Lekman, Ingmar Bergman and, of course, Henrik Ibsen, …
RECOMMENDED Hershey Felder is one of the last of the old-time actor-managers, specializing in staging one-man musical biographies that combine intimate storytelling with melody. As Irving Be…
RECOMMENDED Writer-director Byron Hatfield offers a different perspective on the Star Wars saga in "Stormtrooper Stories," a comedy about two inept troopers (Matt Lamson and Mark Rosenthal) …
RECOMMENDED There are a few principles of stage drama that every audience member, regardless of age or experience, implicitly understands. Among them is the importance of intentions. More th…
RECOMMENDED There is nothing controversial in observing that women’s rights have changed significantly in the United States since the 1970s:  after the passage of the 1974 Equal …
RECOMMENDED There's this misconception of mosh pits that they are dangerous places where sadomasochistic pagans and other godless folk maliciously take out their deep-seated aggression on ea…
RECOMMENDED Do you ever find yourself reading about a particular religious event in the distant past whose repercussions have been not inconsequentially amplified through time and think "how…
RECOMMENDED For the last three years I've been the organizer of a short film festival dedicated exclusively to the work of high school students from around the world. The films submitted are…
RECOMMENDED There is a good deal of talk about equations in Leigh Fondakowski's "Spill." Some are concrete, others highly theoretical. Yet the most impactful is, unsurprisingly, the simplest…
RECOMMENDED Last night, after making the trek to and from Glencoe, my girlfriend and I walked to our local grocery store for a snack. Standing before a formidable display of pears, I asked, …
RECOMMENDED As far as voyeurism is concerned, theater tops film hands down. The former's brutal pleasure lies in the squirm-inducing feeling that not only is what you're witnessing inescapab…
By Kevin Greene Robert Louis Stevenson's novel "Treasure Island" is so ubiquitous in the sphere of popular culture that it's possible to feel as though you've read it without ever having act…
RECOMMENDED It's a familiar story: an ambitious man – or, far too infrequently, woman – seduced by the allure of success, pursues it with increasingly frantic vigor until they fi…
The promises of punk are freedom and acceptance, which are, in the abstract, opposites. Punk is no stranger to contradiction. For decades, the iconic imagery of youthful rebellion has been c…
