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Armitage Gone! Dance (see Dance Center of Columbia College)

Julieta Cervantes

Movies & Performing Arts

Movies

Film Row Cinema The South Loop’s last two commercial movie venues—the Fine Arts, on Michigan near the Auditorium Building, and Burnham Plaza, on Wabash north of Ninth Street—bit the dust in 2000 and 2005 respectively. But one of the city’s more eclectic venues is here, on the eighth floor of Columbia College’s Ludington Building. A fair number of its free programs are screenings of student projects, but in the past year the comfortable 252-seat theater has also accommodated screenings and discussions with filmmakers Ali Selim (Sweet Land), James Scurlock (Maxed Out), and Steven Shainberg (Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus). Last month Tom Hayden, one of the defendants in the Chicago Seven conspiracy trial, appeared at the theater for a screening of Brett Morgen’s documentary Chicago 10. Last but not least, the Cinema Slapdown series offers screenings followed by no-holds-barred critical debates; among recent subjects have been Paul Haggis’s Crash, Spike Jonze’s Adaptation, and Gordon Parks Jr.’s Superfly. 1104 S. Wabash, 312-344-6708 or colum.edu. —J.R. Jones

Performing Arts

Professional Venues

Arie Crown Theater This sprawling concert hall in McCormick Place Lakeside Center occasionally hosts theatrical productions, usually aimed at African-American audiences, as well as stand-up comedy. Upcoming events include the debut of Safia Bernard’s drama Relationship Games, 3/14-3/15, and The Marriage Counselor, the latest touring comedy from Tyler Perry (Diary of a Mad Black Woman and TV’s House of Payne), 5/1-5/4.  2301 S. Lake Shore Dr., 312-791-6190 or ariecrown.com. —Albert Williams

Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University A national landmark designed by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler and opened in 1889 as the original home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, this 3,800-seat concert hall is renowned not only for its graceful arches, filigreed iron stairways, neoclassical murals, and mellow lighting, but also for its superb sight lines and acoustics. It now hosts a wide range of entertainment, from pop music to classical dance. Spring programming includes Russia’s Tchaikovsky Ballet & Orchestra in Swan Lake, 3/21-3/22; Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, 4/16-4/20; High Kings Irish balladeers, 4/26; Joffrey Ballet’s American Moderns program, 4/14-4/25; and Kirov Ballet prima ballerina Diana Vishneva, 6/19-6/22.  50 E. Congress, 312-902-1500, 312-922-2110, or auditoriumtheatre.org. —AW

Dance Center of Columbia College This 275-seat venue is a leading presenter of modern dance. Over the years it’s hosted such artists as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Eiko & Koma, Bill T. Jones, and Trisha Brown, as well as local notables including Peter Carpenter, Hedwig Dances, Luna Negra Dance Theater, and the Chicago Moving Company. The 1930 art deco building is also home to the Columbia College dance department. Dance Center founder Shirley Mordine launches the 40th-anniversary season of her own troupe, Mordine & Company Dance Theater, with the full-length work Quest, 3/13-3/15. Armitage Gone! Dance, led by New York choreographer Karole Armitage, presents a program that includes Ligeti Essays, set to music by the influential Hungarian composer György Ligeti, 4/17-4/19.  1306 S. Michigan, 312-344- 6600 or colum.edu/dancecenter. —AW

Hilton Chicago The only regular stand-up comedy event in the South Loop, Funny First Saturdays, takes place on the first Saturday of every month at 9 PM in the hotel’s northwest exhibit hall. Redolent of BET’s Comic View, this showcase draws three to five African-American comics each month, and the roster gets a big boost from host Damon Williams. The next show is the April Fool’s Comedy Bash on April 5. (Youtube.com has videos of past shows; type in “funny saturdays chicago.”)  720 S. Michigan, 312-282-6890 or funnyfirstsaturdays.com, $20 includes admission to an afterparty featuring DJ Dolla Bill. —Ryan Hubbard

Tommy Gun’s Garage Located a couple blocks from the site of the fabled Lexington Hotel, where Al Capone reigned over his criminal empire during Prohibition, this dinner theater playfully celebrates Chicago’s gangster heritage with an “Audience Interactive Roaring 20s Musical Comedy Revue” in a speakeasy setting. Dining and drinking are integrated into the show.  2114 S. Wabash, 773-728-2828, 312-225-0273, or tommygunsgarage.com, $55-$65. —AW

Student Venues

Columbia College Theater Center Built in the 1920s as a residential hotel for young women, the building today houses the 400-seat Emma and Oscar Getz Theater and two studio spaces, where student actors and designers work under the tutelage of local professionals. Coming up: My Secret Language of Wishes, 3/12-3/22, and You Can’t Take It With You, 4/23-5/4. On 5/16 the center will participate in Columbia’s Manifest Urban Arts Festival 2008, a graduation bash culminating in a “parade and vision” of student art called Spectacle Fortuna.  72 E. 11th, 312-344-6126 or colum.edu/undergraduate/theater. —AW

Merle Reskin Theatre, the Theatre School, DePaul University Originally the Blackstone Theatre, this 98-year-old cultural landmark once hosted touring productions starring the likes of Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda. During the Depression it was home to the Roosevelt administration’s Federal Theatre Project. The French-Renaissance-style venue was taken over by DePaul University in 1989 and renamed for philanthropist Merle Reskin in ‘92. Its productions, performed by students under the direction of professional artists, include the popular children’s theater series Chicago Playworks, which will wrap up its 2007-2008 season with Lois Lowry’s The Giver, 4/1-5/24. Final student showcase stagings of the season will be Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles, 4/16-4/27, and Shepsu Aakhu’s Kosi Dasa, 5/14-5/25.  60 E. Balbo, 312-922-1999 or theatreschool.depaul.edu. —AW

O’Malley Theatre at Roosevelt University Located in the historic Auditorium Building, which also houses the Auditorium Theatre, Roosevelt University’s Theatre Conservatory mounts student productions directed by professional artists in its 235-seat O’Malley Theatre. Spring shows include Visions of Kerouac, 4/11-4/13, and The Wild Party, 5/1-5/4.  431 S. Wabash, 312-341-3831 or ccpa.roosevelt.edu/theatre. —AW

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