The following is a slightly edited version of comments delivered upon receiving the Joseph Randall Shapiro Award, given to Wednesday Journal by the Oak Park Area Arts Council at their annual meeting on March 16. Ken Trainor, editor of the LifeLines section, has been covering the arts in these communities since 1992:
It’s been a good couple of weeks on the culture beat. On March 8, I attended Momenta’s spring dance concert, Dances in the Light Fantastic. Twice a year, in March and November, they put on a real feast for the eyes and ears – a swirl of human forms, costumes, lighting, color and sound. It’s one of the local art scene’s best-kept secrets. I left thinking to myself, “If I were Stephanie Clemens, I’d have to feel pretty good about what I do for a living.”
If you think these concerts are some kind of glorified dance recital for families, you’re badly mistaken. If you’re a fan of dance – and even if you’re not – you should make time to attend one of these shows.
That’s especially true of local artists. We need more artistic cross-pollination and collaboration. It generates new ideas. Creativity begets creativity.
In fact, if audiences are down because of the economic downturn, the Oak Park Area Arts Council ought to issue “Starving Artist” cards to all its members so they can get into each other’s shows for half price.
By my count, this is the fourth major recession Stephanie Clemens has gone through since she started her career in Oak Park in 1971. There was the oil crisis of ’73-’74, the Reagan Recession of the early 1980s, the Bush I Recession of the early ’90s and the current collapse. If arts groups are looking for tips on how to survive tough times, they should ask her.
On March 9, I wrangled a front-row seat to Festival Theatre’s Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw, performed in the Victorian splendor of Pleasant Home, a perfect venue for this late-19th century play. If you haven’t seen Shaw lately – or ever – this one is a real treat, and the performances are terrific. The play is Jeff recommended, but if Festival doesn’t win a Jeff citation, I, for one, will be incensed. This was one of the most enjoyable evenings of theater I’ve experienced in a long, long time – and I saw a lot of high-quality theater in the past year, including Steppenwolf, Goodman and Chicago Shakespeare.
Festival’s indoor season (it runs tonight through Sunday) is another well kept secret. Joyce Porter, Jack Hickey, Galen Gockel et al have turned this theater group around by changing with the times and expanding beyond Shakespeare. This summer, for instance, they’ll be doing Cyrano de Bergerac, which allows me, in some future edition to retell the strange but true story of how Edmund Rostand actually stole the idea for the balcony scene from the guy who founded what eventually became our suburban neighbor, Brookfield. (No, I’m not making that up.)
March 13 I took in a preview performance of Circle Theatre’s A Perfect Wedding, by Charles Mee, its Midwest premiere. Circle has built a reputation for taking risks with cutting-edge productions, and this one is definitely out there, but thank God we have a theater company that doesn’t play it safe, led by the remarkable Kevin Bellie, the master of cramped choreography. It would be fun to see what he’s capable of orchestrating on a normal size stage. Maybe he’ll get the chance if we can get Circle to move to Oak Park.
But they aren’t the only local thespians taking chances. Village Players used to be the “mainstream” theater, but ever since Carl Occhipinti, Jack Crowe and many others performed a near-miraculous act of CPR (Cultural Pulmonary Resuscitation) a few years back, Village Players has been offering an remarkable range of innovative programming.
On March 15, I headed to Lund Auditorium at Dominican University where jazz chanteuse Dianne Reeves entertained. It was a great concert if you like jazz. It was a great concert if you don’t like jazz. Dominican just puts on great concerts. Along with Concordia, River Forest boasts two culture-conscious universities (not to mention Triton College in nearby River Grove). Talk about a bonanza.
We have a wealth of well-kept secrets in these villages. The Oak Park Art League, by all rights, should have been a musty, stodgy, outdated institution by now, but Keith Taylor, Bobbie Raymond, Faith Humphrey-Hill and so many others have breathed new life into it. On March 20, they held an opening reception for their latest exhibition – self-portraits by member artists. It was a hoot. You should go.
The art league has become a very welcoming place. Tucked between Oak Park Avenue and Euclid, and set back on the north side of Chicago Avenue, this E.E. Roberts building is literally a hidden treasure. Browsing the ground-floor gallery with wine and cheese is a wonderful way to spend a Friday evening.
Communication and community
What unites our local arts groups, which include the Symphony of OP-RF, the BRAVO and CAST programs at the middle schools, the theater program at OPRF High School, Heritage Chorale, Handel Week, the Unity Temple Concert Series, Open Door, and a host of others too numerous to mention, is that they’re all well-kept secrets aspiring to be poorly kept secrets.
At Wednesday Journal, we understand that because each week, we don’t want to be just a newspaper. We want to be a living chronicle of these remarkable communities. We even aspire occasionally to reach the level of art ourselves.
We always come up short, which makes us cranky and surly and drives us on to the next attempt. Maybe all the perfectionists out there can relate. Like you, we feel a fundamental, urgent need to communicate – and a sense of mission about building community.
Each week we wonder how it’s all going to come together, sort itself out and turn into something worthwhile – or at least coherent. How does it happen? As Geoffrey Rush keeps saying in the film Shakespeare in Love, “I have no idea. It’s a mystery.”
How do the arts stay alive in Oak Park and River Forest? It’s a mystery. But maybe not such a mystery to all the hard-working, pragmatic idealists who find a way, week after week, year after year. When times are tough, they’re even tougher on the arts – except it probably feels normal because the arts always live on the edge.
That’s one of the reasons we highlight your efforts. Our goal is to help make you a poorly kept secret.
We’re not here to promote you. The nature of what we do requires that we remain one step removed from friendship. We’ve even been known to criticize. But we can celebrate you when you’re worth celebrating, which, happily, most of the time you are.
Inspiration
Covering the arts – a tough job, but someone’s got to do it. I take my inspiration from the late John Lukehart, passionate celebrator of the local art scene. Maybe someday a John Lukehart Center for the Performing Arts somewhere here in Oak Park will fulfill his dream.
But we couldn’t celebrate the arts without some help.
Dan Haley launched Wednesday Journal directly into the teeth of a severe recession in the early ’80s, so he knows a thing or two about surviving tough times, and one of the first things he did was make a commitment to covering local theater. He’s also responsible for the cheap ad rates.
Doug Deuchler, amazingly, has been reviewing theater for us now for almost 30 years.
Cathryn Wilkinson brings her extensive knowledge of music to her reviews.
Kristin Gehring applies her sharp eye, and sharp tongue, to the cultural scene in general.
John Hubbuch files regular reports from the inner sanctum of the Lake Theatre.
Our managing editor, Helen Karakoudas, has boosted our coverage with the Actual Fun page in the News section (page 4).
And our Calendar is assembled each week by Kaylie Muriello – a tough and often thankless job.
I’ve always said there are two reliable indicators of a happy, healthy community:
1) Do residents actually use their front porches? and
2) Do the arts thrive here?
The arts wouldn’t thrive here if arts groups weren’t working their minor miracles. They couldn’t work their miracles if the community didn’t continue to support them. The community needs to know you exist or they can’t support you. And Wednesday Journal benefits because your miracles make good reading.
We’re all part of the fabric, interwoven.
The arts have deep roots here, and during tough times, we need you more than ever. Please keep working your miracles. Your efforts enrich and nourish our lives.
I know for a fact you have enriched and nourished mine.
Somehow we’ll all get through this downturn.
How? Beats me. It’s a mystery.