Events on Friday, October 23

Sh*t Robot w/ Tigersapien and Jordan Z

Music: DJ

Sh*t Robot

Friday 10/23 @ Sonotheque

With only three singles to his name, DJ/producer Sh*t Robot (née Marcus Lambkin) is one of the lesser-known beatmeisters in the... 

Imitations of Life

Film

Imitations of Life

Friday 10/23 @ Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art and Block Cinema

“Mike Hoolboom's latest work is an... 

Ongoing Events

<em>Yeast Nation (the triumph of life)</em>

Theatre

Yeast Nation (the triumph of life)

Friday 10/23 @ American Theater Company

An unsurprisingly brainy and gratifying bio-historical musical from the writers of Urinetown, Yeast Nation re-imagines prehistoric Earth's primordial soup as an... 

<em>Heartland</em>

Art

Heartland

Friday 10/23 @ Smart Museum of Art

In hopes of tapping the under-applauded artistic pulse of America's sizable center, Heartland's three curators — hailing from Chicago and the... 

Daria Martin: <em>Minotaur</em>

Art

Daria Martin: Minotaur

Friday 10/23 @ Museum of Contemporary Art

This show's titular maze-dwelling man-bull of Greek myth inspired Rodin in 1886, who inspired choreographer Anna Halprin for a duet filmed... 

<em>Mistakes Were Made</em>

Theatre

Mistakes Were Made

Friday 10/23 @ A Red Orchid Theatre

Aglow with an Oscar nomination for his supporting role in Revolutionary Road, Michael Shannon reunites with A Red Orchid Theatre, the... 

John Stezaker

Art

John Stezaker

Friday 10/23 @ Richard Gray Gallery

It seems so simple at first: cut or combine salvaged old photographs. John Stezaker has used variants of this method since... 

<em>The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity</em>

Theatre

The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity

Friday 10/23 @ Victory Gardens Theater

Of the two shows by young playwrights at Victory Gardens right now, one stumbles a bit over stereotypes and delivers cultural... 

<em>Actions: What You Can Do With the City</em>

Special Event

Actions: What You Can Do With the City

Friday 10/23 @ Graham Foundation

We all know city life doesn't have to mean swimming a sea of concrete, braving traffic, and fighting off urban alienation,... 

David Corbett: <em>Change Makes It New</em>

Art

David Corbett: Change Makes It New

Friday 10/23 @ 65GRAND

David Corbett has shown his paintings at 65GRAND before, but the enamel-dipped sculptures in his latest outing are a new addition.... 

<em>Fake</em>

Theatre

Fake

Friday 10/23 @ Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Steppenwolf Theatre Company kicks off its new season on the theme of belief with a world premiere written and directed by... 

<em>Iran Inside Out: Homeland and Diaspora in Contemporary Iranian Art</em>

Art

Iran Inside Out

Friday 10/23 @ DePaul Art Museum

For all the attention showered on Iran for the government's nuclear posturing, political crackdowns, and other media-magnetic topics, not much trickles... 

<em>Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead</em>

Theatre

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Friday 10/23 @ Writers' Theatre

Tom Stoppard's inventive, razor-sharp absurdist play imagines Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as offstage existential anti-heroes with no understanding of what play they're... 

Hedwig Dances

Dance

Hedwig Dances

Friday 10/23 @ Links Hall

The Chicago Cultural Center's resident dance company, named for its founder's grandmother, is a tireless purveyor of contemporary dance theatre created... 

Theater Oobleck: <em>An Apology For the Course and Outcome of Certain Events Delivered by Doctor John Faustus on This His Final Evening</em>

Theatre

Theater Oobleck: Faustus

Friday 10/23 @ Chopin Theatre

Oobleck remounts Mickle Maher's dazzlingly inventive play ten years after Maher himself took on the role of Faustus in the character's... 

Hiroshi Watanabe

Art: Photography

Hiroshi Watanabe

Friday 10/23 @ Catherine Edelman Gallery

In Hiroshi Watanabe's best-known photograph, a small figure scales a dramatic web of arcing poles beneath a gray sky. At the... 

<em>Nosferatu the Vampyre</em> (1979)

Film

Nosferatu the Vampyre

Friday 10/23 @ Gene Siskel Film Center

Brilliant but ripe for parody, Werner Herzog tends to get pegged as the fanatical maverick of the German New Wave —... 

<em>Freaks & Flash</em>

Art

Freaks & Flash

Friday 10/23 @ Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art

Mainstream culture has absorbed tattoos to the point where your buttoned-up boss probably has an arm ringed in barbed wire by... 

<em>Jersey Boys</em>

Theatre

Jersey Boys

Friday 10/23 @ Bank of America Theatre

The Chicago theater scene has been blessed of late with a raft of high-quality jukebox musicals: the Black Ensemble Theater showcased... 

Baby Wants Candy

Comedy

Baby Wants Candy

Friday 10/23 @ Apollo Theater

Whether you love or fear musicals, you can delight in Baby Wants Candy, a fully improvised comedy show with song, dance,... 

<em>On the Scene</em>: Jason Lazarus, Wolfgang Pl&ouml;ger, and Zoe Strauss

Art: Photography

Jason Lazarus, Wolfgang Plöger, and Zoe Strauss

Friday 10/23 @ The Art Institute of Chicago

In the third installment of the AIC's On The Scene series, the divergent work of three artists is displayed in a... 

<em>We Live in Public</em>

Film: Documentary

We Live in Public

Friday 10/23 @ Music Box Theatre

Over ten years in the making, We Live in Public documents the life of Internet visionary and "Warhol of the Web"... 

<em>Studs Terkel's Not Working</em>

Comedy

Studs Terkel's Not Working

Friday 10/23 @ The Second City e.t.c.

After taking aim at Obama, Hillary and McCain in its recent shows, the Second City looks homeward with a heaping helping... 

Allan Sekula: <em>Polonia and Other Fables</em>

Art: Photography

Allan Sekula: Polonia and Other Fables

Friday 10/23 @ The Renaissance Society

Among the many artists to reflect on globalization and its discontents, few do so with the critical sophistication and sustained focus... 

Lucky Plush Productions: <em>Punk Yankees</em>

Dance

Lucky Plush Productions: Punk Yankees

Friday 10/23 @ Dance Center of Columbia College

Encyclopedic knowledge of any subject being just a click away shows up in almost all art these days, whether implicitly or... 

Jan Tichy: Installations

Art

Jan Tichy

Friday 10/23 @ Richard Gray Gallery

Call it populist schadenfreude, but there's something spectacular about an artist taking over a floor of the John Hancock building where... 

Prairie Avenue House Museums

Get Social

Prairie Avenue House Museums

Friday 10/23 @ Glessner House Museum

Chicago's historic Prairie Avenue district — the site of the 1812 Fort Dearborn Massacre — became known after the Great Chicago... 

<em>Chicago Model City</em>

Art

Chicago Model City

Friday 10/23 @ Chicago Architecture Foundation

As the city celebrates the centennial of Daniel Burnham's Plan of Chicago (if you don't think it's brilliant, try navigating a... 

CJ Pyle: <em>Kilroy's Delight</em>

Art

CJ Pyle: Kilroy's Delight

Friday 10/23 @ Carl Hammer Gallery

CJ Pyle's portraits, drawn in ballpoint pen and colored pencil on the inside of old LP sleeves, gather up the most... 

James Castle: A Retrospective

Art

James Castle

Friday 10/23 @ The Art Institute of Chicago

Self-taught, working-outside-the-mainstream artists are an often-misunderstood phenomenon, if one considers the myriad terms that emphasize their otherness: "outsider," "visionary," "naïve," "folk,"... 

Hedwig Dances 25th Anniversary Season

Dance

Hedwig Dances 25th Anniversary Season

Friday 10/23 @ Links Hall

The Chicago Cultural Center's resident dance company, named for its founder's grandmother, is a tireless purveyor of contemporary dance theater created... 

Barbara Crane: <em>Challenging Vision</em>

Art: Photography

Barbara Crane: Challenging Vision

Friday 10/23 @ Chicago Cultural Center

When walking through Barbara Crane's six-decade retrospective at the Cultural Center, it can be hard to imagine that a single career... 

Jeremy Deller: <em>It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq</em>

Art

Jeremy Deller: It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq

Friday 10/23 @ Museum of Contemporary Art

Artist Jeremy Deller orchestrates public events and collaborative undertakings that bring different social issues into relief. His Battle of Orgreave, for... 

Fashion Focus Chicago 2009

Fashion/Style

Fashion Focus Chicago 2009

Friday 10/23 @ Millennium Park

Perhaps a sign of these recessionary times, Chicago's version of Fashion Week has been chopped in half for its fifth year... 

Zarina Bhimji: <em>Out of Blue</em>

Art

Zarina Bhimji: Out of Blue

Friday 10/23 @ The Art Institute of Chicago

Turner Prize nominee Zarina Bhimji returned to Uganda, her childhood home, to shoot this gorgeous, mournful short film. As Out of... 

<em>Animal Crackers</em>

Theatre

Animal Crackers

Friday 10/23 @ The Goodman Theatre

Though best remembered as a Marx Brothers movie romp, Animal Crackers first appeared as the outrageous comedy team's 1928 Broadway smash.... 

<em>America: All Better!</em>

Comedy

America: All Better!

Friday 10/23 @ The Second City

The 2008 election may have delivered a ray of hope, but storm clouds still hang above us. That's the uneasy premise... 

Liam Gillick: <em>Three perspectives and a short scenario</em>

Art

Liam Gillick: Three perspectives and a short scenario

Friday 10/23 @ MCA Chicago

It's a disservice to label Liam Gillick guilty by YBA association. Smartypants like Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin may have made... 

<em>Carpenters Halloween</em>

Party: Halloween

Carpenters Halloween

Friday 10/23 @ Mary's Attic

What do you get when you mix a schlock-horror cinema classic with a couple of cheesy, soft-rock icons? You get Carpenters... 

<em>Reversed Images: Representations of Shanghai and Its Contemporary Material Culture</em>

Art: Photography

Reversed Images

Friday 10/23 @ Museum of Contemporary Photography

In Hu Yang's photograph Shanghai Living, a young Chinese man rests in his room, his surroundings hinting at concepts of individualism,... 

Elizabeth Murray

Art

Elizabeth Murray

Friday 10/23 @ The Arts Club of Chicago

In the early '80s, Elizabeth Murray started "making paintings that would blow up into the space," a breakthrough she later recalled... 

<em>Rashomon</em> (1950)

Film

Rashomon

Friday 10/23 @ Music Box Theatre

Rashomon (1950) left a seismic mark on cinema's landscape and language — not to forget lie-test graphs. Presented tonight in a... 

Allan Sekula: "Polonia and Other Fables"

Art

Allan Sekula: "Polonia and Other Fables"

Friday 10/23 @ Renaissance Society

The Renaissance Society will present an exhibition of new work by photographer Allan Sekula. This new series, titled Polonia and Other... 

Benito Juárez  and the Making of Modern Mexico

Special Event

Benito Juárez and the Making of Modern Mexico

Friday 10/23 @ Chicago History Museum

As America faced its darkest days during the Civil War, Mexico, too, waged war that led to the creation of its... 

Art

Joseph Yoakum: Line and Landscape

Friday 10/23 @ Smart Museum of Art

During the last decade of his life, self-taught artist and South Side resident Joseph Yoakum (1890–1972) began drawing almost full time.... 

The Joffrey Ballet - Othello

Dance

The Joffrey Ballet - Othello

Friday 10/23 @ Auditorium Theatre

Choreography by Lar Lubovitch
Music by Elliot Goldenthal   The Joffrey premiere of Lar Lubovitch’s full-length, three-act ballet!   Chicago-born... 

Abraham Lincoln Transformed

Special Event

Abraham Lincoln Transformed

Friday 10/23 @ Chicago History Museum

He is often revered as the president who freed the slaves, but how did Abraham Lincoln arrive at his highly controversial... 

The Picture Tells the Story: The Drawings of Joseph E. Yoakum

Art

The Picture Tells the Story: The Drawings of Joseph E. Yoakum

Friday 10/23 @ Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art

An exhibition of Joseph Yoakum’s visionary landscapes, curated by Mark Pascale, caretaker of Whitney Halstead’s collection bequeathed to the Art Institute... 

Fake It 'til You Make It & The Devourer of Men

Art

Fake It 'til You Make It & The Devourer of Men

Friday 10/23 @ Rotofugi

Two new exhibits in our gallery will be opening Friday, October 16, 7pm-10pm. We've got new works by both Martin Ontiveros... 

Bertha Honoré Palmer

Special Event

Bertha Honoré Palmer

Friday 10/23 @ Chicago History Museum

Bertha Palmer reigned as the queen of Chicago society, but her influence was known around the world.  She was a champion...