Roundup: Tony noms, promoters ordinance, Gift

Congrats to Steppenwolf and Chicago Shakespeare on today's Tony news—two Steppenwolf castmates competing against one another in the Best Actress–Play category, three ensemble members up against each other for Featured Actress. As dilemmas go, that's a good one to have. And Chicago Shakes's regional Tony marks Chicago's fourth. Not bad. Christopher had our reaction on the TOC blog this morning.

The big news—and bad news—closer to home is the proposed Chicago promoters' ordinance. We've been covering the hell out of it on the TOC blog (props to Scott Smith and John Dugan for their tenacious work). Yesterday I spoke to Ben Thiem at the League of Chicago Theatres about whether theater could be affected by this moronically vague ordinance if passed, and he told me that Julie Burros at the city's Department of Cultural Affairs, who is also a League board member, had assured them that it wouldn't, as non-profits are exempt. But Don says he was told by someone at Alderman Schulter's office (Schulter is chair of the licensing committee) that storefront theater would fall under the ordinance. This just further proves that no one understands what this ordinance will really do, nor why the mayor's office is attempting to push it through without enough examination.

We've just heard (at 1pm) that the ordinance has been tabled for now, thanks to response from the community. Good job. We need to keep a watchful eye on this going forward.

Finally, the Gift and Victory Gardens are teaming up to transfer the Gift's production of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot to the Greenhouse. I have more on that at TOC.

Comments

[Bilal]

We've just heard (at 1pm) that the ordinance has been tabled for now, thanks to response from the community. Good job. We need to keep a watchful eye on this going forward.

My cynic's heart has just skipped a beat. Thank God for a political machine that still has reason to fear its constituency.