Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Struggling troupes sometimes perform at Steppenwolf 's smaller
studio theater, which stages more experimental fare. Tickets $20 to
$65. Tickets ($20) go on sale at Audience Services at 11am the day
of a performance; rush tickets (subject to availability; main stage
half-price, studio $10) go on sale 1 hr. before performance. 1650 N.
Halsted St. (at North Ave.). & 312/335 - 1650. www.steppenwolf.org. Subway/El:
Red Line to North/Clybourn.
Victory Gardens Theater Victory Gardens is one of the
few pioneers of off-Loop theater that has survived from the 1970s.
The five or six productions presented each season are new works,
many developed through a series of workshops. The plays tend to be
accessible stories about real people and real situations—nothing too
experimental. Even though most shows don't feature nationally
known actors, the casts are always first-rate, and the plays usually
leave you with something to think about (or passionately discuss) on
the way home.
Victory Gardens stages shows at its main stage inside the former
Biograph movie theater (known in Chicago lore as the place where
the FBI gunned down bank robber John Dillinger in 1934). 2433 N.
Lincoln Ave. (1 block north of Fullerton Ave.). & 773/871 - 3000. www.victory
gardens.org. Tickets $30-$45. Subway/El: Red or Brown line to Fullerton.
Finds
2 Comedy & Improv
In the mid-1970s, the nation was introduced to Chicago's brand of
comedy through the skit-comedy show Saturday Night Live. Chicago
continues to nurture young comics, affording them the chance to
learn the tricks of improvisational comedy at Second City, iO, and
numerous other comedy and improv outlets.
iO The iO improv troupe was founded in 1981 by the late,
great, and inexplicably unsung Del Close, an improv pioneer who
branched off from his more mainstream counterparts at Second City
to pursue an unorthodox methodology (the letters “iO” stand for
“ImprovOlympic,” the group's original name).
iO offers a nightclub setting for a variety of unscripted nightly
performances, from free-form pieces to shows loosely based on con-
cepts such as Star Trek or dating. Like all improv, it's a gamble: It
could be a big laugh, or the amateur performers could go down in
flames. Monday is an off night for most other clubs in town, and iO
takes advantage with a show called the Armando Diaz Experience, an
all-star improv night that teams up some of the best improvisers in
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