18 APR 2019: Chicago’s attributes are considerable, starting with over 41 km of lakefront park space protected from industry. It is the birthplace of deep-dish pizza pie, gospel and house music, improv and storefront comedy. It is the home to the world’s first skyscraper and sells more architectural tours than any other city. Chicago has a lot to be proud of and the Choose Chicago team was in Toronto recently to say that whatever we knew about the windy city, there is still more to ‘show.’ 2019 has been designated as The Year of Chicago Theatre.
The Choose Chicago event was held at Second City Toronto, 51 Mercer St.
Mark Kelly the Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events thanked Canadians for choosing Chicago and putting it on the map, for Toronto, in particular. There are 46 flights daily between Canadian cities and O’Hare or Midway airports, with half of them to or from Toronto.
O’Hare recently became the busiest airport in the US, surpassing Atlanta with 105 million visitors in 2018, Kelly said, “We hope to continue that.”
Want to ‘play’ in Chicago?
Chicago has 250 production companies, producing a thousand shows a year, with 12 being long run productions. The city has five Tony award winning theatres.
“Chicago is equal in breadth to New York and London” with respect to theatre, said Kelly. “We are calling on the complete city to honour Chicago theatre, and we do not take anything for granted. Every neighbourhood will have free theatre.” The Chicago Park District’s ‘Night out in the Parks’ series will incorporate all of the city’s 77 neighbourhoods.
Lisa Rodriguez is the Director of Media Relations, Americas for Choose Chicago. She provided a glimpse into what people can expect this year, qualifying that “it is all art-based theatre, there is no branding. It’s keeping the focus on artists from Chicago.”
Millennium Park: Local theater companies will take over the stage at Pritzker Pavilion throughout the summer with performances of dramas, comedies and more from July though October.
Art on theMart: The world’s largest and longest running installation uses 34 projectors to illuminate the 2.5-acre river-facing facade of theMART building (equivalent to two football fields). Projections are displayed for around two hours a night Wednesday to Sunday, from March to December.
Comedy and Improv: Second City, Chicago
The original Second City was established in Chicago in 1959. To use their phrase, they have been offering ‘50 years of funny.’ Second City’s touring and theatrical companies entertain a million theatregoers a year around the globe.
Kelly said when the Chicago team was originally looking for a new location for Second City the conditions were that the city; had to be in the Mideast, had to face a great lake, had to have one of the first NHL teams and be a city of diversity. He added that it “had to have the same miserable weather, like Chicago” and pointed out that we both had snow (that day) in April.
The Chicago troupe did some creative improv and performed a clever sketch using a cooperative and good-humoured member of the audience, who helped the troupe solve the mystery of a missing ‘a pajama.’
Magic: Dennis Watkins
If the thought of a magic show makes you think of a rabbit being pulled out of a hat, then you are thinking of your grandfather’s magic. You want to be thinking of Dennis Watkin’s grandfather’s magic. It is he who taught a young Watkins that the art of a magician is to create miracles, and shared his knowledge with him.
The award winning Watkins performed three acts. One was a mentalist performance, one was an act of magic involving razors and the final one involved Watkins blowing up a large red balloon with a motorized device and finally ending up in the balloon himself.
Watkins performs five shows weekly (on weekends) at The Magic Parlor at The Palmer House Hotel in Chicago.
http://www.themagicparlourchicago.com