A roundup of theater news from Chicago and the suburbs.
Chicago playwright Lonnie Carter has won The Playwrights’ Center /Guthrie Theater 2nd Annual Two-Headed Challenge. Carter’s winning proposal was for “Organizing Abraham Lincoln,” a play about a university campaign to unionize graduate teaching assistants at the fictional Abraham Lincoln University. It’s to be written in collaboration with American Federation of Teachers union organizer Rich Klimmer. Carter wins $6,000 and a slot in The Playwrights’ Center’s 23rd annual PlayLabs Festival, July 11-24, 2005, in Minneapolis.
Tourist alert: The Blue Man Group now is offering a free shuttle service from downtown Chicago hotels to the Briar Street Theatre. Call 773-348-4000. … The new Hot Tix location at the Chicago Tourism Center, 72 E. Randolph St., now is up and running. … Next year’s typically diverse and wildly ambitious season at the Hypocrites includes Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” Sarah Kane’s “4:48 Psychosis” and Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America.” … For the first time since its pre-Broadway tryout, the musical “The Sweet Smell of Success” is returning to Chicago. Along with “Tales of the Lost Formicans,” “The House of Bernard Alba,” “Dear World” and “Design for Living,” it’s part of the upcoming season at the Circle Theatre of Forest Park. … Chicago is on the slate for the newly announced touring version of the Broadway revival of “On Golden Pond,” but no casting has been announced. . . . “Defending the Caveman,” written by Rob Becker but now performed by Chris Sullivan, is doing well at the Lakeshore Theatre, 3175 N. Broadway Ave., where it’s moved into an open run. … “Jewtopia,” which got terrible reviews at the Mercury Theatre, is decamping for Florida. The final Chicago performance is on June 26. … Ashley Judd and Chicago actor Michael Shannon are slated to star in William Friedkin’s film version of Tracey Letts’s “Bug.” Filming begins this summer.
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Compiled by Chris Jones and Michael Phillips
