Writers’ Theatre of Glencoe has announced a whopping $500,000 grant from David and Mary Winton Green of Winnetka. Of this, $200,000 is a “challenge grant” designed to match all new and increased gifts given to the theater this year. The remaining $300,000–given over the course of three years–will support the creation of a Literary Development Initiative at Writers’. . . . Congo Square Theatre has announced that playwright Chadwick Boseman has been named an artistic associate. Boseman wrote the widely acclaimed “Deep Azure.” Also at Congo Square: actress Bakesta King has become the newest member of the company’s ensemble. . . . Extensions galore! Porchlight Music Theatre’s production of “Gypsy” at Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont Ave., now runs through Nov. 6. . . . Also at the Theatre Building, Vitalist Theatre’s production of “Anna Karenina” now plays through Nov. 13. . . . American Theater Company’s production of “Orpheus Descending” now plays through Nov. 13 at 1909 W. Byron St. . . . And down at the Court Theatre in Hyde Park, “Man of La Mancha” now is playing through Nov. 13. . . . On Nov. 3, Jim Post will make his first-ever appearance at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights. He’s performing both “Mark Twain and the Laughing River” and the children’s show “Frog in the Kitchen Sink.” . . . Second City plans two new revues on both the mainstage and in the ETC between now and the end of the year. . . . Gary Griffin, currently working on the Broadway production of “The Color Purple” will direct “The Boys Are Coming Home,” the second production in Northwestern University’s American Music Theatre Project. Slated for full production next summer, it’s a new musical based on Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.”
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Compiled by Chris Jones
