All the surfaces in the lobby of Pilsen’s EP Theater are covered in vinyl, chipped polish, and at least seven layers of irony. The decorators of this room seem to have taken their cues from effete Victorian imagery and coupled it with the limp-wristed flamboyance of ’70s chic. So it came as no surprise that, before the Lights Out Theatre Company’s performance last Friday of Justin Tracz’s “Song For A Future Generation,” a woman emerged from behind the cardboard backdrop and welcomed the twenty or so audience members with the introduction: “This play is about a dance party in space, so let’s make some noise, alright?” Read the rest of this entry »

The eponymous main character in Bertolt Brecht’s play “Baal” shares his name with an ancient Phoenician deity and a Christian demon—fitting, as his personality is both radiantly charming and deeply perverse. Baal is a talented young poet, an unabashed hedonist, and a certifiable sociopath, traits which in the course of the play come to seem increasingly inseparable. His wild-child persona and oft-lurid verse win him many admirers, among them the men he drinks with and the women who share his bed. Of those who are drawn into Baal’s orbit, however, few escape unscathed, and at least two die at his hands. Read the rest of this entry »

A man squeezes into EP Theater’s top row, with slicked back hair, a swallow-tailed coat and waistcoat. It is “Edmund Malone,” a.k.a. actor Kevin Gladish, waiting for his cue. Moments into the play, Edmund Malone interjects, bounds to his feet and rushes down to the stage. “William-Henry Ireland,” played by actor Nick Vidal, is the unfortunate object of Malone’s impassioned reprimands. The heated debate between Malone and Ireland fuels the ninety-minute show. Read the rest of this entry »

In the late 1800s, a restaurant opened up in this formerly German and Irish neighborhood called “At the City of Plzen,” in honor of the second largest city in West Bohemia (the modern-day Czech Republic). But with World War I came vast labor shortages, which attracted a variety of immigrant groups, most notably the Mexican population that so dominates and defines the neighborhood today. But while it may be known primarily as Chicago’s Mexican neighborhood, Pilsen has also recently built up a reputation as a veritable hotspot of up-and-coming artists who have only added to the area’s prosperity and points of interest. The second Friday of each month (appropriately titled Second Fridays) boasts new offerings from many of the galleries that dot Halsted around 18th Street, which are worth checking out for much more than just the free wine. Add in exciting contemporary artwork and cheap, authentic Mexican eats, and you’ll understand why Pilsen is perennially pegged as “up and coming.” Read the rest of this entry »

It seems that the Iraq War is all too easily contained within the glaring screens and inked pages of news media today. It has become easy to observe as an audience member, to appreciate from a distance, and to argue about over coffee. We can stick a yellow ribbon magnet to the SUV and leave the war to tomorrow’s newspaper. Of course, many don’t share this perspective, but it is prevalent enough that, thus far, few efforts to humanize the war through art successfully engage a wide audience. EP Theater’s production of “By Obit,” however, largely surmounts this obstacle with a surprisingly fresh and dirty take on a media-saturated topic. Director Michael Pieper writes, “War has been part of this world since the beginning of time.” Well, the time is ripe for a show that enraptures an audience alienated by an age of apathy in a nation divided along red and blue lines; “By Obit” invites us into the barracks and lives of ‘our troops.’ Read the rest of this entry »

Amid a row of unlit houses standing on an alley sandwiched between 18th and 19th Streets on South Halsted Street, one house with bright, shining Christmas lights adorning the back gate stood out, begging passersby to take a look inside. Up the back porch and through a red door is EP Theater, an independently run theater company founded by Jason Ewers and Garrett Prejean. Twenty minutes before the show was slated to begin, Ewers mixed cocktail drinks for the older audience members and happily chatted with some of them. Ewers handed out “anti-program” programs and told everyone to “feel at home.” Imagine yourself at a holiday party with a handful of your closest friends, socializing—this is exactly the atmosphere that the EP Theater radiates. Read the rest of this entry »

Empanadas. Theater. Futbol. Experimental art. Once a Czech enclave and now the largest barrio in a state not named “California,” Pilsen is also one of the perennially up-and-coming neighborhoods in Chicago. The mix of Latino culture of West Pilsen and high-end culture in East Pilsen make for a charming neighborhood, though the divide between east and west may better be described as a battle line. As the forces dedicated to preserving the neighborhood’s ethnic and working-class character stave off gentrification by Halsted Street’s league of artists and real estate companies, there remains the still, quiet space in the eye of the storm where the coolest offerings in the city can still be found. Read the rest of this entry »