Spotlight: Hell in a Handbag streams 'Golden Girls' parody online
Watch 'Golden Girls: Lost Episodes' parody online
Hell in a Handbag Productions streams the latest version of its ongoing sitcom parody "The Golden Girls: The Lost Episodes" by artistic director David Cerda. Titled "Lockdown," it examines what happens when Dorothy, Blanche, Rose and Sophia are forced to quarantine after Blanche is exposed to Legionnaires' disease. Cerda, Grant Drager, Ed Jones and Ryan Oates star in director Spenser Davis' production.
It begins streaming Thursday, June 25, at stage773.com. Tickets are $20. See handbagproductions.org.
Modern myth
Cock and Bull's podcast "The Children of Nyx," a play by Noah Lepawsky inspired by the mythological Furies, continues online at cockandbulltheatre.org. Set during the 1970s, the play is about a singing group called The Destinies traveling through rural Pennsylvania. Also continuing online is Isolation Artists Gallery, showcasing artists' response to self-isolation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Drive-in cabaret
Citadel Theatre hosts a drive-in cabaret featuring theater artists performing musical favorites at 1 and 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, June 13-14 and 20-21, in the parking lot of the Gorton Community Center, 400 E. Illinois Road, Lake Forest. Audio will be transmitted through car radios. Tickets range from $40 to $100. One ticket per car. See citadeltheatre.org.
Changes at Victory Gardens
A little more than a month after she was appointed Victory Gardens Theater's executive artistic director, Erica Daniels resigned along with board chairman Steve Miller. The resignations follow several stormy weeks during which the Tony Award-winning theater came under fire from resident playwrights and others for the restructuring of its leadership team and the lack of transparency, which the playwrights say characterized restructuring efforts.
Resident playwrights Luis Alfaro, Marcus Gardley, Ike Holter, Samuel D. Hunter, Naomi Iizuka, Tanya Saracho and Laura Schellhardt resigned from the ensemble last month in a letter published on the internet site medium.com.
"As we step down, all of us are proud of being part of this theater's rich history and we demand that a search for new leadership be made public so that all qualified leadership is encouraged and invited to apply," read the letter published May 22.
Daniels, formerly Steppenwolf Theatre associate artistic director and Second City Theatricals president, had served as VGT executive director since 2017. In a prepared statement, Daniels referenced escalating vitriol including "hurtful and personal accusations and misstatements."
"I care too much about Victory Gardens and its mission to let this continue, and therefore I have decided to leave the Theater," she wrote, adding "I have always been committed to the mission and values of Victory Gardens and leave here very proud of the outstanding work that Chay (Yew, VGT's departing artistic director) and I did together."
Miller in his prepared statement expressed regret "that a more transparent process did not occur" in the search for new leadership.
"I should have listened more to members of the community, as well as to board members who attempted to guide a more equitable and inclusive process," he said, adding he believed the accusations against Daniels were undeserved. "It saddens me that Victory Gardens is losing a person who has done so much for the theater and our entire community."