CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Cynthia Erivo, who is starring in the hit musical “Wicked,” was named Tuesday as the 2025 Woman of the Year by Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals.
The theater group, which dates to 1844 and claims to be the world’s third-oldest still operating, said Erivo will receive her Pudding Pot award at a celebratory roast Feb. 5. Afterward, she will attend a performance of Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ 176th production, “101 Damnations.” Actor Jon Hamm, who came to fame starring as ad executive Don Draper on the AMC series “Mad Men,” is the 2025 Man of the Year. He will receive his Pudding Pot Jan. 31.
“We are holding space for Cynthia Erivo’s arrival,” Man and Woman of the Year Events Coordinator Hannah Frazer said in a statement. “We’re sweeping out our broomstick closets and prepping some wicked smart humor as we eagerly await her in February. Before she flies off with her Pudding Pot, she’ll have to work a little magic to earn it.”
Along with starirng in the smash hit musical, the British entertainer is a two-time Oscar nominee and an Emmy Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award winner.
Erivo burst onto the scene with her brilliant performance in the Broadway revival of “The Color Purple.” winning her the 2016 Tony for best actress in a musical. She performed songs from the play on the “Today” show, earning the Daytime Emmy for outstanding music performance in a daytime program. And the show’s soundtrack won best musical theater album at the 2017 Grammys.
Last year, Erivo starred in and produced “Drift,” which follows a young Liberian refugee who has escaped her war-torn country to a Greek island. In 2021, Erivo was nominated for an Emmy for her portrayal of Aretha Franklin in the National Geographic series “Genius: Aretha.”
Every year since 1951, the Pudding has bestowed its Woman of the Year award on actors including Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Scarlett Johansson and Annette Bening.
President Donald Trump has directed his Justice Department to pause enforcement of the TikTok ban until early April, but a host of questions remain – including whether Trump has the authority to issue such an order
and if TikTok’s China-based parent would be amenable to selling the popular social media platform.
In an executive order signed on Monday, Trump instructed the U.S. attorney general to not enforce the ban for 75 days while his administration determines “the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown” of TikTok.
Under a federal law that was upheld by the Supreme Court last week, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance was required to sell the platform to an approved buyer by Sunday or face a nationwide ban. On Saturday evening, a few hours before the ban took effect, TikTok became unusable for U.S. users. But it came back online on Sunday, with TikTok crediting Trump for helping the platform after he vowed on social media to stall the ban.
The federal law, passed with bipartisan support in Congress last year, provides a 90-day extension if progress has been made toward a sale. But Trump’s executive order now complicates matters for companies who could be liable for delivering TikTok’s service to U.S. users.
Some — at least as of now — appear to be taking a cautious approach. On Tuesday, both Apple and Google, which operate the two most prominent app stores, did not offer TikTok or any other ByteDance-affiliated apps, such as Lemon8 or the video editing app CapCut, on their digital marketplaces.
The Justice Department is generally tasked with enforcing the laws of the federal government. But Trump does not have the power to overturn a law that Congress passed and subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court.
The law does give the sitting president latitude on certain details, such as what would count as a “qualified divesture” of TikTok. But since an extension on a ban can only occur if “significant progress” has been made towards a sale of TikTok’s U.S. platform, it’s possible that Trump’s order could face legal challenges.
On Tuesday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights organization that filed amicus briefs in support of TikTok’s legal challenge against the statute, said it believed it would be “unconstitutional” to ignore the law.
“There are no winners here, unless Congress repeals this law,” David Greene, the organization’s Civil Liberties Director, said in a statement.
On Sunday, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas posted a message on X listing a number of state and federal agencies, and private entities, that might be willing to go to court to get the ban enforced. However, it’s unclear if anyone is planning to challenge Trump’s order.
And Trump’s order also warns possible challengers that because of “the national security interests at stake,” attempts by parties to enforce the law “represents an encroachment on the powers” of the executive branch.
Is TikTok going to be sold?
Even if an extension faces and fails to withstand legal scrutiny, it will buy time for ByteDance and TikTok to figure out their next move.
Trump on Monday said he is looking to have the U.S. government broker a deal for 50% control of TikTok, adding that “every rich person” has called him about acquiring the social media platform.
A day prior, he proposed terms in which the U.S. would have a 50% stake “in a joint venture” that would be “set up between the U.S. and whichever purchase we so choose.” But the details remain murky, and it was unclear whether Trump was proposing control of the app by the government or another U.S. entity.
According to TikTok, roughly 60% of the privately-held ByteDance is owned by global investors, such as General Atlantic and Susquehanna International Group. ByteDance employees and the company’s founder, Zhang Yiming, also each have a 20% stake.
The technology company has not disclosed financial details for its subsidiaries, including TikTok’s global or U.S. operation.
Even if an American company can acquire a 50% stake in TikTok, it’s unclear how a Trump-orchestrated transaction would address some of the national security concerns that led lawmakers and the Biden administration to push for a divestment.
For example, Trump has not addressed whether he will allow ByteDance to keep controlling the TikTok algorithm that fuels what users see on the platform. The algorithm, which is updated and maintained by ByteDance engineers in China, has been one of the main concerns among supporters of the law.
Trump’s executive order notes the administration must have a review period to assess government intelligence and the steps TikTok has taken to address Washington’s concerns.
What happens next?
Most likely, lots of negotiations about the future of TikTok.
Last year, Beijing called the push in Washington to require a divestment of TikTok a “robbers” act. But on Monday, China signaled a possible softening of its stance.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said that business operations and acquisitions “should be independently decided by companies in accordance with market principles.”
“If it involves Chinese companies, China’s laws and regulations should be observed,” Mao said on Monday.
President Trump has threatened to slap tariffs as high as 100% on Chinese goods if Beijing refuses to allow a sale of TikTok. If China doesn’t approve the deal, Trump said on Monday he would consider it somewhat of a “hostile act.”
After the law was passed last year, ByteDance said it did not have any plans to sell TikTok and then fought a legal battle against the statute for months. Representatives for the company and TikTok did not immediately respond Tuesday on whether they are willing to cut ties with each other within the new 75-day extension period.
In a note, Gabriel Wildau, a managing director of the Teneo consultancy, wrote that if amicable negotiations happen, Beijing might ultimately approve the export of TikTok’s algorithm. However, a sale that excludes that technology might be more feasible legally and technically, Wildau wrote. Previously, Teneo had made a case that Beijing would not allow ByteDance to sell TikTok because of its concern for national dignity.
“This is all a game of high stakes poker,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. “TikTok is a chip on the table in broader U.S.-China negotiations.”
Associated Press writer Didi Tang contributed to this story.
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Amina Gilani quit her full-time insurance job in 2019 when the restaurant software company she co-founded in Canada, Sociavore, was accepted into a Chicago accelerator program for food industry startups.
At the time, Sociavore, which is based in Ontario, had a staff of two people. Today it has about a dozen employees, and Gilani doesn’t consider it a startup anymore.
“If I look at the timeline of the company and what’s happened since then, that opportunity was really important to us,” Gilani said about Food Foundry’s accelerator program, which connects its startups to investors and helps them get a foothold in the Chicago business community.
Sociavore, whose customers are about evenly split between Americans and Canadians, may soon undergo another transformation, but Gilani says this one won’t be positive. President Trump has proposed a 25% tariff on all Canadian and Mexican products entering the U.S.
In November, Trump posted on his Truth Social site that he would impose tariffs on Inauguration Day, and said they would remain until the nations stop illegal immigration and the movement of drugs, particularly fentanyl, through the U.S. northern and southern borders.
But on Monday, Trump did not impose the tariffs, instead signaling they will happen Feb. 1. The president called Canada “a very bad abuser.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded to the latest tariff tough talk by saying Tuesday that if Trump really wants a booming economy, he’s going to need Canadian natural resources such as oil, lumber, aluminum and steel, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
“Everything is on the table, and I support the principle of dollar-for-dollar matching tariffs,” Trudeau said.
Canada is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world, and 75% of Canada’s exports, which also include automobiles and parts, go to the U.S. Canadian officials have said that tariffs would increase the cost of living in the U.S. and hurt workers here.
“There’s so much exchange of goods and it’s kind of like free flowing right now, and so the tariffs, for both sides, it would be really, really difficult,” Gilani said.
Every day, about $3 billion worth of goods and services, as well as about 400,000 people, traverse the United States’ northern border, said Canadian American Business Council CEO Beth Burke. Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states, including Illinois.
The ties between Canada and Illinois are particularly strong.
Canada sells more to Illinois than it sells to China, its largest foreign export market after the U.S., according to a 2024 fact sheet by the Canadian embassy in Washington. The fact sheet also reports that Illinois sells more goods to Canada than to its next two largest foreign markets combined, and 420 Canadian-owned companies employ 44,200 workers in Illinois. Illinois’ top goods exports to Canada include automobiles, fuel oil and plastics and plastic articles.
Beyond the commerce connections, there are other ties between Illinois and Canada, ranging from a Canadian women’s club to an award-winning French Canadian restaurant in Lakeview to a Chicago Facebook group for expats.
Employee Maria Gentile-Martin on the 17th floor in the BMO Tower along Canal Street on Sept. 25, 2024, in Chicago. In June 2022, BMO moved into the new 50-story glass-and-metal skyscraper at 320 S. Canal St., adjacent to Union Station in the West Loop. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Canadian companies with a major presence in Chicagoland include the banks BMO and CIBC, as well as brewer Molson Coors, according to the consulate general of Canada in Chicago. Additionally, Chicago is the primary continental hub that connects Canada’s two freight railways with the U.S. rail network.
“We have about 20 members who have footprints in Chicago, and those footprints include regional offices, distribution, packaging centers, retail centers, terminals,” Burke said. “Those companies employ about 1.3 million people in the Chicago area.”
The council, a nonpartisan nonprofit with members that are companies operating on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border, believes that any tariffs, even narrow ones, would be “problematic,” Burke said.
Kevin Tibbles, a retired NBC News correspondent who grew up in Canada and was based in Chicago for about two decades and still lives in the area, said that many of Trump’s comments are likely just “bluster.”
“On the other hand, a country like Canada cannot simply ignore comments made when the United States is your largest trading partner,” Tibbles said. “And they are clearly alarmed by what … Trump has been saying.”
In addition to the tariff talk, Trump also has referred to Trudeau as the governor of Canada and floated the idea multiple times that Canada should join the U.S. as the 51st state.
Soon after Trump made his November post about imposing a tariff on Canadian products, Trudeau flew to Florida.
“Trudeau flew down to Mar-a-Lago to have dinner with him to discuss perhaps ways of getting out of this perceived (tariffs) crisis, and of course Trump’s response was to belittle Trudeau and refer to him as the governor of Canada and the governor of the 51st state,” Tibbles said. “It was rude, and Canadians are not rude people.”
Bruce Heyman, a Chicago-area resident and former U.S. ambassador to Canada, said the relationship between the U.S. and Canada is a collection of many relationships.
In June, Ontario and Illinois finalized a new “memorandum of understanding” to promote “increased trade, attract investment and foster ongoing collaboration across key sectors,” according to the province.
In May, Mayor Brandon Johnson signed a pledge to transform the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River basin into a “thriving blue-green economic corridor” with the mayors of Montreal and Milwaukee at a conference in Montreal, according to the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative.
The overarching U.S.-Canada relationship is stronger because of tourism and many families have members on both sides of the border, Heyman said. And it’s not unusual for a company to be based in one country but have operations or customers or both across the border.
“At the federal level, the new administration is definitely stressing the relationship right now,” Heyman said last week. “Some of the language that he’s (Trump) used is stressing the relationship. But the business community is a surprising area of strength between our two countries.”
Burke said she was in favor of showing Trump that a good relationship between the nations is a win for both.
“I think the reality is: As (Trump) continues to engage and talk to all of the businesses that have investments on both sides of the border and all of the people whose jobs depend on this important relationship, he will see the real value and find the wins for the U.S,” Burke said.
Intertwined with the business ties are strong cultural links between the countries. Canada is among the “most important” sources of international tourists who visit Illinois and Chicago, Heyman said. The consulate general of Canada in Chicago provides services to Canadians visiting and living in Illinois, Wisconsin, parts of Indiana, Kansas and Missouri.
Canadian visitors may typically stay in the United States for six months without a visa, according to Canada’s government.
“You will know how many Canadians are here when you go to a (Blackhawks) game and you see any of the Canadian teams,” Heyman said. “We see them in baseball. We see them a little bit in basketball with the Raptors.”
Out of the 24 players on the Blackhawks roster, 10 were born in the U.S. and eight were born in Canada, including 19-year-old superstar Connor Bedard, according to the team’s website.
The Stanley Club bars at Johnny’s Icehouse East and Johnny’s Icehouse West, which are on either side of the United Center, are the top two on-premise sellers of Canadian Labatt beer in Illinois, according to Johnny’s Icehouse. Johnny’s Icehouse also says the combined amount sold at the two bars and their rinks makes it the 19th largest purchaser of Labatt in the U.S.
The Canadian Women’s Club of Chicago, which formed in 1960, has 60 to 80 members and meets once a month, except during the summertime, treasurer Barbara Dickie said. About 30 members attended a recent Christmas luncheon, Dickie said.
“It’s primarily a social club. Our members are wide-ranging,” Dickie said. “It’s not just Chicago. It’s all over the Chicago suburbs. And we have some former members — one has moved back to the U.K. and another one has moved back to Canada. But they’re still quite active through Zoom at least.”
The members come from or have lived in all parts of Canada, Dickie said. Some members are not even Canadian, but just have an interest in Canada or relatives that live there.
Dear Margaret executive chef Ryan Brosseau in the kitchen at the Lakeview neighborhood restaurant in Chicago on Jan. 16, 2025. Brosseau grew up in Merlin, Ontario, not far from Detroit. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
In Lakeview at a restaurant named after his grandmother, executive chef Ryan Brosseau has been serving dishes with a French Canadian spirit since January 2021. The principles Brosseau learned growing up in his grandmother’s kitchen in Ontario inform the menu of Dear Margaret.
“I’m from southwestern Ontario, so we’re surrounded by Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin — so we’re like in that geography,” Brosseau said. “So all the food is the same, at least the resources for food are, like the fish and game and that stuff.”
Brosseau agrees with Tibbles’ assessment about the politeness of Canadians and their lack of boastfulness. When someone tells him their dinner at Dear Margaret was the best meal they’ve ever had, Brosseau doesn’t know how to say thanks without feeling awkward, he said.
Other than Canadians perhaps being a little more polite, Gilani said the personalities of people from the Midwest and nearby parts of Canada are quite related.
“As a person who spent some time in Chicago, I think there’s so many similarities between the people — people from southern Ontario and people from Illinois,” Gilani said. “It was super easy for us to be part of the accelerator. We’re so similar being so close in proximity.”
A former executive for Chicago-based Verano, one of the largest cannabis companies in the United States, was federally indicted on charges of insider trading.
The indictment Thursday accused Anthony Marsico, 39, of Bartlett, of using confidential information to make an illegal profit of about $607,000 by buying stock in another marijuana company that Verano planned to acquire.
The deal to buy Minneapolis-based Goodness Growth Holdings Inc., now named Vireo Growth Inc., fell through. The two companies remain in court fighting over the failed deal.
Marsico’s lawyers, Todd Pugh and Patrick Blegen, told the Tribune their client was innocent of the charges.
“Mr. Marsico had a long-term and well-documented history of investing in the cannabis related financial sector,” the attorneys said in a statement. “Our investigation shows that Mr. Marsico’s investment activity was based solely on public and non-proprietary information.”
Marsico was indicted along with three golf buddies from a private country club with whom he hatched the plan, according to the indictment.
The other defendants were named as financial adviser Arthur Pizzello, Jr., 61, of suburban Wayne and of Marco Island, Florida; Robert Quattrocchi, 63, of Schaumburg; and Timothy Carey, 57, of Hanover Park. Pizzello co-owned the country club, was a financial adviser who surrendered his license, authorities stated, is an area vice president at a publicly traded insurance broker and human resource benefits company, and co-owns a leadership consulting company based in Carmel, Indiana. Pizzello also invested in Verano through a “friends and family” offering before its initial public offering in 2021, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
The friends regularly called and texted each other, and golfed, gambled and socialized together, the filing stated.
Marsico co-owned a forerunner entity that was subsumed by Verano in 2018, according to the indictment, and was executive vice president at Verano, responsible for municipal government relations and real estate, including getting approvals to open cannabis dispensaries.
The defendants hatched the scheme in December of 2021, after Marsico learned Verano was trying to acquire Goodness Growth, the indictment stated.
Marsico opened and funded a brokerage account and bought more than 900,000 shares of Goodness Growth stock in 359 separate transactions for a total of approximately $1.5 million in the Canadian over-the-counter market, prosecutors alleged.
The acquisition was publicly announced on Feb. 1, 2022. Goodness Growth’s share price that day “skyrocketed” to about $2.34, representing a 42% increase.
Marsico made profits of more than $607,000, according to the indictment, which the government wants to recoup.
Verano ended up terminating the acquisition agreement in October 2022, and in a statement said it follows all securities laws.
“We strongly condemn the alleged actions taken by a former employee, and upon learning of the alleged conduct, fully cooperated with authorities investigating this matter,” the Verano statement read in part.
“The alleged actions by this former employee, who was terminated a year ago, had no material impact on our business and have no bearing on our operations moving forward.”
Verano owns 14 cultivation facilities nationwide, with more than 120 stores and 4,000 employees. Vireo operates retail dispensaries and marijuana-growing facilities in New York, Minnesota and New Mexico.
Volunteers behind the Fox River Trolley Museum are in the midst of a good old-fashioned barnraising and are seeking the public’s support in funding the effort.
“What we’re doing here is preserving history,” said Kathleen Jamieson, fundraising chair for for the museum in South Elgin. “Many of the trains we have here sit on the line on which they ran so it’s local history,”
Its collection currently consists of 35 train or trolley cars, some of which date back as far as 1887, Jamieson said.
The barn space the museum now has holds nine of those cars and is used to do restoration and maintenance work. With the money museum volunteers hope to raise through a GoFundMe.com campaign, they’ll be able to build an addition to the 41-year-old barn so it can house three more cars.
Having more enclosed space is particularly important when storing and restoring older models, which are mostly made of wood, Jamieson said.
Volunteers have already started on the barn addition, securing permits in mid-November. They have completed grading, earth and track moving, and other prep work needed before the building process can begin.
With track being so heavy, the project has given volunteers a real appreciation for what went into building railroads, Jamieson said.
The project gained traction following a change in the museum’s board of directors last year, resulting in the fundraising committee becoming active again, Jamieson said. That led to discussions with an unnamed donor, who has agreed to match up to $53,000 raised for the addition.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the group had collected more than $11,250 of that $53,000 goal.
Almost all the posts were in for the expanded Fox Valley Trolley Museum barn in South Elgin as of Jan. 18. A fundraising campaign is underway to bring in the money to complete the project. (Kathleen Jamieson)
The $106,000 will cover the cost of the work already done by volunteers and the cost of hiring a construction company to put up the addition, Jamieson said. If any additional money is raised, it will be put toward future upgrades, such as tracks, a sprinkler system and overhead wiring in the car barn.
Building the new structure will take three to six weeks, Jamieson said. The hope is the work will be done by the time the museum hosts its Bunny Burrow Express event on April 5, 12 and 19 or in time for the season opening on Mother’s Day, May 11.
In addition to a newly expanded barn, it also will be easier to get into and out of the museum’s 365 S. La Fox St. location this year now that road construction on Route 31 is finished. Last year, its visitor count was down about 50% because of that road work and they’re eager to see the numbers return to where they were or higher than in 2023, volunteers said.
This rendering by Webster, McGrath & Ahlberg shows the barn extension planned for the Fox Valley Trolley Museum in South Elgin. (Fox Valley Trolley Museum)
Last year the museum also completed a project in which each car in its collection, along with information about it, could be viewed online. The equipment also has been marked with QR codes so visitors can use their cell phones to access the information as they view the pieces in person.
Jamieson said the all-volunteer Fox River Trolley Museum is ready to get the barnraising underway.
“We are small but mighty, and I’m so immensely proud of the dedicated volunteers we have,” she said. “Many hands are at work here in the cold, but we can’t do it alone. Donations will help keep this piece of history alive.”
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
Fox Valley Trolley Museum volunteers Andrzej Jurek, Dave Peterson, Joe Caliendo, Kathleen Jamieson and Mike Gilles take a break sitting on the tractor that was used to move wooden rail ties as they prepare to expand the museum’s storage barn. (James Tarbet)An excavator and skidsteer are being used at the Fox River Trolley Museum in South Elgin to move rails and prepare the ground for construction of an extension to its storage/work barn. (Eric Zabelny)
A trial opened Tuesday for an East Chicago man charged with two counts of murder in a couple’s 2021 slaying.
Deputy Prosecutor Keith Anderson will argue Gary Shanklin, 23, of the 4800 block of Walsh Avenue, killed Nalisha D. Martin, 43, of Hammond, and Christopher Burks, 52, of Chicago.
Shanklin has pleaded not guilty. He was extradited from a jail in Coles County, Ill. in 2023.
Defense lawyer Brandon Hicks is expected to argue the shooting was in self-defense and that Burks was an aggressor.
East Chicago Police were called at 12:29 p.m. Oct. 13, 2021 to the 1200 block of West 149th Street where a silver Chevrolet Impala hit a house.
They found Martin shot in the car, while Burks was lying across the street in a nearby alley, charges state. The passenger side window was shattered, with a bullet casing found on the seat inside.
Burks was wounded in the right shoulder, while Martin was shot twice, once in the “front” and in her back. Both were transported to St. Catherine Hospital in East Chicago. Burks died there, while Martin was airlifted to a Chicago trauma hospital where she died shortly thereafter.
Minutes after the call, Shanklin was reported shot in the shoulder down the street on the 4800 block of Walsh Avenue, near his home, police said.
At the hospital, Shanklin claimed to detectives he was walking to a gas station near his house when he heard gunshots and ran, then noticed he was shot.
When police were about to perform a gun residue test on his hands, he told them he wanted to wash some blood off his hands. He was told that wouldn’t affect the test.
“I didn’t shoot nobody, I don’t own a firearm,” he said suddenly, according to court documents.
The test came back positive and there were fresh cuts on his hands, detectives wrote. Shanklin said he fell on gravel trying to escape, documents said.
“I don’t even own a gun,” he said.
Security footage showed a man running from the scene wearing Shanklin’s same clothes, the affidavit states.
What living composer is more versatile than Jeanine Tesori? Lyric Opera subscribers heard her beautiful score for the opera “Blue”
this past autumn and now Porchlight Music Theatre is reviving “Fun Home,” one of the best song suites in any contemporary musical, not least because of how well Tesori adapted her colossal talents to a woman’s story rooted in memory both traumatic and elegiac.
“Fun Home” is based on a graphic novel memoir by the American cartoonist Alison Bechdel and probes many of life’s paradoxes through the recollection of the authorial lesbian character, Alison, who grew up in the 1970s in a Pennsylvania funeral home, the child of Bruce, a closeted, gay English teacher and funeral director who later killed himself.
The show is about many things: the strangeness, alienation and dark sense of humor that flows from growing up so close to death; the way the moment of our birth dictates our ability to be, or not be, ourselves; the central place our parents and our happy/sad childhoods occupy in our adult memories. Lisa Kron’s book of the musical is a magnificent achievement, not least for how well it universalizes Alison’s story by breaking her up into three personas, played by separate actors. “Fun Home” is hardly the first memory-based musical but it is uncommonly well-crafted in terms of its distinguishing between time and place, objective events and subjective memory.
I’ve seen “Fun Home,” which premiered on Broadway in 2015, several times before and have to confess the memory of certain productions is hard to shake. Sam Gold, the original director and a obsessive tinkerer, radically redid his Circle in the Square Theatre staging for the first national tour, resulting in a luminous touring production
that starred Kate Shindle and eclipsed Gold’s first go-round. That was here in 2016. I saw the show again at Victory Gardens Theater
in 2017 in a moving production directed by Gary Griffin. And in 2022, Jim Corti and Landree Fleming co-staged an unforgettably intimate and intense staging for the Paramount Theatre
in Aurora that lives on in my memory and, for my money, was the best of all of them.
Stephen Schellhardt, who superbly played the father Bruce in that Aurora production, is the director of the Porchlight staging. There are many similarities between the two, including a lovely sense of authenticity and sincerity from a cast that features Alanna Chavez (as the narrator Alison) Patrick Byrnes (as Bruce) and Neala Baron (as Bruce’s wife, Helen). Also, Z Mowry plays Middle Alison and at the show I saw, the ever-busy, ever-better Meena Sood was Small Alison.
The cast of “Fun Home” by Porchlight Music Theatre at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts in Chicago. (Liz Lauren)
The Porchlight staging generally is well sung, if a tad over-pushed, especially toward the end. Despite her existing outside the main narrative thrust, Helen is in many ways the most interesting and complicated role in the show and the terrific Baron certainly makes that case.
The show struggles a bit in places to credibly evoke the relative innocence (or quiet oppression) of the 1970s and there are some moments of cluttered staging that just don’t work; as one example, a big gag involving kids hiding in a coffin kinda needs a casket to work. But while some of the requisite starkness and simplicity is sometimes missing, the heart of “Fun Home” is very much in the house.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
Review: “Fun Home” (3 stars)
When: Through Feb. 2
Where: Porchlight Music Theatre at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St.
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The team issued its formal news release a day after news broke
that the Detroit Lions offensive coordinator had agreed to join the Bears and was finalizing a deal.
Alonzo Williams, former chief programs officer at the Chicago Park District, speaks alongside then-Chicago police Superintendent David Brown about their summer plans on May 17, 2021. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Despite a ban from Park District work after he was asked to resign from a top post there for his involvement in the agency’s sexual abuse lifeguard scandal, a longtime government employee has again found a job with a Chicago alderman. Read more here.
Donald Trump is placing a big bet that his executive actions can cut energy prices and tame inflation and that the tariffs will strengthen the economy instead of exposing consumers to higher prices. But it’s unclear whether his orders will be enough to foster the growing economy with lower prices that he promised voters. Read more here.
The Chicago Sky are moving on from Chennedy Carter after electing not to extend a qualifying offer to the dynamic guard. Carter is now an unrestricted free agent and can begin negotiations with other teams. Read more here.
Isabel Campbell, left, of Aurora, and John Nook, of Washington, D.C., explore the new Field Museum exhibition “Cats: Predators to Pets” in Chicago on Jan. 15, 2025. (Audrey Richardson/Chicago Tribune)
As visitors follow a winding path through several rooms, they can trace the evolutionary timeline of cats, learn about their unique physiological and behavioral traits and explore the relationships between humans and cats throughout history. Read more here.
President Donald Trump signs an executive order on birthright citizenship in the Oval Office of the White House, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (Evan Vucci/AP)
Neuqua Valley High School will be putting that message on display in more ways than one this week as a group of students from the Naperville school compete in the Student Silent Film Festival.
Taking place Wednesday night at Tivoli Theatre in Downers Grove, the annual competition invites students from across the Chicago area to create their own original films without the aid of voices or sound effects. Neuqua Valley is one of 11 participating high schools this year and the only competitor from Naperville.
“I’m really excited,” said senior Emma Jenkins, a member of Neuqua Valley’s film team. “I’m just excited to see (our film) in the big theater and to see other people’s reactions to it.”
Jenkins was one of 13 students behind the film. She was also one of three students who acted as a producer on the project, alongside fellow seniors Saanvi Betita and Jillian Mannisto. All students are part of Neuqua Valley’s Media Production 3 class.
Neuqua Valley’s original silent picture is entitled “Friendzone.” Running for 5 minutes and 38 seconds, the film was inspired by this year’s festival theme: “Creativity Unleashed.”
“Friendzone” follows a young boy facing the growing pains of adolescence as he gets older, from struggling to fit in to making friends at school. To cope with the challenges, he relies on a small cadre of imaginary friends.
“What more creative than a kid and their imagination?” Betita said.
A testament to the festival’s theme in content as much as design, the imaginary characters in “Friendzone” are animated. The mixed media approach was thanks to a few students on Neuqua Valley’s team who had animation experience.
“We wanted to make good use of all the kids in our class,” Jenkins said. “Just to bring all our talents together and make something more inventive.”
Neuqua Valley has competed in the Student Silent Film Festival since its inception in 2017, Neuqua’s media production teacher John Gelsomino said. Every year, Gelsomino gives his upper level students the option of participating in the competition. Only one entry per school is allowed.
The festival was founded by Ed Newmann, Bill Allan and Derek Berg. Newmann, who lives in Hinsdale, is an animator and entrepreneur. He founded the Chicago-based Calabash Animation studio. Allan, of La Grange, is founder and supervisor of the television media program at Lyons Township High School. Berg, of Clarendon Hills, is founder and CEO of Clarendon Hills Music Academy.
Their festival was born out of a common interest in educating local media students about the art of creating silent films. For its first few years, the festival was held at Sanfilippo Estate in Barrington Hills. Recently, though, the festival has found a home at the Tivoli.
“We thought it was valuable for young kids to understand what it was like in the early days of filmmaking,” Newmann said, “and what it was like for storytellers to figure out how to engage an audience without sound, without voices. … A filmmaker is a better filmmaker if they learn how to tell a story without (dialogue), where a character can’t just walk on and start talking.”
As part of the festival’s homage to the early days of filmmaking, all submitted films Wednesday night will be accompanied by live music.
In the era of silent films from the 1890s to the late 1920s, music was often played live in theaters to accompany action that took place on screens, according to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. To that end, each festival entry will be supplied with a score. Musical arrangements will be performed by Berg on a uniquely designed keyboard rig that employs virtual instrument samples.
“With my keyboard setup, I use a Mac (computer) to access a library of 30 vintage synthesizers, orchestral and acoustic instruments, and rhythmic loops,” Berg said in a news release. “This setup gives me endless ingredients to craft sounds for any film.”
Jenkins, Betita and Mannisto are especially excited to see what Berg comes up with for “Friendzone.”
“We want to see their interpretation of what we worked on, like if it comes through as we want it,” Mannisto said. “I think that’ll be cool.”
They’re also eager to see their competitors’ films.
“(Creativity Unleashed) is such an open-ended prompt,” Mannisto said. “So I’m excited to see what other people came up with, (to see) if we’re similar or different. I’m pumped.”
Newmann says this year’s batch of submissions are some of the best he’s seen submitted to the festival.
“I’m thrilled with the movies that (the students) have come up with this year,” he said. “They’re outstanding.”
Of the 11 competing schools, three winners will be named Wednesday. A panel of judges — composed of professionals from the entertainment or art education industries — will select the top three based on the quality of films’ story narrative, development, camera work, lighting and editing.
Jenkins, Betita and Mannisto say that while they’d welcome kudos, the competitive portion of the festival is more so a bonus to the main reward: getting to share their hard work on the big screen.
The Student Silent Film Festival is open to the public. Advance tickets are $18 and can be ordered at https://www.studentsilentfilmfestival.org/
. Same day tickets are $25 at the door.
