Friday 4/30 – Thursday 5/6
MAY
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1 SATURDAY From the 1850s to the 1920s, wealthy European families impressed their friends with collections of automata, intricate mechanical dolls and figures that performed complex repetitive actions. This weekend the touring exhibit Magic and Motion: The Art of Automatons stops at the Hotel Sofitel, 20 E. Chestnut. It features more than 40 pieces belonging to Christian Bailly, who’s auctioning off all 150 of his toys–the largest collection to ever hit the market–on May 15 in Vegas. It’s today and tomorrow from 1 to 7 PM at the hotel; Bailly will lead regular tours. It’s free; call 800-638-0422.
Dancers and choreographers Bob Eisen, Carol Bobrow, and Charlie Vernon founded Link’s Hall performance space in 1978 as a cooperative home for experimental dance, performance art, and movement-based theater. None of them are affiliated with the place anymore–Eisen’s practicing his craft in New York, Bobrow teaches dance at New Trier, and Vernon’s selling real estate and teaching at Columbia–but they’re back in Lakeview this weekend for the Link’s Hall 25th Anniversary Celebration. It kicks off today at 11:30 AM with a free contact-improv jam. From 2:30 to 5 there’s a free showing of archival video from the past 25 years; the founders perform at 6:30. Tickets to that are $20 and include a postshow reception. Link’s Hall is at 3435 N. Sheffield; call 773-281-0824.
For nine seasons now the sketch comedy show MADtv has held its own against Saturday Night Live; it may have a bit of an edge because the pieces aren’t performed live. That won’t be the case tonight, when the cast and writers perform as part of the Chicago Improv Festival, which runs through May 9. At 8 writers from the show will perform sketches, including some that didn’t make it onto the show. They’ll be followed by a two-man show starring cast members Ike Barinholtz and Josh Meyers and a round of improv from the entire cast. It’s at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport. Tickets are $25; call 773-935-9810 or go to www.cif.com. For more on the festival see the sidebar in Theater.
