Not in Their Names
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In October, Hernandez, Padilla, and Ramirez sent a certified letter to NNWAC’s board asking for a meeting to discuss the situation and for copies of any grant applications over the last decade that listed them as staff or board members. “It concerns us that since we three are Latino artists with strong connections to the local Latino community, that our names have been in grant awards for programs and workshops that might never have been delivered,” the letter stated. “We believe that this pattern of using our names in NNWAC documents without our consent contradicts part of NNWAC’s mission statement about empowering artists. That in truth NNWAC disrespects the artists and more often than not we are exploited with very little benefit from any NNWAC programs.”
Prop Thtr’s off-the-beaten-track Avondale location is looking like a magnet: Curious Theatre Branch, which fled Rogers Park last fall after an unhappy two years, has landed at the Elston Avenue outpost, where it will open Don’t Tell Us We’re Here, a new play by Bryn Magnus, on January 14. Prop’s Scott Vehill says Curious is setting up its office in the building and has committed to doing two or more shows annually, plus the Rhino festival, for at least the next two years. Factory Theater has also moved in, and Dana Friedman and John Kahara’s production of In the Heart of America opens this weekend as part of Prop’s emerging directors series. Aaron Freeman’s The Joy of News, also produced by Prop, will reopen after a two-week hiatus on Saturday, January 15,
