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When it comes to bold and audacious stagings of Measure for Measure (for my money, the most unpleasant of Shakespeare’s “problem plays”), it’s hard to top Robert Falls’s dark take-no-prisoners 2013 production at the Goodman, which reimagined Vienna as Times Square, circa the late 1970s. (Think David Simon’s The Deuce on HBO.) But Henry Godinez’s streamlined (about 100 intermissionless minutes) and vibrant production at Chicago Shakespeare comes pretty damn close.

Measure for Measure Through 11/27: Wed 1 and 7:30 PM, Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 2:30 and 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM; also Tue 11/15 7:30 PM and Tue 11/22 1 and 7:30 PM; no shows Wed 11/23 or Thu 11/24; open caption Wed 11/16 1 and 7:30 PM, ASL interpretation Fri 11/18, audio description Sun 11/20; Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E. Grand, 312-595-5600, chicagoshakes.com, $49-$92

Godinez (a resident artistic associate at the Goodman) sets the action in Havana on the brink of the Castro revolution. Mistress Overdone (Ana Santos), described as a “bawd,” actually runs the festivities at Cabaret La Trucha, where showgirls, singers, and emcee/clown Pompey (Elizabeth Ledo) cater to the whims of the decadent (including a tourist in comically small striped swim briefs and a sombrero, played with Ugly American panache by Joe Foust).

The Duke of Havana (Kevin Gudahl) has his doubts about what’s going on around him. So of course he decides the best thing to do is to go undercover as a monk, leaving the city in the hands not of his chief judge, Escalus (Lanise Antoine Shelley), a Black woman, but in those of his deputy, Angelo (Adam Poss), a lighter-skinned man whose revolutionary bent doesn’t hide his contempt for the debauchery around him. (Among other things, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara were both famously homophobic, considering LGBTQ+ people bourgeois and counter-revolutionary, as the horrific experiences of gay writer Reinaldo Arenas, highlighted in the 2000 film Before Night Falls, made clear.)

In an interview in the program, Godinez (who was born in Cuba around the time of the revolution and came to the U.S. as a young child) highlights the sexism and racism/colorism that pervades even the most publicly high-minded of revolutionary movements. Caught up in Angelo’s new insistence on enforcing Havana’s harsh laws is Claudio (Andrés Enriquez) and his pregnant fiancée, Julietta (Felicia Oduh). Is the fact that Julietta is darker than Claudio one of the factors prompting Angelo’s righteous fury toward their out-of-wedlock union? It’s not stated directly, but it definitely hangs as a possibility in Angelo’s decision to enforce the death penalty on Claudio.

The only thing that might dissuade him is Claudio’s sister Isabel (Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel), who visits him to beg mercy for her brother, only to find herself on the receiving end of an indecent proposal. (Hypocrisy? From revolutionaries? I’m shocked. SHOCKED!) With the help of Gudahl’s Duke, Isabel is able to work a typical Shakespearean “bed trick” on Angelo, expose his own secret, and save Claudio’s life. Further trickery involving the prison Provost (Robert Schleifer, who delivers his lines in sign language translated by others onstage—a suitable choice for someone who works quietly but efficiently against the injustice of the state) also throws Angelo off the scent of the counterplotters.

The production moves with frightening speed from the brightness of the cabaret (where Raquel Adorno’s costumes highlight feathery glitzy glamour) to the dankness of the prison, both worlds captured equally well by Rasean Davonté Johnson’s scenic and projection designs and María-Christina Fusté’s lighting.The most sobering interlude involves prisoner Barnardine (Ajax Dontavius). A lifer, his jailers believe he’d take the deal to die rather than continue his time in a living hell. But instead, Barnardine essentially tells the authorities to go to hell, while he continues to inscribe “You, 59, Me, 2020” on the walls of his cell—an anachronistic tip of the hat to Cuba’s San Isidro Movement, a contemporary group of nonconformist artists fighting for free expression on the island.

Unlike other Shakespearean comedies and even other “problem plays” like All’s Well That Ends Well, nothing really ends well for anyone in Measure for Measure (except maybe Claudio and Julietta). And perhaps that’s one reason setting it in Cuba around the time of the revolution is such an inspired choice by Godinez (well, that and the fact that it allows for fantastic Latin jazz under the direction of legendary Chicago trumpeter Orbert Davis). Scratch a purist like Angelo, and you’ll find a nihilist, or at least someone who uses their revolutionary ideals as a fig leaf for their own unsavory behavior. At least in Godinez’s production (whose lively and responsive ensemble is a sheer delight to watch in action throughout), we can believe that Isabel may have found the will to fight the patriarchy another day.

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If you’re an adult of a certain age, hearing the name “Peabody” in conjunction with science may make you think of a polymath anthropomorphic cartoon dog, companion to young lad Sherman. But in Glen Berger and Morgan Taylor’s quirky new musical, now in a world premiere with Young People’s Theatre of Chicago at the Greenhouse Theater Center, the title is a play on words. Young Alyssa Peabody (Eileen Doan) is determined to win her middle-school science fair with a project that focuses on patterns of, um, micturition: noticing how much her stepbrother pees after guzzling sports drinks, she wants to see if there’s a connection between what goes in, and what comes out. Of course, when word of her bathroom experiment gets out, her last name leads to a predictable rise in teasing from her classmates.

Peabody, a Musical Comedy for Intrepid Young Scientists Through 11/20: Fri 7 PM, Sat-Sun 10 AM and 1 PM; 1 PM only Sun 11/6; Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln, 773-404-7336, yptchi.org, $25 ($19 under 12), ages 5+

If you think a musical built around bodily fluids is a recipe for disaster, may I remind you that Urinetown! (created by former Chicagoans Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis) won several Tony Awards and has become a perennial favorite across the country? But Berger (a writer for the animated kids’s show Arthur, as well as the author of several adult plays, such as Underneath the Lintel) and Taylor (the creator of the popular kids’ multimedia character Gustafer Yellowgold, who sadly died in August at age 52) are actually raising some cogent questions about how we approach scientific inquiry. A lot of science deals with things that we’re trained to think of as “gross.” But finding solutions to global problems (like, say, water shortages) depends on scientists being willing to dive into murky research streams.

Directed by YPT artistic director Randy White, the 90-minute show (geared for ages five and over) touches on scientific competition and sabotage as Alyssa’s classmate, Philip (Sam Linda) teams up with her stepbrother (Jonathan Shaboo) to steal her samples. Along the way, the script shoehorns in (sometimes awkwardly) snippets about famous women in science, including Mary Anning, whose work collecting fossils took the stage in Laura Schellhardt’s Digging Up Dessa at Theatre Above the Law earlier this year. We also meet more-famous male scientists such as Isaac Newton and Galileo (most of them played with amusing bewigged panache by Jonathan Schwart).

When Philip and Alyssa’s principal (Sabrina Edwards) insists that they put aside their differences and work together, they really find the groove for their research. Similarly, White’s ensemble works together smoothly, playing multiple roles that require them to shift from adults to tweens quickly. The music is recorded, not live, which is perhaps a bit of a disappointment, but judging from the reactions of the kids at the show I attended, Peabody held their interest and, one hopes, sparked some curiosity about the scientific process—even amid the sometimes groan-worthy scatological humor. 

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It’s oddly fitting that the touring, Los Angeles-based Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation went on hiatus during the dog days of the pandemic. A mainstay of such programming here in Chicago, it screened everywhere from microcinemas to museums before finding a home at Northwestern University’s Block Cinema for the past several years, where up until 2019 it was an annual program. 

Aside from the obvious, practical reasons for the lacuna, life as we knew it had ceased to be as animated; the frenetic movement, the often garish colors, the universe of bizarre ideas alchemized into existence that come through in the festival’s curation may have been too tantalizing to our then-static proprium. 

It’s similarly fitting that opening the return of the festival on Friday at 7 PM (the first of three screenings going on through Saturday afternoon) is a selection of short films by local filmmaker Laura Harrison, whose work reminds you that you are brazenly, grotesquely, fearlessly alive. 

Harrison’s Little Red Giant, The Monster that I Was (2016) depicts, through a hodgepodge of animation styles, a nightmarish barbecue where a misunderstood artist is driven to extremes after taking in the hypocrisy, back-stabbing, and general pretension of her academic peers. Recounting her story from jail, the forthright protagonist expounds upon the circumstances that led to that moment, specifically the imaginary constructs that she’d developed as a child and that continue both to haunt and invigorate her.

Harrison’s work routinely deals with characters on the margins of society; her style of animation renders such microcosms “realistic” through a commensurate mode of abstraction. In The Lingerie Show (2015), adapted from a story by Beth Raymer, a drug-addicted woman details her chaotic life over a particularly fraught interlude but with a peppy garrulousness that softens the hard edges of her messed-up circumstances. It’s evocative of films by Larry Clark and Harmony Korine, with a diverse array of animation styles that further complicate the already labyrinthine intricacies of an addict’s bearings. 

Her latest, The Limits of Vision (2022), is the longest of the three films at just over half an hour. It adapts Robert Irwin’s eponymous 1986 novel to suitably psychedelic effect. Centered on a London housewife who becomes increasingly obsessed with the gradations of her mundane existence, it presents a more genteel milieu than the previous two films, but still with the intention of examining life’s bantam surrealities. Harrison will appear in person at the screening, along with festival curators Alexander Stewart and Lilli Carré.

As for the subsequent two shorts programs (which Stewart and Carré will also attend), imagine a junk drawer of animation out of which one might pull . . . well, anything that’s animated, be it by hand or computer or maybe something else not yet imagined by us laypeople. There are no overarching themes, nor are the programs limited to a specific timeframe. Swedish filmmaker Lars-Arne Hult’s Strip-tease in Shorts Program 1, for example, is from 1981. Once an animator for Disney who worked on Winnie the Pooh, Hult exhibits a more adult-oriented craft in Strip-tease. Bold lines conform to the figures of such living beings as a naked woman, a naked man, and even a monkey and a bird. The entire process of transformation via animation is the conceit of this amusing short.

The Eyeworks Festival of Experimental AnimationNov 4-5, The Block Museum, 40 Arts Circle Drive, EvanstonFreeeyeworksfestival.com

Perhaps betraying my introductory assertion that the films included in the programming are more animated than we’ve been used to being these last few years, Latvian conceptual artist Krišs Salmanis’s 100 Still Lives (2014) depicts 100 still-life arrangements photographed after being taken down and set up again the same way 100 times; the minute discrepancies between the imperfectly replaced arrangements account for this wry animation.

David Daniels pioneered a technique called Strata-cut animation in his CalArts thesis film Buzz Box (1985). On the occasion of the innovative short film’s 20th anniversary, Daniels made a remix (2005), which was digitally remastered and peppered with new audio. In Shorts Program 2 on Saturday at 3 PM, innovation is similarly evident in Tim Macmillan’s Ferment (1999), for which the filmmaker used a time-slice technique that combines a series of shots taken in approximately five-second intervals to communicate a single moment of time in Bath, England.  

Pallavi Agarwala’s Once More With Feeling (2016) and Sondra Perry’s It’s In The Game ’17 (2017) use animation as a means of exploring imperialism. In the former, Agarwala manipulates historical postcards from such countries as India, South Africa, and Iran to illustrate British military actions memorialized with statues. The collage-like structure of the animation suggests the ways in which imperialist countries often insert themselves into tableaus where they do not belong. 

The latter, which screens in Shorts Program 2, features Perry’s brother, Sandy, a college basketball player whose likeness was appropriated in an EA Sports video game without his permission. Incorporating a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Perry subtly connects the theft of her brother’s identity to the history of colonizing countries stealing art and historical artifacts. Animation here is also implicated as a means of pilferage vis-à-vis the unsanctioned video game rendering.

On the other hand, Hayoun Kwon’s 489 Years (2016) also probes a fraught history, with hyperrealistic, video game-style animation illustrating testimony from a South Korean soldier about the mine-laden demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. 

Purer modes of animation demarcate other works in Shorts Program 2, like Barry Doupé’s Red House (2022) and Matthew Thurber’s How the Dog Learned Perspective (2021). Both are charmingly crude in execution but display an exquisite level of artistry that succeeds in making the laborious seem effortless. And speaking of purity, a couple of films between both programs will be projected on celluloid: Paul Vester’s Picnic (1987) and Joanna Priestley’s Jade Leaf (1985), in 35-millimeter and 16-millimeter, respectively, in Shorts Program 1, and Rose Lowder’s Bouquets 28-30 (2005) in 16-millimeter in Shorts Program 2. The festival’s ongoing commitment to a diversity of exhibition formats is commendable, especially considering the inherent tactility of the animation process itself.

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It’s oddly fitting that the touring, Los Angeles-based Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation went on hiatus during the dog days of the pandemic. A mainstay of such programming here in Chicago, it screened everywhere from microcinemas to museums before finding a home at Northwestern University’s Block Cinema for the past several years, where up until 2019 it was an annual program. 

Aside from the obvious, practical reasons for the lacuna, life as we knew it had ceased to be as animated; the frenetic movement, the often garish colors, the universe of bizarre ideas alchemized into existence that come through in the festival’s curation may have been too tantalizing to our then-static proprium. 

It’s similarly fitting that opening the return of the festival on Friday at 7 PM (the first of three screenings going on through Saturday afternoon) is a selection of short films by local filmmaker Laura Harrison, whose work reminds you that you are brazenly, grotesquely, fearlessly alive. 

Harrison’s Little Red Giant, The Monster that I Was (2016) depicts, through a hodgepodge of animation styles, a nightmarish barbecue where a misunderstood artist is driven to extremes after taking in the hypocrisy, back-stabbing, and general pretension of her academic peers. Recounting her story from jail, the forthright protagonist expounds upon the circumstances that led to that moment, specifically the imaginary constructs that she’d developed as a child and that continue both to haunt and invigorate her.

Harrison’s work routinely deals with characters on the margins of society; her style of animation renders such microcosms “realistic” through a commensurate mode of abstraction. In The Lingerie Show (2015), adapted from a story by Beth Raymer, a drug-addicted woman details her chaotic life over a particularly fraught interlude but with a peppy garrulousness that softens the hard edges of her messed-up circumstances. It’s evocative of films by Larry Clark and Harmony Korine, with a diverse array of animation styles that further complicate the already labyrinthine intricacies of an addict’s bearings. 

Her latest, The Limits of Vision (2022), is the longest of the three films at just over half an hour. It adapts Robert Irwin’s eponymous 1986 novel to suitably psychedelic effect. Centered on a London housewife who becomes increasingly obsessed with the gradations of her mundane existence, it presents a more genteel milieu than the previous two films, but still with the intention of examining life’s bantam surrealities. Harrison will appear in person at the screening, along with festival curators Alexander Stewart and Lilli Carré.

As for the subsequent two shorts programs (which Stewart and Carré will also attend), imagine a junk drawer of animation out of which one might pull . . . well, anything that’s animated, be it by hand or computer or maybe something else not yet imagined by us laypeople. There are no overarching themes, nor are the programs limited to a specific timeframe. Swedish filmmaker Lars-Arne Hult’s Strip-tease in Shorts Program 1, for example, is from 1981. Once an animator for Disney who worked on Winnie the Pooh, Hult exhibits a more adult-oriented craft in Strip-tease. Bold lines conform to the figures of such living beings as a naked woman, a naked man, and even a monkey and a bird. The entire process of transformation via animation is the conceit of this amusing short.

The Eyeworks Festival of Experimental AnimationNov 4-5, The Block Museum, 40 Arts Circle Drive, EvanstonFreeeyeworksfestival.com

Perhaps betraying my introductory assertion that the films included in the programming are more animated than we’ve been used to being these last few years, Latvian conceptual artist Krišs Salmanis’s 100 Still Lives (2014) depicts 100 still-life arrangements photographed after being taken down and set up again the same way 100 times; the minute discrepancies between the imperfectly replaced arrangements account for this wry animation.

David Daniels pioneered a technique called Strata-cut animation in his CalArts thesis film Buzz Box (1985). On the occasion of the innovative short film’s 20th anniversary, Daniels made a remix (2005), which was digitally remastered and peppered with new audio. In Shorts Program 2 on Saturday at 3 PM, innovation is similarly evident in Tim Macmillan’s Ferment (1999), for which the filmmaker used a time-slice technique that combines a series of shots taken in approximately five-second intervals to communicate a single moment of time in Bath, England.  

Pallavi Agarwala’s Once More With Feeling (2016) and Sondra Perry’s It’s In The Game ’17 (2017) use animation as a means of exploring imperialism. In the former, Agarwala manipulates historical postcards from such countries as India, South Africa, and Iran to illustrate British military actions memorialized with statues. The collage-like structure of the animation suggests the ways in which imperialist countries often insert themselves into tableaus where they do not belong. 

The latter, which screens in Shorts Program 2, features Perry’s brother, Sandy, a college basketball player whose likeness was appropriated in an EA Sports video game without his permission. Incorporating a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Perry subtly connects the theft of her brother’s identity to the history of colonizing countries stealing art and historical artifacts. Animation here is also implicated as a means of pilferage vis-à-vis the unsanctioned video game rendering.

On the other hand, Hayoun Kwon’s 489 Years (2016) also probes a fraught history, with hyperrealistic, video game-style animation illustrating testimony from a South Korean soldier about the mine-laden demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. 

Purer modes of animation demarcate other works in Shorts Program 2, like Barry Doupé’s Red House (2022) and Matthew Thurber’s How the Dog Learned Perspective (2021). Both are charmingly crude in execution but display an exquisite level of artistry that succeeds in making the laborious seem effortless. And speaking of purity, a couple of films between both programs will be projected on celluloid: Paul Vester’s Picnic (1987) and Joanna Priestley’s Jade Leaf (1985), in 35-millimeter and 16-millimeter, respectively, in Shorts Program 1, and Rose Lowder’s Bouquets 28-30 (2005) in 16-millimeter in Shorts Program 2. The festival’s ongoing commitment to a diversity of exhibition formats is commendable, especially considering the inherent tactility of the animation process itself.

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The Chicago White Sox have a new manager and he has no prior ties to the organization.

The White Sox tabbed Kansas City Royals bench coach Pedro Grifol to lead the team out of the disaster that was Tony La Russa’s second tenure running the clubhouse. He is the first manager hired with no prior connection to the franchise since 1992 when the Sox tabbed Gene Lamont.

Hopefully, Grifol has the same amount of success Lamont did.

Lamont won AL Manager of the Year winner and led the Chicago White Sox to the 1993 American League Championship Series. It would be even better if Grifol joins former manager Ozzie Guillen in winning a World Series this century.

Winning a championship is what Grifol has been brought in to do. First, he needs to re-right the ship after the 2022 season.

The Chicago White Sox were undoubtedly the most disappointing baseball team. Picked by many to win the AL Central Division and to be playing this week for a World Series title, the Sox finished a mediocre 81-81. They saw the Cleveland Guardians cruise right past them for the division title.

The Sox were mired by injuries, poor defense, and head-scratching manager decisions made by La Russa. It was not all La Russa’s fault but the way he asked the team to play every day did not help the cause. The White Sox briefly lived up to their potential when La Russa had to leave the team late in the season to address medical issues.

La Russa is now in retirement and hopefully getting healthy. Grifol now needs to direct the White Sox to better health.

He will do that by bringing in fresh ideas.

Ever since 2004 when Guillen was hired to replace Jerry Manuel, the Chicago White Sox has become an insular franchise. Managers have been partly hired based on ties to the team. Coaches have been retained based on loyalty.

That caused the Chicago White Sox to become a floundering franchise. General manager Rick Hahn rebuilt the roster to finally compete for a title but owner Jerry Reinsdorf’s meddling and loyalty got in the way of this talent reaching its potential.

Now after the La Russa mistake, a new voice with fresh eyes enters the picture. It seems it has already re-energized the franchise.

Grifol lacks managerial experience but he has been part of a franchise that won two American League Championships and a World Series last decade. For those scoring at home, that is one more American League Championship than the Sox have won all century and a title won with homegrown talent.

The nepotism is gone, and Grifol will be allowed to hire his coaching staff.

Long time coaches like Joe McEwing and Darryl Boston will not be back. Hitting coach Frank Menechino, who bore the brunt of White Sox fans’ frustrations, is also out. It is looking like only pitching coach Ethan Katz is the main assistant being retained.

The only reason the Royals did not hire Grifol was they too wanted a fresh perspective in their dugout. He was well-respected by the organization. Grifol was recommended by Hall of Famer George Brett.

If you want proof of Grifol influencing change, he was able to convince stubborn manager Ned Yost to implement new ideas.

Grifol seems to understand the issues the Chicago White Sox had last season and wants to play a better style of baseball. Bringing in a new perspective is the best way to break up the Sox two decades thinking of “that is how we always do things around here” makes champions. That thinking only has netted one only three playoffs win after 2005.

Grifol is not going to solve all the Chicago White Sox problems. Rick Hahn and the players will have to do some of the heavy lifting to get the Sox back into the playoffs next season.

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During the pandemic shutdown, A Theater in the Dark was one of the most reliable sources for online radio drama—no surprise, since even when they produced live and in person, the company’s aesthetic (as the name tells you) was to leave audiences in the, well, dark and let aural storytelling and soundscapes create the world around them. Their original radio versions of Moby Dick and A War of the Worldswere particular highlights, but they’re still releasing original digital content. Today is the premiere of A Murder in the Court of Xanadu, written and directed by producing artistic director Corey Bradberry, with original music by Paul Sottnik. The show reimagines the 13th-century empire of Xanadu (made famous by British Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge) as a 21st-century megacorporation teetering on the brink of bankruptcy; Bradberry also uses verse to tell his tale of murder and revenge. For $12.99, you can get both a digital download and online streaming access; season passes to all the company’s content go for $30, or $3.25 a month on Patreon. Information and reservations at theatreinthedark.com. (KR)

In Above the Water, making its world premiere tonight at 8 PM at the Den Theatre (1331 N. Milwaukee), Dawn Theatre Project offers a “poetic physical theatre piece” about the nature of grief and loneliness. Conceived by choreographer Chih-Jou Cheng, it uses movement, puppetry, and text to explore the five stages of grief. After each performance, there will be a “debriefing” session with a licensed therapist. It’s recommended for ages ten and over; performances continue Fri-Sat 8 PM and Sun 3 PM, and tickets are $5-$40 at thedentheatre.com. (KR)

Milwaukee EDM outfit Choke Chain is a familiar name in the Windy City industrial music scene, and tonight they open for one of the most exciting acts coming from LA’s spooky underground: Patriarchy. In the spring, Patriarchy played a handful of dates with Chicago’s Pixel Grip, and now they’re touring to support their late summer release, The Unself. While visual and lyrical themes of bondage, dominance, and submission are central to the genre, Patriarchy actively blurs the line between music, performance art, and sex work in a way that calls attention to the relationship between audiences and performers and how women in music are consumed. Patriarchy is for fans of camp, misery, Americana, and rock ’n’ roll. If you’re 21 or older, you can catch them at the Empty Bottle (1035 N. Western) for $15. The show starts at 8:30 PM. (MC)

Pride Film Festival, which became an independent presenter this year after previously being a part of PrideArts, features six slates of LGBTQ+ films from all over the world streaming online through December 11. Reader contributor Wanjiku Kairu previewed some festival highlights for us earlier in October, including Cut Short, a short film by Charlie Andelman about a young nonbinary person facing thoughts of their father’s mortality as they give their father a haircut after he received cancer treatments. Cut Short and nine other films are available to screen through Mon 11/7; check out Pride Film Festival’s website for film descriptions, and to buy tickets (weekly passes are $10; full festival passes are $50, with discounts available for students and seniors). (SCJ)

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During the pandemic shutdown, A Theater in the Dark was one of the most reliable sources for online radio drama—no surprise, since even when they produced live and in person, the company’s aesthetic (as the name tells you) was to leave audiences in the, well, dark and let aural storytelling and soundscapes create the world around them. Their original radio versions of Moby Dick and A War of the Worldswere particular highlights, but they’re still releasing original digital content. Today is the premiere of A Murder in the Court of Xanadu, written and directed by producing artistic director Corey Bradberry, with original music by Paul Sottnik. The show reimagines the 13th-century empire of Xanadu (made famous by British Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge) as a 21st-century megacorporation teetering on the brink of bankruptcy; Bradberry also uses verse to tell his tale of murder and revenge. For $12.99, you can get both a digital download and online streaming access; season passes to all the company’s content go for $30, or $3.25 a month on Patreon. Information and reservations at theatreinthedark.com. (KR)

In Above the Water, making its world premiere tonight at 8 PM at the Den Theatre (1331 N. Milwaukee), Dawn Theatre Project offers a “poetic physical theatre piece” about the nature of grief and loneliness. Conceived by choreographer Chih-Jou Cheng, it uses movement, puppetry, and text to explore the five stages of grief. After each performance, there will be a “debriefing” session with a licensed therapist. It’s recommended for ages ten and over; performances continue Fri-Sat 8 PM and Sun 3 PM, and tickets are $5-$40 at thedentheatre.com. (KR)

Milwaukee EDM outfit Choke Chain is a familiar name in the Windy City industrial music scene, and tonight they open for one of the most exciting acts coming from LA’s spooky underground: Patriarchy. In the spring, Patriarchy played a handful of dates with Chicago’s Pixel Grip, and now they’re touring to support their late summer release, The Unself. While visual and lyrical themes of bondage, dominance, and submission are central to the genre, Patriarchy actively blurs the line between music, performance art, and sex work in a way that calls attention to the relationship between audiences and performers and how women in music are consumed. Patriarchy is for fans of camp, misery, Americana, and rock ’n’ roll. If you’re 21 or older, you can catch them at the Empty Bottle (1035 N. Western) for $15. The show starts at 8:30 PM. (MC)

Pride Film Festival, which became an independent presenter this year after previously being a part of PrideArts, features six slates of LGBTQ+ films from all over the world streaming online through December 11. Reader contributor Wanjiku Kairu previewed some festival highlights for us earlier in October, including Cut Short, a short film by Charlie Andelman about a young nonbinary person facing thoughts of their father’s mortality as they give their father a haircut after he received cancer treatments. Cut Short and nine other films are available to screen through Mon 11/7; check out Pride Film Festival’s website for film descriptions, and to buy tickets (weekly passes are $10; full festival passes are $50, with discounts available for students and seniors). (SCJ)

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The philosophy of the Chicago Bears organization shifted this week when the team decided to trade 25-year-old linebacker Roquan Smith to the Baltimore Ravens for a 2023 second-round draft pick, a 2023 fifth-round pick, and journeyman linebacker AJ Klein.

The trade of Smith allowed the Bears to use a second-round draft pick then and trade for Pittsburgh Steelers third-year wide receiver, Chase Claypool.

The two trades signaled that moving forward, the focus is on surrounding Bears’ quarterback Justin Fields with talent on offense.

Though had Smith had an agent instead of representing himself, one would have to wonder if the trade that occurred on Monday would have ever happened.

Smith, for his part, was surprised by the trade. Smith told reporters after his first practice with the Ravens on Wednesday that he was not expecting to be traded.

“I didn’t plan to [get traded], but you know, life happens at times and got traded,” Smith said, flashing a wide grin. “So initially I was shocked. But I’m excited to be here. Good group of guys that’s contending for a title, and that’s what I’m in the game to play for — playing for a title.”

Roquan Smith, who you crappin’?

Smith, in his own words, requested a trade from the Bears organization last August in a statement where he also criticized the team’s front office.

There is no question that Smith was on a trajectory to live up to the lineage of the Bears’ linebackers of yesteryear. But, for what the Bears trying to do on defense, Smith was no longer a great fit for the team moving forward.

Roquan Smith was a leader on the field for the Chicago Bears but far from it off the field.

Bears’ head coach Matt Eberflus admitted as much yesterday.

The lasting impression of Smith and his time with the Bears will be a lack of awareness. Had Smith had an agent, chances are he would have accepted the contract offer that the Bears submitted this summer. Had Smith had an agent, he would have had the awareness to not issue a statement where he shattered the relationship with the organization. Had Smith had an agent, he would have had the overall awareness to understand his current position from a business standpoint.

Even in his exit from the Bears organization, Smith proved just how unaware he was in saying that he was not planning to be traded. Agents can be a player’s best friend. But when the player lacks awareness, the joke is on them.

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