The Chicago Blackhawks are in a bit of a slump. After a hot start, they are starting to look like the team that we thought they were going to be at the beginning of the year. They have one of the league’s worst rosters, and it is starting to show on the ice.

In an effort to continue growing some of their young players, they made an exciting transaction on Friday morning. Ian Mitchell is being recalled and will make his season debut with the Blackhawks on Saturday night against the Boston Bruins.

Mitchell has made his NHL debut in the past and has played in 47 career games. In those 47 career games, he has scored three goals and has five assists for eight points as a defenseman. At 23 years old, the former second-round pick is looking like he is about to take that next step.

He has earned this call as he has been off to a great start for the Rockford Ice Hogs of the AHL this season. He didn’t play in training camp or the first month of the AHL season for Rockford as he dealt with an injury.

Ian Mitchell has earned this call-up with the Chicago Blackhawks right now.

Since coming back from the injury last week, he has two goals and three assists for five points in three games. All of his points came in the last two Rockford contests as he was still getting his skating legs going in the first one back.

He can contribute a lot to this Blackhawks team. We are waiting for him to break out in the NHL and there are a few signs that suggest that he will soon. It took him a little while but sometimes that happens with high ceiling/low-floor defensemen.

His first NHL game of the season is certainly not going to be an easy one. The Boston Bruins are the top team in the NHL right now in terms of the standings. They are likely just the best team in the league because of how they win.

Mitchell might be sheltered from guys like Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, and Taylor Hall as much as he can be but it might be difficult on the road.

This is going to be a great chance for him to show his stuff. He is one of the bright young players that this team would love to see take a big step this year. He has a chance here in the coming months to solidify himself as a part of the future.

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The death of Myrna Salazar, cofounder and executive director of the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA), in August, a month before the fifth annual Destinos: Chicago International Latino Theater Festival kicked off, was a huge blow to the performing arts community, including Jorge Valdivia, who worked closely with Salazar and CLATA in his role as director of performing arts for the National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA). Now Valdivia can both honor Salazar’s vision and bring his own ideas to the table: last week, CLATA announced that he was taking over as executive director.

The museum was one of the founding partners for CLATA, so in a sense, it’s a sort of homecoming for Valdivia, who also curated the annual Sor Juana Festival at NMMA (named in honor of the 17th-century Mexican nun, poet, playwright, and mathematician). He notes, “Both the National Museum of Mexican Art and the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance have always worked in close proximity to one another. And we’ve always felt it’s like family, like they were our cousins.” He adds, “Myrna was a legend and I had such high respect for her—for her professionalism, and for her ambition, and for her being a woman, and sometimes being the only woman at the table and demanding the respect that she deserved.”

According to CLATA’s director of communications Sara Carranza, this year’s Destinos “outpaced last year’s attendance.” (Two shows from the festival, Ricardo Gamboa’s Wizardsand Nancy García Loza’s Bull, finish their runs this weekend.) So that’s a good place to be as Valdivia prepares to take over. He officially assumes the role in January, but says, “There’s so much that needs to be addressed now,” including preliminary planning for next year’s Destinos. I mention that Marty Castro, CLATA’s board president, told me in August that one of the last conversations he had with Salazar was on the subject of acquiring an arts center.

Valdivia says, “When they asked me to take on this role, one of the things that came up in the conversation was—and this is something that I’ve always understood—I’ve always known that the goal was to have a space in downtown Chicago. It was really important in terms of visibility. I fully understood that.” 

That goal is still on the table for discussion, but Valdivia also highlights the importance of building better networks year-round for supporting Chicago Latinx companies that are working in communities throughout the city, like Teatro Tariakuri in Marquette Park, UrbanTheater Company in Humboldt Park (which is about to embark on a capital campaign for its move to a new 99-seat venue in the Nancy Y. Franco Maldonado Paseo Boricua Arts Building), and Aguijón Theater (the oldest Latinx company in the city) in Belmont Cragin.

“I think we can do both. The fact that [a new CLATA center] would be centrally located doesn’t mean that we have to stop investing in or supporting the theater that is happening in different communities throughout Chicago. Because without theater there, there is no theater downtown,” says Valdivia. “It’s how CLATA started and it is also such a core part of its mission. It is not just about bringing theater to downtown. And it’s not just about elevating the presence of Latino theater, but it’s also about making sure that theater is accessible to our communities for people that look like us.”

One of the other areas that Valdivia is interested in exploring with CLATA is the possibility of creating or fostering more work that can tour outside of Chicago, in addition to bringing in shows from outside the U.S., as Destinos routinely does. 

“I’m putting on my hat as someone who’s worked in the museum field for quite some time, where I’m sitting on committees where we have these conversations around programming that complements and travels with an exhibition. Is there a possibility where CLATA members can develop or adapt work so it can travel more easily?”

Valdivia continues,”I don’t like the term master class, I really hate it, but maybe we can offer workshops that help professionals, whether they be playwrights or directors, to sort of gain a different perspective and help them further develop their skill sets. It’s not to say that they’re not already doing that on their own because they are. Honestly, I have seen a fire in every single, [CLATA] group here in Chicago this year. And it’s been amazing. I think we can give them an opportunity to sort of sit down with someone who’s put a play together from beginning to end and have them learn early on how to make a play adaptable to travel.

“We just want them to continue focusing on the work that they’re producing and the different playwrights that they’re working so hard to bring to the stages. And if we can work out ways to help support them around all that and help elevate that work, that’s how we’re able to complement one another.”

3Arts Awards 

3Arts, the nonprofit that makes annual awards recognizing “Chicago’s women artists, artists of color, and Deaf and disabled artists who work in the performing, teaching, and visual arts,” presented this year’s awards in a ceremony on November 7. The honorees included dance artists Winifred Haun and Sarita Smith Childs, UrbanTheater Company artistic director Miranda González, and playwright Omar Abbas Salem (whose comedy Mosque4Mosque opens this weekend with About Face Theatre). Each received $30,000.

There were also theater and dance artists represented in the 3Arts Make a Wave program, an artist-to-artist grant in which a previous recipient of the 3Arts Award selects someone to receive $4,000 in support of their work. This year’s Make a Wave recipients included playwright, actor, and director Terry Guest (The Magnolia Ballet, Marie Antoinette and the Magical Negroes); singer, songwriter, director, and educator Maggie Brown; storyteller, singer, and multidisciplinary teaching artist Zahra Glenda Baker; dancer and educator Elisabeth YJ Seonwoo aka Kerberus; and actor, director, choreographer, and playwright Wai Yim (a cofounder of Token Theatre, which is presenting When the Sun Melts Away this weekend at the Greenhouse Theater Center).

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The death of Myrna Salazar, cofounder and executive director of the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA), in August, a month before the fifth annual Destinos: Chicago International Latino Theater Festival kicked off, was a huge blow to the performing arts community, including Jorge Valdivia, who worked closely with Salazar and CLATA in his role as director of performing arts for the National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA). Now Valdivia can both honor Salazar’s vision and bring his own ideas to the table: last week, CLATA announced that he was taking over as executive director.

The museum was one of the founding partners for CLATA, so in a sense, it’s a sort of homecoming for Valdivia, who also curated the annual Sor Juana Festival at NMMA (named in honor of the 17th-century Mexican nun, poet, playwright, and mathematician). He notes, “Both the National Museum of Mexican Art and the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance have always worked in close proximity to one another. And we’ve always felt it’s like family, like they were our cousins.” He adds, “Myrna was a legend and I had such high respect for her—for her professionalism, and for her ambition, and for her being a woman, and sometimes being the only woman at the table and demanding the respect that she deserved.”

According to CLATA’s director of communications Sara Carranza, this year’s Destinos “outpaced last year’s attendance.” (Two shows from the festival, Ricardo Gamboa’s Wizardsand Nancy García Loza’s Bull, finish their runs this weekend.) So that’s a good place to be as Valdivia prepares to take over. He officially assumes the role in January, but says, “There’s so much that needs to be addressed now,” including preliminary planning for next year’s Destinos. I mention that Marty Castro, CLATA’s board president, told me in August that one of the last conversations he had with Salazar was on the subject of acquiring an arts center.

Valdivia says, “When they asked me to take on this role, one of the things that came up in the conversation was—and this is something that I’ve always understood—I’ve always known that the goal was to have a space in downtown Chicago. It was really important in terms of visibility. I fully understood that.” 

That goal is still on the table for discussion, but Valdivia also highlights the importance of building better networks year-round for supporting Chicago Latinx companies that are working in communities throughout the city, like Teatro Tariakuri in Marquette Park, UrbanTheater Company in Humboldt Park (which is about to embark on a capital campaign for its move to a new 99-seat venue in the Nancy Y. Franco Maldonado Paseo Boricua Arts Building), and Aguijón Theater (the oldest Latinx company in the city) in Belmont Cragin.

“I think we can do both. The fact that [a new CLATA center] would be centrally located doesn’t mean that we have to stop investing in or supporting the theater that is happening in different communities throughout Chicago. Because without theater there, there is no theater downtown,” says Valdivia. “It’s how CLATA started and it is also such a core part of its mission. It is not just about bringing theater to downtown. And it’s not just about elevating the presence of Latino theater, but it’s also about making sure that theater is accessible to our communities for people that look like us.”

One of the other areas that Valdivia is interested in exploring with CLATA is the possibility of creating or fostering more work that can tour outside of Chicago, in addition to bringing in shows from outside the U.S., as Destinos routinely does. 

“I’m putting on my hat as someone who’s worked in the museum field for quite some time, where I’m sitting on committees where we have these conversations around programming that complements and travels with an exhibition. Is there a possibility where CLATA members can develop or adapt work so it can travel more easily?”

Valdivia continues,”I don’t like the term master class, I really hate it, but maybe we can offer workshops that help professionals, whether they be playwrights or directors, to sort of gain a different perspective and help them further develop their skill sets. It’s not to say that they’re not already doing that on their own because they are. Honestly, I have seen a fire in every single, [CLATA] group here in Chicago this year. And it’s been amazing. I think we can give them an opportunity to sort of sit down with someone who’s put a play together from beginning to end and have them learn early on how to make a play adaptable to travel.

“We just want them to continue focusing on the work that they’re producing and the different playwrights that they’re working so hard to bring to the stages. And if we can work out ways to help support them around all that and help elevate that work, that’s how we’re able to complement one another.”

3Arts Awards 

3Arts, the nonprofit that makes annual awards recognizing “Chicago’s women artists, artists of color, and Deaf and disabled artists who work in the performing, teaching, and visual arts,” presented this year’s awards in a ceremony on November 7. The honorees included dance artists Winifred Haun and Sarita Smith Childs, UrbanTheater Company artistic director Miranda González, and playwright Omar Abbas Salem (whose comedy Mosque4Mosque opens this weekend with About Face Theatre). Each received $30,000.

There were also theater and dance artists represented in the 3Arts Make a Wave program, an artist-to-artist grant in which a previous recipient of the 3Arts Award selects someone to receive $4,000 in support of their work. This year’s Make a Wave recipients included playwright, actor, and director Terry Guest (The Magnolia Ballet, Marie Antoinette and the Magical Negroes); singer, songwriter, director, and educator Maggie Brown; storyteller, singer, and multidisciplinary teaching artist Zahra Glenda Baker; dancer and educator Elisabeth YJ Seonwoo aka Kerberus; and actor, director, choreographer, and playwright Wai Yim (a cofounder of Token Theatre, which is presenting When the Sun Melts Away this weekend at the Greenhouse Theater Center).

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Death is an often unwelcome teacher. It descends into our lives suddenly, without warning, or takes its sweet time. No matter when it finds us, Grief is right behind Death, bringing myriad reactions that we do not always see coming. Such is life for Jess in Emily Schwend’s A Mile in the Dark, when Jess and her father Roger must deal with the sudden death of Carol, Jess’s beloved stepmother. 

A Mile in the DarkThrough 12/11: Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Mon 11/28 8 PM and Wed 12/7 8 PM, no performances Sat 11/19 and Thu 11/24; Rivendell Theatre, 5779 N. Ridge, 773-334-7728, interrobangtheatreproject.org or rivendelltheatre.org, $35 ($25 seniors; limited number of pay what you can tickets at each performance)

Schwend’s play, making its world premiere with Interrobang and Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, is 90 minutes of sideways glances, awkward silences, and stumbling words. While that series of events can be the harbinger of death for most live theater, those moments of discomfort are Schwend’s bread and butter as a storyteller. Death is messy, so it is fitting that the fallout is just as uncomfortable. This keen playwright has a tight grip on naturalism that few dare to approach. 

Director Georgette Verdin’s ensemble cast meticulously assembles this slice-of-life drama into moments so many would wish away. Liz Sharpe as distanced childhood friend Kayla rounds out the bristling moments between Roger (a varied Keith Kupferer) and perfectly pensive Laura Berner Taylor as Jess. As Jess tries to piece together the final moments of her stepmother’s life, we observe with bated breath the most uncomfortable realization: that we never really know someone. 

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Death is an often unwelcome teacher. It descends into our lives suddenly, without warning, or takes its sweet time. No matter when it finds us, Grief is right behind Death, bringing myriad reactions that we do not always see coming. Such is life for Jess in Emily Schwend’s A Mile in the Dark, when Jess and her father Roger must deal with the sudden death of Carol, Jess’s beloved stepmother. 

A Mile in the DarkThrough 12/11: Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Mon 11/28 8 PM and Wed 12/7 8 PM, no performances Sat 11/19 and Thu 11/24; Rivendell Theatre, 5779 N. Ridge, 773-334-7728, interrobangtheatreproject.org or rivendelltheatre.org, $35 ($25 seniors; limited number of pay what you can tickets at each performance)

Schwend’s play, making its world premiere with Interrobang and Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, is 90 minutes of sideways glances, awkward silences, and stumbling words. While that series of events can be the harbinger of death for most live theater, those moments of discomfort are Schwend’s bread and butter as a storyteller. Death is messy, so it is fitting that the fallout is just as uncomfortable. This keen playwright has a tight grip on naturalism that few dare to approach. 

Director Georgette Verdin’s ensemble cast meticulously assembles this slice-of-life drama into moments so many would wish away. Liz Sharpe as distanced childhood friend Kayla rounds out the bristling moments between Roger (a varied Keith Kupferer) and perfectly pensive Laura Berner Taylor as Jess. As Jess tries to piece together the final moments of her stepmother’s life, we observe with bated breath the most uncomfortable realization: that we never really know someone. 

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