Chicago Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman speaks during the team’s convention in Chicago in July 2018. Bowman and right-hand man Al MacIsaac were fired today. | Annie Rice/AP

Today’s update is a 5-minute read that will brief you on the day’s biggest stories.

Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

This afternoon will be partly sunny with a high near 56 degrees. Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low around 42. Tomorrow will be partly sunny with a high near 57 degrees.

Top story

Longtime Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman resigns in overhaul over sexual assault cover-up

Stan Bowman’s 12-year reign as the Blackhawks’ general manager and hockey operations president is over.

Bowman and right-hand man Al MacIsaac, formerly the two most powerful people in the Hawks’ hockey operations, were forced out today.

Their departures headline an organizational overhaul enacted after the release of findings from an investigation into the handling of allegations that former video coach Bradley Aldrich sexually assaulted two players shortly before the 2010 Stanley Cup championship.

Kyle Davidson, formerly the Hawks’ vice president of hockey strategy and analytics, will take over as interim general manager while the Hawks begin a search for a permanent replacement, CEO Danny Wirtz said in a Zoom meeting alongside Hawks chairman Rocky Wirtz.

“Rocky and I appreciate Stan’s dedication to the Blackhawks and his many years of work for the team,” Danny Wirtz said. “However, we and he ultimately accept that — in his first year as general manager — he made a mistake, alongside our other senior executives at the time, and did not take adequate action.”

“The team needs to focus on its future, and my continued participation would be a distraction,” Stan Bowman said as part of a statement. “I am deeply grateful to the Blackhawks for the chance to manage the team; to the players for their dedication; and to the fans for their tremendous support over the years. It has been an honor.”

Ben Pope has more on the staff changes here.

More news you need

Chicago police officers held another rally this morning in protest of the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, this time outside CPD headquarters. At the demonstration, union leader John Catanzara said his members would agree to COVID testing every day, but he’s still encouraging members to defy the mandate.

Authorities today released video of three suspects in the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old Azul De La Garza, who was sitting in a parked car in West Elsdon last month. De La Garza had spent the day with their mother and had just bought a Halloween costume, family said.

Labar “Bro Man” Spann — the alleged chief of the Four Corner Hustlers gang — took the witness stand today after federal prosecutors rested their case in his lengthy racketeering trial. The move signaled a potential early end to a trial that has lasted more than a month.
When it comes to explaining Chicago’s struggles with violence, local rappers and their lyrics are a frequent target, as are the radio stations and record companies that promote them. But many say the real issue is city officials’ historical failure to rectify systemic issues within marginalized communities, Evan F. Moore writes.

A bright one

E. Faye Butler conveys powerful tale in ‘Fannie Lou Hamer’ story

When Fannie Lou Hamer spoke to a committee at the 1964 Democratic National Convention during a live televised broadcast, the cameras cut away.

President Lyndon B. Johnson had called a spontaneous press conference at the White House, just to pull the focus from Hamer’s testimony of trying and failing to register to vote. The gambit didn’t go unnoticed, and Hamer’s testimony was replayed widely. Fannie Lou Hamer became a nationally known figure because the president would rather the country not know her name.

Cheryl L. West’s one-person play with music, “Fannie (The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer),” starts with this very scene of interruption and newfound fame. And as she goes back in time and through the story of Hamer’s life over the next intermission-less 70 minutes, West expresses quite clearly that her subject was as brave and resolute as one can imagine a human to be.

Liz Lauren
E. Faye Butler stars as 1960s civil rights and voting rights advocate Fannie Lou Hamer in “Fannie (The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer)” directed by Henry Godinez at the Goodman Theatre.

What takes this beyond a more traditional one-person play is the frequent incorporation of music. The songs take us beyond the facts of Hamer’s life and explore what steeled her.

E. Faye Butler shines as Hamer, as her musicality is deftly showcased in the mix of spirituals and protest songs threaded throughout the production.

Butler conveys Hamer’s story with great clarity and power. She captures how Hamer’s learning about her right to vote at the age of 44 compelled her to act. She puts deep conviction behind Hamer’s stalwart beliefs in freedom as well as her economic idealism — she founded a successful communal farm later in her life. She helps audiences see the weight and consequences of the responsibilities she took on, in particular, and poignantly, the exhaustion.

Steven Oxman has more on the Goodman Theatre production here.

From the press box

The Bulls have a good problem right now: Should Zach LaVine or DeMar DeRozan be their “closer”? Joe Cowley on the crunch-time conundrum.

More high school football playoffs previews, this time with Michael O’Brien making his predictions for the Class 6A bracket.

Bears offensive lineman Jason Peters says a unit badly in need of help should get it soon with Larry Borom and Teven Jenkins nearing their returns.
Sky fans will have an extra reason to tune into “The Bachelorette” on ABC tonight.

Your daily question ?

In honor of the Chicago Theatre celebrating its 100th birthday today, we want to know: What’s the best show you’ve seen there?

Email us (please include your first name and where you live) and we might include your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday we asked you: What do you think is Chicago’s defining music style? Here’s what some of you said…

“Chicago music is defined by the blues. From Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon to Buddy Guy, their influence on future generations of music can not be overstated.” — Howard Moore

“House Music. It was created here and changed the fabric of pop music worldwide.” — N. Felipe

“Everything! Blues, Jazz, Steppers, House, Hip Hop/Rap, R&B and so many others.” — Gail Rice

“Blues and the old garage bands (Ides of March, Buckinghams. New Colony Six, etc.)” — Linda Brons Douglas

“Blues, House and Footwork.” — Hugo Lopez

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The cast of Theater Wit’s production of “Mr. Burns, a post electric play” has been trained in the safe use of the “many, many guns” utilized in the production. | Charles Osgood Photography

Use of guns in Chicago stage productions comes with strict protocols, safety training

Days after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza was injured after actor Alec Baldwin fired a gun on the set of “Rust” during the filming of the movie in New Mexico, some Chicago theater workers say their procedures are safe and have no plans to stop using guns in stage productions here.

While they note one large difference between film and play production — real guns, meaning guns that have the ability to fire live rounds, are rarely used on theater stages — they say that blanks pose dangers as well, but point out that solid protocols are in place to ensure the safety of the actors and the audience.

“In theater, I never use any guns that can discharge anything from its barrel because they are dangerous,” said Rick Gilbert, partner in R&D Choreography, a Chicago based fight-choreography company that works with theater and film productions.

“The muzzle flash is a real important thing for movies so that’s why films often use real guns that are loaded with blanks. But nowadays there’s no reason for that because it’s easy to add muzzle flashing in after the fact,” Gilbert said.

“It is a rare occasion that a real gun is used on stage,” said Jim Guy, properties director at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Real guns are usually only used on stage for productions that are period pieces where a replica blank gun is not available, he added, noting also that using CGI effects to insert gun muzzle flashes can be cost-prohibitive for movies with lower budgets.

Guy, who served as president of the Society of Properties Artisan Managers for 16 years until this year, also has taught gun safety classes at theaters and universities since the 1980s. He said although the incident in New Mexico appears to have been the result of the use of a real gun, there are real dangers in using “blank guns” — defined as a gun that has a blocked barrel — because a blank gun still produces an explosion and discharges a cartridge and gas that can injure.

“There’s different types of blank-firing weapons,” Guy explained. “There’s front exhaust, top exhaust and side exhaust. For instance, with a top exhaust gun, you can point it straight at someone and pull the trigger and the shooter and the victim are the safest people in the room. If the exhaust goes to the side, the people in the side can potentially be in danger, but you have to run extensive tests to see how far that exhaust goes and then work according to those parameters.”

As on movie sets, blank guns used in theatrical productions are kept by a trained weapons master who gives the guns to the actor right before a scene calling for one, and then collects it as the actor comes off stage, and locks it away.

Theater companies in Chicago such as The Goodman, Theater Wit and others say they have no plans to stop producing plays that require the use of guns — pointing to the fact that they use only blank guns and follow strict protocols already.

“One of Goodman’s priorities is the production of new plays — and many plays emerging today address important topical societal issues, including those involving gun violence,” Scott Conn, director of production and operations at Goodman Theatre said in an email.

Gilbert said he just finished training the actors and crew at Lookingglass Theater for its production of “Her Honor Jane Byrne,” which opens Nov. 11 and includes the use of guns.

Liz Lauren
Ensemble member Christine Mary Dunford stars as the title character in the Lookigglass Theatre production of “Her Honor Jane Byrne.” The play, which opens Nov. 11, features the use of guns.

At Theater Wit, which is currently running “Mr. Burns, a post electric play,” a play that director Jeremy Wechsler said has “many, many guns,” there is no hesitation to stage plays with guns.

“The drill is the same for every show. One is hiring a violence designer who is certified in firearms,” Wechsler said. “They come in and train the cast and crew. They choreograph things like where you can point the gun, and it’s really about where the cartridge ejects. The barrel is filled with lead — it can’t shoot to the front — but the cartridge can eject and can do that with some force.”

Wechsler said to protect against ear damage actors can wear skin-colored earplugs, and actors rehearse with rubber guns that cannot fire. He noted that there has never been an injury at Theater Wit from a blank gun, but confirmed that there have been a few actors injured from swords, due to contact. Swords and knives, often used in live productions, follow similar safety protocols, Guy said.

“Everything is meticulously rehearsed. There is no such thing as improv when you’re swinging a sword or pushing a knife toward somebody,” Guy said. He added, however, that there will always be the potential for slip-ups. “Theater is essentially a living thing. Even if it’s always the same lines and same blocking, it’s human beings doing something live in front of you and there’s always a margin of error. But good fight choreographers make sure to eliminate as much of the margin of error as possible.”

Don Beltrame, co-owner of Suburban Sporting Goods in Melrose Park, agreed that just because a gun fires blanks, it doesn’t mean it is safe.

” It’s not just an audible noise; there is an explosion happening,” Beltrame said. But he believes non-lethal injuries are much more likely than fatalities from a blank gun.

“I don’t think a blank in most situations would kill. It might burn someone or hurt their eyes or ears,” Beltrame said.

David Wooley, a Chicago-based freelance fight choreographer who worked with the “Mr. Burns” cast and heads Columbia College’s stage combat program, said his main task is to protect the actors and the audience.

“The danger is from the ejecting of the cartridge and the venting of the gases. As a fight choreographer I’m looking at fields of fire to figure out where your evening is going so that you don’t hit actors on stage or audience members,” said Wooley, who also is a member of the Society of American Fight Directors, a group that promotes safety and teaches filmmakers and play producers stage combat skills.

Ken-Matt Martin, artistic director at Victory Gardens Theater, believes show producers will up the ante going forward when it comes to safety protocols involving weapons.

“Every producer needs to pay closer attention to the working conditions around the entire scenario. Whether it’s using fake cigarettes or guns, oftentimes it’s a matter of people moving too fast and not taking the time to put the proper safety precautions in place,” Martin said.

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Lewis, the lead sports anchor, is returning to his TV roots in Philadelphia, where he’ll be a news anchor at the CBS affiliate.

NBC 5 Chicago lead sports anchor Siafa Lewis is leaving the station for a news anchor job at the CBS affiliate in Philadelphia, the station announced today. Lewis’ last day is Nov. 4.

That station is hiring Leila Rahimi as a per diem for the sports department. She co-hosts the midday show on 670 The Score with Dan Bernstein.

Lewis is returning to his roots. He began his TV career at the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia as the weekend traffic reporter. He graduated from Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, Philadelphia suburb. Lewis joined NBC 5 in May 2014 as weekend sports anchor and reporter.

Rahimi joined The Score full-time in January, becoming the first woman to host a weekday daytime shift at the station. She spent five years at NBC Sports Chicago before being let go as part of layoffs companywide at NBCUniversal.

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Just four months after the Chicago Blackhawks were named in numerous lawsuits filed by a former player who says he was sexually assaulted by video coach Brad Aldrich in 2010, the team released a full report on Tuesday detailing what unfolded during the team’s Stanley Cup championship run 10 years ago. Shortly after the allegations […] Chicago Blackhawks: Team was aware of 2010 sexual assault – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

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Stan Bowman is no longer the general manager of the Blackhawks. | Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Major organizational changes are coming to the Hawks as part of the fallout from the team’s mishandling of 2010 sexual assault allegations.

The Chicago Blackhawks will be searching for new leadership after the team parted ways with its top two hockey executives Tuesday as part of the fallout from the scandal over the team’s handling of 2010 sexual assault allegations against former coach Bradley Aldrich.

Stan Bowman’s 12-year reign as the Blackhawks’ general manager and hockey operations president is over. Technically, he resigned from his position. Bowman’s right hand man, Al MacIsaac, was also forced out.

Their departures headline a major organizational overhaul after an independent investigation conducted by the Chicago law firm Jenner & Block, which said it interviewed 139 witnesses over the past four months.

Read our ongoing coverage of the allegations against Aldrich and the team’s handling of them below.

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Zendaya (pictured in “Dune”) is expected to be more prominent in the film’s sequel. | Warner Bros.

The sequel to Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi hit will be released only in theaters, studio says

“Dune” isn’t done.

Legendary Entertainment announced Tuesday that Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune,” which adapts the first half of Frank Herbert’s 1965 science-fiction epic, will get a sequel. Whether that would be the case had been an unanswered question throughout the film’s release, which was delayed a year by the pandemic and ultimately debuted both in theaters and on HBO Max.

Warner Bros. Chairman Toby Emmerich said the studio will release “Dune: Part II” in October 2023. This time, the release is expected to be exclusively in theaters. Arguing that “Dune” belonged to the big screen, Villeneuve had protested passionately when Warner Bros. turned to hybrid releases for all of its 2021 films due to the pandemic.

But Villeneuve had lobbied hard for a sequel to “Dune,” which he has said is easily the best movie he’s made. It stars Timothee Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa and Zendaya. Some actors, like Zendaya, would potentially have a larger role in part two.

“This is only the beginning,” said Villeneuve in a statement.

Over the weekend, “Dune” launched with a solid $40.1 million in ticket sales in U.S. and Canada theaters. “Dune,” a 155-minute $165-million movie that introduces itself as “Part 1,” has thus far grossed $225 million worldwide.

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The Chicago Blackhawks have been the topic of conversation on Tuesday. It is for all the wrong reasons and it has nothing to do with the fact that they are 0-5-1 and a disgrace of a hockey team on the ice. It has everything to do with the fact that they have been dealing with […] Chicago Blackhawks: Other NHL teams may be impacted by allegations – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

E. Faye Butler stars as 1960s civil rights and voting rights advocate Fannie Lou Hamer in “Fannie (The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer)” directed by Henry Godinez at the Goodman Theatre. | Liz Lauren

In “Fannie (The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer),” the songs take us beyond the facts of Hamer’s life into something deeper about what steeled her.

In 1964, at the Democratic National Convention, a woman new to the national stage spoke to a committee soon after Martin Luther King Jr. The committee meeting, about the seating a controversial all-white delegation from Mississippi, was being televised live.

Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer was a sharecropper from the Mississippi Delta, an area that has been labeled as the most Southern place on Earth. She was the youngest of 20 children, had spent nearly all of her life on plantations, and spoke with a type of drawl that made it clear she hadn’t been polished for the masses. Her authenticity, her straightforwardness, her readily apparent resoluteness gave her a special presence.

But when she started to tell her story of trying and failing to register to vote, the cameras suddenly cut away. President Johnson had called a spontaneous press conference at the White House, just to pull the focus from Hamer’s testimony. The gambit didn’t go unnoticed, and Hamer’s testimony was replayed widely. Fannie Lou Hamer became a nationally known figure because the president of the United States would rather the country not know her name.

Cheryl L. West’s one-person play with music, “Fannie (The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer)” starts with this very scene of interruption and newfound fame. And as she goes back in time and through the story of Hamer’s life over the next intermission-less 70 minutes, West expresses quite clearly that her subject was as brave and resolute as one can imagine a human to be.

What takes this beyond a more traditional one-person play is the frequent incorporation of music. As Hamer says early on, “Nothing like a song to find your truth in someone else’s story.” The songs take us beyond the facts of Hamer’s life into something deeper about what steeled her.

In West’s depiction, music is there when Hamer most needs it. When a white police officer pulls over a bus of protestors, who become silent in fear, Hamer sings to summon courage. When she’s beaten terribly for her efforts, leaving permanent damage, she sings to summon resolution and love. When her daughter passes away from an ailment partly due to malnutrition, and Hamer feels riddled not just with grief but with guilt, she sings to summon self-forgiveness.

The music, a mix of spirituals and protest songs, also makes the magnificent E. Faye Butler the perfect performer to play Fannie Lou Hamer. Actually, she would be pretty darn perfect even if there were no music, but it’s the singing that ultimately carries the most inspirational moments of this show.

Accompanied by three onstage musicians, Butler moves fluidly between speech and song, helped by lighting designer Jason Lynch. The model here is much less musical theater and more church service, with music as punctuation and expression of aspirational emotion. The band members — Deonte Brantley, Morgan E., and Felton Offard — provide occasional encouragement as well as background vocals, and the music direction from Offard invests the sound with 60s-ish jazz appropriate to the story.

Everything here under Henry Godinez’s direction — including the set (Collete Pollard), costumes (Michael Alan Stein), and projections (Rassean Davonte Johnson) — is intended to serve the focus on Butler’s Fannie, which is exactly as it should be, and Godinez is careful not to over-produce the theatrical elements that likely weren’t available when an abridged version of this piece was performed in Chicago parks last year during the extended shutdown of indoor theaters.

There are elements I wished there were more of. We don’t get much about Hamer’s early life, even though there’s a collection of Hamer recordings entitled “Songs My Mother Taught Me.” And we’re not ever quite led to understand what made LBJ so concerned about Hamer, that she didn’t present the image of the civil rights movement that politicians wanted to project. Butler presents a polished depiction of a woman known for presenting plainspoken groundedness.

That said, Butler conveys Hamer’s story with great clarity and power. She captures how Hamer’s learning about her right to vote at the age of 44 compelled her to act. She puts deep conviction behind Hamer’s stalwart beliefs in freedom as well as her economic idealism — she founded a successful communal farm later in her life. She helps us see the weight and consequences of the responsibilities she took on, in particular, and poignantly, the exhaustion.

After all, Martin Luther King is most famous for saying “I have a dream.” Fannie Lou Hamer’s most famous quote is the one on her gravestone: “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

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