Best of Chicago 2014: Arts & Culture

on June 25, 2014 at 7:00PM

Best of Chicago 2014: Arts & Culture

Best 15-Minute Horror Show

Audience Annihilated Part Two: Gold Star Sticker

by Marissa Oberlander on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Dream Theatre Company, 5026 N. Lincoln, 773-552-8616, dreamtheatrecompany.com Already known for thoroughly immersive theater experiences, Dream Theatre sealed its standing with Jeremy Menekseoglu's Halloween show Audience Annihilated Part Two: Gold Star Sticker, the most chillingly horrific 15 minutes I've endured in recent memory.

Best Performance by an 89-Year-Old (and One of the Better Ones by Anyone of Any Age)

Mike Nussbaum in Smokefall

by Tony Adler on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, 312-443-3800, goodmantheatre.org I first saw Mike Nussbaum act nearly 50 years ago, at Hull House Theater in Lakeview.

Best Three-Hit Run by a Theater Raising $31 Million

Port Authority, Hedda Gabler, and The Dance of Death at Writers Theatre

by Tony Adler on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

325 Tudor Ct., Glencoe, 847-242-6000, writerstheatre.org Several Chicago-area theater troupes are developing new facilities right now, but nobody's got sexier blueprints than Writers Theatre.

Best Use of Daft Punk

Steppenwolf's Russian Transport

by Kate Schmidt on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Since its release last spring, Daft Punk's megahit "Get Lucky" has been everywhere—on the dance floor, on the radio in the grocery store, on the Grammys (it was named Record of the Year), even on its own line of Durex condoms. This spring Steppenwolf's Russian Transport used it to deliver dread.

Best Full Frontal for a Cause

Elevator Repair Service's Arguendo

by Marissa Oberlander on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

About as far from dry as the live staging of a Supreme Court oral argument could be, Arguendo, presented by New York-based group Elevator Repair Service at the MCA this spring, reached its climax with a lawyer stripping down to his birthday suit. The case?

Best Theater Lobby That Makes You Wish Intermission Would Never End

Den Theatre

by Aimee Levitt on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Yes, yes, we Chicagoans are blessed to live in such a terrific theater town, where you can see something tremendous even in the most humble storefront black box populated with non-Equity actors. But here's the thing about those storefronts: most of them just don't have the budget for comfortable seating.

Best Dada Primer Without the Urinals

Striding Lion Performance Groups's Dada Gert

by Jena Cutie on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Striding Lion's Annie Arnoult Beserra can tuck a manifesto into a dance so it's visible just under the surface, like a hand in a hand puppet. In the evening-length Dada Gert, she and her dancers slip into readymade roles—whore, wet nurse, witch, pimp, angel, waiter—and spin them into kaleidoscopic combinations.

Best Behind-the-Scenes Dance Series

Links Hall's Peep Show

by Jena Cutie on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Links Hall at Constellation, 3111 N. Western, 773-281-0824, linkshall.org The hottest blind date in dance is the series of unconventional collaborations going on at Links Hall.

Best Drunk

Sean Flannery

by Kevin Warwick on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

You don't really have a problem if it morphs into a funny story, right? Sean Flannery has long been the local comic embodiment of Alcoholics Anonymous, spewing forth enough anecdotes about his booze-soaked pratfalls to deter even the most red-nosed drinker from ordering another.

Best Comedian to Enjoy in Chicago Now, Before We Inevitably Lose Her to LA

Candy Lawrence

by Brianna Wellen on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

To call comedian Candy Lawrence a stand-up would be a misnomer. She's more like a run-and-jump-and-dance-up.

Best Revival of a Stand-Up Standby

The Lincoln Lodge

by Brianna Wellen on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Open run: Fridays 8 PM, Subterranean, 2011 W. North, thelincolnlodge.com, $10 When the Lincoln Restaurant abruptly shut its doors in December 2013, we didn't lose just the old-school Civil War-themed diner; stand-up showcase the Lincoln Lodge was suddenly without a home, and the 14-year-old institution—which boasts such alumni as Hannibal Buress, Natasha Leggero, and Kyle Kinane—was put in jeopardy.

Best Culture Podcast

Nerdette

by Brianna Wellen on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Thanks to ever-increasing access to technology, the world of podcasting is quickly becoming oversaturated with any and everyone holding opinions and a handy recording device. The ladies of the Nerdette podcast, Tricia Bobeda and Greta Johnsen, stand out amid all the chatter because of their refined radio technique (the two met in the trenches of WBEZ, where Bobeda is a producer) and their uncanny ability to bring out the nerd in everyone: on one episode they discuss science-fiction novels with former NFL punter Chris Kluwe, on another they trade lines from Arrested Development with Denise Kiernan, author of The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II.

Best Queer-Friendly Multimedia Variety Show

Upstairs/Downstairs at the Bijou Theater

by Drew Hunt on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Third Thursday of every month, 8 PM, 1349 N. Wells, 312-943-5397, facebook.com/upstairs.downstairs.54 The notorious Bijou, a gay porn house and sex club around since 1970, is now home to Upstairs/Downstairs, a delightfully eclectic, enlightening, raucous, bizarre, and sexually explicit variety showcase that's been playing the Old Town institution since February.

Best Chicago-Based Webseries Costarring Chicago

Young Couple

by Kevin Warwick on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Granted, this 13-episode venture created by and starring Brandon Ogborn, Brianna Baker, and Mike Malarkey doesn't really bask in its Chicagoness. Its true focus is on newlyweds Chris and Nic, played by Ogborn and Baker respectively, as they comedically and often dramatically navigate the ins and outs of the bedroom, the still-distant prospect of parenthood, and the introduction of an irksome ex-husband (Malarkey) into the couple's still-fresh relationship.

Best Sculpture With Everything Including the Kitchen Sink

Mike's Pan Tree

by Steve Bogira on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

4400 S. Western What would Joyce Kilmer make of the tree on the grassy boulevard in Brighton Park?

Best Gem of an Exhibit at an Art Museum Next to the Red Line

"From Heart to Hand: African American Quilts From the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts" at the DePaul Art Museum

by Noah Berlatsky on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

DePaul Art Museum, 935 W. Fullerton, 773-325-7506, museums.depaul.edu Steps from the Fullerton el stop, the DePaul Art Museum is comfortably cozy, just two floors, a handful of rooms on each—you can walk through the whole thing in 45 minutes.

Best Dead Artist Marketing Campaign

Vivian Maier

by Deanna Isaacs on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Current exhibits at Harold Washington Library Center, Chicago History Museum, Art Center Highland Park, College of DuPage, vivianmaier.com, vivianmaier.photography.com Marketing campaigns for dead artists are nothing new—think of all the hoopla for those long-gone French impressionists.

Best Act of Resurfacing

Northwestern University's Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art

by Laura Pearson on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Last August at Northwestern's Block Museum of Art, a pipe connected to the sprinkler system burst, showering the main gallery. No art was harmed in the deluge, but the building, designed by Dirk Lohan, sustained enough water damage to require it to reschedule its fall exhibit, "Steichen/Warhol: Picturing Fame," and close its doors till the end of the year.

Best Renovation of a Mag Mile Icon

Wrigley Building

by Marissa Oberlander on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

"What's old is new again" has always been a fashion shibboleth, but it sprang to life with the Wrigley Building's recent renovation. The shimmering bright-white landmark, designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White and informed by the Giralda Tower in Seville, became the Mag Mile's first statement piece when William Wrigley Jr.'s team finished the second tower in 1924.

Best Way to Grab a Slice of Immortality

StoryCorps recording booth

by Deanna Isaacs on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington, 800-850-4406 (for appointments), storycorps.org/locations/chicago It looks like we'll all be immortal for our Facebook friends, but if you're hankering for an audience that's a little broader, there's StoryCorps: all you have to do is lasso a partner and make an appointment for an audio recording session in the booth now permanently parked in the Chicago Cultural Center.

Best Artistic Repurposing of Reader Covers

Zachary Hart Baker's #blackmetalyourface

by Luca Cimarusti on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Is that Nocturo Culto of Darkthrone gracing the B Side of the Reader in full black-metal regalia? No, that's actually little old Lorde—it's just an issue that's passed through the hands of local artist Zachary Hart Baker.

Best Festival for Nerds, Geeks, and People Who Harbor Serious Crushes on Authors and Public Intellectuals

Chicago Humanities Festival

by Aimee Levitt on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

October 25-November 9, chicagohumanities.org In a different sort of world we'd grow up swapping cards with pictures and fun facts about our favorite economists, reading comic books about the adventures of physicists and anthropologists, and hanging up centerfolds of Paris Review interview subjects in our lockers.

Best New Book by a Former Chicago Golden Gloves Champ

The Old Neighborhood by Bill Hillmann

by Jerome Ludwig on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

"I didn't want my nose broken. I was the only one of my brothers who hadn't had it broken yet."

Best Use of Start-Up Mode by a Press No Longer in Start-Up Mode

Agate Publishing

by Jonathan Messinger on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Chicago's literary scene seems to be in perpetual start-up mode—a constant stream of newly launched reading series, websites, and presses means there's always some fresh blood. Back in 2003, Doug Seibold started Agate Publishing in just this vein, working out of his basement with, as he told the Reader in 2012, "a cell phone, a laptop, and a DSL line" and beginning with African-American fiction and business titles, both fields he'd worked in during his 15 years in local publishing.

Best Popular Historian

Paul Durica

by Aimee Levitt on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

There's plenty of Chicago history shut up in the city's libraries, museums, and archives, but there's also plenty of it sitting out on the streets in plain view. You just need the right guide to show you.

Best South-Side Filmmaking Collective

Bridgeport Film Club

by Drew Hunt on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Founded by Lance Eliot Adams in 2012, the Bridgeport Film Club is a group of independent producers, directors, editors, and screenwriters who help create and finance each other's movies. Through its Filmmaker Work Exchange program the club offers both established and aspiring artists access to its stable of screenwriters, storyboard artists, and crew members, provided they're willing to get their hands dirty on a fellow member's project in return.

Best Multiplex for Coffee

Showplace ICON

by Drew Hunt on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Showplace ICON may be my least favorite movie theater in the city. I hate the assigned seating, the faux VIP atmosphere, the way the light from the hallway leaks onto the screen even after the door is closed.

Best Exploitation, Cult, and Direct-to-Video Programmer

Katie Rife

by Drew Hunt on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

A long-standing member of the video-art collective Everything Is Terrible!, Katie Rife has great taste in garbage cinema. Last year she programmed the short-lived Wednesday Rewind, a weekly showcase of long-forgotten B and Z movies at the Logan Theatre that drew the kind of rowdy crowds the venue hosted in its grimy heyday.

Best Itinerant Programming

Chicago Film Archives

by Ben Sachs on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Some programming organizations make you eager to know what they'll show next; the nonprofit Chicago Film Archives makes you just as eager to know where they'll show next. In the last several months CFA has presented films (often on celluloid) all over town, from Comfort Station in Logan Square to Black Cinema House in South Shore to Constellation in Roscoe Village to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Streeterville.