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Why I’m voting for Denyseon March 6, 2020 at 3:57 pm

The Amused Curmudgeon

Why I’m voting for Denyse

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2020 Toyota Highlander Hybrid – Roadblazing.com First Drive – Eight Moved Extra Efficientlyon March 6, 2020 at 5:46 pm

Drive…He Said

2020 Toyota Highlander Hybrid – Roadblazing.com First Drive – Eight Moved Extra Efficiently

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2020 Toyota Highlander Hybrid – Roadblazing.com First Drive – Eight Moved Extra Efficientlyon March 6, 2020 at 5:46 pm Read More »

What the Constitution Means to Me lands in Chicagoon March 5, 2020 at 7:20 pm

Heidi Schreck’s 2017 play What the Constitution Means to Me might be one of the more unlikely shows to make the leap to Broadway in recent years, winning a Tony nomination for best play and becoming a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in drama. (A lecture-recreation of debates about the meaning of U.S. citizenship that isn’t a musical? Wild!)

In the play, Schreck recounts her time as a teenage whiz on the U.S. Constitution. She participated in debates on the document at American Legion posts and other venues that helped her earn money for college. But she also reflects on the limitations of the Constitution in truly guaranteeing equal rights under the law, tying it in with the history of domestic violence suffered by women in her own family tree. (If you’ve never read up on the case Jessica Gonzales v. United States of America, prepare to be outraged and chilled.) The second half of the show (directed by Oliver Butler) features Schreck’s character going toe-to-toe with actual teenage debaters, and there’s also some audience interaction as we’re asked to consider whether it’s time to start over with a new Constitution or work harder to improve the one we already have.

Schreck isn’t on tour with the show, since she is expecting twins. So her friend and Broadway vet Maria Dizzia (also known to fans of Orange Is the New Black for her performance as Polly Harper) is doing the honors, joined by Mike Iveson and Rosdely Ciprian from the original Broadway production and Jocelyn Shek, who joined the cast in Los Angeles. She talks about what it’s like being Heidi onstage and what the Constitution means to her. The following is edited from a longer interview.

What is it like playing someone you know?

I saw the play four times, so I have a sense of the self that Heidi brought on stage with her. When you’re watching someone and you see them doing something, it kind of lives in you a little bit as an audience member. I had that sense going into it. So when I was rehearsing it I always tried to access that memory that I had of what it felt like to be in the presence of that person and find that in myself.

I never really tried to imitate Heidi totally, because it felt a little bit that how the play lives is that it’s just asking whoever is doing it to be their authentic self. The thing that is most important to the play is that you feel like the person on the stage is talking to you, not that there’s a persona.

One of the things that’s great about knowing Heidi for such a long time and actually seeing part of the process is that she was really able to tell me what she was thinking about. So often that’s the one thing that you don’t get when you’re working on a play. You have lines and you start to develop a sense of who the character is, but you have to figure out how to go from one line to the next. Heidi was able to tell me exactly what she thought about when she was performing onstage–why she included certain things in the play, how she felt in moments.

And there were some interesting differences. Who Heidi was as a 15-year-old is different than who I was. There are obviously some similarities, but early on when we were working on things, I would be reticent or pulling back. I don’t think I was as exuberant as a 15-year-old as she was. It’s funny, but in rehearsal one day, the director said to me after I did this one speech–you know how she talks about her competitor, Becky Dobbler? [In the play, Dobbler offers the warm-and-fuzzy analysis that the Constitution is “a patchwork quilt,” whereas Schreck counters, “It is not a patchwork quilt. It is hot and sweaty. It is a crucible.”]

He said to me, “That was good, but I think that version was more like Becky Dobbler.” And if I’m really honest with myself, I think I was a little more of a Becky Dobbler when I was 15, and that somebody like Heidi would have come along and swept the floor with me. So that’s something that is really exciting, to access that part of myself and that exuberance, that sense of freedom and having a passion that just overtakes you. And I have to say that working on this has been so beneficial to me as an adult. Trying to find that 15-year-old self has actually informed the freedom and the joy I feel throughout the play.

There are actual teen debaters in the show who join you in debating the Constitution in the second half. What do you think it’s been like for them?

Jocelyn is from LA. Rosdely has been with the play since its inception. She started working on the play when she was 12. Jocelyn is 14, and she’s traveling with us from LA to Chicago. It’s the first play she’s ever been in. She’s so astounding. The challenges of being from LA and performing for–you know a lot of times students come to the play and they’re from LA. So there’s that feeling of performing for your peers. And now I’m excited to see her in Chicago and performing for people who don’t have any idea who she is. That’s a whole other challenge.

The play itself feels like a living document because of all the changes that are happening with the courts and legislatures. Virginia just ratified the Equal Rights Amendment, for example. Is there room in the show for acknowledging these breaking developments?

The second half of the play is the debate. That’s the section that allows for that. So the debate is updated every day. Everybody contributes to it. The stage managers, the director, Heidi, the debaters, myself–we all talk about things that we’ve read and that we want to include in the debate. Obviously Virginia has been a huge part of that and now that the House has voted to revoke the time constraints [on ERA ratification], we’re waiting to see what the Senate will say. The debate is really the place where Heidi allows for that growth to happen and for the play to always be speaking to the current moment.

What was your experience as a youth debater like?

I remember how it felt to do that, to have memorized a speech or to have written my own speech and be delivering it for the first time. You learn a little bit of oration. Just like Heidi worked with her parents, I worked with my parents. I remember things I learned in my English class to incorporate them into my speech, like the anaphora in Mark Antony’s funeral speech in Julius Caesar–“and Brutus is an honorable man.”

Two things have been very important. First is remembering the way in which [during the debate] there’s this moment where you felt like your whole self is at the ready, and I think that’s part of what Heidi likes about it so much. Her creative self and her intellectual self and her social self –putting it out there and just being up in front of everybody and allowing yourself to be a target so much.

I also have to say I forgot so much about what makes debate successful and I’m not as great a debater as Heidi was. So really I’ve learned so much from Jocelyn and Rosdely. I listen to the way that they debate and I try to mimic them and I hear the way they make points. Rosdely has this very authoritative stillness that I try to copy.


Do you get student audiences who are debaters as well?

We have debate clubs come to the show. Just the other day a school came and it was about 15 students who are all debaters. And they came backstage afterwards and Jocelyn spoke to them. It’s always great to have them in the audience. Just to hear the perspective. It makes it feel more immediate. With older audiences, there are aspects of it that are more of a memory play for them, a little bit. But when the audience is really mixed with young and old, the play just has this really great immediacy.

Are audiences surprised by the amount of interaction and buy-in the show requires of them?
I find that really the play invites people into it from the beginning, because the play starts with the lights up. So that tells everyone that they’re a part of it and that they’re not being shut out right from the top. Audiences are really vocal and they’re really vocal right at the top because I think there’s a real understanding that they’re being included.

How much did you have to bone up on the Constitution? And do you have a favorite amendment now?

Good question. I have to say, I was really investigating the Constitution for the first time. I didn’t encounter it as a student. I did take American history but there wasn’t a class I ever had where we looked at it really closely. Also I think that most of the time you focus on the Bill of Rights. So Heidi gave me a book called The Citizens’ Constitution by Seth Lipsky and I looked at that. Also the book that she mentions in the play that she used to prepare [as a teen]–Your Rugged Constitution. Which is an awesome book. There’s a line [in the play], “There are little cartoons that explain all the amendments to you.” And I actually did find that to be very helpful.

I think the 14th Amendment is the one she goes into depth in and that really is the amendment that has been so remarkable to me. It’s part of the Reconstruction Amendments and it was able to be used to get rights for some other people. And the thing that is really amazing to me is that later in the play, there’s the idea of the 14th Amendment being such an important key to people’s freedom in the United States. And then after the Jessica Gonzales decision, feminist legal scholars said it was the death of the 14th Amendment for women. [The U.S. Supreme Court held that Gonzales, a Colorado woman with a restraining order against her abusive estranged husband, could not claim her 14th Amendment rights were violated because the police refused to enforce the order.] And that is something that every night I feel like I reckon with a little bit. Because it’s such a powerful thing that women have been shut out of. v






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An Exclusive Pop-Up Dome Dining Experience Is Coming to the Magnificent Mileon March 5, 2020 at 10:27 pm

Dinner With A View is a brand-new pop-up dome dining experience on the Magnificent Mile. Formerly touching down in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, Dinner With A View is now making its way to Chicago. Guests can enjoy a three-course, blind tasting menu while enjoying views of Michigan Avenue from within a beautiful and intimate geodesic dome. From April 1 – May 10, 2020, Pioneer Court will be decked out in these frameless, see-through domes, transformed into terrariums that each highlight different terrains found throughout the world.

pop-up dome dining
Photo Credit: Dinner With A View

Pop-up dome dining reservations can accommodate four to six guests, starting at $79.99 (usually $199.99) when they sign up for the Chicago mailing list on their website. Dinner reservations begin at $109.99 per guest, and seatings will be held Wednesdays and Thursdays at 6 pm and 8:15 pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 5:30 pm, 7:30 pm, and 9:30 pm, and Sundays at 5 pm, 7 pm, and 9 pm. Beverages are not included in this price, but are available for an extra rate while you’re dining in. This exclusive experience is only here for a month, so make sure to secure your tickets before they fill up!



Photo Credit: Dinner With A View

Beyond this original concept? Chef Dan Smith and Chef Gald Gand, who have collaborated for the past decade on the Food Network, hosting cooking shows, and even starting the two-year pop-up burger joint, Spritzburger, in Lakeview. Now, they’ve settled on a few pre-selected menus for meat-eaters, fish-eaters, and vegans, so that all can enjoy this unique pop-up dome dining experience.



At UrbanMatter, U Matter. And we think this matters.

Tell us what you think matters in your neighborhood and what we should write about next in the comments below!



Featured Image Credit: Dinner With A View





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An Exclusive Pop-Up Dome Dining Experience Is Coming to the Magnificent Mileon March 5, 2020 at 10:27 pm Read More »

What’s New With The Chicago Fire FC?on March 5, 2020 at 10:51 pm

The MLS season officially started this past weekend and fans of Chicago Fire FC have a whole new team to root for this year. Under new ownership, the team went through a complete rebrand this offseason with a new logo and jerseys. The Chicago Fire FC also return to playing games at Soldier Field this season, after leaving in 2006. Keeping track of all these changes is definitely no easy task. We’ve got the breakdown on all things new, and what to anticipate for the 2020 season!



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Missed these moments 😍



A post shared by Chicago Fire FC (@chicagofire) on Mar 2, 2020 at 12:08pm PST



What’s New With The Chicago Fire FC?

To start things off, the team changed their name to Chicago Fire FC under new owner Joe Mansueto. Another part of their rebrand includes a fresh new look, with new jerseys and team logo. Ownership is hoping these changes will help build a new identity for the team who struggles to compete with other professional teams in the city. The club also made the move back to Soldier Field, after spending 14 years playing at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview.

Changing out logos and switching venues aren’t the only moves the team made this offseason. The team also made plenty of changes to their coaching staff and roster. Some of these moves included hiring Raphael Wicky as the new head coach,  Georg Heitz as the new sporting director, and Sebastian Pelzer as the new technical director. The new coaching staff didn’t hesitate in making moves as the team has acquired 12 new players after 14 have left from last season. Some of the key additions to the Chicago Fire FC squad are Robert Beric, Ignacio Aliseda, Gaston Gimenez, Miguel Angel Navarro, Boris Sekulic, and Luka Stojanovic.



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Seattle in seven short days. #MLSisBack

A post shared by Chicago Fire FC (@chicagofire) on Feb 23, 2020 at 3:31pm PST



The 2020 Season

After an 8th place finish in the east last season, the team is hoping all the new changes will spell out success for the future. Of course, an entirely new roster, coaching staff, and venue means things might not go the smoothest, but there’s still hope. Last season, the Chicago Fire finished with a record of 10W-12L-12D and failed to qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs.



In their season opener last Sunday, the team fell 2-1 to the Seattle Sounders. While it’s not the start they were hoping for, there’s still plenty of time to improve. The Chicago Fire FC will take on the New England Revolution in their next match on March 7th!

At UrbanMatter, U Matter. And we think this matters.

Tell us what you think matters in your neighborhood and what we should write about next in the comments below!

Featured Image Credit: Chicago Fire Instagram

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Chicago Week in Craft Beer, March 9-12on March 5, 2020 at 4:57 pm

The Beeronaut

Chicago Week in Craft Beer, March 9-12

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Chicago Week in Craft Beer, March 9-12on March 5, 2020 at 4:57 pm Read More »

Is Pence ticketed for the ash heap of history?on March 5, 2020 at 7:19 pm

The Quark In The Road

Is Pence ticketed for the ash heap of history?

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Thattu Chicago: James Beard semifinalist for best new restauranton March 5, 2020 at 7:37 pm

A Bite of Chicago

Thattu Chicago: James Beard semifinalist for best new restaurant

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‘Don’t Wanna Hold Your Hand’ — a ballad for virus seasonon March 5, 2020 at 9:08 pm

Margaret Serious

‘Don’t Wanna Hold Your Hand’ — a ballad for virus season

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‘Don’t Wanna Hold Your Hand’ — a ballad for virus seasonon March 5, 2020 at 9:08 pm Read More »