RON KEATON, SOLO CHICAGO & LIFE IN THE THEATRE - CONVERSATIONS MARCH 23, 2016

The following is the first live recorded program of Conversations with Ed Tracy at the Skokie Theatre. It was a somewhat different format with an opening essay about our plans for the program followed by an introduction of the superb actor, writer, producer and director Ron Keaton.  Ed 3/23/17 

RON KEATON, producer, actor and writer of the acclaimed Churchill one-man show was our first guest for Conversations with Ed Tracy at the Skokie Theatre on March 23, 2016. Ron discussed his long-time acting career, future goals for SoloChicago and performed a monologue from his 2015 Joseph Jefferson Award-winning performance of Churchill.

Ron Keaton on Winston Churchill’s human side:
 
“Most people think of Churchill as the august, bombastic, commanding presence and he was all of that. I wanted a more human side to show. I wanted people to know that he had a family and five children. And that he did worry about his failures. He was just as human as the rest of us.”
 
Ron Keaton on creating a legacy:
 
“I’m at a point in my life where the work I want to do not just as an actor or a person is rapidly becoming legacy… I don’t have children. I don’t have a family like a nuclear unit, so my work personally has to be what I leave behind. Solo Chicago Theatre for me is my idea of leaving something behind for others to enjoy and to learn from and to play with. ... We want SoloChicago Theatre Company to be the brand for solo performance in the United States.”
 
Ron Keaton on aging:
 
“You’re never too old to learn something new, and that’s where I’m at.”

Learn more about booking Solo Chicago Theatre Company
productions of Churchill and The Unfortunates HERE

RELATED LINKS FOR RON KEATON AND SOLOCHICAGO

SOLOCHICAGO: WEBSITE
RON KEATON PERFORMS KEATON (CHICAGO TRIBUNE): AUGUST 14, 2014
MOVING BEYOND 'THE MONOPOLY MAN' 
(CHRIS JONES TRIBUNE): SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

SHELDON PATINKIN UNPLUGGED

SHELDON PATINKIN (1935-2014) helped shape the Chicago comedy and theatre scene as a writer, performer and director for well over six decades. He served as the longtime Chairman of the Theatre Department at Columbia College Chicago and was part of perhaps the greatest generation of Chicago improvisers, playing an integral role in the evolution of The Second City.

On September 19, 2013, as we prepared for the third episode of our PBS show Chicago Conversations, Sheldon Patinkin joined Ed for a wide-ranging conversation about his career, the development of The Second City and many of the extraordinary comedians he has worked with over the years. While portions of the interview appeared in our television show, Second City: First in Funny, this podcast is the audio track of the studio interview with Sheldon Patinkin -- unplugged and at his best -- in what is believed to be his last long-format interview.

Sheldon Patinkin on what he looked for in a student/performer while at Second City:
“The ability to relate to the others, the ability to take what you get and respond to it, and the ability to stop looking for laughs and jokes … I have a preference for the kind of improviser/actor who can become the next character instead of making the next character like themselves … that was Alan Arkin, that was Steve Carell – who is one of the best improvisers out of character that we ever had at Second City … as opposed to both Belushis … you could always tell it was Belushi … you could always tell it was John Candy, but they were so good at it that was fine too.”

A sampling of Sheldon Patinkin's one-word descriptions: 
Bill Murray: “Funny.”
Dan Akroyd: “Tough.”
John Candy: “Sweetheart.”

Sheldon Patinkin’s advice to aspiring comedians/actors:
“You have to be willing to fail … willing to not get an audition … willing to not get a call back… not willing, but you have to be able to handle it.  If you start getting depressed about it, then go find something else because you’re going to be a waiter the rest of your life.”

RELATED LINKS:
CHICAGO CONVERSATIONS - SECOND CITY: FIRST IN FUNNY: VIDEO
WGN RADIO - BILL LEFF AND WENDY SNYDER: INTERVIEW
SHELDON PATINKIN OBITUARY(CHRIS JONES TRIBUNE): SEPTEMBER 21, 2014

ETHAN MICHAELI AND CHRIS JONES

New Podcasts Now Online. But first ...

Friday, July 15, 2016 - News of the terrorist attack in Nice, France yesterday delayed our posting of these programs out of respect for the victims of this horrific, senseless attack. These attacks, and the lawless nature of unrest across our country, are grim reminders of the evil that exists in our world and the disregard for human life that stems from bigotry and hatred. 

Now more than ever we need to continue the conversation, remain passionate and respectfully committed to preserving life across our social spectrum and insure the safety and well-being of all of our children. 

The study of history provides insight into our lives. It is in this spirit and in recognition of the importance of an on-going dialogue, that we are making our discussion about race relations in the 20th century available through this podcast today.

Our Conversations FTA podcast features a spirited and engaging 2013 conversation with Chicago Tribune theater critic Chris Jones.  ET

ETHAN MICHAELI

ETHAN MICHAELI
author of
THE DEFENDER
How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (January 2016)
 
Ethan Michaeli is an award-winning author, publisher and journalist based in Chicago. He was a copy editor and investigative reporter at The Defender from 1991 to 1996. Ethan joined us for the debut of Conversations with Ed Tracy at the Skokie Theatre on March 23rd to discuss his new book, The Defender.

ETHAN MICHAELI on the role of The Defender during the Great Migration:
 
“With the migration from the south, The Defender becomes an even more important way for people to keep in touch with the communities that they’d left behind. So you’d have people essentially writing to each other, kind of communicating the way we would today on social media through Facebook … as a way to tell people 'Hey I'm in the city … I have a job … I’m doing well …you should come too.' The Defender was directly responsible for doubling the African American community in Chicago during World War I from about 50,000 people to around 100,000.”
 
ETHAN MICHAELi on The Defender’s coverage of Emmett Till’s death and the graphic images that ran on the front page:
 
“Those images, those stark images, went around the country and landed like a bomb, everywhere. People frankly were somewhat inure to the news of lynching in the south, these kind of things happened fairly often and the reports were coming out on a regular basis. Earlier in the 20th century, white newspapers in the south had advertised lynching in the sense that they had said 'there will be a lynching on Tuesday night … this is where you should come' …  so it wasn’t that lynching was a covert operation. It had just changed into something that suddenly to the vast majority of Americans became unacceptable with the photos of Emmett Till … that really was a dramatic moment that started to see a real change in public opinion about that issue, about extrajudicial violence against African Americans.”

ETHAN MICHAELI on current race relations:
 
“I started the book with an assumption of progress. Yes, maybe things were moving along slowly but they’re moving along. By the time I finished the book, I wasn’t seeing progress. I was seeing change. I was seeing that things are possible today in the sense of an African American president that weren’t possible decades ago, but, at the same time, it was hard to escape that things had gotten so much worse for an entire class of people … Emmett Till maybe could not have become president, but the infrastructure was there so he could have become a successful business person, a scholar ….  Whereas LaQuan McDonald … we gave up on LaQuan a long time before he got to that corner where he was killed by the police. He never had a chance to really make much of himself, and we as a society didn’t provide him with that chance. That’s tragic.”

CHRIS JONES

CONVERSATIONS FTA (From The Archive)

 CHRIS JONES
author of
Bigger, Better, Louder: 150 Years of Chicago Theater as seen by "Chicago Tribune" Critics
University of Chicago Press (October 4, 2013)

Chris Jones, chief theater critic and a Sunday culture columnist for the Chicago Tribune, joined the conversation at the Hubbard Inn on November 19, 2013 to discuss his new book. 

Also featured in this episode: a performance by World War II veteran Judy Brubaker, who played the role of Ms. Leach in the original Chicago cast of Grease in 1971.

CHRIS JONES on Claudia Cassidy and Richard Christiansen:
 
“The Tribune had two critics who held the job for most of the 20th century … one of them was Claudia Cassidy and one was Richard Christiansen. … They were very different critics. One was largely despised by the people she covered and one was largely beloved by the people he covered. One was known for vitriolic prose – horribly nasty prose in some cases, by today’s standards anyway – and one was known for a certain courtly gentlemanly understanding. And yet, both of them at their different periods of time, seemed to give this city what it really needed.”
 
Read more about Grease HERE
Stay up-to-date by visiting our website at: www.conversationswithedtracy.com.

CONVERSATIONS PODCAST - KIT GRAHAM & JOCELYN DELK ADAMS

As successful social media entrepreneurs, bloggers and cook book authors, Kit Graham and Jocelyn Delk Adams, know a thing or two about “likes” and “followers.” Both joined me for Conversations at the Skokie Theatre on June 22nd to discuss their careers in food, travel and beyond. You can hear the entire Conversations podcast HERE.   

Jocelyn Delk Adams and Kit Graham join the conversation ...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

Kit Graham on building a following through blogging and social media:

“It’s really just a matter of creating consistent content over a long period of time and finding people who engage with that content and reaching people on different platform. Some people use Facebook, some use Instagram, others use Twitter, some are on Snapchat, some use all of them, but they don’t check all of them every day. For me it’s been a lot of diversifying to reach a larger audience and try to maintain the consistency across all of the platforms and to vary them to fit the platform.”  

Jocelyn Delk Adams on the importance of a good photo:

“Being a blogger requires that you wear lots of hats. Whether it’s the promotional side for social media or the photography side, we spend a lot of time really working on our crafts and really developing that [photography] because when you go to someone’s website or open a cook book, you want to see photos that will make you cook or make you bake. You want to look at a picture and say ‘I’m hungry, Like I gotta have that’ … If I can get that response from people, that’s half the job.”

CONVERSATIONS PODCAST - JAMES SHERMAN - THE BEN HECHT SHOW

The Ben Hecht Show, starring long-time Chicago playwright and actor James Sherman, is playing at the Piven Theatre, Noyes Cultural Center in Evanston through July 17th. Jim sat down with me for a conversation on June 22nd at the Skokie Theatre. You can hear the entire Conversations with Ed Tracy podcast at: James Sherman Podcast. [ Jim and I will be appearing again in a talk back at the Piven on July 3rd following the 3:00 p.m. performance. For tickets: Ben Hecht]

James Sherman on an evolving Jewish consciousness:

“As I’m reading this book “A Guide for the Bedeviled” which is his [Ben Hecht’s] memoir, what got me excited was he is talking about his assimilated Jewish upbringing, which was just like my upbringing. He talks about his growing Jewish consciousness in the face of anti-Semitism ...  and that call to action, that question that pops up in one’s mind, [which is] in the face of this anti-Semitism, what is my response to that? And if you accept the fact that there must be a response then that connects you to your Jewishness in a way that one has never had before.”

James Sherman’s advice to aspiring actors:

“I think when you’re young you should try everything, any opportunity that comes along is worth pursuing, within obvious parameters …

On type casting: "I understand that, but the root word in type cast is "cast"

On the Chicago theater community: "If you really want to get started in the business, Chicago is the place to do it."

The Ben Hecht Show

So many reasons to see James Sherman's brilliant work in The Ben Hecht Show now playing at the Piven Theatre through July 17th. I'll join Jim for a post-performance discussion and Q & A following the 3:00 p.m. matinee on Sunday, July 3rd. Hope to see you there! 

THE BEN HECHT SHOW

Written and Performed by James Sherman

Directed by Dennis Zacek

Produced by Grippo Stage Company

The Piven Theatre, Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes Ave., Evanston

Tickets: Grippo Stage Company