An Interview with celebrated Evanston author Laurence Gonzales

April 19, 2016

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Photo by John German

Laurence Gonzales’s impressive list of literary achievements just got even longer.  Already the winner of two prestigious National Magazine Awards and the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, the bestselling Evanston author recently had the honor of seeing his acclaimed book Flight 232: A Story of Disaster and Survival adapted for the Chicago stage.  Titled “United Flight 232,” the House Theatre of Chicago production opened to rave reviews on March 11 and runs through May 1 at the Chopin Theatre.  But that’s not all.  On March 21, Gonzales was also named a Miller Scholar of the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) – an award previously received by author Neal Stephenson and actor-playwright Sam Shepard and given annually to “highly accomplished, creative thinkers who make profound contributions to our understandings of society, science, and culture.”  In celebration of all his good news, we recently spoke with Gonzales via email about the origins of Flight 232 and its journey to the stage, his plans for his twelve months at SFI, and his appreciation of the poet James Wright.

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An Interview with Jamil Khoury of Silk Road Rising

February 1, 2016

Jamil Khoury Silk Road Rising is a Chicago theatre company founded in 2002 with the mission of “telling stories through primarily Asian American and Middle Eastern American lenses.”  On Monday, February 8th at 7 pm, they join EPL in sponsoring the lecture “Shakespeare in the Middle East” featuring the former Syrian Minister of Culture and award-winning author Riad Ismat.  One of six February programs planned as part of #DiscoverWill: Illinois Libraries Celebrate Shakespeare’s First Folio, “Shakespeare in the Middle East” will explore the lengthy performance history of the Bard’s work in the region and how it connects today to a broader Middle Eastern audience.  In anticipation of this fascinating program, we recently spoke via email with Silk Road Rising’s Founding Artistic Director Jamil Khoury about the company’s 2007 adaptation of The Merchant of Venice and the challenges of translating Shakespeare for a non-Christian, Arabic-speaking audience.

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Clybourne Park Coming to Steppenwolf Theatre

August 10, 2011

Bruce Norris’ s 2011  Pulitzer Prize- winning drama Clybourne Park  will have its Chicago premiere this fall, opening the Steppenwolf season from September 8 through October 6.  Set in a Chicago bungalow, the first act takes place in 1959 and flashes forward to 2009 in Act 2. The Pulitzer Prize committee’s citation described Norris’ play as “a powerful work whose memorable characters speak in witty and perceptive ways to America’s sometimes toxic struggle with race and class consciousness.” Read more about the play in this Chicago Sun-Times article — and make plans to see it at Steppenwolf.

Laura, Reader’s Services


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