Theater

Director Cristen Monson said the play's tagline as "Steel Magnolias" for the 21st century doesn't give the play enough credit. "Paint Night" runs two weekends in Bloomington, at the future McLean County Arts Center Annex.

The contemporary romantic comedy, produced at Illinois Art Station, is the first of three productions in a satellite location while Community Players undergoes renovations.

The production's first national tour stops for two shows in Bloomington on Saturday. Actor Ken Orman, who plays Scrooge, said the story is more relatable than ever.

"Next to Normal" is an ambitious feat for U-High's theater program. The young performers pushed their director for harder material and themes, wanting to tell stories they could relate to.

Nomad Theatre Company will begin its second season as a year-round company by bringing courtroom dramas to a real-life courtroom in Bloomington. One play is based on true events following a group of ax-wielding ladies from Towanda.

Heartland Theatre Company brings Venus in Fur, by David Ives, to Bloomington-Normal for its 39th season opener. Kathleen Kirk directs the play, a comedy with a sharp message about gender equality.

Pat Gaik proposed The Baker's Wife as Prairie Fire Theatre's summer production. Once they heard it, they couldn't say no.

After a decade as the Normal theater company's artistic director, Rhys Lovell has announced he'll step down at the end of next season.

The festival's three productions—The Importance of Being Earnest, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet—run in rotation through Aug. 2.

It’s the end of an era for Illinois Wesleyan University’s School of Theatre Arts, which housed a bodiless Aphrodite head on top of their building for more than two decades.