Behind the ‘Line

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Lighting the artistic impulse

Written by BJ Jones In 1969 I joined the United Mine Workers. I made varnish for Mobil Chemical one summer during college. Midway through the summer the UMW went out on strike for wages and conditions and we were on the picket line. During my time off my buddy and I headed to upstate New York to go to a rock concert which was getting rained out, but … that’s another story. As I left ...
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Remembering 9/11

The kick-off to TimeLine’s 2011-12 season has been busier than ever before, with two shows opening at two different venues, A Walk in the Woods at Theater Wit and The Pitmen Painters at our home on Wellington Avenue). I couldn’t be more proud of each of ...
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17 nominations

It’s been a big week at TimeLine!  A Walk in the Woods is underway at Theater Wit, The Pitmen Painters starts in just a few days, and on Wednesday the Joseph Jefferson Committee announced that TimeLine has matched the Goodman Theatre’s total of most nominations ...
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Lee Blessing – An interview

I was fascinated by these nations putting some of their best people in critically sensitive jobs with the sole intention of letting them fail. It’s hard to find a more existential situation than that.  — “A Walk in the Woods” playwright Lee Blessing Recently Artistic ...
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Opening Night

Tonight is Opening Night of the first production of our 15th Anniversary season and my 16th show at TimeLine. My first opening night at TimeLine was a little less than four years ago — the opening of Tesla’s Letters. Back then we had 1,140 subscribers ...
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A thrilling year starts

Today — with the first preview of A Walk in the Woods at 8 pm — we welcome you to TimeLine’s 15th season, with an expanded schedule featuring more than 100 additional performances than last season and a venture outside of our home, going from Wellington Avenue to Theater Wit on Belmont for the first play of the season. Thank you for helping to make the last couple years such an exciting period of growth ...
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Same Story, Different Century

TimeLine’s final production for the 2010-2011 season, The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, has taken audiences into the bustling 1920’s press room of Chicago’s Criminal Courts building. It is a time and place in which the likes of Walter Burns and Hildy ...
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Orchestrating a vision

What does a director actually do? This simple question formed the basis of TimeLine’s Directors Salon, an intimate fundraising event featuring food and drink intertwined with Q & A which delved into the world of the director. Hosted by Paul (TimeLine’s Board President) and Nancy ...
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Share your thoughts

The pressroom is open! TimeLine’s revival of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s quintessential Chicago classic opened last week and already ticket demand has been so strong that we have announced an extension through July 17. The audience response has been amazing, especially watching folks react ...
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Space for re-invention

One of the things TimeLine audiences often comment on is their appreciation for how our theater is continually re-invented. Our flexible seating system allows us to reconfigure where the playing area is and re-imagine the physical relationship between actor and audience. That flexibility is being ...
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