{"id":1219,"date":"2023-03-09T23:06:20","date_gmt":"2023-03-09T23:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kathleenthompsonwriter.com\/?page_id=1219"},"modified":"2023-03-18T23:38:46","modified_gmt":"2023-03-18T23:38:46","slug":"could-this-be-heaven","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/kathleenthompsonwriter.com\/?page_id=1219","title":{"rendered":"Could This Be Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kathleen Thompson
Directed by Michael Nowak
Starring Chris Banholzer, Rick Carter, Colleen Crimmins, Ken Kaden, Calvin MacLean
The Commons Theatre Company<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Commons Theatre’s playwright-in-residence is at the top of her form, creating a lovely, celestial comedy that manages to be funny, profound, philosophical and heartwarming all at the same time.<\/em>
Christina January, Today’s Chicago Woman<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

“The design of the planet earth has some serious shortcomings. All the creatures on it need food and water for survival, and there’s plenty to go around, but the food is so poorly distributed that people starve to death every day, and almost all of the water is too salty to drink. And even if creatures get enough food and water, they eventually die anyway! The foliage is too green. A lot of animals, such as the dinosaurs, don’t work. And while the various skin tones among humans add some refreshing variety to the color scheme, the resulting racial strife is unbearable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, the designers of a mess like this would be in big trouble at performance evaluation time, and that’s exactly the situation Kathleen Thompson has imagined in her ingenious new play, Could This Be Heaven<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thompson’s celestial comedy is silly, but in a sly, intelligent way. . . . Thompson has written a clever play with a subtle but strong feminist undercurrent, and a healthy air of indignation.”
Tom Valeo, Chicago Reader<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“With its Elvis impersonators, beauty pageants and gubernatorial campaigns, life on Earth is pretty nutty. But it’s even stranger in heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commons Theater first brings the stagelights up on a homey little room decorated with a big floral rug on the floor and dozens of pictures tacked on the walls–sketches of nudes and skeletal renderings of humans and animals. This could be den of a natural sciences professor. But what about the drafting tables? Could this be heaven? It is, in Kathleen Thompson’s new play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

. . . Thompson covers all of these phenomena in a clever theological farce. What’s so funny about war, hate and misunderstanding? Perhaps with “Could This Be Heaven?”–as with many funny situations–you have to be there.
Joe Pixler, Chicago Sun-Times<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kathleen ThompsonDirected by Michael NowakStarring Chris Banholzer, Rick Carter, Colleen Crimmins, Ken Kaden, Calvin MacLeanThe Commons Theatre Company The Commons Theatre’s playwright-in-residence is at the top of her form, creating a lovely, celestial comedy that manages to be funny, profound, philosophical and heartwarming all at the same time.Christina January, Today’s Chicago Woman “The design of … Continue reading Could This Be Heaven<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1219","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nCould This Be Heaven - Kathleen Thompson<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/kathleenthompsonwriter.com\/?page_id=1219\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Could This Be Heaven - 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