Latest news with #SplashHatchontheEGoingDown
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Afternoon Briefing: Judge orders boy, 15, held in killing of 16-year-old girl
Good afternoon, Chicago. A Cook County judge has ordered a 15-year-old boy held pending trial in the killing of a 16-year-old girl found beaten to death in East Garfield Park earlier this month. The boy, whose name was not released, was charged with one count of first-degree murder in the death of Kaylah Love, who was found dead March 17 in a park in the 3000 block of West Van Buren Street. An autopsy performed by the Cook County medical examiner's office found Kaylah died of multiple injuries due to an assault, and her death was ruled a homicide. Here's what else is happening today. And remember, for the latest breaking news in Chicago, visit and sign up to get our alerts on all your devices. Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History With less than a year before the March 2026 primary and only four months before the period to gather candidacy petition signatures begins, Pritzker has yet to say whether he will seek a rare but not unprecedented third term as governor. Read more here. More top news stories: Mayor Brandon Johnson taps former Northwest Side alderman as Springfield lobbyist Elgin police, divers searching Fox River for evidence of woman missing since 1983 The CTA spent more than $26,000 in 2023 and 2024 on three vehicles used by top officials at the public transit agency. In at least some instances, the vehicles were used more for commuting to and from work than for business purposes. Read more here. More top business stories: Northbrook OKs residential to revive Northbrook Court mall; retail to come 23andMe files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as co-founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki resigns The White Sox have several roster decisions to make ahead of Thursday's season opener against the Los Angeles Angels at Rate Field. Nagging injuries to the likes of infielder Josh Rojas (hairline fracture in his big right toe) add wrinkles to the process. Read more here. More top sports stories: Chicago Bears add former Big Ten CFO Laura Anderson to front office Illinois and Kendall Bostic face a tall task in matchup with No. 1 Texas and its towering forwards About once a year, the Driehaus does something brave and thrilling: it invites in contemporary artists. Read more here. More top Eat. Watch. Do. stories: Review: 'Splash Hatch on the E Going Down' by Definition Theatre is about a strong-minded teenager Review: 'Othello' on Broadway stars a muted Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal on fire A federal judge has temporarily blocked billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from accessing people's private data at the Education Department, the Treasury Department and the Office of Personnel Management. Read more here. More top stories from around the world: President Donald Trump assails judge who blocked deportations as the case heads to appeal Conan O'Brien accepts Mark Twain Prize for humor as politics roils the Kennedy Center
Chicago Tribune
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: ‘Splash Hatch on the E Going Down' by Definition Theatre is about a strong-minded teenager
When a bright, curious adolescent has access to a library and a strong sense of justice, it's no surprise if she becomes passionate about one or more social issues and spouts her newfound knowledge to anyone who will listen. But no amount of book learning can fully prepare her when injustice hits close to home — a tension that squeezes the heart of Thyme, the 15-year-old protagonist of 'Splash Hatch on the E Going Down' by Kia Corthron. Jada Jackson stars as this precocious Black teen in the play's Chicago premiere at Definition Theatre, directed by Cheryl Lynn Bruce. Thirteen weeks pregnant when we first meet her, Thyme lives in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City with her parents (Quenna Lené Barrett and Stetson Pierre) and shares her childhood bedroom with her new husband, 18-year-old Erry (Jabari Khaliq). As she eagerly reads up on fetal development, her baby bump grows alongside that of her best friend, Shaneequa (Rita Wicks), a former track standout who's expecting her second child. Teen pregnancy and marriage are presented in a matter-of-fact manner in the play, with little judgment from other characters beyond a mild rebuke from Thyme's father. While Shaneequa mourns the loss of her athletic dreams and bemoans the difficulty of finding childcare during school hours, the impact of young motherhood on Thyme's academic and career aspirations aren't discussed. Although it soon becomes clear that she has more pressing concerns, this omission feels odd for such a bookish character. An avid reader about environmental injustice, climate change and animal welfare, Thyme practices what she preaches at home, conserving water by strictly scheduling sex for Thursdays (to avoid extra laundry) and not flushing the toilet between bouts of morning sickness. She also dips her toe further into activism later in the play, which lands her in trouble. However, when both Erry and Shaneequa are affected by the negative health outcomes too often experienced by Black and low-income Americans, Thyme distances herself from them, not knowing how to respond when such crises come for her loved ones. Jackson is convincing and lovable as the bright-eyed teen, and she ably navigates Thyme's complicated confrontation with tragedy. There's a moment when Thyme comes across as surprisingly heartless, and the audience responded with a few gasps on opening night — but after the next scene, when Thyme herself breaks down, it's easy to feel compassion for this struggling girl. After all, what 15-year-old knows how to properly respond to someone else's primal pain? Do most of us ever really learn how to act in such situations? Several of Corthron's other plays have been criticized for being too preachy, and 'Splash Hatch' shows this tendency at times, especially during Thyme's ideological monologues. But in Corthron's more poetic passages, water is the vessel for some beautiful language, as Thyme dreams about giving birth in a tub and ponders humanity's watery origins and the saline blood that flows through our veins. The aquatic theme is reflected in Brian Bembridge's blue-tiled set design, Conchita Avitia's cool lighting tones and Willow James' oceanic soundscape. Given its ecological focus, it's strange that the play shies away from the moral quandary of bringing new life into a dying world, which is a common theme in climate fiction and a growing concern among environmentally minded people of childbearing age. Thyme acknowledges Americans' harmful overconsumption of the planet's energy and resources, yet when contemplating her pregnancy, she shrugs and says, 'Guess just one more won't hurt.' This seems out of character for someone who, in her effort to save water, bathes so sporadically that her mother complains about her body odor. But perhaps Thyme's unwavering excitement about motherhood — even in the face of sobering statistics about climate collapse and the rates of maternal and infant mortality among Black Americans — is purely an expression of the old adage: where there is life, there is hope. While the play may be thematically inconsistent and occasionally didactic, there's value in Thyme's optimism, no matter how tinged with pain. After all, the best climate fiction is about humans finding a way to survive in spite of devastating loss. Without that hope, where would we be? Emily McClanathan is a freelance critic. When: Through April 13 Where: Definition Theatre, 1160 E 55th St Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes
