If you're an actor in the north suburbs, keep an eye out for auditions with this troupe. I just…read morefinished performing my first show with them, and I worked opposite several more seasoned actors. They all exclaimed how professional, warm, and inviting everyone is, and everyone was made to feel very important, regardless of their experience level. Performances take place in Logan Hall (in the basement of Northminster Presbyterian Church in Evanston), which has the facilities for a professional pop-up theater when it's not being used for weddings, meals for the homeless, and other events. The dressing room for the women is beautiful with lighted mirrors, wardrobe racks, and a 3-way full length mirror. Not to mentions couches and sturdy upholstered chairs. I will say, the men don't have it as nice, but are welcomed into the women's area once everyone is decent. Oh, and there's a private bathroom for the actors and crew. (no more timing when to take that last break before the house opens) The show I just finished, 'Old Ringers' sold out nearly every performance. The typical audience review mentioned a great cast with wonderful comedic timing. So, figure when you go see a show there, you're getting top notch Chicago actors. Ticketing prices are competitive with many opportunities for discounts. The theater holds approximately 60, and the seats, though not cushioned, are designed for comfort and are situated two rows per riser. I recommend this theater group for quality theater. For the actor and the audience alike.

The 2nd Act Players are a small theatre group that work out of the basement of a church. The plays…read moreare from new playwrights so each is a new never before seen play. John Frank, an original founder of this group, has written and performed 4 plays so far. Each play is based on personal experiences. I absolutely loved his last play based on his experiences growing up in New York City and going to a Jesuit military high school during the Vietnam War. Hard to believe but true. I came in from NYC just to see this play. I went to that same high school so I needed to see it. My wife who had no previous experience with the school also loved this play. It's a moving play which has also gotten two thumbs up from veterans who have seen it. A limited supply of DVD's are available. His three other plays are about growing up in an Italian family, experiences in a hospital recovering from a heart attack and finally a play about dealing with divorce. Besides these plays the theater group is hosting new playwrights who have one act plays. 2 one act plays will be performed in mid March. If you are in the area, a suburb of Chicago come and see it.

My youtube obsessed daughter somehow discovered City Kid Theatre's "make your own youtube video"…read moreclass. I looked into it and noticed she was a few years too young (starts at 9 years old), but instead sold her on a "make your own music video" party here instead. After chatting with Kerry on the phone I booked it, but when I brought my daughter to check it out she was beyond excited about this magical little theatre. There's not much to the place besides a stage and a small room next to it (which they use as the party room), but it's so incredibly charming. Kerry showed my daughter videos of parties they've done in the past and their costume closet....and she started counting down the days til her party. The party arrived and it didn't disappoint. The party planner in me can't help, but go all out when it comes to my kids birthday parties so we've had some amazing ones thru the years, but this one may have just been my favorite. The girls danced, sang (karaoke style), played freeze dance, ate and celebrated my daughter's bday. While all the girls had a great time, I think Kerry did a really great job of making the birthday party girl feel so special. I've never seen her smile so big especially when they put her in a large birthday cake costume. Because apparently the only thing better than eating birthday cake is wearing it. Since we were making a music video to "Shake it Off" (my daughter's pick) I hired Taylor Swift to stop by the party with the help of Melissa's Royal Princesses. The party would have been amazing without Taylor, but think she was the icing on the cake that make it extra special for a bunch of starstruck 2nd grade girls. A week later we received our video, which you can view below. It's an amazing keepsake that I know my daughter & her friends will treasure for a long time. The lighting itself could have been better on the video, but everything else was the perfect way to celebrate turning 8. I highly recommend for a bday party (good space for up to 20ish kids) and I look forward to checking out their other theatre programs in the future. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQQXXFACQYc&feature=youtu.be

Kerry is great with kids and it shows after each round of classes! Had my daughters birthday party…read morehere and it was a blast!

Lynette's School of Dance is a wonderful studio to learn ballet and other types of dance. It is…read morelocated in South Park, Park Ridge and always has easy parking right in front for drop off / pick up. The studio is very inviting and decorated to make the young girls feel at ease when they start to learn to dance. Pricing is on par with other studios in the area. Miss Lorena is an excellent instructor. She is kind and really helps the kids to focus on dancing. Our daughter has really enjoyed learning basic ballet here and she has made some good friends there in the process. They have classes from 3 year olds all the way up to high school, so kids can work their way through the program and stick with the same group of friends. They put on 2 recitals per year and the girls get fancy outfits to wear. It is awesome to see all of their work pay off and perform in front of a large audience of family and friends. I highly recommend Lynette's to help your child learn dance.

I would consider this an average dance studio. My daughter has taken classes here for the past…read moreyear and while she enjoys the class and teacher, I had hoped for more from a dance studio. The preschool classes do not have a limit on the number of kids enrolled which makes the small classroom feel tiny by the spring time (for example, my 4 year old's class started with 10 girls in the fall and ended with 23 girls in the spring, with only 1 teacher and 2 school-age helpers). Miss Lorena is great with the children and is the reason I kept my daughter at the school for the entire year. I will now be looking for a new studio that limits the size of their classes so that my child can actually learn some things about dance.

I first learned about Beth @ Brickology when she ran a birthday party my 7yo son attended. He came…read morehome SO EXCITED that he literally walked me through every minute of the party. In the end, the entire group built a home fortress out of lego bricks that they could crawl in and out of. Apparently it was as tall as they were. My son is no easy critic to say the least. So his glowing remarks (plus the host parents' comments) were enough for me to give Beth 5 stars. But then I got to meet her at the Yelp holiday party in Highland Park. We walked in and immediately saw a huge tower stating YELP made out of legos. Beth was approachable and so friendly and enthusiastic. My boys dove right in to start building up another fort as well as create lego mosaics. (My son created a creeper from Minecraft -- any parent of a school-age boy will know what I'm talking about.) I loved hearing about how Beth has been a self-proclaimed Lego addict since college and now does this as her job. How cool is that? Her job is LEGOS and making people happy!!! My kind of gal. If you're considering a birthday party for an elementary boy, I can freely recommend Beth. And, if you're looking for something unusual for a corporate party that will pop, give her a call. She's very creative, professional and loads of fun.

Beth was great with the kids at my son's 7th birthday party. She builds the foundation to a Lego…read moretower with his name on it and everyone gets to add on top of it. The activity helps to foster team building, concentration, and hand coordination as they all seemed to have a good time doing so. We booked her through our park district but she is also reachable through her website www.brickology.com

Every time I watch an Arlingtones show I am amazed by the spunk these men have. The songs are…read morebeautiful, the programs are funny and entertaining, you can tell they love what they do. This year I received a singing Valentine and it was so sweet. The card, song, and rose were just perfect!

Here are photos of a review that I put up of LoMastro and the owner's response. I attempted to have…read morea conversation with the owner in June that I was told would happen. This was about my child being held back at the same level as the year before. I simply wanted a discussion. She then refused to speak. When there were still issues in the fall (and shame on me for not pulling my kids from the studio when warning signs came up in the spring), I again asked for a phone call to discuss difficulties my child was experiencing. She again declined. After telling the owner that she needed to get back to me or I would pull my kids from the studio and write an honest review about her studio, I did write the review. When she saw the review she kicked out my kids. She said that by telling her I would write a review, that was threatening her safety. She then said that the review tarnished her studio's reputation, even though the review was entirely honest and I have the documentation to back it up. I took down the review in a moment of desperation and love for my kids as I asked her not to take out her ill will toward me on my kids. Instead, she ignored me and threw my kids on the street, figuratively speaking. Now that she cannot hold me hostage over my kids, the truth deserves to be told. She will no doubt craft a response here that is both vague and demeaning, but in the end, the truth always wins. I hope folks do their research and put their children in a more supportive environment with a more caring human

My daughter absolutely loves this place! The faculty is amazing. I strongly recommend it!read more

Edison Park Fest is a fantastic weekend neighborhood festival located in, well, Edison Park. If…read moreyou're not familiar with Edison Park, it's a neighborhood of Chicago north of Harlem Ave, on Northwest Highway, just south of Park Ridge. Edison Park fest spans several blocks and runs parallel to the Union Pacific Northwest Metra line. The festival totes two music stages, plenty of port o potties, several good vendors, a kids section, traveling carnival games,and several business vendor tents. There's pretty much something for everybody. Edison Park fest was well organized and spaced-out. I really had a good time walking around, sipping a beer, and perusing the many business tents. Metal barricades stops any temptation to trample on any residential front lawns running along this neighborhood festival, so make sure you get in on either Oliphant Ave or Ozark Ave. I had a really good time. So if you are in the north side and looking for a street festival without the crazy amount of crowds, definitely check out Edison Park fest.

Edison Park fest is a decent street festival located on the far North side of the city. The fest…read moreruns in mid August and always draws a healthy crowd. Edison Park is home to many police / first responders so you know it is going to be safe here. The crowd from here can get a little sketchy, but it is always a good time. The fest is between the Metra stop and Moretti's and spans a few city blocks. The food here is standard carnival fare. Nothing too great that I saw, but I enjoyed the fresh squeezed lemonade. They have vendors that serve up everything - most unhealthy, but delicious. Prices aren't too bad and the lines were pretty short when I went on a Saturday. There is a giant area of kids bouncy castles. These are pay as you go and is managed by an outside company. Some rides are good and take a few minutes, others are over in 30 seconds. They all cost $2-$3 each, so choose wisely if you don't splurge on the $30 day pass. There are several live music acts performing all weekend. It isn't my cup of tea, but people seem to like the 80s/90s rock cover bands. Rock on!

This was the first-ever Pizza Fest, organized by the Park Ridge Chamber of Commerce. It sneaked up…read moreon the events calendar unexpectedly, but we found time to attend it, since it's so close to home. The fest took place in pretty much the same space as Taste of Park Ridge, closing off Summit Ave. between Touhy and Prospect, between the library and Metra station. As a festival, it didn't really have a huge setup and not much in terms of variety. All the food vendors, except for a carnival food stand, were pizza places from the area. Caponie's, Carmine's, and Georgio's Chicago Pizzeria were a few of the vendors participating. There was a concert stage setup on the street and for a small festival they did pretty good at lining up shows: Foghat (big-time 70s band) on Friday and Daryl Stuermer (Genesis & Phil Collins guitarist) as the headliner for Saturday night. Weather did not cooperate Friday night, as a cold wind blew through at peak dinner time and dropped the temps about 15 degrees, blowing away paper plates, napkins and a light drizzle followed. Still, it did not deter us from trying pizzas, sheltered by the walls of the Metra station to shield us from the wind. Weather notwithstanding, I was disappointed with the fest. For an event focused completely on a food, pizza in this case, I really expected a more adventurous menu from each of the participants. But instead it was the same thing pretty much across the board: cheese, sausage, or pepperoni, thin crust or deep dish. Why bother doing a fest dedicated to pizza if you don't have something more exotic to offer as a topping: BBQ chicken, pineapple, shrimp, goat cheese, heck, even mushrooms! But it gave me a level playing field to try. I had a Caponies brick oven sausage pizza, which was very good. One of my kids had Carmine's cheese pizza, which had an odd-tasting sauce and the layer cheese peeled off the top in one bite. Pizza fail! Carmine's probably had the worst. My other son and my wife both got Giorgio's of South Barrington's deep dish personal-sized cheese pizzas and those by far stood out as the best pizza at the fest. For a kid who never tried deep dish before, my son was very impressed with it and ate the whole thing. Cost-wise, the pizza prices were reasonable. There was a $5 admission fee to the fest, just to get in the gate, but if you are going to see a show, it's a good deal. I saw the Daryl Stuermer concert and he put on almost 2 hours of Genesis material and a few of his own instrumental works mixed in. Daryl's band sounds really good and he did a very authentic job covering Genesis, even some of it dating back to the 70s. And there was even a contingent of diehard Genesis fans, the ones who wear the Foxtrot album cover T-shirts, in attendance. If Pizza Fest II happens next year, I hope the participating vendors open up their cookbooks and bring out more pizza variety, putting forth some adventurous pizzas rather than just playing it safe with essentially the same selection at every booth.