Sam Shepard’s “Buried Child” — the 1978 Pulitzer Prize–winning play by the Illinois-born writer — ran in Tokyo from Oct. 3-19, presented by Theatre Company Subaru.
The setting is a farmhouse in Illinois where an elderly couple lives with their two sons. A grandson returns after a long absence with his girlfriend, yet no one remembers him because a “certain incident” 30 years earlier had sealed the family’s memory. Since then, the grandfather has sunk into drink, the mother deflects reality with pious language, and the brothers keep their own kinds of silence. A visiting minister has tea and leaves.
These scenes show how brittle everything can be — from families and norms to the nation itself. Once a crack appears, it isn’t easy to repair, and things begin to slide toward collapse.
At the same time, the play shows how life goes on even when things are broken: People cover it with pious talk, let the TV fill the quiet and act as if nothing happened. The play suggests that even when the substance has collapsed, people try to maintain appearances — an impulse in human society that resembles biological self-preservation.
In the play, “Illinois” doesn’t argue about causes. It just gives us an easy way to picture a Norman Rockwell–style American household. That familiarity, in turn, makes the inner breakage easier to see.
In other words, what was handed to the Japanese audience was the fraying that had come into view. Without adding extra explanations, the production left that visible fraying quietly in the theater.
Satoki Hashimoto, Tokyo, Japan
Program offers housing help in North Lawndale
Growing up in Humboldt Park and now spending the past seven years working in North Lawndale — where our team at GMO Properties LLC is headquartered — I’ve witnessed firsthand the lasting damage the 2008 housing crash left behind. Long before the recession, decades of redlining and racially restrictive covenants had already destabilized neighborhoods across the South and West sides. When foreclosures swept through block after block, they created a ripple effect of abandoned buildings, vacant lots and sustained disinvestment.
Many of those properties, including the city-owned lots now offered for $1 through the Missing Middle Housing Initiative, are ready for redevelopment. Yet small and mid-sized developers often struggle to secure the financing needed to bring these sites back into productive use. Traditional bank loans typically come with high interest rates and stringent terms, making many otherwise viable projects difficult or impossible to take on.
I entered the development field because I wanted to restore the communities that shaped me — communities that continue to face a mix of blighted lots and rising rents. As head of operations at GMO Properties, I oversee a portfolio of 45 residential units, ensuring the delivery of quality apartments that promote stable, healthy living. We are committed to rehabilitating properties and preserving affordability, but the high costs often limit how far mission-driven developers can scale their efforts.
That is why Community Investment Corporation, a Community Development Financial Institution, has been so essential. The corporation recently launched a new loan product designed to close the financing gaps that have long held back redevelopment in North Lawndale. With support from Wintrust and the Steans Family Foundation, the program offers low-interest construction financing and flexible mezzanine debt —resources that allow community-based developers to close funding gaps, complete renovations and maintain affordable multifamily housing.
With access to this type of capital, developers rooted in the neighborhood can take on larger, more impactful projects that preserve and expand local housing options. Lawndale needs place-based investment tools that reflect the realities on the ground and support both stability and long-term growth.
Keeping housing affordable requires more than good intentions; it requires financing structures built for the communities they aim to strengthen. The Community Investment Corporation’s new program represents an important step forward. Paired with recent investments in North Lawndale, it creates a real opportunity to begin a new chapter for the neighborhood — one where residents can afford their rent and live in safe, quality housing.
Sheyla Padilla, head of operations, GMO Properties LLC
Trump name on Kennedy Center shameful
The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts? The name change “honors” a man who never set foot in the building during his first term, and is now driving away performers and audiences.
Pure idolatry!
Hugh Spencer, Countryside
Cross confusion
Every time I see someone wearing a crucifix necklace I wonder how long before President Donald Trump claims that they are actually a lowercase “T” in support of him.
Alan Stoeck, Tinley Park
Trump can’t ‘Bear’ Chicago winners
Can anyone imagine what President Donald Trump’s reaction would be if the Bears ended up winning this year’s Super Bowl?
That makes me want to cheer for the Bears even more than I do now.
Steven Herr, West Ridge
Not sure how, but Bears on a roll
While watching the Chicago Bears I dare ask, what training techniques do they have when with only moments to spare, they score points to overcome and survive? Is it divine intervention or luck to overtake their opponents? Many of the games are close, yet as a team they somehow outwit their rivals, which leaves me perplexed. Is it magic or mystic, a question which intrigues me. Hmmm?
Richard J. White, Elmhurst