Comfort Zone - Chicago

The Chicago Musical Theater Festival seemed a perfectly reasonable place to position “Gefilte

Fish Chronicles — the Musical”. Lots of theaters, lots of talent, and not too costly for a festival — if you live and work in Chicago. But for GFC, there is a Comfort Zone. And if we have our director  (Emily Maltby) and the man who orchestrated the music (James Higgins) we feel OK about using local creative and admin people. And they were great (Jermaine Hill, and Stephen

Kossak). There no shortage of local talent. Our cast is amazing. There was some kind of

misunderstanding and one of the lead actors can not perform in the last production, so it looks

like we may have to cancel that.  As Matty and Emily say, three solid performances is better

than three solid performances and one lame show.

When we arrived in Chicago, we had rented an apartment through CraigsList which turned out

to be a hoax. It was an expensive hoax and I lost $4000— which was 3/4 of our budget. I spent

two stressful days on the phone and couldn’t find anything, when I happened upon the Guest

House on Clark.   Sara, who does the booking, was amazing. She not only understood our

predicament but as a part-time Stage manager, she felt our pain. They gave us a beautiful

apartment at a most reasonable rate. Having travelled all over the world, I can honestly say that

when you are tired and stressed, there is nothing better than being welcomed by family and

being able to collapse into a comfortable space.

In their book of hotel facts there are actually terrific restaurants that deliver, and if you are tired

and have had nothing but a frustrating day, a hotel like this is a priority. And they are pet friendly.

They loved Tyrone. Even though his favorite thing was to throw the pillows on the couch in the

lobby off the couch. Throwing pillows, being couch or bed, is on the top of his favorite list. Here

is what I will say, there are probably more luxurious places to stay, but there are none that are

so well equipped, friendly and comfortable. And as a bonus, they are very close to Andersonville which has some of the best restaurants in the city.

If you are going to Chicago, think the Guest House at 4872 N Cark. You won’t be sorry. We’re

just sayin…. Iris