We know that Fish Creek, Wisc. doesn’t seem like a suburb of Chicago, but for all practical purposes it is—at least during the May-October warm weather months when so many Chicago thespians call the Peninsula Players home. You know, names such as Mula, Roman, Leaming, Norris, Mott, etc. Windy City playwrights, directors and even designers have been sighted up in the North Woods, as well. They assemble each year under the leadership of artistic director Greg Vinkler and executive producer Todd Schmidt, who have managed the 70-year-old summer stock operation for a decade.

This year, the Peninsula Players reduced its season from the usual five shows to four, and closed Sept. 18, a good three weeks earlier than previous years, in order to break ground on the first major reconstruction of the facility since 1937, when the present cramped stage house was built. Over the years, there have been additions and corrections to facilities on the Peninsula Players’ 16 acre campus on the shores of Lake Michigan, but no major reconstruction of the theatre, itself. That’s changing with the launch of a $6.2 million renovation that will result in a completely new stage house and audience pavilion, scene shop and canteen.

All the work in the project, dubbed Protecting the Past, Insuring the Future, will be completed in time to welcome audiences next June; that is, if the hard freeze doesn’t come too soon and the spring thaw arrives on schedule. The final play performed on the 68-year-old original stage was Jeff Daniels’ Escanaba in the Moonlight.

There’s a whole lotta’ Lorca going on, in case no one has noticed, and it’s not even his centennial year (that was 1998). Theatre Aguijon recently revived its Spanish language production of Federico Garcia Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba in preparation for visits to two South American theatre festivals, while greasy joan & company opened an English-language production of it the same week. Meanwhile, Circle Theatre has put Bernarda Alba on its spring schedule (March 24-May 7). The newbie troupe Caffeine Theatre is getting in on Lorca, too, with a new translation of his theatrical poem, Dona Rosita or The Language of Flowers (Oct. 21-Nov. 20 at the Athenaeum).

Another violently deceased playwright receiving posthumous attention is Sarah Kane, the potentially brilliant Brit manic depressive who committed suicide before she was 30, having completed five plays—and five of the darkest, most cruel plays you can imagine, too. The late Defiant Theatre introduced Kane to Chicago audiences three years ago, and now The Hypocrites and the side project are taking up her mantel. For two highly theatrical and intelligent, but seriously bleak, evenings in theatre, check out Kane’s Crave at the side project, Oct. 27-Dec. 4, and/or 4.48 Psychosis by The Hypocrites at the Steppenwolf Garage, Nov. 10-Dec. 23. After two by Kane, you’ll really need a little Christmas.

Shattered Globe Theatre Company has appointed Elisa Spencer as managing director. Ms. Spencer arrives from New Haven where she was company manager for the Yale Repertory Theatre and then managing director of the Yale Cabaret. Earlier, she held various producing and marketing posts with the Second Stage and the Suitcase Players (both in New York) and at the Guthrie and North Star Opera back here in the heartland. She has a BA from Carleton College and an MFA in management from Yale Drama. Shattered Globe celebrates its 15th anniversary this season, but will not be producing until the new year. John Guare’s The House of Blue Leaves opens Jan. 8 upstairs at Victory Gardens.

Next Theatre company has rebounded nicely since 2002 under artistic director Jason Loewith; so much so that the company enters its 25th anniversary season with a four-play schedule (expanded from three) and over 1,000 subscribers for the first time in years. The cheeky marketing slogan for the season is “Off-Broadway in Chicago,” which must be a wee bit disappointing for the civic authorities in Evanston, which Next calls home. Next shows what fresh leadership and a committed board can achieve.

Speaking of Next, we bid a fond farewell to longtime board member Gail Curry, who died last week after fighting ovarian cancer for six years. Curry served on the Next board for nine years. She was asked to be on the board after she appeared in The Front Page. Curry was wonderfully fun and energetic and always upbeat. Says Next artistic director Jason Loewith:

“Unlike most Board members, who give their time OR their talent OR their treasure, Gail gave all three, and readily. Whether lending her van for a prop-run, cajoling church members from First Pres to join our fledgling outreach program, or giving feedback at a rehearsal, Gail’s presence was keenly felt at every level of Next’s pursuits. She will be greatly missed by all of us.”

Loewith did not know Curry’s age. Her son, Jud, said it “remains one of the great unsolved conundrums of our time… In order to avoid any angry visits from the undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler has returned, I will claim ignorance.” Jud, for the record, says he is 41. Curry leaves four children and 12 grandchildren.

The advance business for Billy Crystal’s solo show, 700 Sundays, is so strong that Broadway in Chicago has cancelled the press night for the Nov. 8-19 engagement at the Cadillac Palace. Instead, members of the press were given the opportunity through Aug. 29 to priority purchase two tickets for the show. All performances, even Friday and Saturday nights, were made available to the press, which was a nice gesture. Still, at $100 per seat, we hope this isn’t a trend!

Chicago author Jesse Weaver just may be the most of-the-moment playwright in Dublin. Weaver, a resident writer at the side project, directed his own script, The Artist Needs a Wife, at University College Dublin earlier this year, and saw the production take awards for actor, script, direction and production presented by the 2005 Irish Student Drama Association. On the strength of that victory, Weaver’s play—which is set in Chicago—is being staged by Dublin’s two-year old Clean Canvas Theatre Company for the 2005 Dublin Fringe Festival. Performances are this week, Sept. 26-Oct. 1, at the Teacher’s Club, 36 Parnell Square, Dublin. In case you’re there, admission is 10-15 euros.

Weaver hardly is a local household name, although his plays have been seen in six editions of CollaborAction Sketchbook, at Breadline and in the Estrogen Fest. Weaver’s new play, Sweet Pretty Love Jam, will be produced at the side project next April.

Another Chicago playwright is making a mark, too. Congratulations to Tanya Saracho, the gifted writing and acting co-founder of Teatro Luna, who has been named recipient of the 2005 Ofner Prize, bestowed by the Goodman Theatre. Saracho will use the cash prize to complete a new play tentatively titled Our Lady of the Underpass, based on news accounts of sightings of the Virgin Mary under a Chicago highway bridge. A resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists, Saracho is a founder of the Chicago Latina Theatre Alliance in addition to her Teatro Luna affiliation. The Ofner Prize commission is a memorial tribute to David Ofner, past chairman of the Chicago Theatre Group, who died in 1993.

Home

Curtain Archives