Ray Frewen likes the northern suburbs. Just weeks after being unceremoniously dismissed as artistic director of Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace, where he staged more than 60 productions over 10 years, Frewen has been engaged by Apple Tree Theatre in Highland Park as associate producer. The job description still is being worked out, especially with Ross Lehman continuing as associate artistic director, but Apple Tree folk say Frewen will be second in command to company founder Eileen Boevers, who carries the titles of executive director and artistic director. Frewen’s extensive resume includes acting and directing gigs for Apple Tree, where he was seen in The Rothschilds, Keely and Du, Sleuth, The Devil’s Disciple and 110 in the Shade. Frewen’s served on Apple Tree’s artistic board, too, and on the Actors Equity Association Central Region Advisory Board and National Contract Negotiating Team. He also teaches at DePaul.

Still-new Polarity Ensemble Theatre has unveiled its second production, an adaptation of Antigone (opened Feb. 17 at Breadline), and its first book under the banner of Polarity Ensemble Theatre Books (PET Books). The volume contains two adaptations of classic plays by Polarity artistic director Richard Engling under the self-explanatory title, Antigone and Macbeth: Adaptations for a War-Torn Time. Engling’s take on The Scottish Tragedy was Polarity’s debut production last April, under the title Absolute Macbeth. Company member Irv Gorman, a writer himself, is the publisher for PET Books.

Gorman explains that right from the start Polarity intended to publish as well as to present; a possibility made economically feasible via the cost-effective miracles of computer publishing. Linking online with a Tennessee firm, Lightning Source, PET Books was able to put out a 194-page soft cover volume for under $4.00 a copy for a very small initial press run of just 70 copies. The process was fast, too, Gorman relates. Once Polarity uploaded text to Tennessee, Lightning Source had a proof to them in four days and a box of bound books just three days after he and Engling approved the proof. PET Books is selling the volumes for $12 (including shipping) via its Web site or $10 in person at a Polarity performance.

“For a few hundred dollars we’ve been able to put out this book, and have the opportunity to learn the process of publishing,” Gorman says. “The book is documentation of our production (of Antigone) and a marketing tool for our theatre company.” Gorman adds that future PET Books might include both original work and additional adaptations.

CollaborAction will woo its first-ever subscription audience as it prepares for its 2006 10th anniversary season. The troupe hopes to sell 250 subscriptions at $56 for a three-show season (vs. single ticket cost of $75), according to executive artistic director Anthony Moseley, who said that CollaborAction is ready for the new paradigm. “The company has gone through maturation over the last couple of years, thanks to some fine board leadership,” he said. “We have a really healthy community that seems to come out for the shows. We’re trying to solidify that audience. Of course, we want them to understand that by becoming subscribers they help to insure that our work will be ongoing.”

Among the three productions will be the sixth annual edition of Sketchbook and something of a coup, the Midwest premiere of Adam Rapp’s Trueblinka with Rapp himself directing. The company will utilize Chicago Dramatists for the first and third shows and Chopin Theatre for show two, which may be confusing for season subscribers. Moseley says a permanent location is a CollaborAction goal, but not this year. The company has a 2006 budget of $250,000. Moseley is the only full-time paid employee, but CollaborAction now has six part-time paid staffers with the recent addition of Bill Pacholski, the former League of Chicago Theatres member services director.

Fate had a bone to pick with Nathan Allen, who broke the metacarpal of his left hand, little finger during the Feb. 17 performance of Valentine Victorious. Allen wrote and stars in the House Theatre of Chicago hit show, which continues at The Viaduct through March 11. The accident occurred late in the play during a fight between the hero (Allen) and the villain, Black Skull, played by Shawn Pfautsch. Speaking to PerformInk Feb. 20, Allen said the clean break may require surgery. He expected a definitive medical opinion within a few days.

Allen completed the performance and played the Saturday and Sunday shows as well, even with his hand immobilized by a splint and his arm in a sling. However, director Dennis Watkins had fight choreographer Matthew Hawkins act as Allen’s stunt double in the big brawl. Making lemonade out of lemons, Allen quickly rewrote the sequence to introduce his stunt double as one of the show’s gimmicks. Allen continues to sing the rock anthems he co-authored, but his guitar riffs have been distributed among other players in the 14-piece band, The Trick Hearts, who accompany Valentine Victorious.

Allen told PerformInk that he really doesn’t know how he broke his hand; that Hawkins didn’t observe anything out of order during the fight that night; and that, yes, the performers ran the action sequences before the show. Allen believes the injury was self-inflicted—hitting his hand too hard on something or at an odd angle—rather than a result of a misstep by anyone else. Alert and in good humor, Allen said his doctor had given him a dandy prescription for when the pain became too intense.

In characteristic cheeky House style, Allen hung the x-ray of his hand in the theatre lobby. Those with a skeletal interest in House Theatre will find it posted on the troupe’s blog as well.

Award-winning playwright John Belluso, 36, died in New York Feb. 10 of unknown natural causes. His play Pyretown was produced at Victory Gardens in 2000, helping to establish Belluso as a rising star on the national map. VG followed in 2004 with Belluso’s Henry Flamethrowa. Confined to a wheelchair from the age of 13 because of a rare—and often painful—muscular disorder, Belluso didn’t let physical disability prevent a writing career that also included TV episodes of “Deadwood” and “Ghost Whisperer.” Indeed, he channeled his personal experiences into his plays, which often were caustically critical of public health care. A Los Angeles resident (although Rhode Island born), Belluso supervised the Other Voices Workshop of the Mark Taper Forum for six years, until the workshop was shut down last May by the Taper’s new artistic director. Belluso’s most recently produced play, The Rules of Charity, was completed in 2005.