BY OONA KERSEY
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Tell me if you’ve heard this one: Fresh-faced new grads of small liberal arts college form Theatre Company. Theatre Company scrapes together enough dough to put on late night show at local café. Lack of experienced personnel necessitates "opportunities" for actors to run lights, stage manage, etc. Theatre Company gathers momentum as it gathers members. Theatre Company attributes its survival to the enthusiasm, commitment, and above all, talent of its ensemble.
Yep, heard it.
Theatre Company wins Jeff Citation for Best Ensemble.
Come again?
Open Eye Productions (OEP) was born in 1996 in the unremarkable way that seems so remarkably rampant in Chicago. Proud parents Jon and Sara Sevigny were a barely married pair of alumni from Curry College in Milton, MA. Jon, a Boston native, moved to Chicago after graduation and had recently completed the Conservatory Program at Second City, where Sara was doing an internship to finish her undergraduate work. The two dreamed of starting a theatre company with other Curry graduates who had moved to Chicago, but with such a myriad of theatrical roads to choose from, "getting anyone to commit was really tough," says Sara. Still, when a friend from (now defunct) Broad Shoulders Theatre mentioned an opening for an off-night show, the couple took it. Their first production was Laughing Wild, featuring Sara and directed by Jon. Production values were practically nil, but the show went well, and the Reader’s Jack Helbig had some nice things to say about it in his review. Open Eye Productions was on its way!
Now in their fourth year and in rehearsal for their 15th production, OEP has exceeded the average life expectancy of a theatre company whose story begins this way. But in general this group prides itself on being the exception rather than the rule. And last spring, with Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor, the company surpassed even its own expectations. The show received two Jeff nominations, one for Best Direction (Malcolm Haynes) and one for Best Ensemble, which it won, sharing the honor with the casts of Roadworks’ Stupid Kids and Trap Door’s Lebensraum.
OEP artistic director Noah Simon agrees that both the Citation and the company’s longevity can be attributed to member commitment. "I never wanted to be an independent contractor," says Simon, who joined the company in 1997. Simon, who became artistic director this year, had approached the group with an idea for a sketch comedy show he wanted to direct; after OEP helped to produce it, he was ready to come on board. Simon attributes his desire to remain involved to a supportive environment; that environment has also attracted the group of actor/associates of whom OEP is so proud.
Jon is now president, and Sara serves as managing director of the company. Along with Simon, marketing director Megan Flanagan, and executive operations manager Geoff Vines, they are OEP’s board. Ultimately, decision-making is based on jurisdiction; if the question is about spending money, for example, Sara will make the final call. But the board discusses most issues, and also welcomes input from company members, including resident director Adam Burke and company manager Jason Lubow. "We try to be as democratic as possible," says Sara. Democracy paid off when the board listened to the actor who suggested Laughter, the company’s biggest success to date.
Such positive reinforcement was revitalizing for a company that champions open-mindedness. Jon says he always wanted to do theatre to give people a chance to see things from a different perspective. He jokes that the message in the company’s name is too simple for people to get: "I just want people’s eyes to be opened to something they may not have seen before," he explains, "to see a viewpoint other then their own." With that in mind, OEP is drawn towards plays with strong central character(s) that are "earnest, true, and in some way flawed," says Sara. Simon agrees, citing the character’s journey as an important element of the shows they select. Aside from that, he says, "we try to pick something totally different from the show we’ve just done…theatre is a big world, and we sort of envision ourselves as explorers in that world."
The company has done everything from improv and sketch comedy to original works, musical revues, and old standbys from Jon Patrick Shanley, Durang and Neil Simon. They’ve even done an adaptation of Richard III, based on the premise that maybe the story would have been told differently if another king had been sitting on the throne when Shakespeare wrote the play. The show was not a resounding success, but "it was a brilliant idea," maintains Sara. Simon agrees: "The point was not to make this huge name for ourselves–although I suppose that’s what you try for every time–but to stretch our boundaries, and that’s what we try to do with every show."
This is clear in terms of their venues as well. In 1997, their entire season ran in the intimate confines of the O-Bar basement. The following year, the company branched out to Stage Left and Lunar Cabaret, and in 1999 they made their first attempt to find a home, at the Greenview Arts Center in Rogers Park. When the plan fell through, OEP moved on; the next show they produced was Laughter, which went up at Angel Island. Since then they have produced at A Red Orchid and the Theatre Building, and although they still dream of a home of their own, the company remains optimistic about itinerancy. "You have to go to the more visible venues to become more visible," points out Simon. "That’s essentially worked for us."
At the end of the day, however, what really works for OEP is the group of actors that work with them. "We have so much talent within our own company that we want to use," enthuses Sara, and Simon agrees. "We’re a company with unlimited promise," he says.
With that in mind, we can expect OEP to continue producing their diverse blend of crowd and ensemble-pleasing work. "We like doing things that people have told us we can’t do," confesses Sara with a grin. Jon adds the director’s perspective: "There are so many ways to tell a story. Why limit yourself to just one?"