Displaying items by tag: Greenhouse Theater Center

It’s been almost 80 years since the publication of Anne Frank’s Diary, and yet it remains one of the most significant personal accounts of the Holocaust on record. Though ‘The Diary of A Young Girl’ is a well-established work of young adult literature, it continues to be challenged by parents and school boards. The irony is that maybe there’s never been a more important time for children to read this haunting personal narrative.

Young People’s Theatre of Chicago presents a new adaptation of the 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. This is a secondary adaptation as Wendy Kesselman considerably trimmed the play down for the 1997 Broadway revival. Her updated script is generally considered the standard now. This new, 75-minute version was developed by the Nashville Children’s Theatre along with the Anne Frank-Fonds and is making its Chicago premiere at Greenhouse Theater Center. The goal of the shortened running time was to make the play more impactful for younger audiences. This is not to say this new version has been sanitized to appeal to conservative audiences. In fact, this script keeps the play’s most challenging moments intact.

Randy White directs this intimate production with an impressive young cast. Given that this is one of the most produced plays in the world, it’s reasonable to assume this cast could maybe be influenced by other actors’ portrayals of the two families in hiding. Instead, it feels like this cast decided to depict these real-life figures in their own way. Shelley Winters won an Oscar for her somewhat over-the-top performance as Mrs. van Daan, whereas Amy Stricker plays the part with a realistic coolness. One of the production’s most upsetting moments is when she must sacrifice her beloved fur coat so they can afford rations.

Despite its dark subject matter, ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ endures because of Anne Frank’s ceaseless optimism in the face of the unimaginable. This fast-paced version moves quickly from scene to scene, but it doesn’t lose any depth. Rather, this is a version that children can identify with. For many children, ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’ is their first exposure to the Holocaust, so while it’s important not to traumatize a younger audience, it’s also important for children to know the truth so that it can’t happen again. This production hits all the emotional high points that make this play so essential. It was touching to see how affected some tiny audience members were by the play’s chilling conclusion.

‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ is a play that everyone should see at least once in their lifetime. While it’s certainly Holocaust adjacent, there’s a lot in this script about that human condition, and what it means to be a misunderstood teenager that everyone can relate to. Though Anne Frank never saw the impact her work had on generations of people, she achieved what she set out to do. Her diary is more than just a record of her time in hiding, it’s a work of literature wise beyond its author’s years and reminds us all to be gentler with each other.

Through March 24 at Young People’s Theatre of Chicago at Greenhouse Theater Center. 773-404-7336

With Renee Zellweger just having won the Academy Award for her portrayal of Judy Garland, focus on Garland’s legacy has been renewed. Local actresses Nancy Hays and Alexa Castelvecchi, along with music director Robert Ollis, reconstruct an iconic moment in pop culture history. A young Liza Minnelli performed just one time with her mother Judy Garland on the Palladium stage in London in 1964. The evening was recorded, and the album proved a highpoint for both Judy and Liza.

“Once in a Lifetime” is not exactly song for song as they appeared on the album, but this cabaret is a touching tribute to Judy and Liza. With Hays as Garland and Castelvechhi as Minnelli, the two take turns singing their favorite songs from the album and relay the history of how it came to be. Though they’re both dressed in character, this is more of a concert than a play.

What remains impressive about this once in a lifetime evening in 1964 is how great the arrangements were. Each song plays to the strengths of these two legendary performers. Judy Garland was in her prime in 1964 and Liza was about a year away from winning her first Tony Award. The song selection is quite a charming playlist. The evening was a love letter to each other. Given the tragedy Judy would endure by the late 60s (including her untimely death), this album remains a time capsule of a happier time in Judy’s life. It also foreshadows the show business powerhouse Liza would become in her own right.

Both Hays and Castelvecchi dispense with all too easy impressions of Judy and Liza. Instead, they both knock it out of the park in the intimate cabaret space at Victory Gardens’ Greenhouse. Castelvecchi really taps into the bluesier aspect of Liza Minnelli’s vocal range. Hays probably has a better voice in 2020 than Judy had by 1964, and her renditions of the jazzy standards are a real treat. All together, “Once in a Lifetime” is a fun hour and a half filled with the enchanting music of Harold Arlen, George Gershwin and Jerry Herman.

At Greenhouse Theater Center through April 5th

When we meet Paul Morel, he is just being born. A bearded gentleman off to the side offers commentary on the scene as the nurses attend to his mother.

That narrator turns out to be D.H. Lawrence, and he reappears regularly in Sons and Lovers, adapted and directed from Lawrence’s breakthrough 1913 novel by Mike Brayndick. It is seeing its delayed U.S. premiere at Chicago’s Greenhouse Theatre.

Featuring a cast of 11 in 16 roles, Sons and Lovers brings the heart of Lawrence’s book onstage in just over two hours. The semi-autobiographical work centers on life and loves of Paul Morel (Miles Borchard), a proxy for Lawrence. His mother Lydia (Amy Gray) has married beneath her station, and is emotionally estranged from her coal miner husband Walter (Stephen Dunn), channeling all her love onto her sons Paul and William (Brian Boller, who also plays Lawrence as narrator).

To some degree, Sons and Lovers lends itself naturally to the stage, with patches of dialog that carry over intact. But not everything would fit, and Brayndick deftly excises and merges numerous scenes to keep the action moving.

Brayndick has done other literary adaptations, and his skill shows in Sons & Lovers. Greenhouse previously presented his versions of 19th century works by Turgenev - Home of the Gentry - and Balzac’s Pére Goriot. Sons and Lovers was originally commissioned by Traffic of the Stage in Hampstead, England, and it toured the UK, including London’s Bloomsbury Theatre, in 1996.

As the title suggests, Lydia Morel’s sons are engulfed in their mother’s needy attentions. Walter flees to a good accounting job in London, fulfilling his mother’s upward economic aspirations. This relegates Paul to an even closer interdependency with her.

An artistic, sensitive type, he explores love in two polarities: innocent and exploratory with Miriam, a girl on a nearby farm; and a more torrid affair with Clara Dawes (Emma Brayndick), a woman who is separated from her husband.

Adaptations raise the question, Why not just read the book? In a novel, our minds bask in the inner lives and travails of characters. Onstage, there is an expectation this should all be leading somewhere. What we get here is a tremendously sensitive and effective presentation of a great literary work. As a drama, it is immersive, and interesting. But as theater it is limited to following a lifeline as its plotline.

Still Sons and Lovers is engaging, in no small measure because of the memorable performances of the cast, with Midlands and other accents nicely polished. Noteworthy are Brian Boller in the dual role as Lawrence’s older brother William, and narrator Lawrence (though frankly it took me some time to figure out he was two characters). Stephen Dunn is outstanding as the coal miner Walter. Likewise for Baird Brutscher in the roles of Edgar Lievers and Baxter Dawes. And Corrie Riedl is innocent sweetness personified as the farm girl Miriam Lievers. Tina Shelley as her mother, and Pete Blatchford as Paul’s supervisor Mr. Pappleworth deliver sharp performances in small roles.

Most notable are two who carry the weight of the show: Amy Gray as Lydia Morel, Paul’s mother, who grows and ages in the role convincingly; and Miles Borchard as her son, Paul. Borchard is striking in inhabiting the role so naturally. Onstage nearly in every scene, Borchard reacts continuously to those around him, and develops a portrait of an unselfconscious young man navigating the exploration of life, and love – exactly the character D.H. Lawrence placed in his pages. Sons & Lovers runs through September 29 at Greenhouse Theater Center on Lincoln Ave.

When having non-stop conversations in his head and agonizing over the most mundane decisions becomes daily reality of living with OCD, finding a cure turns into obsession. Of course it does.

The Mushroom Cure is a comedian Adam Strauss’ true tale of his ongoing battle with OCD.  Though he sees a shrink on a regular basis, cognitive therapy doesn’t seem to be working. When Adam learns about a scientific study showing that hallucinogenic mushrooms may help cure OCD, he’s on it. But magic mushrooms are hard to find; his pot dealer doesn’t have any, and inquiries from friends and fellow comedians turn up nothing. His new girlfriend highly recommends a different plant (cactus), so, the two of them spend a long weekend tripping. As a bonus, we learn some useful information about various psychedelics and how to prepare and use them.  Adam even produces a shot glass of already processed cactus concoction, right on stage, and asks if anyone wants to partake. There’re no volunteers, so he proceeds to drink it himself.  

Even the stage is set up to allude to his illness: a small side table next to the performer’s chair has 5 full glasses of water; during the show Adam intermittently drinks from all of them, possibly in some special order. 

It takes real courage to talk (and laugh) about the psychological torment of a one’s mental illness, and Adam’s willingness to have an open conversation about it is remarkable. The show is occasionally funny, but it mostly puts the audience into shrink’s shoes where we just listen to him vent and recall conversations. In the end, he learns how to help himself, and that might be the entire point of his quest.  

The Mushroom Cure is a one man show. Written and performed by New-York based comedian Adam Strauss, directed by Jonathan Libman, it garnered widespread acclaim as well as New York International Fringe Festival’s Excellence Award for Solo Performance.

The Mushroom Cure is being performed at Greenhouse Theater Center through June 9th.

After one sees Sarah Ruhl’s comedy, Melancholy Play: A Contemporary Farce, one will doubtless ask: Why has melancholy gone out of vogue, just when we need it so?

Melancholy is an emotional condition, like the vapors and neurasthenia, that has simply fallen out of fashion. When one is both inconsolably sad and depressed, but not quite either – that’s melancholia.

In this exceptionally delightful production, Ruhl’s conceptual comedic tone is lovingly presented. Each quirky character is thoughtfully drawn by a cast that most certainly, like me, love Ruhl’s wry view of the human condition.

It’s 1916 in Great Britain when this story opens as 17-year-old Private Tommo Peaceful (played by Shane O’Regan) attempts to stay up all night to try to remember everything. There is a sense of urgency throughout the 80-minute monologue as Tommo flashes from present to past as his watch ticks ahead to whatever awaits him in the coming dawn.

Private Peaceful, based on a children’s novel by Michael Morpurgo, is a one-man play that takes us through Tommo’s short life. Tommo, as narrator of his own life’s story, shares two vastly different tales of his young life, beginning with his first day of school.

As a jubilant young boy growing up in rural Britain, Tommo relives his childhood of fun, and innocence and adulation as he recalls childhood memories of his big brother and idol Charlie, school mate Molly, and his challenged brother “Big Joe”.

When Charlie and Tommo enlist in WWI the tone of the monologue changes, as Tommo’s loss of innocence though the experience of trenches, and blood shed, and death transforms him. From the battle lines of France, Tommo conjures up the horrors of war, the terrible conditions, the death of fellow soldiers, and the relationship with the hellish Sergeant Hanley who hates his brother Charlie.

This is a moving story about the loving relationship of Tommo and his brother Charlie, so intimately linked that they would go to war together. This is also a poignant story about the costs of war, and who ultimately pays the price.

Adaptor and Director Simon Reade in describing his direction of this children’s novel intended “to embrace the kind of play-acting that you can imagine a child enjoying in their own bedroom: tipping their bed over and saying ‘this is a trench’ or being in a field one moment and then in the middle if a market square the next, simply by articulating it. For adults watching it, it reawakens our childlike imagination.”

With this minimalist approach, the story telling relies on the audio and visual cues to frame the story along with the talents of an energetic Shane O’Regan in a truly believable portrayal of a 17-year-old boy with both a clear-eyed youthfulness as well as an opposingly clear eyed view on the horror and inhumanity of war.

Because of his O’Regan’s immense talent, Tommo morphs (throughout his dialogue) into Charlie, Molly, Big Joe as well as 20 others. O’Regan brilliantly weaves the character between a wide-eyed young boy, a toothless old woman, an enemy soldier, and the cruel Sergeant Hanley.

In such an intimate theater as Greenhouse Theatre Center, the audience is able to embrace the minimalism and find the underlying emotions. In the end, the story is a mix of both joy and tragedy that audiences should enjoy. Judging from the ovation, my fellow audience members would agree.

As a final nod to Mr. O’Regan’s talent, I was amazed that he didn’t break character when a very rude audience member’s cellphone started playing marching band music. PLEASE turn off your cell phone when entering a theatre!

Private Peaceful is being performed at The Greenhouse Theater Center through November 11th. More more information on this event visit www.greenhousetheater.org. 

I had asked to cover this play. “Monger: The Awakening of J.B. Benton” is Her Story Theatre’s fourth play in their “Chicago Sex Trafficking Cycle” series. It is an important topic that needs far more attention than it receives and playwright Mary Bonnett’s play helps in bringing this serious problem to the forefront. I did not expect to walk away with as much as an education on the subject as this play provides. The title does give some foreshadowing, but the journey from there is a dark one. The word “monger” is defined as “broker” or “dealer”. In this case, the monger’s deals involve people, specifically young, under-aged women.

I don’t give away storylines as a rule, and I will choose to remain true to that. Just know that the material is hard-hitting and does not hold back any punches. What I really want is for you to go see this play. This is not a light-hearted, Friday evening good time. This is something real. Most of the time, we look to escape reality. This brings you back. In this play that is inspired by true events in Chicago, Bonnett explores the underworld of sex-trafficking using composites of people she interviewed and uses actual posts that comes from online chats by actual participants in this vile, shadowy world in making up some of the story's dialogue.

There are three actors in this one-act play. The set is simple. The room is small. The music is sparse. The play is well-acted, directed and conceived. The script is powerful. These are the precise pieces needed for Director John Mossman to present this important story in the most perfect way.

I give Bonnett a lot of credit for tackling a topic like this. Too many people look the other way. Too many men play the “Bro Code” card when it comes to things like this. Covering for your buddy is something that is almost taught from father to son, another topic touched upon in the storyline. The idea of “Oh, he’s just being a guy” is pretty common and undermines the serious tragedy as sexual abuse towards women – in any way. And I know this problem is way more common than statistics would indicate.

Ira Amyx plays the role of J. B. Benton. I am not sure how much he is actually awakened in this story but there is some serious education thrust into his head. How he processes that information is up to him. Amyx does a great job and is very believable playing someone far less likeable than an ongoing crippling disease. The unpopular character is a challenging role and Amyx skillfully meets that challenge.

Joshua Zambrano plays his son Eddie and plays the role of the misfit kid really well. This was another tough role to play, but Zambrano finesses his way through it like a seasoned pro. Jamise Wright plays Ruth Edwards, a mother who was going through great emotional loss. She becomes the woman she portrays with an undeniable captured honesty.

The saddest part of the story is, unfortunately, based on actual events. It is uncomfortable to watch (you’ll know the scene), but really adds a sense of awareness and urgency to the table that is necessary in making Bonnett’s point. It’s a scene many need to see this for different reasons. This play should be seen everywhere. A provocative play such as this might prevent a lot of harm on a lot of people in the mindfulness it raises on sexual abuses. Young men need to learn respect for women. Young women need to learn respect for themselves. Sounds simple, right? Well, if it is…then why does this evil still exist?

After the performance, Mary Bonnett and Marian Hatcher of the Cook County Sheriff Human Trafficking Division addressed the audience. This punctuated the story’s reality. Hatcher is a survivor herself and shed some more light on the dark subject. I am not going to say anything else, other than…go see this influential play.

Haunting, educational and a story that will resonate with its audience and encourage action, I highly recommend “Monger”.

The world premiere “Monger: The Awakening of J.B. Benton” is being performed at Greenhouse Theater Center in Lincoln Park through September 30th. For tickets and/or more information visit www.HerStory.org.

Machinal refers to an automated or mechanical system. Sophie Treadwell's 1929 play "Machinal" takes its styling from this theme. Directed by Jacob Harvey, Greenhouse Theater Center brings this work back to Chicago for the first time in many years.

Maybe not as well known as Lillian Hellman, but Sophie Treadwell was once a popular playwright on Broadway during the height of expressionism in theater. She wrote some forty plays and often directed them, nearly unheard of in those times.

"Machinal" is a retelling of the murder trial of Ruth Snyder who was eventually executed by electric chair. The play is an expressionist interpretation. The dialogue is written in a way that feels like the innerworkings of a machine. There's a sparse greyness to the costumes by Christina Leinicke that would also suggest the joylessness the protagonist lives.

Heather Chrisler plays the young woman. Chrisler interprets the staccato dialogue with a human quality. Her performance brings up the intensity by breaking through the repetitive and unpoetic lines. She brings life to them and elicits an emotional response. This woman is pleading for her life as her societal system of steamrolls her.

Doubtful that Treadwell saw the real life Ruth Snyder as a villain. "Machinal" shows the the pressure of getting married, of having financial security and living in a ever-moving world. The young woman in Treadwell's play can't keep up. She's pushed into an advantageous, but unsatisfying marriage. She finds happiness in the arms of a lover. She does what she has to do to feel free and pays the ultimate price.

Eleanor Kahn's set mirrors the starkness of the play. Presented in a near black box with the exception of some strobe lighting, there's an eeriness from the beginning. There's an atmospheric quality in Kahn's setting, and it's working.

Life may seem a little more liberated for today's women but Jacob Harvey's point in mounting this work, is that maybe it's not? And maybe it's not even limited to just women. Treadwell's play is about the mechanics of being a adult human in this world, and how that conveyor-belt life makes us all animals destined for slaughter.

Through September 24 at The Greenhouse Theater Center. 2257 N Lincoln Ave.

The play Threesome is an ambitious work, taking aim at the ease with which we become stuck in patterns of bad behavior like possessiveness in relationships. It also reaches into threats to women's freedom in other cultures. 

As the lights come up we meet a married couple already in bed, who have embarked on a venture both risqué and risky: a man has been invited to join them for a tryst, at the behest of the wife, Leila (Suzan Faycurry). 

The two are modestly dressed, considering this is a three-way. Presentiments of a drawing room comedy? Perhaps it's a commentary on social mores leading couples to extremes, even when not a good fit. 

It’s the first time for the couple, an Egyptian-American pair. Husband Rashid (Demetrios Troy) was likely ready to jump into this moment without reserve, but guest Doug (Mike Tepeli) has been overlong and rather noisy in his preparations in the bathroom. This interlude gives Rashid too much time for second and third thoughts. Leila is compelled to combat his misgivings, but does not assuage his fears. The tryst is more about settling their own martial scores, it seems, than about the sex. 

The myriad tensions found in any domestic relationship arise, and conflicts surface. Debates about whether men or women feel greater pressure on body image, and who has the short end of the stick in social expectations - the usual stuff.

But there is a hint of something more, here – the couple are both from Cairo, and were actively engaged in the political and social struggles released in that country by the Arab Spring. Leila's memoir covering that time is about to be published - but she has pointedly not let Rashid read it. He accuses her of mistrust over this, and over his innocent flirtation with another woman. Leila counters that his occupation, photographer, sets him up as an observer rather than a full participant in life – and so on.

The tension pulls back as Doug bursts in, bubbling with excitement, which further unnerves Rashid. Fated to be the odd man out, Doug drives the comedic interlude that follows, and again we feel headed for lighter fare. But Doug’s joy fades as, unnerved that the two have withdrawn from the bed, he realizes he has stepped into the middle of a spat. Tepeli plays Doug with nuance and flair, especially challenging since he is in the nude for the first 15 minutes or so. 

We find Doug also has some baggage, and the unhappy couple conjures neuroses from his teen years. All this intimacy puts a damper on sex; the downside of Rashid and Leila’s marriage is on display. We also find that Doug, a photographer, has won the photo assignment that Rashid had been seeking: the cover of Leila’s book. An angry departure scene follows as the lights go down on Act I.

In Act II we are at Doug’s studio, where he is readying a set for the photo shoot. More drama follows as Doug and Leila work out the tension from the previous encounter. Then enters a drunken Rashid, and things continue downhill. Somewhere between the script and the performance, Faycurry's Leila is appropriately cerebral, but her dialog is unnaturally literary and unemotional. Troy's Rashid brings emotional range, and he has more luck with delivering the script. During his drunken diatrib, however, the lines require an unlikely sobriety. 

As the audience learns director Jason Gerace had a complicated scenario to present, and he manages to keep our interest on the script by Yussef El Guindi. But attention to the plight of Leila challenges loses out when mixed with so many other stories and issues within this story. 

Threesome runs through May 21 at Greenhouse Theater. Find tickets here.

If you’ve followed Netflix’s big 2016 hit Stranger Things, this play will make all kinds of sense. You’ll get the jokes, the 80’s references and will easily follow the story line. If you haven’t seen the series, it would be recommended that you do before checking out Random Acts and Greenhouse Theater’s collaboration, Strangest Things! The Musical. 

Spoofing one of the most talked about sci-fi series to hit the airwaves over the past few years, Strangest Things! follows the disappearance of Will Byers, a young boy in Hawkins, Indiana. Set in the 1980’s, his mother Joyce Byers, brother Johnathan and a group of Will’s friends search everywhere to no avail, eventually enlisting the help of Police Chief, David Harbour. When a young girl known as “Eleven” appears from seemingly nowhere dressed in only a hospital gown, it is soon discovered she has psychokinetic abilities and things start to get weird. 

Befriended by Will’s friends, Eleven is able to contact Will from the other side and it becomes apparent that things are not at all what they seem. Joyce believes Will is contacting her from another dimension, his energy channeled through the radio and a string of Christmas lights, confident he is alive but trapped in another world. Of course, this sounds crazy – or is it? And with every good sci-fi thriller there needs to be a villain, so it’s soon discovered an experimental laboratory, led by scientist Martin Brenner, may have a hand in Will’s disappearance. Suspicious, the snooping begins and the plot gets deeper and deeper as the story progresses.  

The series won its popularity not only with its engaging storyline, but with the heavy use of 80’s music and sound effects, making it prime parody material.

That’s where Strangest Things! comes in. 

While Strangest Things! The Musical hits on some of the 80’s silliness and occasionally finds success in its over-the-top lampooning of the series’ characters, it struggles to hold onto its momentum. Taking popular 80’s hits like “Xanadu”, “I’m A Virgin”, “Sweet Dreams” and “Don’t Stop Believin’”, writers Bryan Renaud and Emily Schmidt change the lyrics to accommodate the storyline in the play. While the lyrics are, at times, funny, the execution falls a bit flat, the harmonies weak and the vocals often lacking strength, excluding Molly Lecaptain as “Juice” (Joyce) Byers who can flat out belt. We almost wonder if the play would have been better without the musical numbers, the dialogue exchanges drawing the most laughs along with the character exaggerations of each.

Lecaptain does a good job in taking on Winona Ryders’ character, over-amplifying her panic-stricken, bewildered and frenzied traits at just the right intensity, while Kevin O’Connell as “Sheriff Hopper” (Police Chief David Harbour) also takes his role and runs with it. Will’s best friend Mike is played by Jenna Fawcett, who doesn’t have to do much more than wear a goofy wig to get a chuckle but also delivers plenty of funny lines and loopy expressions. Older brother “Johnathan” is played by Ben F. Locke, who doubles as hunky high school heart throb Steve. Locke’s performance offers some of the best camp-dom in the musical, leaving more “Johnathan” scenes to be highly desired. Their comedic ability is only limited by the play’s script.

The play starts strong as we meet our characters the first time around (especially “Barb” played by Christian Sibert), but the humor becomes predictable, the character’s freshness soon overplayed and the jokes often coming off as contrived or overdone, a perfect example being Hopper’s mention of T.J. Hooker – which was funny – until he points out to the audience that we should laugh because he made an obscure 80’s reference. We know.    

If you enjoyed the Netflix series, there might be just enough in Strangest Things! to like despite its many missed opportunities for witty, comedic growth. The idea is there but the play could use a reworking to give its audience the most bang for their buck.            

Lukewarm, the play has severe hits and misses, some jokes really creative while others falling flat. As a whole, the story might be a bit tough to piece together without having seen the series, as it is presented somewhat scattered without full explanation, so again, it is recommended you watch Stranger Things first.  

Strangest Things! The Musical is being performed at Greenhouse Theater Center through May 13th. For more information on this production, visit www.greenhousetheater.org.

*This show has now been extended through July 8th.