Many area theaters take the opportunity to present new
and innovative works during the winter months, something I noted in my last
column. The latest example of this trend is Born
with a Veil, a work by local playwright Kari
Catton Anderson that is being given a workshop production in the
third-floor Club Room of the Hoogland Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. Feb.
4, 5, and 11-13.
Anderson, who is also directing the play, had the
opportunity to develop the script at the Iowa Writers’ Festival
playwrights’ workshop last year, and a part of the play was performed
at last year’s Kentuck Festival of the Arts in Northport, Ala., near
Tuscaloosa.
Set in the South Carolina mountain country during the
1930s, the play centers on a mother’s coming to grips with the fact
that her 13-year-old daughter may be psychic.
The current production features Mary Young, Darin
Harms, Jason Goodreau, Deb King, Talor Lutz, Sam Germann, Molly Mathewson,
and Joe Hawkes-Cates. Original music has been written by Maggie Morgan.
“This is a work in progress, meaning we will
give the audience a chance to stay afterward and give their feedback or
write it down on cards,” Anderson says. “I need the feedback.
The actors have been so tremendous in giving me tidbits on what works and
what doesn’t.”
To see another phase in the development of a new play,
call 217-523-2787 for tickets.
Other shows worth seeing:
Springfield Theatre Centre next week stages You Can’t Take It with You at
the Center for the Arts. The American classic runs Feb. 11-13 and 8-20. The
Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman comedy about an eccentric family living in
Manhattan during the Depression won a Pulitzer Prize when it opened on
Broadway in 1938. The film version, directed by Frank Capra, also won an
Academy Award for Best Picture.
Local actor John Sivak helms the current production
and has assembled an ensemble of strong area performers — including
Felicia Coulter, Michael Coulter, Erica Smith, Georgia Dirksen, Dale Mason,
Gil Opferman, Kate Rossi, Beverly Ryan, Ron Seney, and Grace Smith —
to bring the zany and affectionate Sycamore family to life.
Gordon Productions is reprising last
fall’s hit show An Evening of Jazz and
Standards at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12, and
7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 13. The first half of the show features the Jane
Hartman Trio, and the second half features Mary Jo Curry and Gus Gordon,
singing great standards. This is another chance to see some amazing
performances. For tickets, call 217-523-2787.
Auditions are coming up for several shows:
The Little Theatre on the Square holds adult
auditions (17 and older) 1-5 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9, in Sullivan.
This professional, Equity theater’s summer lineup includes 42nd Street, Fiddler on the Roof, Beauty and the Beast, Swing, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. For information, call 217-728-2065.
Eric Thibodeaux-Thompson is holding auditions
for the April production of Lanford Wilson’s Fifth of July starting at 7 p.m. on
Sunday and Monday, Feb. 13 and 14, in the Studio Theatre, which is located
downstairs at the Public Affairs Center on the University of Illinois at
Springfield campus. This great American play was written in the late 1970s
by the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Talley’s
Folly). The production will feature an ensemble
cast of adult actors, and there is a role for one teenage girl. For
information, call 217-206-6613.
A final note: Forty-six actors auditioned for the
recent casting call for the Ghosts of the
Library show at the new Abraham Lincoln
Presidential Library and Museum. Seven actors were cast to begin this first
phase of rehearsals for the show. The actors chosen are Rick Dunham, Randy
Erwin, Jason Goodreau, Troy Kemp, Ted Keylon, Dennis Rendleman, and Patrick
Russell.
This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2005.
