November News

I'm afraid it's now November 1, which means it's time once again to pack away your Halloween costume. If you are costume-minded, however, you can still see lots of them on area stages, as this month, actors will be dressing up like mermaids and brides and nuns and fairies and turn-of-the-century Parisians for your entertainment. Or, in the case of "Hello Again" at Illinois Wesleyan, actors will take on the hair and fashion of 9 different decades of the 20th Century and even possibly undress for your entertainment. (It's a show that centers on intimate encounters and previous productions have shown a fair amount of skin. The poster for this one looks pretty bare, too, but in a softer way, so... We'll just have to see the show to know for sure. But I digress.)

As I said back in October, November 3rd is a very busy day, with four different shows opening in Bloomington-Normal.

There's "Iolanthe" at IWU's School of Music, a comic Gilbert & Sullivan opera about fairies, shepherds, Parliament, and mixed fairy/mortal marriages creating havoc, with only four performances November 3-6.

"Do Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?" is another of the November 3 shows, with performances of this Catholic coming-of-age musical running at Community Players through the 20th. You can read what cast member Joel Shoemaker had to say about the show here.


And "Sirens," the sweet, funny romantic comedy from Deborah Zoe Laufer about a songwriter who can't seem to stay in tune anymore and just how far overboard he's willing to go for his song, opens at Heartland Theatre on that very same day. "Sirens" also runs through the 20th, with a "Pay What You Can" preview on the 3rd and a talk-back with the cast after the performance on Sunday, November 13th. I interviewed Todd Wineburner, who plays the sinking songwriter in "Sirens," and I will be talking to more of the cast later this week. Stay tuned! Or make reservations now by emailing boxoffice@heartlandtheatre.org or by calling 309-452-8709.

Maybe we shouldn't count ISU's "The Marriage of Bette and Boo" as a November 3 contender anymore, since it's sold out on opening night. But you can catch it on the 4th or 5th or 8th through 12th at Westhoff Theatre if you make a reservation now. Unless, of course, you prefer to see the Feydeau farce "A Flea in Her Ear" at ISU's Center for the Performing Arts, since it has pretty much the same schedule as "Bette and Boo," plus a matinee on the 6th and minus the matinee on the 12th. Call the ISU box office at 309-438-2535 to sort out all the details.

In case you still haven't found a show for November 3 that sounds like your style, you do have another choice. Over in Urbana, the Station Theatre opens a brand-new show called "Way Off Broadway," written and directed by Celebration Company member Mike Trippiedi. The plot sounds a bit like "Waiting for Guffman" by way of Mickey and Judy and their "Let's put on a show!" modus operandi. Trippiedi's previous play "Caged Vixens" also premiered at the Station, while his most recent movie, "Amber Rose," has been playing at film festivals all over the US this past year.

New Route Theatre continues its One-Shot Deal series with a table reading of "Fat Jack's," a new play they're billing as a "tragicomedy," on Wednesday, November 9 at 7 pm at the Eaton Gallery in downtown Bloomington. "Fat Jack's" was written by ISU English Department faculty members Joe Amato and Kass Fleisher, and was apparently inspired by the infamous Sam-Shepard-drunk-driving-in-Normal incident that happened in January, 2009. (That's Sam's DUI arrest photo over there on the left.) Irene Taylor directs this table-read.

If you can get to Decatur, Richland Theatre is producing "Assassins," the Sondheim musical about people who try to kill presidents, opening November 11. John Poling appears as John Wilkes Booth. Yes, it's a strange premise for a musical, but this is one awesome show, all about the crazy side of the American Dream, entitlement, guns, triggers and how easy it is to completely go off the rails. You can see a short promo video here.


Illinois Wesleyan offers the darkly seductive "Hello Again," Michael John LaChiusa's musical take on Arthur Schnitzler's "La Ronde" November 15-20, directed by Scott Susong, whose work is always provocative and entertaining. LaChiusa wrote the book, music and lyrics for "Hello Again," pushing Schnitzler's story of intersecting lovers into the 20th century. LaChiusa frames each pair of lovers, including a soldier/nurse, a senator/whore, and a writer/film star, in a different decade, with his score using different styles to echo those decades. As the ISU press release tells us, "'Hello Again' crisscrosses beds and jumps back and forth between decades, intimately examining the painful secrets that drive adults towards the bruising effects of reckless intimacy without the protection of emotional connection." You should be forewarned that "Hello Again" has a high level of sexual content and adult themes, and is not intended for anyone under 17. Tickets will be sold from the McPherson Theatre box office -- 309-556-3232 -- starting November 7. The IWU Theatre website is also available here for general information. Susong has just unveiled the fabulous poster for this event, which I am including here. Pretty nifty, huh?


Sarah Ruhl's "Dead Man's Cell Phone," directed by Rhys Lovell, comes to Eureka College's Pritchard Theatre November 15-20. Ruhl is very much the hot playwright of the moment (and the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius Grant" as well as a two-time nominee for the Pulitzer Prize) and "Cell Phone" is an intriguing play, opening with a woman in a cafe who can't help but notice a nearby cell phone that won't stop ringing. She answers it, sending her down a rabbit-hole into a dead man's life and connections. Who was he? Who loved him or knew him or is sorry that he's gone?

If you're not busy on Thanksgiving, or if you need to dance off a little turkey, the Normal Theater is screening "Holiday Inn," the Bing Crosby/Fred Astaire take on how to celebrate holidays that introduced the song "White Christmas." Bing and Fred try to capture women's hearts singing (der Bingle) and dancing (Mr. Astaire) as they also celebrate New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day, Easter, July 4th, George Washington's birthday and Abraham Lincoln's birthday (unfortunately in blackface) with a story about an inn in Vermont. It's mostly Bing's vehicle, but there's enough Fred, too, and some fizzy Irving Berlin songs.

So that's my take on November... Definitely a lot to do. Especially on November 3rd.

Talking With Todd Wineburner, Actor, Writer, Bon Vivant

It's pretty much a given that you recognize Todd Wineburner if you've been to any theater in Bloomington-Normal, done the Discovery Walk at Evergreen Cemetery (where he is often Jesse Fell) or attended the "Funny Raiser" at Heartland Community College's Challenger Learning Center, where Mr. Wineburner has performed stand-up comedy for charity. Plus he's been on the radio hereabouts for a good long while. Currently, Todd does commercial scheduling and voice work at Radio Bloomington.

Todd is also starring in Deborah Zoe Laufer's "Sirens" at Heartland Theatre, where he plays Sam, a middle-aged songwriter who had a huge hit some 25 years ago, but has never struck gold in the same way again. Although he is married to the woman that original hit song was written about, Sam has been looking for inspiration elsewhere, trying to find old flames on Facebook and in general, trying to recapture his youth. As Todd Wineburner prepares to open in "Sirens," I chatted with him about his own past as well as about the play.

Todd, I know you’ve been working with Heartland Theatre Company for awhile. So how long has it been? And what was your first show at Heartland?

I’ve been involved at Heartland since I was in Uncle Vanya in 1995.

I know you’re from central Illinois and you’ve made a career in radio. Did you stay in Illinois for college, too? What is your academic back ground?

I have a Bachelor’s Degree from Illinois State with a double major in Theater and English. My radio background comes from my days in the Air Force when I was part of the Armed Forces Radio and Television Network at Comiso Air Station, Italy. There’s no U.S. presence at Comiso any more, but I don’t think I had anything to do with that decision.

I seem to recall you did the Shakespeare Festival here, too. Is that right?

While I was a student at ISU, I did spend one summer with the Illinois Shakespeare Festival and got the chance to play Brabantio (Desdemona’s father) in "Othello," Gremio in "The Taming of the Shrew," and Lepidus and various other characters in "Antony and Cleopatra." It was a great experience out at the old facility at Ewing Manor.

In recent years, we’ve seen you turn in excellent dramatic performances in shows like “The Drawer Boy” and top-notch comedic performances in shows like last season’s “Woman in Mind,” several ten-minute plays at Heartland, as well as stand-up and other comedy experience (and even the Discovery Walk at Evergreen Cemetery, where you played a lighter character last year). What do you prefer? What do you think is your true calling?

It’s so hard to say. I think all actors love giving a comic line and getting the instant feedback of laughter, so I guess I’ll give comedy the nod this time. Of course, sometimes the laughs don’t come, so if you ask me on those days I’d probably tell you that I prefer more serious plays. It’s all about the audience, really. When you’re doing a comedy, you want to hear a lot of noise in the form of laughter. When you’re doing something more serious, you want to hear silence as you hold the audience mesmerized. If you pick up the opposite of what you’re going for, you just try to make the best of it, but when it’s going good, it’s all good.

Although you are an old hand at Heartland, I think "Sirens" marks the first time you’ve worked with Connie de Veer. But you two are playing a couple who has been married for 25 years. How do you create that “old married” chemistry with someone you just met?

I actually attended ISU in my youth, then left for a time and returned as an older student. When I came back, Connie was the instructor for the first acting class I had at Illinois State, so even though we’ve never done a show together, we’ve known each other for quite a while. Having a familiarity with her definitely helps, but it’s working through the rehearsals that really let you mesh the two characters together to create the illusion of a long-term relationship. Luckily for me, Connie makes it pretty easy. Hopefully we can get people to believe that Sam and Rose have put some miles behind them.

I understand you have worked before with Connie’s daughter, Gwen, who plays the Siren in "Sirens." When was that? Has Gwen changed a bit since then?

When Gwen was 12, she won the title role in a production of Annie in Miller Park and I got to play Daddy Warbucks. That whole production was another great experience, and, yes, Gwen has grown a great deal as a performer since she was 12. She’s changed in other ways, too, but if I go into any of that it will sound creepy.

What would you like to tell potential audience members about "Sirens"?

The guy playing Sam is in a very delicate emotional state and if you don’t laugh at everything he says, there’s no telling what he might do. Please be kind and laugh a lot.



So there you have it -- a personal invitation from Todd Wineburner to come out to see "Sirens" at Heartland Theatre and a request to please laugh a lot. I don't think that's going to be a problem. He's hilarious. (And that line, about being hilarious, is even in the play.)

"Sirens" opens at Heartland this Thursday, November 3, with a special "Pay What You Can Preview" night, and runs though November 20, with performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 pm and Sunday matinees at 2 pm. For reservation information, you can click here, email boxoffice@heartlandtheatre.org or call 309-452-8709.

I'm trying to interview all four cast members as well as director Ron Emmons, so stay tuned for more pieces in upcoming days. I forgot to ask Todd if he's ever looked for old flames on Facebook, but I may add that to this blinterview* if I remember!

*Blog is a made-up, smashed-together word in the first place, so I don't feel too bad making up "blinterview." Okay, I kind of do. That is one sorry excuse for a word.

What Is the Deal With November 3rd?

By my count, there are four shows opening in Bloomington-Normal on Thursday, November 3rd, with another one bowing on November 4th.

Why in the world does everybody want to open a show on November 3rd? Maybe to get a decent number of performances in before Thanksgiving? Honestly, I don't get it. But it does mean that area theater-goers have a wealth of choices on November 3rd. And on the 4th, 5th and 6th, of course, as they try to pick up all the ones they didn't get to on the 3rd.

I'm partial to "Sirens" at Heartland Theatre, since I'm working on that show and I already know it's going to be a good one, since I've sat in on rehearsals. (You can read more about that here.) SIRENS features pretty much an all-star cast, with Todd Wineburner, Connie de Veer, Gwen de Veer and Andrew Rogalny, Jr. working together to tell the story of Sam and Rose Abrams, married for 25 years, but wondering whether their relationship is starting to sink. Gwen and Andrew play the the Sirens singing irresistible songs who pop up in their paths. It's funny and sweet and has some truths to tell, too. "Sirens" opens on... November 3rd, of course! And runs till the 20th. (I will be running interviews with the cast and possibly director Ron Emmons as the run wears on, so look for those in this space.)

Also on the all-important November 3rd, Community Players over on Robinhood Lane in Bloomington is opening the Catholic coming-of-age musical comedy, "Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?" It, too, runs through the 20th. And Joel Shoemaker, who plays Felix (AKA The Filth Fiend) in the show, wrote about his "Black Patent Leather" experience and growing up in general for this blog a few days ago. You can read Joel's "Chronology" here.

The third show opening on that same night is at ISU's Westhoff Theatre, where Christopher Dea directs Christopher Durang's "The Marriage of Bette and Boo," a bouncy absurdist tragicomedy with a very different view of a boy's Catholic childhood than the one in "Black Patent Leather Shoes." You won't need to worry about whether to pick it for your choice on the 3rd, however, as that performance is sold out. If I've counted right, there are eight other performances with tickets available before "Bette and Boo" closes on November 12.

And our fourth possible choice on the 3rd is "Iolanthe," the Gilbert and Sullivan fairytale opera from Illinois Wesleyan's School of Music, directed by Robert Mangialardi, visiting professor of music and director of the opera theatre program at IWU, in Westbrook Auditorium at Presser Hall. Mangialardi directs a cast of 25, including Rachel Carreras and Cassandra Coglianese taking turns as Iolanthe and Suzanne E. Whitney and Holly Haines alternating as the Queen of the Fairies. As seems to be the pattern at IWU, the show runs for only four performances. The article linked here indicates that this is a free show, open to the public.

And just to complicate matters further, ISU has a second show going up on November 4th. "A Flea in Her Ear," the Feydeau farce directed by Don LaCasse, takes the stage at the Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, closing on the 12th just like "Bette and Boo."

Given that we're talking November, a rather serious month, it amuses me that all five of these are light and funny. Well, the Durang play has some decidedly dark stuff hiding under the jokes, and "Sirens" deals with some painfully funny truths, as well. And the nuns' rulers can hurt in "Black Patent Leather Shoes," too. I guess most comedy involves pain, when it comes right down to it.

Plus trying to schedule all of these shows in such a short amount of time is definitely painful!

One More "Rocky Horror Picture Show," Extravaganza Style

Costumes! Horror! Monsters! The Time Warp! Rocky Horror and Halloween are a match made on the planet Transsexual, in the distant galaxy of Transylvania.

Which is why the Theatre of Ted is sponsoring its 7th annual Rocky Horror Picture Show Extravaganza, a combination of live performance and the Rocky Horror film, just in time for Halloween. They did it last night, too, but I'm a day late and a few leus short. Luckily for us, there is a second Extravaganza performance.

So, tonight, Saturday, October 29th, you may experience "Rocky Horror" and all its Hot Patootie Transvestite glory, which includes a showing of the film along with a complete (fully rehearsed and choreographed) "shadow performance" of the live show performed in front of the screen. It's two shows in one! Or a hybrid. Or a Frankenshow.

Doors will open at 7 pm, with a "Virgin Ceremony" scheduled for 7:30. I have no idea what that means, but with the Theatre of Ted, it could be anything. Marking Vs on newbie's foreheads with red lipstick? Sacrificing virgins? Possibly lap dances from someone in a red corset? (I read the comments at the Facebook page linked above.) I dunno. It is an Extravaganza, after all.

Oh, and the performance begins at 8. The first 100 people get a free prop bag, which will not include the toast, rice, water pistols, open flames or other messy items sometimes associated with "Rocky Horror." Instead, if you are among the lucky 100, you will get a flashlight, some newspaper and toilet paper, playing cards, a rubber glove, a party hat, a noisemaker, and a picture of a piece of toast so you that can throw toast without actual toast crumbs falling on the carpet. The Theatre of Ted is apparently practical as well as insane, so that's good.

And all of this is only $5, payable at the door.

"The Rocky Horror Picture Show Extravaganza" takes place at Capen Auditorium, on the second floor of Edwards Hall. Edwards Hall is on the Illinois State University campus in Normal, on the East side of University Street, two buildings south of College Avenue.Parking is available in the Bone Student Center parking lot for a small charge.

Fishnets and tap shoes optional, but encouraged. Please leave the kids at home.

Chronology: Joel Shoemaker Looks Back for Black Patent Leather Shoes

Here we are again, with another blog post from Joel Shoemaker, who looks at life and theater differently from anyone else I know. I asked him for something sort of Joelish on the subject of "Do Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?," which he is currently working on for Community Players. And here's what Joel had to say...

I’m something of an expert when it comes to baking. My vast experience, dating all the way back to August 2011, ambitiously includes…cheesecake. Oh, and some sort of spin on tiramisu. And bars! I just CANNOT possibly be expected to remember all of it. My history with baking is just that impressive. Oh and there was that one time last weekend when I microwaved some sort of Rice Krispie concoction. That’s it. I knew if I just starting going through these MANY sundry culinary creations I would come up with the one I wanted. Something would jog my memory.

Making the Rice Krispie treat is a fairly complicated deed but I mastered it. In due time. The problem was the architecture. It was a pumpkin spice treat, as was the cheesecake, as were the bars. These are treats that beg to be shaped as their flavor suggests. Being Halloween-time, I supposed such a shape-making device would not be much trouble to acquire. The baking/cookie section? Why would they be there? With pots/pans/utensils-of-kitchen-type? OF COURSE NOT. How about weddings, by random chance? Nope. In my fury, checking out with only candy corn in hand, before accepting defeat I merely ask the checkout gal, do you have cookie cutters? There are none in Heaven, I understand, but this is FREAKIN’ WALMART. And turning around, IMMEDIATELY outside of the particular checkout lane I had chosen, sits a beautiful display of every shape and size of cookie cutter imaginable.

I chose the one with the comfort grip, for obvious reasons.

A great many years prior to being an expert baker, I was an aspiring chef of another type. My sister and I, we grew up in kitchens. Mom and dad were basically always cooking something. As such, I think we both took a natural interest as children. My interest, at this particular time – and since I have no real idea and it couldn’t matter any less I’m going to call myself ten years old here – was in grilled cheese. My mother worked in a liquor store, and my dad spent a lot of time cooking in the bar portion at the back of this. One day, we made grilled cheese on the flat grill and dad offered the sage advice of not touching the grill because, well, that would suck. Still, I was given the crucial task of distinguishing your ordinary toast from the gourmet sandwich by gently placing the processed cheese slice onto the leftmost slice of Texas toast. Always Texas toast. Always the left. It’s crucial to your success as a gastronomic great, so, please, write it down. Obviously, I heeded this advice. Just with complete disregard for the other.

You know, when I placed my right hand firmly upon the cooking surface. And held it there. And said, yeah, that totally does suck.

Before successful chef, I was a budding police officer riding around on my bicycle, singing my own siren, demanding license and registration and handing out many a ticket. No one was safe, from what I understand. I don’t remember any of this.

Perhaps I was too young. Or maybe it was my repeated childhood love of porch-diving, but that’s another story.

The point is, we grow up. We change.

Thank God.

I will never be that young again.

This is a theme of the ever-popular musical, Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?, opening November 4th at Community Players in Bloomington. Even better, it follows a particular group of children growing up with a Catholic education. And, it’s hilarious. Basically, Eddie (played at Community Players by Austin Travis) falls in love with Becky (Jennifer Stevens). But he’s really, REALLY bad at it. Of course, Eddie and Becky have friends -- Nancy (Mindy Lahood), Virginia (Kelly Slater), Mary (Reena Artman) Mike (Tom Smith), Louie (Mark Robinson) and Felix the Filth Fiend Lindor (Joel Shoemaker) -- to help them get into PLENTY of trouble with the Priest (Bob McLaughlin) and the nuns (Christie Vellella, Nancy Nickerson, Samm Bettis and Melissa Fornoff) along the way. Throw in your regular sex education and a senior prom and you have a fairly comprehensive (and yes, as complicated as it sounds) plot.

It's retrospective. It's a yearbook. It's reflective. Nostalgia. I didn't have time for Wikipedia this time but I did read the back of the script. It states this as Chicago's longest running show, and some kind of record-breaker in Philadelphia!

Find out why and watch all of these characters grow up before your eyes just like those pills that, with water, turned all kinds of shapes and sizes (introducing three-year olds everywhere to the fascinating world of pharmaceuticals!!) through the first three weekends in November, Thursday-Saturday at 7:30 PM and Sundays at 2:00 PM, closing November 20th.

I know you’re still asking yourself, “But, Joel, do black patent leather shoes really reflect up?"

I've been in rehearsals for over a month and I still haven’t a clue. So what? Everything has flaws...

And there you have it. Joel Shoemaker's inimitable stylings on shiny shoes, cheesecake, Texas toast and pharmaceuticals. Thanks, Joel!

"Globe to Globe" -- Shakespeare in Many Tongues, Including Hip Hop From Chicago

Something really cool is happening in London next year, as part of the World Shakespeare Festival.

"Globe to Globe: 37 Plays in 37 Languages," begins April 21st, 2012, with plans to produce every one of Shakespeare's plays in a different language, each performed by a different international company. Those languages include British Sign Language, with "Love's Labours Lost" performed by England's Deafinitely Theatre; "The Merchant of Venice" performed in Hebrew by the Habima National Theatre of Tel Aviv; a Maori production of "Troilus and Cressida" by the Ngakau Toa company from New Zealand; "Measure for Measure" performed in Russian by Moscow's Vakhtangov Theatre; a Swahili take on "The Merry Wives of Windsor," performed by Nairobi's Bitter Pill company; "Twelfth Night" performed in Hindi by the Company Theater of Mumbai; "Cymbeline" in Juba Arabic from the South Sudan Theatre Company and "Richard II" in Palestinian Arabic from Ashtar Theatre of Ramallah; and a new Balkan trilogy for Henry VI, with Part 1 in Serbian, Part 2 in Albanian and Part 3 in Macedonian from the national theaters of Serbia, Albania and Macedonia. Other productions will be in Argentine Spanish, Armenian, Bangla, Belarusian, Brazilian Portuguese, Cantonese, Castilian Spanish, Dari Persian, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Mandarin Chinese, Mexican Spanish, Polish, Shona, Turkish, Urdu, Yoruba, and a combination of IsiZulu, IsiXhosa and SeSotho, Setswana, Afrikaans and South African English as the Isango Ensemble from Cape Town performs a "carnival interpretation" of the narrative poem "Venus and Adonis."

There is also a production in regular old British English, with "Henry V," that most British of plays, performed by the Shakespeare's Globe company.

Will there be an American representative? Why, yes, there will! The Q Brothers are taking their hip hop version of "Othello," created for our very own Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, to represent the United States. The Globe to Globe program offers this quote from the show: "I hate the bastard, hate the Moor, I hate his rhymes, I hate his whore." Not your grandfather's "Othello."

I love language and I love Shakespeare and I find all of this absolutely fascinating. O for a muse with wings to carry me to England in April and leave me there till June.

You can find a summary here, a Festival Guide here, and the complete line-up here.

In One Week, We'll Hear the "Sirens" Call

Deborah Zoe Laufer's "Sirens" opens with a couple, Sam and Rose, contemplating (or, more accurately, arguing about) how to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. When it comes to anniversaries, you need to represent both halves of the couple, after all. But songwriter Sam is in the middle of trying to recapture his youth and his youthful enthusiasm for songwriting, so he isn't in the mood to think about anniversaries, while Rose would really like something special to commemorate 25 years.

As it happens, I first saw "Sirens" at Actors Theater of Louisville's Humana Festival of New American Plays in 2010, and just before I went, my husband and I were contemplating (or, more accurately, arguing about) how to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. I remember seeing that first scene and feeling a sense of recognition, a sense of "Oops. This play is talking about me."

We certainly didn't do a cruise to the Greek Isles for our anniversary, and I think maybe watching the play informed my decision. But I loved the Humana Festival production of "Sirens" because of its underlying truths, its sense of humor, and its sense of whimsy. In fact, I came back and wrote a rave review for it, parts of which have shown up on the back of the published version of the play.

I suggested "Sirens" as a play that might suit Heartland Theatre, it was chosen, and I am currently working on the props the actors carry in the play. (So if you go and see a pretty glass of wine or a tortured length of knitting, remember me.) As Ron Emmons, who is directing the play for Heartland, has said, it could be viewed as a play about marriage, about midlife crises, about writer's block, about one-hit wonders, about modern life and social networks and how they create even more challenges for the AARP crowd, about a clever twist on Greek mythology for the new millennium, or about any number of other things. But mostly, it's a play about journeys, about figuring out where and with whom you want to be for the journey of your life.

I was at a "Sirens" rehearsal just last night, and this play is looking really good. Todd Wineburner, a Heartland favorite, and Connie de Veer, last seen there in "The Trip to Bountiful," have developed a sweet, real chemistry that makes Sam and Rose rootable (and since Sam has his less-than-sympathetic moments in the script, the fact that Wineburner makes you understand and root for him, anyway, is pretty impressive), while Gwen de Veer, who starred in "Proof" at Heartland last year, is lovely and magical as the various Sirens who sing a song only Sam can hear. This is the first time mother and daughter Connie and Gwen de Veer have done a show together, and that's pretty magical, too.

The fourth member of the cast is a newcomer to Heartland, Andrew Rogalny Jr. He is a sophomore at ISU; you may have seen him as Antonio in ISU's recent "Merchant of Venice." His character, Richard Miller, adds a crucial component to the plot, as sort of a siren for Rose, and Rogalny is totally going for it.

I know I've already used both these words too often in this piece, but Emmons is putting together something quite special and magical for the Heartland stage. As I said when I saw the play in Louisville, "The humor and warmth, as well as the understanding of what it means to be married a long time, are things that never go out of style."

Performances of "Sirens" begin at Heartland next week, on November 3rd, with a Pay-What-You-Can preview. Regular performances commence the next night and continue through Sunday, November 20th. I would highly recommend you reserve a seat at "Sirens." Special... Magical... It's what theater is all about.

For more information or a bigger look at the beautiful blue poster, click here. To jump right to reservations, click here.

See you at "Sirens"!