Community Players Announces 2011-12 Season

Jumping the gun? Or jumping on "Annie Get Your Gun"?

Community Players has announced their next season, starting with the Irving Berlin classic "Annie Get Your Gun," the musical riff on the life and romance of Wild West sharpshooter Annie Oakley. Look for auditions in May, with performances scheduled from July 8 to 24.

They'll follow the musical with a straight show, Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None," where a group of seemingly unrelated people gather at a remote island estate, only to be picked off one by one, with each death echoing a nasty children's rhyme. Where is their host? Who wants each of them dead? Can anyone escape the relentless killer? "And Then There Were None" is set for September.

Next up, CP offers "Do Patent Leather Shoes Really ReflectUp?" in November. This musical look at growing up Catholic features music and lyrics by James Quinn and Alaric Jans and book by John R. Powers.

Finishing out 2011 will be "Murder at the Howard Johnson's," a farcical play about a homicidal love triangle that heats up and breaks down in the same motel room. Written by Ron Clark and Sam Bobrick, "Murder at the Howard Johnson's" has been a staple of regional theaters since it first hit the boards in 1979. It's a "lab theatre" choice for Community Players, meaning there's no preview, only a few performances, and it is not included in the season ticket package.

John Logan's "Hauptmann," CP's choice for January, is a dramatic departure, telling the story of Bruno Hauptmann, charged with The Crime of the Century, the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby in 1932. Did he do it? Logan leaves that open to the audience to decide, as Hauptmann himself steps forward to tell his story.

"Blithe Spirit" blows into the theater in March. Noel Coward's breezy comedy involves Charles Condomine and his two wives, one real, one ghostly, and the off-the-wall séance conjured up by a psychic named Madame Arcati. When "Blithe Spirit" was recently revived on Broadway, Angela Lansbury played the wacky medium. Community Players won't have Lansbury, of course, but it's still a showstopper of a role for an actress of a certain age.

The Broadway poster for "You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running" proclaims it is "howlingly funny" and "a smash hit." You can judge for yourself when these four unrelated one-acts written by Robert Anderson come to Community Players at the end of March, 2012. This, too, is part of CP's "lab theatre project," so remember, no preview, fewer performances, and it's not part of your season ticket.

"Hairspray," the bright, bouncy musical version of the John Waters' movie about teens, pop music, love across boundaries, and big hairdos in Baltimore in 1962, finishes up CP's 2011-12 season with performances in May. The stage musical boasts music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman, and book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan. It won eight Tony Awards when it hit Broadway in 2002 and ran for more than 2500 performances.

For more information or to look into applying for a position with Community Players in its new season, visit their website here. Before we get to those shows, you can also buy tickets to "The Solid Gold Cadillac" and "Titanic," the remaining shows in the current season.

Acting Classes for Teens with Rhys Lovell

Heartland Theatre Company is sponsoring acting classes for teens between the ages of 13 and 18 on Sunday evenings for 8 weeks beginning February 20th. Rhys Lovell, a wonderful actor who has appeared in plays like "Rabbit Hole" at Heartland and "Equus" at Illinois State University, will serve as the instructor.

Lovell (shown at right) also teaches acting at ISU and Illinois Wesleyan University. Locally, he has acted with Heartland Theatre, Prairie Fire Theatre, Illinois Voices, and the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. In Chicago, he has appeared with Famous Door Theatre and Chicago Dramatists, and in Los Angeles he was a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre. He has directed for Heartland Theatre, Illinois Wesleyan University and Prairie Fire Theatre and is the author of the plays "Pangaea Fell" and "The Imaginist."

Admittance to this Master Class in Acting for Teens is by audition only and enrollment is limited to 12 students. Students interested in auditioning should prepare a two-minute monologue from contemporary dramatic literature. Auditions will be held at the convenience of the student and instructor and will also include a brief interview. Please contact Rhys Lovell by email at rlovell@ilstu.edu to arrange a time.

Tuition is $175 per person; a non-refundable registration fee of $25 (included in the price) must be paid by February 13 to secure a place in the class. Classes will be held at Heartland Theatre off Beech Street in Normal.

This is really a terrific opportunity for teens to develop their acting chops -- Rhys is himself an excellent, layered actor, and his Master Classes for adults have been hugely popular. If I were a teen, I'd be there with bells on!

ISF Tickets on Sale January 31

I don't know about you, but I'm more than ready for summer Shakespeare now. I love the Illinois Shakespeare Festival at beautiful Ewing Manor, and with ticket sales starting very soon, I can dream ahead of balmy nights under the stars watching a little bit of the Bard.



This summer, the ISF will offer a new "Romeo and Juliet," a fresh take on "The Winter's Tale," and redo of the Reduced Shakespeare Company's "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)."

"The Complete Works," which is sometimes also referred to as "The Compleat Wks of Wllm Shkspr" or other odd spellings to indicate its abbreviated nature, will open this summer's Festival on June 23. It will once again be directed by Bill Jenkins, who took the reins in 2008 when the show last appeared on the Shakes Fest schedule. I've heard it through the grapevine that David Kortemeier and Thomas Anthony Quinn will once again play two of the three roles in the show, although I don't know whether Jenkins will also bring back the trailer trash setting. When I saw "The Complete Works" with a touring version of the Reduced Shakespeare Company at U of I way back when, it didn't use a mobile home, mullets or characters out of "You Might Be a Redneck." Those additions worked just fine in 08, so Jenkins may very well return to the Good Ol' Boy well.

I have to say, I think it's odd to bring the show back this quickly, as funny as it is. I have a feeling it's all about box office for this one -- if it was wildly popular before, I guess it makes sense to revive it and run with it. I'd rather see more real Shakespeare, but... I'm not paying their bills, am I?

"Romeo and Juliet," directed by Doug Finlayson, is scheduled to open June 24. Everybody knows the plot of "Romeo and Juliet," right? If not, you can always pop "Shakespeare in Love" in your DVD player to get an introduction. Or "West Side Story." Staging your own little "Romeo and Juliet" film fest isn't a bad idea, even if you've seen "Romeo and Juliet" and its tale of romantic woe a million times.

I have seen it at the Shakespeare Festival before, in a production that was purported to be all about the heat in Verona and how it inflamed everyone's passions. It didn't really work out that way, but I have high hopes Findlayson and his cast will find their way this time.

The last show on the roster is "The Winter's Tale," directed by ISF Artistic Director Deb Alley. This one is a curious play about King Leontes and his sudden, quite irrational case of jealousy. He cannot or will not be dissuaded from the notion that his wife, Hermione, is cheating on him with another king named Polixenes. That sends a series of strange events into motion, including predictions from an Oracle, an abandoned child named Perdita (which means "lost") who is raised by a kindly shepherd, a statue who isn't really a statue who comes to life, and what may be Shakespeare's most famous stage direction ("Exit, pursued by a bear"). How will the ISF create a bear? Puppet, actor in a bear outfit, real bear on loan from the zoo, rippling fabric, video projection or something I haven't thought of?

The Illinois Shakespeare Festival will also offer free, shortened performances of "Twelfth Night" intended for young audiences(tickets are free but reservations are required), "Shakespeare Experience" summer camps, jazz and live music nights, special speed dating, scavenger hunt and wine tasting Tuesdays, post-show talk-backs and ice cream socials, and backstage tours. For information on educational options, visit this page, while this one will guide you through your pre-show and post-show choices.

If you're a member of the Illinois Shakespeare Society, you're already eligible to buy your ISF tickets. Everybody else can pick up the phone or visit the Shakes Fest website to get a jump on those tickets next Monday, on January 31.

Theater Hall of Fame Honors Eight Lifetime Achievers Tonight

The Theater Hall of Fame will induct eight more honorees tonight at New York's Gershwin Theatre and celebrate the new Hall of Famers at a Gala Dinner at the Friar's Club.

This year's inductees include directors Michael Blakemore, Joseph Chaikin and James Lapine, actors Brian Dennehy, Linda Lavin and Fritz Weaver, playwright Caryl Churchill and conductor/musical director Paul Gemignani. That's a whole lot of theatrical excellence represented right there.

The Theater Hall of Fame was begun in 1971 to honor lifetime achievement in the American theater. That has included actors, directors, playwrights, producers, designers and other related professionals, from producer/director/playwright/some-of-everything George Abbott to costume designer Patricia Zipprodt. The list also includes my personal favorites Fred Astaire, Sir Alan Ayckbourn, Fannie Brice, Bob Fosse, George Gershwin, Al Hirschfeld, Julia Marlowe, Sir Ian McKellen, Stephen Sondheim, Tom Stoppard, Gwen Verdon, Orson Welles and August Wilson. And Bloomington's own Rachel Crothers.

One Week Left to Enter Your "Back Porch" Play

If you've been working on a 10-minute play for Heartland Theatre Company's annual 10-Minute Playfest, now's the time to finish it up and enter it! There's only week left to get in your "Back Porch" play.


This is Heartland's tenth annual 10-Minute Playfest, and all eight winning plays will be set on a back porch. The porch is an homage to the very first 10-Minute Playfest, which was set on a front porch.

And even though the image accompanying the 10-Minute Playfest information shows a bride taking refuge on a back porch, I have it on good authority that there are no plays submitted so far with a bride taking refuge on a back porch. Of course, the fact that more plays are being submitted even as we speak may mean that is no longer true. Aliens, ghosts, old friends and relatives, someone who may or may not be Jesus, cops, preachers, teachers, thieves... You never know who might appear in Heartland's 10-Minute Playfest!

If you have an idea, if you've started something, your chance to enter is fading fast. You must have the play submitted to Heartland Theatre by February 1st.

For all the other rules and regulations, be sure to visit the Heartland website and be SURE to read and follow every bit of those rules. Heartland even offers a stylesheet you can follow to give your play the best shot at advancing.

Well? What are you waiting for? Time's a-wasting!

Celebrating Groundhog Day

I never really got into Groundhog Day as a holiday. I guess by February 2nd I am so ready to be done with winter that letting my fate -- even my pretend fate -- hang on the whims of a rodent -- even a large, cuddly rodent -- has never appealed to me.

But then along came "Groundhog Day," the adorable 1993 Harold Ramis-directed romantic comedy, with Bill Murray as a selfish weatherman who needs to learn the value of being a real human being to get out of the eternal loop of repeated Groundhog Days. Ramis and Danny Rubin wrote a warm, sweet, beautiful script that flips all my switches, and Murray turned in one of his best performances ever. As his love interest, Andie MacDowell is also right on target. The cute, funny groundhogs in the film (especially the one driving the car) make me forget for a minute that they really are rodents.

To celebrate Groundhog Day in style, you have several choices. You can get a copy of the film, of course. I heartily recommend it. You can travel to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the classic locale where they wait for groundhog Punxsutawney Phil to emerge from his burrow. ("Groundhog Day," the movie, purports to be taking place in Punxsutawney.)

You can also drive up to Woodstock, Illinois, where the film was actually shot. If you're lucky, locals will point out the house where Bill Murray's Phil Connors woke up every day, the restaurant where the TV crew hangs out in the movie, and the curb where Phil steps into an icy puddle to avoid Ned Ryerson. (I went to high school in the Chicago suburbs with a guy named Ned Ryerson, and I've always wondered if Harold Ramis, who is from Chicago, knew him or named the character after him. He was certainly nothing like this Ned Ryerson, a pushy, overly friendly insurance agent played by Stephen Tobolowsky. Only Harold Ramis knows for sure!)

If Punxsutawney and Woodstock are too far to go, you do have a lovely Central Illinois choice this year. Wildlife Prairie State Park, outside Peoria, is presenting their own Groundhog Day celebration on Wednesday, February 2nd, with a fetching groundhog named Gertie (seen at left) doing the honors. Legendary weatherman Willard Scott is flying in to join Gertie and announce the official weather prediction based on whether she sees her shadow. The park is offering "Wake up with Willard and Gertie" tickets, as well as special breakfast packages. You can see all the details and make your plans at the Wildlife Prairie Park website, or call (309) 676-0998. Gertie is pretty irresistible, isn't she?

Reading History with "History Reads"

The McLean County Museum of History, in conjunction with the Bloomington Public Library, has announced a "History Reads Book Club," meeting in the Governor Fifer Courtroom on the 2nd Floor of the Museum on the first Tuesday in February, May, August and November, 2011. Selections for this book club may include fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, biography and any other kind of book that illuminates Illinois history.

First up, "The Great Comeback" by Gary Ecelberger, which is subtitled "How Abraham Lincoln Beat the Odds to Win the 1860 Republican Nomination." Most Illinoisans know a bit about Lincoln in New Salem, in Springfield or as President, but Lincoln the political operator maneuvering behind closed doors to nab his party's nomination is something a little different. Ecelberger's book was published by Thomas Dunne Books in 2008 and has received excellent reviews, including a rave in Publishers Weekly that called his prose "enthralling."

"The Great Comeback" will be discussed at 7 pm on February 1st at the McLean County Museum of History. For more information, check out the this page from the McLean County Museum of History, this page from the Bloomington Public Library, or the publisher's page on the book itself. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the museum gift shop or to check out at the library. Participants in the History Reads Book Club are invited to browse the museum before or after the discussion. Lots of good stuff there to look at!