Mainstage Season 2012-2013

SMALL
by Paul Amandes
Comedy
A Play in Progress
October 19 – November 18 (F, Sa, Su)

 

With only three months left ‘till the Illinois gubernatorial election, the current governor must drop out of the race.  Doe McCarthy, exiled for a lethal electioneering error some time ago as a campaign manager, is called back to Illinois to stump for his replacement.  That replacement is one of the most brilliant minds in politics, an old friend of Doe’s, and a most unlikely candidate.  Quickly regaining her former chutzpah, Doe rushes to Illinois believing that landing her guy in the governor’s mansion is a mission of historical proportions – and her shot at political redemption.  But politics, prejudice, and past mistakes block her path at every turn.  SMALL is a topical tale about the yearning for personal significance and the compromises one is willing to make to get it.

 

 DAVID COPPERFIELD
by Charles Dickens, adapted by Peter Baker
December 1 – December 16  (Sa Evenings and Su Matinees)

In the Bicentennial year of Dicken’s birth, Open Door brings Peter Baker’s new one-man show, David Copperfield, to the stage.  This is an enthralling retelling of Dicken’s powerful story of one man’s life and the memorable characters in it.

 

SIX DANCE LESSONS IN SIX WEEKS
by Richard Alfieri
Comedy
January 18 – February 24 (F, Sa, Su)

Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks is a touching comedy about a formidable retired woman and her acerbic dance instructor.  Lily Harrison hires Michael Minetti  to give her private dance lessons —one per week for six weeks— in her gulf-front condo in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida. What begins as an antagonistic relationship blossoms into an intimate friendship as these two people from very different backgrounds reveal their secrets, fears, and joys while dancing the Swing, Tango, Waltz, Foxtrot, Cha-Cha, and Contemporary Dance. Overcoming their outward differences, Michael and Lily discover an unlikely but profound connection. By the final lesson, Lily shares her most closely guarded secret and Michael shares his greatest gifts, his loyalty and compassion. A comedy with music and dance, the play also addresses the serious issues of ageism and intolerance.

 

Comedy-Drama
April 12 – May 19 (F, Sa, Su)

Earl Bitoy Series Production

Arthur Przybyszewski owns a decrepit donut shop in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago.  Franco wicks, a black teenager who is his only employee, wants to change the shop for the better.  This comedy-drama by Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Letts explores the challenges of embracing the past and the redemptive power of friendship, asking the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

 

CLARA
by McKinley Johnson
Musical
July 12 – August 18 (F, Sa, Su)

This new musical by McKinley Johnson is inspired by true events in the life of Clara Ward of the famed Clara Ward Singers.  Clara, driven by her mother’s reckless ambition, finds herself between her dreams and her mother’s goals.  Amid this never-ending pressure, Clara becomes an icon of gospel music but finally must break the bond of mother and daughter permanently…to find her own peace.  Familiar to many gospel aficionados, Clara has such favorites as, “How I Got Over” and “Surely, Surely He is Able”.  In addition, are new toe-tapping musical theatre numbers entitled, “I Got A Plan”, “The Chocolate Shakes,” and “Tomorrow.”  Filled with deep rich characters living in the forties, fifties and sixties, a time of great change for women and African-Americans, Clara goes directly to the heart of the struggle between family and personal ambition.