Alice married Frankie because she saw that spark of humanity in him that Frankie had worked so hard to hide from the rest of the world so that it couldn’t hurt him ever again. Alice has had her own share of sorrows, but bounced back and been incredibly successful in business and in life, finding […]
Read MoreFrankie sits at the center of Talking with My Dad. A relaxing Saturday afternoon he is spending with his family gets interrupted by an urgent call from his doctor. That call sets off a chain of events Frankie is finding it incredibly difficult to believe. But regardless of how he feels, his life is about […]
Read MoreWriting and work-shopping a play are only the first steps to bringing it to a stage. There’s an entire behind-the-scenes world that has to fall into place before the curtain can go up on opening night. For Talking with My Dad the behind-the-scenes work started with securing a theater space in which to perform, in […]
Read MoreMoving Talking with My Dad from concept to realty meant writing it. As a professional journalist for more than 38 years, writing is second nature to me. I tend to think in headlines and intro paragraphs even in my daily life. But writing a play is far different from writing a story about heart disease […]
Read MoreThe genesis of what you’ll see when you come to watch a performance of Talking with My Dad goes back to a warm March day in 1986. On that Easter Sunday so long ago, my father died of a heart attack while visiting my suburban Chicago home for Easter Sunday. The shock of losing a […]
Read MoreI’ve long planned to write several plays about my life, from my youth in New York, to my days living here in the Chicago area. But Talking with My Dad was not originally among those I planned. Two years ago, though, life intervened. I had severe chest pains that summer for several days and eventually […]
Read MoreThe Evanston 2nd Act Players began in 2013 with the goal of staging new works by undiscovered playwrights looking at critical turning points in people’s lives. What we do would not be possible without the wonderful backing of our sponsors, so we thank them here and before each performance. This year, Dave’s Italian Kitchen will […]
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