Arts organizations that survived the Covid years found themselves changed, often in ways they never expected. The Evanston 2nd Act Players certainly has. This year has seen the 2nd Act Players become an incubator theater, a place where playwrights can try out new shows before taking them elsewhere, and a place where new theaters can launch their first production with the help of our 11 years of experience as a small theater.
To start the year, we produced a very special one-woman show by playwright Eileen Richards. Eileen wanted our help to ready her show, which she wrote and acts in, for its debut in the outer boroughs of New York City. Weeks of rehearsal culminated in a special one-night Chicago-area performance February, 2024.
As April ended, Eileen was preparing to leave for New York and her performances there, using the lessons she learned working with us on our Evanston stage.
Following our work with Eileen, we turned to working with the newly born Midwest Players Theater to produce its inaugural production of the new two-act play Grand Family Foods by Kurt Peters. The show is performing to sold-out houses at each of its four performances, an incredible accomplishment for a new theater.
The 2nd Act Players collaboration with the Midwest Players actually began in 2020, even before the new theater had its name. We assembled actors for a first table read of Grand Family Foods in early 2020 with expectations the play would debut later that year. And then came Covid.
Flash ahead to 2023 when we again assembled a cast, this time to perform a staged reading of the play for invited guests. The positive feedback from that event led Kurt to move forward with a full production this year.
Helping others produce their plays is extremely satisfying, so we’re here to help more playwrights do it. If you’re a playwright who is tired of waiting for some theater to accept your script, let’s talk about how you can self-produce.
We also can discuss the process of incorporating as a not-for-profit theater, or not, with you. And we have basic blueprints on steps to take to go from page to stage.
Interested? Drop me a line by clicking here.