“Grand Family Foods” sold out for entire run!

April 24, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

The Midwest Players Theater’s new production of the two-act play Grand Family Foods by Kurt Peters has sold out all four of its scheduled April performances, a tremendous accomplishment for a new theater. The production is being done in cooperation with the Evanston 2nd Act Players. “Kurt’s play about the struggles of a small Midwest […]

2nd Act Players’ new role — an incubator for new theaters

April 24, 2024.Reading time 3 minutes.

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 […]

Grand Family Foods Opens April 20

January 28, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

Join us in April for the world premier of Grand Family Foods by Kurt Peters. The play marks the first production by The Midwest Players and is being done in cooperation with the Evanston 2nd Act Players. Grand Family Foods tells the story of Rick Erickson, owner of a small grocery store in Millburg, Wis., as […]

Join us Friday, Feb. 9, for a very special show

January 18, 2024.Reading time 3 minutes.

The 2nd Act Players invite you to join us for a very special event on Friday, Feb. 9 — a one-woman show of playwright Eileen Richards’ new, one-act play Running with Coffee. The one-hour play is a tragi-comedy about mid-life, mental health, caregiving and fighting over the washing machine — when your parents move back […]

So Now, What? Canceled

November 5, 2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Sadly we are canceling our planned November production of the new play, So Now, What? Ticket buyers will receive refunds through Eventbrite.

Frank play “I’ll Take This One, Brother” gets online reading Monday, July 17

July 9, 2023.Reading time 1 minute.

2nd Act Players’ cofounder John N. Frank’s new 10-minute play, I’ll Take This One Brother, will have a free online reading Monday, July 17 at 6 p.m. central time. To see it, simply click here that evening. The reading is being done by Just Write, Lakeland, a place for writers of stage and screen to […]

2nd ACT ALUM ACTING ACROSS CHICAGOLAND

February 9, 2023.Reading time 1 minute.

2nd Act Players alum continue to make their marks on stages across the Chicago area in early 2023. Valerie Gorman is appearing in The Legend of Georgia McBride at the Metropolis Performing Arts Center in Arlington Heights through March 4. Debra Rodkin is appearing in Driving Miss Daisy at the Jedlicka Performing Arts Center in Cicero […]

2ND ACT PLAYERS’ FOUNDER
JOHN FRANK IN TWO UPCOMING SHOWS

February 9, 2023.Reading time 2 minutes.

John N. Frank, co-founder of the 2nd Act Players, will be portraying the local habadasher in the 1950s’ classic Inherit the Wind at Deerfield’s Theater D this April. Frank also has been cast as the dean of the Sanford Medical School in the Oakton College February staged reading of Let Me Down Easy, a contemporary […]

2nd Act Players’ founder John Frank to play Einstein

September 29, 2022.Reading time 3 minutes.

John N. Frank, co-founder of the 2nd Act Players, will be portraying an elderly Albert Einstein in a planned stage reading of a new play, Einstein’s Compass produced by Chicago’s Royal James Theater. The reading will take place Tuesday, Oct. 11, at 7 p.m. in The Merion, an Evanston senior-living residence. The part represents Frank’s […]

Texas theater to premier Frank play, “Boys in the Basement,” in June, 2023

July 26, 2022.Reading time 2 minutes.

2nd Act Players’ Cofounder John N. Frank’s play Boys in the Basement will premiere as part of the 2022-2023 season for the Creative Corner Community Theatre in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. This will be the first full production for Boys since Frank wrote, produced and acted in it at 2nd Act Players in 2015. “Boys […]