Many years ago, my dad was touched by a song with the lyrics: Like an old dusty road I get weary from the load He told me someday I’d understand why that song spoke to him as he grew older. Today is one of those days. After eight and a half years of trying to […]
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The Evanston 2nd Act Players will be suspending operations for the remainder of 2021. This follows what for us was a devastating development last week – the church where we have performed since 2016 said we cannot do any in-person shows there this winter. Rather than have any activities in its theater area this year, […]
Read MoreAdmission to online showings of Idris Goodwin’s Black Flag are free but donations are strongly encouraged. Approximately 80% of all donations will go to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, at the playwright’s request. All showings will begin at 7 p.m. central time and last approximately 20 minutes. To register for July 14, or July 15, click […]
Read MoreThe 2nd Act Players has commissioned award-winning playwright John Mabey to write a new two-act comedy about post-pandemic life. Tentatively titled The Roaring 2020s, the play will follow the lives of a family — a father, mother, grandmother, adult daughter, adult son and his boyfriend, trying to figure out what is “normal” in the days […]
Read MoreThe 2nd Act Players spring online production, Pandemic Stories, 7 short plays about life, love and loss in the age of Covid-19, received a three-star review from the website AroundtheTownChicago.com. “From funerals and final messages to the repercussions of the stay-at-home orders, this timely show is an intimate take on the effects of current events […]
Read MoreJust click here to buy tickets to watch Pandemic Stories, 7 plays about life, love and loss in the time of Covid-19 on-demand via our YouTube channel. The minimum suggested donation for viewing is $15 but we gladly accept more.
Read MoreCathrine Goldstein’s play, What Good Did We See Today?, is a very poignant look at the struggles a father and daughter face during the pandemic as his memory slips away and she strives desperately to help him. Goldstein is an award-winning playwright, and a bestselling author of gritty, real-feeling plays, novels, short stories, and poems. […]
Read MoreCindi Sansone-Braff’s play, To the Zoom and Back, looks at a senior couple’s attempt to try to connect through online dating in the age of Covid. Sansone-Braff is a member of the Dramatist Guild, has a B.F.A. in theatre from UCONN, and is a playwright, author, actor, dancer, producer, director, and the co-founder of Tomorrow’s […]
Read MoreValerie Gorman last appeared with the 2nd Act Players in its 2019 production of Old Ringers, the last play we did on-stage prior to the pandemic. In Pandemic Stories, she plays a woman trying online dating for the first time in To The Zoom and Back, a West Texas lunch lady in the play Lunch […]
Read MoreJohn Mabey’s play Second Acts, Second Helpings, looks at a couple’s actions and attitudes toward life after the pandemic has finally subsided. Mabey’s plays have been published and produced across the United States and Europe, and this year his work is included in Smith & Kraus Best 10-Minute Plays and Smith & Kraus Best Women’s Monologues. In […]
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