Grand Family Foods Opens April 20

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 […]

Read More

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

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 […]

Read More

So Now, What? Canceled

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

Read More

2nd ACT ALUM ACTING ACROSS CHICAGOLAND

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 […]

Read More

2ND ACT PLAYERS’ FOUNDERJOHN FRANK IN TWO UPCOMING SHOWS

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 […]

Read More

2nd Act Players’ founder John Frank to play Einstein

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 […]

Read More

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

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 […]

Read More

2nd Act Players’ Alum are lighting up Chicago-area stages in 2022

While the 2nd Act Players stage remains dark because of Covid concerns, actors with whom we have been fortunate to work in the past are lighting up stages across the Chicago-land area and the country with powerful performances. Most recently, Violet Sky Productions announced Debra Rodkin will be in the cast for its production of […]

Read More

2nd Act founder’s scripts to be featured across the country this summer

Two plays written by 2nd Act Players’ founder John N. Frank will be performed by two other theater groups online this June and July. The plays were originally performed by the 2nd Act Players in 2017 and 2018. A theater group called Play Readings with Friends will read Frank’s New Year’s Eve at Grandma’s House […]

Read More