The costumes for the 2nd Act Players’ fall premiere of New Year’s Eve at Grandma’s House are the most elaborate the theater has done in its five years in existence. 2nd Act Players’ Cofounder Carolyn Calzavara has made dresses for all the women in the Smaldone family who you’ll meet in our story. The time […]
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Opening weekend audiences were almost universal in their praise for the new 2nd Act Players’ show, New Year’s Eve at Grandma’s House. Comments such as “Great, it was great!” and “The acting was really good,” were common on audience feedback forms during the first two shows Nov. 3 and Nov. 4. Other comments: “Timely, serious, […]
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The 2nd Act Players, in its ongoing efforts to reach a wider audience with its dynamic new works for the stage, this season is advertising on Chicago classical station WFMT, in addition to running ads in the Pioneer Press north suburban papers, in the Chicago Tribune, on Evanston’s own WCGO and with the CTA. Our […]
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Ryan Hall this year finds himself playing a character in New Year’s Eve at Grandma’s House who is based on the father of the character he played last year in the 2nd Act Players’ drama Moving Boxes.It’s not often an actor gets to play two generations of characters from the same family. Watch what Ryan […]
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Faye is one of the Smaldone sisters you’ll meet when you come to see New Year’s Eve at Grandma’s House, a look at the American immigrant experience through the eyes of an Italian-American family in 1960 and 1961. Faye tries to honor her father’s wishes even after his death, but doing so comes with a […]
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The family matriarch, momma (Julie Mitre) has been slowed by strokes and cataracts from the days when she led her church rosary society in a wide range of church activities. She’s raised eight children through some of the most difficult times in U.S. history but as the party begins in New Year’s Eve at Grandma’s […]
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Immigrants traditionally have come to the United States in search of a better life. And they’ve brought with them their old-world ways as they try to fit into this very new world. Arriving immigrants have taken on the lowliest jobs, worked multiple jobs, done all they had to so their families, and particularly their children […]
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Sal, like so many men of his generation, went off to fight in World War II and came backed changed forever because of the horrors he saw. Also like his peers, he keeps those horrors bottled up inside, trying to spare his wife and family what he had seen and experienced. But a crisis that […]
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She brought light back into his world and so he is devoted to her. She in turn loves him passionately because he is a kind and gentle man who can live with her foibles which sometimes drive her brothers and sisters a bit batty.
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Stella (portrayed by Liz Lauren), Sonny’s wife, is an outsider in a world of Italian-Americans. She grew up in an orphanage in Pennsylvania with one sister. In search of a better life, she came to New York as a young woman to live on her own during the depths of the Great Depression. With jobs […]
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