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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The 2nd Act Players’ November play, New Year’s Eve at Grandma’s House looks at the American immigrant experience circa 1960. Its first two Sunday shows, Nov. 4 and Nov. 11, will be followed by panel discussions on issues immigrants face today. Speakers for the Nov. 11 panel will include: Fernando Moreno, chief operations officer, SpanishPublicRadio.org […]
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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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Listen for 2nd Act Players’ cofounders John N. Frank and Carolyn Calzavara this Sunday, Oct. 28, on WCGO radio’s PLAYTIME with Bill Turck and Kerri Kendall. Discussion will revolve around New Year’s Eve at Grandma’s House, the 2nd Act Players’ world premiere play that opens Nov.3 at Northminster Presbyterian Church’s theater in Evanston. “PLAYTIME is […]
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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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Julianna’s Irish boyfriend, Bill (portrayed by Jeff Watkins) grew up in the exclusive Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn,a world away from the hard-scrabble Italian neighborhood he now finds himself about to visit with Julianna. His father had been a long-time Naval officer before starting his civilian law career, so Bill came from a professional family, […]
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