3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Theatre of Western Springs kicks off 97th season with classic thriller
Audiences will be treated to a psychological thriller, a farce featuring Dracula, a courtroom drama, a Moliere classic and more during the 97th season of the Theatre of Western Springs.
The season begins with 'Angel Street (Gaslight)' by Patrick Hamilton, Sept. 4-14. Holly Robison will direct the chilling psychological classic on the Schauer Mainstage. In this thriller, a woman fights to maintain her sanity when strange things keep happening.
The Cattell Theatre will be the location for the second show, 'Doubt' by John Patrick Shanley, Sept. 25-Oct. 5. Jean Gottlieb directs this drama set in a 1960s Catholic school in the Bronx.
This is the first time that director Gottlieb of Warrenville has worked with the Theatre of Western Springs, but she has been doing theater in Chicago for 30 years, including serving as artistic director of New World Repertory Theatre in Downers Grove for seven years.
Gottlieb described 'Doubt' as 'one of my all-time favorite plays. It's superbly written. It won the Pulitzer and the Tony Award. John Patrick Shanley is one of the best current authors of plays. This play is the perfect study of uncertainty — not knowing what's true.'
That's at the heart of this show. It explores 'what happens when you are so certain that you're driven to ruin other people's lives,' Gottlieb said. 'Or what happens when you plant the seed of doubt with no evidence.'
It's a theme that is particularly relevant today, the director observed. 'It speaks to our current situation,' Gottlieb said.
Greg Kolack, of Elmhurst, who became artistic director of the theater company on July 1, after holding staff positions there for eleven years, most recently as associate artistic director, will direct two of the shows.
First up for Kolack is a farce, 'Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors' by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen, which will run from Oct. 16-26 on the Schauer Mainstage.
Kolack said the show has been described as 'Mel Brooks and Monty Python combined meet Dracula. It's way over the top — real silly. There's five actors that play 20 characters. The fact that they play 20 characters is part of the joke. They put a wig on, do a line, take the wig off and do the other character. It's very fast paced.'
Kolack is also directing Moliere's 'Tartuffe' in the Cattell Theatre, Feb. 12-22, 2026. Kolack noted that he performed in that show during his senior year of high school fifty years ago. He guest-directed the show 20 years ago at Dominican University in River Forest.
''Tartuffe' is a great classic — one of the funniest shows ever written,' Kolack said. 'We're doing it in the round. We're going to do it in a modern-day setting. The show's about religious hypocrisy and being conned. It was written three hundred years ago and it's still relevant. That says a lot about Moliere — how prescient he was.'
Karen Holbert of Western Springs, who has a 30-year history with the Theatre of Western Springs as an actor, teacher, and director, is directing '12 Angry Jurors' by Sherman L. Sergel on the Schauer Mainstage, Jan. 22-Feb. 1.
'It's such a great show for actors,' Holbert said. 'All but two of the actors in the show are on the stage the whole time. I think the topics of what your civic duty is and the power of one person to make a difference in a group, doing what they think is the morally correct thing to do, are compelling issues for these times.'
The season concludes with 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' by Jeffrey Lane with music and lyrics by David Yazbek, May 28-June 7, 2026 on the Schauer Mainstage. Ray Frewen directs the outrageous and hilarious musical about two con men and one heiress.
Artistic Director Kolack noted that the Theatre of Western Springs is approaching a major milestone. 'In three years, it will be our hundredth anniversary,' he said. 'It's a lot of responsibility for me to keep the torch going.'
Six-play subscriptions are $144; $136 until July 16. Four-Mainstage-play subscriptions are $103; $97 until July 16. Pick 4 flex subscriptions are $110.
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