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Health & Fitness

Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy is not amused.

The Theatre of Western Springs (TWS) presents its first Forum play of the 85th season, “Boy Gets Girl,” by Rebecca Gilman and directed by Amy V. Fenton. Performances take place from Sept. 26 - Oct. 6, at the Theatre of Western Springs, 4384 Hampton Ave.

Schedule:

  • 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sept. 26, 27, 28, Oct. 3, 4, 5
  • 2:30 p.m. Sundays, Sept. 29, Oct. 6
  • 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28, Oct. 5
  • 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29

Rebecca Gilman’s award-winning “Boy Gets Girl” creates mesmerizing tension. The play hooks its audiences with an innocent seeming blind date that leads to a disquieting tale of obsession.

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The play contains mature themes and is not recommended for children.

The main character, Theresa Bedell, is a smart, successful woman in her 30s, who writes for an upscale literary New York magazine. She agrees to a blind date with a friend-of-a-friend. He wears khakis, has a respectable job and buys her a beer, so she agrees to a second date which never happens.

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Daily flower deliveries are replaced with frightening phone calls and unannounced visits. A shaken Theresa can’t get him to stop. Tony’s continued attempts to win Theresa over grow from annoying to harassing to horrifying.

“Boy Gets Girl” received a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Play following its premiere at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre under the direction of Michael Maggio. It is included in The Best Plays of 2000-2001 and was named the Number One Play of the Year by Time magazine for the year 2000. In addition, it was named one of the Top Ten Plays of the Decade by Time magazine in 2010.

Tickets to “Boy Gets Girl” are $18 and $20. Call the box office at 708-246-3380. Also, tickets can be purchased online at http://www.theatrewesternsprings.com. Free parking is available. 

The director

Amy V. Fenton is a theatre director who has directed both new and established plays, her own original adaptations and new performance work, and workshops of new work in progress.

The Chicago Reader called her original adaptation “The Education of Marjory” at Strawdog Theatre Company a “stunner….Short and sweet, this performance piece lasts only a half an hour but says volumes with every movement and word.” 

Her production of Jeffrey Lieber’s “Mariposa” received critical acclaim: “Director Amy V. Fenton has put together one hot production, with a sterling cast who drive the play with unrelenting intensity” (Chicago Reader); “The riveting production staged by Amy V. Fenton is nearly flawless” (Gay Chicago Magazine). Her production of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s “New Anatomies” was twice recommended in the Chicago Sun Times’ “To See or Not to See” column which called it “…a fascinating and richly atmospheric production.”

Fenton spent the last two seasons as artistic director of theatre at Triton College, where she is adjunct faculty in Speech/Theatre. She has taught acting and improvisation for the University of Chicago and Open Door Repertory Company. Her work as an arts administrator included six years in administration at the Goodman Theatre.

The playwright

 Rebecca Gilman was born in 1964 in Birmingham, AL. She moved to Chicago in 1994 and held a series of temporary jobs until the success of her play “The Glory of Living” (1999) won her international acclaim.

Written by Gilman in 2000, “Boy Gets Girl” is the story of what happens when a blind date turns into a nightmare. It received a Joseph Jefferson Award for best new play following its premiere at the Goodman under the direction of Michael Maggio.

 “(Rebecca) understands how to write plays that are premised in something that seems immediate and recognizable to her audience,” Maggio said, “but she finds a way to dig very deeply into the characters and the milieu. And she has a remarkable capacity to hook you into a story.”

 Gilman received her MFA in playwriting from the University of Iowa. She is an associate professor of playwriting and screenwriting at Northwestern University as part of its MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage Program.

 She was named a finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for “The Glory of Living” and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Harper Lee Award, The Scott McPherson Award, The Theatre Masters Visionary Award and The Great Plains Playwright Award. She is a member of the Council of the Dramatists Guild of America and a board member of the ACLU of Illinois.

Gilman is an artistic associate at the Goodman Theatre. Other Gilman works are “A True History of the Johnstown Flood,” “Spinning into Butter,” “Blue Surge,” “The Sweetest Swing in Baseball,” “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter,” “Dollhouse” and “The Crowd You’re in With.”

 

Cast

Madeline -                              Joy Helfrich of Wheaton 

Tony -                                     Dave Romito of Clarendon Hills

Theresa -                                Debbie Sampson of La Grange

Howard -                                Tom Schutt of Westmont

Mercer -                                  Kevin Slattery of Darien

Harriet -                                  Laura Starr of Brookfield

Les -                                       Dave Trzinski of Palos Park 

 

Crew

Director -                                Amy V. Fenton of Oak Park

Stage Manager -                    Angelee Johns of Hinsdale

Assist’ Stage Man. -               Ann Baker of Western Springs

Assist’ Stage Man. -               Jennifer Jermano Miller of Indian Head Park

Box Office Manager -              Mary Ellen Schutt of Westmont

Costumes -                            Marilyn Darnall of Oak Brook

Costumes -                            Dorothy Tressler of Western Springs

Dramaturg -                           Mike Huth of LaGrange Park

Hospitality -                           Carol Clarke of Hinsdale

Lighting Design -                   Mary Ellen Schutt of Westmont

House Managers -                 Mike Janke of Downers Grove

Make-up Design -                  Pat Huth of LaGrange Park

Program Editor -                    Ed Barrow of Hinsdale

Properties -                           Mary O’Dowd of Darien

Properties -                           Arlene Page of Burr Ridge

Publicity -                              Mike Bachmann of Western Springs

Set Construction -                 Joe Delaloye of La Grange

Set Design -                          Bill Rotz of Woodridge

Set Dresser -                        Mary O’Dowd of Darien

Set Painting -                        Karen Holbert of Western Springs

Sound Design -                     Pat Politano of Brookfield

Technical Director -               Thad Hallstein of Chicago




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