drama

Batavia High School presents the updated version of the classic play “Twelve Angry Men,” today known as “Twelve Angry Jurors.” It is directed by Josh Casburn, and features two casts who invite the community to catch the drama.

Twelve jurors deliberate on what is supposed to be an open and shut murder case, until one juror swims against the powerful current of opinion, attempting to convince the other jurors to take a second look at the evidence. Tempers flare as two of them stand off about the murder case. 

In an unusual twist, the two lead actors, the male (played by Griffin Price), and the female (Darcy Coussens), alternate roles each night, emphasizing the complicated struggle for justice in every juror, affected by gender, background and prejudices as they make morally difficult decisions.

Best known as artistic director of The Midsummer Theatre Troupe and its joyfully accessible Shakespearean comedies, Toni Hix of Batavia, a casting director and acting teacher for more than 20 years, turns her directorial talents to The Albright Theatre Company production of “The Lion in Winter.” In this tale of royal intrigue set in 1183, England’s King Henry II matches wits with his estranged wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, about which of their sons will inherit the throne.
 

Toni Hix will direct “Lion in Winter,” her first production at The Albright Theatre Company in Batavia. STAFF PHOTO BY STEVE BITTINGER

The Theatre of Western Springs presents its first Forum play of the 81st season, Lanford Wilson’s “Fifth of July,” with performances Sept. 24 to Oct. 4 in its Cattell Theatre, 4384 Hampton Ave., Western Springs.
 
Show schedule:
 
8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sept. 24, 25, 26, Oct. 1, 2, 3
2:30 p.m. Sundays, Sept. 27 and Oct. 4
7:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27
2:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3

The comic drama has been compared to an “R-rated” version of the movie “The Big Chill.” The play is set in a large farmhouse in rural Missouri in 1977. The house belongs to Ken, an injured Vietnam veteran, and his lover, Jed, a horticulturist. They are visited by Ken’s sister, June, and her teen daughter, and by Gwen and John, the former a hard-drinking, pill-popping heiress who aspires to be a rock star, the latter her wary-eyed husband and manager.

Rick Snyder of La Grange Park and Arlene Page of Burr Ridge perform in Lanford Wilson’s “Fifth of July” at Theatre of Western Springs. SUBMITTED PHOTO

Elmhurst-based Do-It-Yourself Teen Theater will present its very first musical production of “A Little Princess” with two shows this weekend. Helen Knudsen, the 14-year-old founder of Do-It-Yourself Teen Theater, discusses her inspiration for starting a drama group exclusively for teens and tweens.

Director for the DIY Teen Theater performance of "A Little Princess," Helen Knudsen (left) works with her cast including Laura Anderson of Elmhurst during a recent rehearsal. STAFF PHOTO BY ERICA BENSON

“Rent,” a Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical, with lyrics and music by Jonathan Larson, debuted in New York City on Feb. 13, 1996, at the New York Theatre Workshop before moving to Broadway, where it became the seventh-longest-running musical in Broadway history. Now it’s arrived in the western suburbs.

Based loosely on Puccini’s opera “La Boheme,” “Rent” is a modernized story that follows the lives of a group of Bohemians living in New York City’s East Village over the course of a year as they struggle with relationships, drugs, loss, love, creativity, AIDS and paying their “rent.”
 

As its second production, the newly founded Geneva Underground Playhouse will present the drama “Agnes of God” at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, June 26 and 27 and July 3, 10 and 11, and at 2 p.m. Sundays, June 28 and July 5 and 12.

Written by John Pielmeier, it is the story of a novice nun, Agnes, who gives birth, but does not remember having the baby and does not believe it was real. A psychiatrist, Dr. Martha Livingstone, and Sister Miriam Ruth, mother superior of the convent, clash during the resulting investigation.