Author Archives: Marianya Klis

Review: Beverly Theatre Guild’s Wait Until Dark

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Disclaimer: Normally I try not to review shows that I felt was below average (in my eyes), but since someone asked I have to oblige.

Wait Until Dark is probably best known for the 1967 film adaptation of the same name, with Audrey Hepburn as the young blind woman Susy Hendrix. The script itself is a fascinating read with the characters jumping out of the page. However, between myself and several other theatre goers we agree that there has yet to be a community theatre group that effectively creates the suspense necessary for this show.

Unfortunately for the Beverly Theatre Guild, they have not broken that mold. Wait Until Dark is about a recently blind woman, Susy Hendrix, who happens to be in possession of a doll full of drugs. Her husband came in possession of those drugs through a chance encounter with a thief while on flight heading home a few weeks earlier. In the meantime, there are three con-artists who are all gunning for the doll and lure the husband away on a trip of “business” so they could corner the blind woman and steal the doll. With the help of a young neighbor, Susy attempts to even the odds by turning off all the lights in the home… however she neglects one: the refrigerator.

This has all the ingredients for a splendid thriller, so where did it all go wrong?

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Review: Spotlight Theater’s Deadly Game

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Just last weekend my beau and I motored our way down to New Lenox to watch a mutual friend’s production of The Deadly Game by James Yaffe.

Spotlight Theater is fairly new to the New Lenox area (no pun intended), but it is definitely not new to the world of community theater. Originally from the Homewood area, it was difficult to have to uproot from an established area and move to not only somewhere fairly new, but a town that already had an established community theater group in vicinity. Is there room for two community theater groups in this sleepy southwest Chicagoland town, only time will tell. However, if closing night is any indication then I suspect that Spotlight Theater will be around for some time.

The production is about a quadrille of retired friends: a prosecutor, a defense lawyer, a judge and the extra. All of whom relax together at an isolated home out in the middle of Switzerland and play an old “parlour game” to pass the time.

During one of their get-togethers an American businessman happens upon them, finding himself stuck in the storm and unable to continue on his trip to town. After a little bit of time warming up by the fire and having a bit of alcohol and food he is invited into their parlour game playing the defendant.

And so begins a court enactment where each of the players re-enact their roles that they’ve played in their life and the American businessman being grilled for a “crime” that he may or may not have committed.

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Review: Theatre-on-the-Hill’s Den of Thieves (Original Draft)

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When I was approached to write a review for Theatre-on-the-Hill’s Den of Thieves, my first instinct was to wait until the second weekend of performances so I could compare and contrast actors in the roles that were double cast. But when I asked about deadlines it was brought to my attention the intent of the review was in the hope to bring in a larger audience for the remaining three weekends of performances.

So, below is the original idea that I had for a review for Theatre-on-the-Hill‘s production of Den of Thieves. There are notable differences between my original review and what was ultimately sent out to TribLocal as an official review, but the spirit of the review is still there for the most part. Which one do you like more?

Author’s Note: I will be posted my thoughts about various other productions that I saw in the past few years just to keep for posterity. Anything that is legitimate will be notated with an all capitalized REVIEW, whileas anything that is just my thoughts would simply be Review. Capeesh?

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REVIEW: Theatre-on-the-Hill’s Den of Thieves

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I was asked to review Theatre-on-the-Hill‘s fall production of Den of Thieves, and naturally I was honored to obliged. Then came a few issues:

This production of Den of Thieves has two roles that are double-cast, meaning that the performance dates are split between multiple actors. Theatre-on-the-Hill is notorious of doing this, particularly during the summer musical shows, this happens a lot less often during their Spring or Fall shows.

So which cast version to review upon? Well I went Opening Night, which wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t fantastic either. Then I went on the following Saturday night performance which was by and large the better of the two… so guess what my “legitimate” review was about?

This show will be open through the month of November 2011 in Bolingbrook. The version below was edited for the TribLocal online newspaper. I will include my original version in a bit.

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REVIEW: Madison Street Theatre’s Premiere Production: Animal Farm

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So I’m a theatre junkie. However, I’m more likely to go to shows that include friends or if I have someone go with me. In the case of Animal Farm out in Oak Park, my beau was a part of the cast. Now I have a nasty habit to see a show multiple times when I’m going to see a significant other perform, but that is mainly because I enjoy being in the company of people that I have grown to respect and appreciate not only as performers, but as people and friends as well.

Below is a legitimate review of George Orwell’s Animal Farm written in early August 2011. The first of what I hope to be many to come. From here on out, any shows that I’ve come across (be it a community theatre production, bootleg I’ve come across, or professional show) I will post my thoughts of them here…

And now without further adieu: Animal Farm.

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UPDATE: “Can we start again please?”

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So I decided to change everything out again. So instead of a splash page that leads into a bunch of other mini-sites, I decided to just simplify everything to the point that it is just a weblog. This way if time permits I can still add on pages outside of the blog that will be accessible via the blog.

This is a reflection of what has been going on in my life, where I used to compartmentalize everything and over-complicate matters to the point that I was stressing myself out. Now that I’ve found a bit of a balance, and a bit of simplicity it became easier to just put everything down on one page and throw the complexities out the window.

So with a weblog I could keep ideas up here, if anything new happens in my life it would be easier to post about it… and as writing projects complete itself then I’ll post accordingly.

Oh and if you were wondering where the title of this page came from? It is from a musical – Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ SuperStar – that is playing at the Arcada in St. Charles, IL in mid-December. It is being co-produced by Natural Talent Productions.

Ja ne!