Shows Archive - Page 6 of 130 - Community Players

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a play by Edward Albee first staged in 1962. It examines the complexities of the marriage of a middle-aged couple, Martha and George. Late one evening, after a university faculty party, they receive an unwitting younger couple, Nick and Honey, as guests, and draw them into their bitter and frustrated relationship. While other plays establish the difference between reality and illusion, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? starts out with the latter but leans to the former. More specifically, George and Martha have evaded the ugliness of their marriage by taking refuge in illusion. The disappointment that is their life together leads to the bitterness between them.

The play won both the 1963 Tony Award for Best Play and the 1962–63 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play.

This play is Rated R. Due to adult content, themes, and language this show is not recommended for children.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a play by Edward Albee first staged in 1962. It examines the complexities of the marriage of a middle-aged couple.

The play won both the 1963 Tony Award for Best Play and the 1962–63 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play. This play is Rated R. Due to adult content, themes, and language this show is not recommended for children.

The third play of the season had auditioned just before the COVID-19 outbreak. The small cast show, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” had just gotten rehearsals underway when the closure of the theatre required the cast and director to rehearse via Zoom, the popular videoconferencing application for their nightly rehearsals. This worked for a short time, but the requirements for rehearsal changed. They needed to now work onstage and together. The state’s requirements made that impossible and so Players had to postpone the production until further notice. Ticket sales will be suspended until further notice.

The following statement was issued this evening, April 6, 2020, from the show’s director, Brett Cottone: “We hope that you, your friends, and your family are safe and healthy. The Illinois shelter-in-place rules and staying at home have changed all of our lives. Live theatre isn’t very easy to rehearse or patronize while practicing social distancing. Community Players Theatre is all about social inclusion and that makes our mission very difficult at this time. Days before these new rules were put in place we had auditioned and cast our upcoming production of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf". The show has been rehearsing online ever since but will obviously not be ready to perform for you in its original early May timeframe. At this time, we are announcing the official postponement of this show with the hopes that it will be ready for some much-needed entertainment and artistic release once the current shelter-in-place rules are lifted and we are able to congregate to enjoy live theatre as a group once again. We know that the arts inspire hope and provide an escape from the everyday. The arts are perhaps needed now more than ever, to bring our community together, and keep us connected. We thank you for your understanding and patience at this time and we will keep you updated once we have updated performance dates to share.”

We have been actively pursuing ways to present theater to our patrons in a safe and meaningful way. Players were pleased to announce a series of events that we are planning to present virtually this Fall that we are calling “The Show Must Go On” series. The first event was a video showcase that shares the name of the series, The Show Must Go On. Players wanted this showcase to feature as much of our community as we could. Auditioners either song from a musical, reading a poem or monologue, or told us how Community Players Theatre was/is important in your life, So many submissions were received that two episodes to watch on either YouTube Channel or Facebook page. were created. There were over 66 performers and speakers that were represented by the two videos for "The Show Must Go On!".

The third show in this series was designed to bring back an old tradition for CPT. This December, for our third event, would be presenting a special called “Home for the Holidays”. This show would be a modern equivalent to the Players' past performances of the "Holiday on Robinhood Lane" series. This will be a great way to get into the Holiday spirit. The original plan was to decorate the stage with a very Merry Christmas theme. Some of the songs presented in the show would be filmed on the Players' stage. However, COVID Restrictions made that impossible. So like "The Show Must Go On!" performers would submit Christmas music or dance. The story is about the janitor at Players left alone at Christmas time with his family out of town. Some friends help make a Happy Christmas for the janitor. In the opening scene, he is seen cleaning up the theatre due to the cancellation of the Annual Christmas Movie. As old friends contact him to help him clean-up, he declines and they set about creating a Merry Christmas gift for the janitor with a surprise zoom call from performers and board members. After this wonderful surprise and the theatre cleaned up, the janitor is locking up the theatre to go home alone when his family drives up to surprise him.

In the planning stage for this production, it was hoped and assumed that the Pandemic Rules would be somewhat eased by December. This did not happen and so the plans changed to offer the same type of production as the "Show Must Go On!". The only difference was that things had eased up enough for two or three people to be in the theatre if socially distanced. The janitor character was filmed in the lobby and the Green Room. That allowed the Director, Cameraman, and the actor inside of the theatre. Five other actors were filmed on the outside of the theatre. Three at the door in the opening and two in a car at the closing of the show. Everyone else created videos of their scenes or songs and dances and sent them to be edited into the show.