Evanston's 2nd Act Players
The Evanston 2nd Act Players will be staging the original John N. Frank one-act play, "Talking with My Dad," in November 2014.
This is your opportunity to bring this enterprise to fruition and become a patron of this new, dynamic theater group. Every dollar will help with hiring a director, stage manager, renting a suitable performance space and securing costumes, props and stage dressing.
You can read about the troupe's last production, New Year's Eve at Grandma's House, at:
http://newyearseveatgrandmas.wordpress.com
We hope you will support our endeavors here and by attending shows the weekends of Nov. 15 and Nov. 22. A location for the show in the Chicago area will be announced shortly.
The challenges we face in creating an independent production include: assembling a cast, finding a director, finding a venue , holding 12 weeks of rehearsals, assembling costumes, props, etc. It can seem like miracle to pull this off but we did it last year. Can we catch magic on stage again? With your help, we can. Join us in this amazing adventure that is theater.
Talking with My Dad
THE STORY
A man is rushed to the hospital on a quiet Saturday afternoon. He's experiencing unexplained chest pains. Doctors can't find a cause but prepare him for the worst. He must wait 48 hours before exploratory surgery can be performed. In that time, all his old feelings about his father's death from heart attack bubble to the surface. In the quiet of his hospital room, he's left alone to confront his pain, grief and anger.
But is he really allow? Is he haunted by the memory of his father's death or is something more happening?
Read more on our show site:
http://talkingwithmydad.wordpress.com/
THE PRODUCER
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Carolyn Calzavara is producing “Talking with My Dad” and
serves as inspiration for one of the play’s main characters. She also produced “New
Year’s Eve at Grandma’s House,” the Evanston 2
nd Act Players’ 2013 production,
starring in that show as Carmela.
Carolyn began her acting career at a young age as a high
school Thespian, playing the judge in The Devil & Daniel Webster but put
her acting career on hold to earn her undergraduate degree from Northern
Illinois University and her M.B.A. from Northwestern's Kellogg business school.
She's gone on to have a highly successful career in
technology marketing but never lost her love for the stage. Inspired by the
Calzavara family mantra, “all the actors aren't in Hollywood,” she began taking
acting lessons in 2012 at the Actors Training Center (ATC), Wilmette, Il.
She has appeared in the short film Clouds in a non-speaking
role as a thrift store shopper and has her own IMDB.com actor's page.
THE PLAYWRIGHT
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John N. Frank has more than 35 years experience as a
business journalist, editor, speaker and book author. A native New Yorker who
has spent his adult life in Chicago, he grew up with a love of the theater
fostered by his parents. Chicago became the perfect place for him to nurture
that love, given the wide range of experimental and local theater companies in
the Chicagoland area.
So it was inevitable he and his wife, Carolyn Calzavara,
would start a theater troupe of their own, In 2013, they staged “New Year's Eve at Grandma's House,” Frank's
original one-act play, a personal story for John based on his mother's side of
his extended Italian family.
“Talking with My Dad,” also is a personal story for John,
who lost his father to heart disease during his (John’s) early adulthood and
who himself has struggled against arterial and heart disease in recent years . Frank also will appear in the production.
In addition to “New Year’s Eve at Grandma's House,” and “Talking with Dad,” Frank has two other plays
under development, “The Boys in the Basement,” the funny but poignant story of an apartment house
of disgruntled, lonely divorced men, and “The Institute,” an autobiographical
tale about attending military high school during the turbulent Vietnam War
years.
In 2012, Frank published his first book, “Always Be Job
Hunting,” an autobiographical account of how to stay employed in today's
ferocious job market.
THE DIRECTOR
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Molly Mattaini's most recent directing credits include
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and
The Manger at Loyola University Chicago. She is a Directing Fellow at 3 Brothers Theatre in Waukegan. She also works in the city as a stage manager (current project:
Anthem for the Chicago Music Theater Festival), theater educator (Light Opera Works Summer Kid's Workshop), and improvisor with pH's Latchkey Kid. She will be graduating from Loyola University Chicago in May with a BA in Theatre.
THE CAST
FRANKIE
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Chris Johnson in 2013 starred as Sonny, the momma’s boy
uncle of the Smaldone family in in "New Year's Eve at Grandma's
House." Previously he appeared in Murder on Lafayette
Square and My Father's Country Not My Own with Perfectly Legal
Productions and Marching to Zion and As Long As You Both Shall
Live with the Saint Sebastian Players. “I couldn't do anything without
the love I get from Nancy and Michael,” he writes.
DAD
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Loren Seidner portrayed Sal in “New Year’s Eve at Grandma’s
House.” In “Talking with My Dad,” he will be playing Dad. Dad is based on the same person as was Sal, presenting him with a
fascinating acting challenge.
After graduating from
Evanston Township High School, Loren earned a bachelor’s degree from the
University of Iowa, and a juris doctor at IIT's Chicago Kent-College of Law. He
has been a trial lawyer for more than 20 years, primarily in the area of
criminal law.
In high school, he went on to participate in two of the
Evanston YMCA's Brillianteen productions, before taking a leave of
absence from the acting scene. Loren starting taking acting classes two years
ago where he first met some of his fellow cast members and new friends, and is
enjoying learning that acting is an extremely difficult craft.
