Local director revives once-popular love tale
Plays are revived all the time. But it isn't often that a play like "repeat w/Madeline," by Chicago writer and film maker Hurt McDermott, gets done. Even though the play was something of a hit when it was staged at Café Voltaire in the city in 1995 and then again a little while later at the Vail Street Café in Arlington Heights, the play revolves around a little gimmick that both makes the play fascinating and hard to stage.
McDermott wrote the play to be performed in a restaurant in front of patrons while they are being served. The premise is that we are listening in on a conversation going at an adjacent table. The problem is how many restaurants want to give up valuable servicing space for a play?
Which is why it is great that young Blue Heron Theater has decided to stage the play at the Fausto's Italian Kitchen and Catering in Arlington Heights, starting Wednesday, July 2.
The production is the brainchild of Arlington Heights-based director, writer, and Blue Heron-company member Rob Baker. Baker saw the original production of "repeat w/Madeline" and at the time was so enthused that he worked out a production at the now gone Vail Street Café in Arlington Heights.
At the time Baker was humble bookstore owner (he owned the now closed Drummer and Thumb in downtown Arlington Heights) who was taking some theater classes to cure himself of stage fright.
"I had seen an ad in the Discovery Center for overcoming stage fright," Baker says. "It turned out to be an acting class. I took it and loved it and kept on taking classes."
Soon after he saw the Chicago production of "repeat w/Madeline" Baker went over to Vail Street Café.
"I asked them if I could stage the play there and they said yes," Baker says, "I had never done anything like that. But everything just fell in to place. We sold out every show. We even added three shows. We would have added more but the actors couldn't do it."
Fast forward ten years. Baker is now a teacher at Barrington High School with an itch to direct this crazy comedy he had done in Arlington Heights.
"When we created Blue Heron a couple of years ago we thought we would do "repeat w/Madeline" as our first or second production," Baker says, "We talked to a couple of places in Evanston and they never panned out. I then talked to a couple of places in Chicago, and again nothing panned out. It was like the opposite of the first time. The first time everything slipped into place. This time everything refused to."
"The Fausto's people," Baker says, "in Arlington Heights were very open to it."
Instead of creating two productions, Baker and company decided to use the same cast in both places.
"It is such an easy show to move from place to place." Baker says. "There aren't many props. It is not that complex in terms of a set." "The play is about a guy who sees a woman on the bus and falls in love with her." Baker says, "He sends her a letter and everything unfolds from there."
The play is such a character-driven piece, you could literally stage it just using whatever is on hand at the restaurants.
"It has been on my mind for a years to revive it," Baker says, "It really is my favorite play. It is so quirky but there are so many things in the play that are thought provoking. But it has only been done three times. Once in Chicago, once in LA, and in Arlington Heights."
Now, thanks to Baker's efforts, it is receiving both it's forth and fifth productions at the same time, in Chicago and in Arlington Heights.
"repeat w/Madeline" opens Wednesday, July 2 at Fausto's Italian Kitchen and Catering, 16 S. Evergreen (in Evergreen Plaza), Arlington Heights and runs Thursdays through Aug. 14. The play will also open Tuesday, July 1 at Noble Tree Café, 2444 N. Clark, Chicago, and run Mondays thru Wednesdays through Aug. 13. For reservations/information, call Blue Heron Theatre at (773) 502-0227