New season begins at Nothing Special Productions

The fourth season of local theater company, Nothing Special Productions has brought a number of changes and challenges.

To begin with, two of the founding members of the not-for-profit organization have graduated from college - Nick Cardiff from Illinois State University and Brian Rohde from Millikin University in Decatur. Alissa Jones will graduate from ISU in the spring and Mikey Laird will complete his degree from ISU at the end of the fall semester.

Then there was the last-minute venue change

For the last two years the troupe produced its plays, which benefit Jayne Shover Easter Seals in Elgin, at the Steel Beam Theatre in St Charles.

This year the company made plans to produce their next play at the Elgin Art Showcase at 164 Division St. in downtown Elgin, hoping to give a boost to downtown businesses that are struggling as a result of construction in the city.

"It's an awesome place. It's beautiful, it's perfect for companies like us," artistic director and actor Cardiff said.

But it wasn't meant to be. Issues between the building's owner and the city of Elgin concerning updated fire codes suddenly squashed the move and the company had to scramble to relocate just two weeks before the production was slated to debut.

Quickly, a new venue was found at the Sears Gallery Theatre at Elgin Academy.

"Everybody here has been great and everyone at the Showcase has been great," Cardiff said. "We'd like to see someone take initiative who has the power to see it (the Elgin Art Showcase) get back on its feet so we don't lose it completely."

Not all change comes with a case of the nerves though. For the first time, the company will debut a new play, an exciting and possibly direction changing possibility.

The play, Eroica, was written by award winning Chicago playwright, David Alex, who taught high school at Hoffman Estates High School for 30 years.

Alex has been awarded two grants in Recognition for Playwriting, one from the Illinois Arts Council and the other from the Pilgrim Foundation.

"It's something that we've wanted to do for a long timework with a new playwright," said Laird.

The company began the process of finding a new play earlier this year. Cardiff contacted artistic directors throughout the Chicago theater community requesting new material from any resident playwrights they might have.

"Eroica" arrived amidst others and Cardiff chose the material to present to the company.

"We were impressed by the way it was written, the style it was written in. We thought the material was very topical," said director, Laird.

Up until now, Nothing Special Production concentrated on comedies such as "The Nerd," "God's Favorite" and "The Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged.)"

"Eroica" is a complete departure from those lighter themes. The play deals with themes of faith, commitment and betrayal, according to Laird.

"The play is set in 1967 in a small town," Laird said. "It deals with the draft and the Vietnam War, which is part of why we liked it because it draws parallels with today."

The play focuses on four characters, played by Cardiff and Rohde, both of Elgin, and Palatine residents Daryle Wolpa and Angela Wascher.

"It takes a series of turns. The play deals with lies, deception and love. Would you rather live a lie to save a love or would you rather tell the truth with the potential of losing it?"

"There is an underlying message about the war: sometimes there are no winners or losers, only victims," Laird said. "War is a failure in some ways that we can't resolve our differences without violence,"

"Eroica" is a reference to Beethoven's third symphony and means heroic.

"It's the right time for us as people and as a company to work in a direction that we haven't shown our audience before," Laird said, "Going with something that is more dramatic."

"It's really nice to develop a show with strong relationships and interesting characters, specifically ones that we hope the audience will relate to," Laird said. "It's been fun because we get to workshop the show."

Workshopping is the practice of the author and theater company, working in tandem to develop a new play beyond interpretation the script, according to Laird.

"We had several meetings with him (Alex) while we doing our initial table work portion of our rehearsal process," Laird explained.

Alex would meet with regularly with the company to go over the material.

"He would come in and we would say, this line doesn't make sense, or this line is worded strange or there's a typo here," said Laird.

The author then takes the feedback and decides what changes need to be made, refining the script with hopes of an eventual Chicago debut.

Laird notes that that step holds potential for the company.

"Potentially, there's the possibility he'll really like the work we are doing and have us, one or all or some of us come along."

"It's really one of the first big decisions we've made for our company that was going to be a big push," Laird said. "David is also on the Jeff Committee (an organization that awards excellence in Chicago theater.) and in general knows a lot of people and he's a playwright. That's how a theater company goes from point A to Point B."

If you go

What: "Eroica," peformed by Elgin-based Nothing Special Productions

Where: Sears Gallery Theatre at Elgin Academy, 350 Park Street, Elgin

When: 7:30 p.m. July 5 and July 9-12; 2 p.m. July 6

Tickets: $10 for adults and $7 for students, veterans and military; free for children 4 and younger.

Info: Nothingspecialproductions.com