New playwright finds audience this summer

For many theater people, summer is traditionally a slow time, but for David Alex, a rising, not-so-young Chicago playwright, this summer turns out to be a time of unusual opportunity. He has not one but two shows being done in the next month.

His new play, "Eroica," was performed in workshop by the Elgin-based Nothing Special Productions July 4-6 at the Elgin Academy. And another work, "Onto Infinity," will be done by Azusa Productions at the Victory Gardens Greenhouse, July 17 through Aug. 24.

These twin productions are especially meaningful for Alex because he came to playwriting in middle age, after his career as a math teacher at Hoffman Estates High School was firmly established.

Alex had liked theater as a kid. He remembers putting on puppet shows in his backyard. But when he was in college he liked Math and English equally well -- so he majored in both. "I could have gone either way," Alex says, "But geometry is really how I decided I wanted to be a math teacher."

For the first few years of teaching he gave up writing, but about 10 years into his career he took up the pen again, writing short stories and later plays. Since then he has written 11 full-length plays and 18 one-acts, making him one of the most prolific unknown writers in Chicago.

It was that unknown quality Alex wanted to overcome when he retired from teaching in 2003.

"I taught math for 35 years," Alex explains. "I wanted to retire while I still liked teaching. I didn't want to be one of those teachers who stays at the party too long."

As his title hints, "Onto Infinity" touches directly on his long career as a teacher.

"'Onto Infinity' is about a brilliant mathematician who has fallen in love with his high school English teacher," Alex says. "She is a 42-year-old woman. He lives in his world of mathematics. She lives in her world of literature. And over the course of the play they come to realize that the world of mathematics is very much like the world of literature because they are both a kind of music."

"Eroica" on the other hand, reaches back to Alex's experiences coming of age in the late 1960s.

"That play," Alex says, "Is about two men and two women living in a small town during the Vietnam War."

Alex has been working on "Eroica" for a number of years. It has even won awards at five national writing competitions. Still, Alex is happy for the opportunity the workshop provides him.

"The company, Nothing Special Productions, is young but very professional," Alex says. "Thanks to their work I have seen where I need to make many changes in the play. And I have made the changes."

"Onto Infinity" opens July 17 and runs through Aug. 24 at the Victory Gardens Greenhouse, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. For tickets call (773) 871-3000.