Elgin director takes 'repeat w/Madeline' out to dinner

Elgin-based director and actor Richard Pahl has spent his career working on conventional stages - places where the audience has its place, the actors have theirs and often there is a curtain dividing one from the other.

That is why Pahl admits he likes the challenge of directing Janus Theatre's new play, "repeat w/Madeline," a traditional romantic-style comedy plopped into an unconventional setting: an actual restaurant - in this case Al's Café in Elgin.

"When I read the play I liked the language, but I thought strictly in proscenium staging," Pahl says. "It has been fun to break out of that mindset and re-imagine it in that space."

Chicago-based writer Hurt McDermott very consciously meant his romantic comedy, about two friends sitting in a restaurant discussing a romance that may or may not be flowering, to be staged in and around an actual restaurant, in front of an audience that has just had dinner.

That was one element of the play that attracted Pahl. The other was McDermott's use of language. "I liked the fact that it is not written in contemporary street dialogue," Pahl says. Instead McDermott's trademark witty dialogue reminded Pahl a little of Oscar Wilde.

It didn't hurt that the play was set to be produced in a historic Elgin restaurant. "We perform up on the second floor," Pahl says, "with high ceilings and this wonderful architecture that resembles both an old Chicago apartment and the architecture of an old Chicago theater."

Pahl, born in Ohio, came to Elgin in the early 1990s, after spending 10 years doing "the itinerate gypsy theater thing" at various regional theaters.

"A friend offered me a job as the production manager with her (Elgin-based) theater company," Pahl says. The theater, now closed, specialized in putting together musical productions for senior centers.

Pahl moved to Elgin, hoping to also be part of the unfolding Chicago theater scene. "Elgin turned out not to be as close to Chicago as I had wanted," Pahl says, adding quickly that he found plenty of theater to do in the Fox Valley area. He has spent the last two decades performing in and directing dozens of shows.

Pahl has also found it easy to balance his interest in the arts with his need to pay his rent. During the day, he works at the Rita Thomas Law Office in Carpentersville. "It is an office full of creative people who love language," he says. "And the attorneys are very supportive of the arts."

Pahl came to Janus Theatre via founder Sean Hargadon. "I have known Sean for a number of years," Pahl says. "We are both on the Elgin Arts Commission. We found that we had similar outlooks on art and theater."

Hargadon invited Pahl to direct the play.

"I am drawn to things that have a particular emotional resonance," Pahl says. "I liked the arc and the romance."

The twist of the play being staged in a restaurant sank in later, after Hargadon and Pahl looked at the space.

"Even though the script is set," Pahl says, "there is an element of improvisation in the staging. The tables are going to be different every night based on the audience. We had a vague idea of the distance between one scene and another, but the actors have to adjust."

Then again, that touch of the unexpected is intentional, part of the playwright's design to keep "repeat w/Madeline" fresh.

"It has been fun," Pahl says, "after all these weeks of rehearsal, seeing the play in front of an audience."

• repeat w/Madeline will run through Sept. 19 at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at Al's Café, 43 Du Page Court, Elgin. Dinner seating starts at 6 p.m. For reservations (strongly recommended), call (847) 742-1180. For more information, go to janustheatre.wordpress.com or alscafe.com.