Janus Theatre stages 'The Guys' in Elgin
Janus Theatre Company presents "The Guys" by Anne Nelson, directed and produced by Sean Hargadon.
The production will be at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 3 and Saturday, Sept. 4, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 5 at the Elgin Art Showcase on the eighth floor of the Professional Building, 164 Division St., Elgin.
Accompanying the performances will be a gallery showing of work by Chicago artist George Kokines called "September 11" that will be integrated into the set of the play.
Tickets are $15. Tickets can be reserved by calling the box office at (847) 841-1713. For information, visit www.janustheatre.wordpress.com.
In the play, New Yorkers are still in shock after the Sept. 11 attacks. One of them, an editor named Joan, receives an unexpected phone call on behalf of Nick, a fire captain who has lost most of his men in the attack.
He's looking for a writer to help him with the eulogies he must present at their memorial services. Nick and Joan spend a long afternoon together, recalling the fallen men through recounting their virtues and their foibles, and fashioning the stories into memorials of words.
In the process, Nick and Joan discover the possibilities of friendship in each other and their shared love for the unconquerable spirit of the city. As they make their way through the emotional landscape of grief, they draw on humor, tango, the appreciation of craft in all its forms - and the enduring bonds of common humanity. "The Guys" is based on a true story.
The play features Jim Pierce (South Elgin) as Nick and Lori Holm (Batavia) as Joan. The production will be directed by Sean Hargadon (Elgin), stage-managed by Kate Collins (Elgin), with light design by Andy Murschel (Elgin), and production assistance by Jimmy Lundstrom (Barrington) and Kelly Herz (Wasco).
Anne Nelson's career encompasses international affairs, journalism and human rights. As a reporter, she covered wars in El Salvador and Guatemala in the early 1980s, at the height of the death squad period, and was published regularly in The Los Angeles Times, Maclean's and The Christian Science Monitor. Her photographs have appeared in The New York Times and other publications.
Nelson's writing on the Philippines earned her the Livingston Award and the Thomas More Storke Award, both honoring international reportage. Her first book, the 1986 nonfiction "Murder Under Two Flags: The U.S., Puerto Rico, and the Cerro Maravilla Cover-up," was made into the 1990 feature film, "A Show of Force."
For four years, she served as the director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. While at CPI, she co-founded the International Freedom of Expression Exchange.
She wrote the play, "The Guys," over the course of a week in October 2001, based on an experience she had shortly after Sept. 11. It opened on Dec. 4, 2001 and had been presented across the U.S. and in several international productions.
On Sept. 11, 2002, she made the play available at no charge for nonprofit performances across the country as part of memorial services. She has worked with the New York Fire Department medical office to establish the Flanagan Fund, which has begun to channel contributions from regional productions to support programs on behalf of working New York City firefighters and their families.
Artist George Kokines studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on the GI bill after the Korean War. Although a native of Chicago, he lived in New York City for many years. He has taught art at Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin, and he was the artist in residence in Ferrara Italy in the early 1980s. He was a witness to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and soon afterward returned to his hometown. His studio is now located in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, and he has devoted the last several years to a monumental work which commemorates the attack on the World Trade Center. You can learn more about Kokines and his artwork by going to www.georgekokines.com.