'Tooty's Corner': From the South Side to St. Charles' Arcada

For a guy who lives and works in Addison, Don Ortale quickly picked up a lot of St. Charles connections.

Those connections will pay off Oct. 22 when Ortale and some pals from around the Chicago area unveil their passion of the past year — a play titled “Tooty's Corner” to be staged at the Arcada Theatre.

I found out about this endeavor through Joe Garbarski of St. Charles, who graduated from Addison Trail High School with Ortale in 1975.

Garbarski isn't really involved in the play, but he's kept tabs on his friend's project.

The play is about a group of young boys in the summer of 1956 growing up on the South Side of Chicago and hanging out at a store called “Tooty's Corner” at 28th and Princeton streets, near Comiskey Park.

“It's just a tremendous story, and I had worked in the hotel business with Mike Maione and we become friends, and at that time he mentioned this idea for a reunion of all of the guys who hung out at Tooty's Corner,” Ortale said. “The plan was to meet at that corner, where Tooty's once stood, and about 35 or 40 guys showed up from all over the country.”

The success of the reunion fueled the idea for writing a book or a play, Ortale said.

“Neither Michael nor I had ever done this before, but Michael wrote the book and a script for a play,” said Ortale, who was far younger than those boys from 1956, but helped his friend by securing the Arcada and getting two other local “arts people” involved.

“I met Ron Onesti (Arcada Theatre owner) through some of the Italian family circles in the city, and we worked together on one of his West Suburban Italian Fest projects,” Ortale said. “One thing led to another, and he was willing to book the play at the Arcada.”

Onesti was happy to do it, saying, “I am always interested in creating new ways the theater may be enjoyed by new people. I could help out some friends, expose the theatre to a new group of potential customers and assist with getting a story out that reflects many common elements of my own upbringings.”

Ortale also got help from Annette Blaskowski, the Thompson Middle School theater instructor, and St. Charles resident Suzanne Positano, owner of 4titude Entertainment, who will serve as the director.

“I call this community theater on steroids,” Ortale said. “We have put together a great cast of very talented kids, and we also have CBS reporter Dave Savini as a cast member.”

Possibly best of all, more than 750 tickets have already been sold and a portion of the proceeds from the play will benefit the Living Well Cancer Resource Center in Geneva.

“This is a one-time-only thing for the play, but we'll see what happens with it after that,” Ortale said.

Bluegrass galore: The night before the “Tooty's Corner” play, the Arcada should be hopping with another fundraiser — this one a concert co-hosted by the St. Charles Noon Rotary Club, to benefit the club's youth scholarships, and the Fox River Corridor Foundation.Henhouse Prowlers, an award-winning bluegrass band, will provide the music at the 7:30 p.m. show Oct. 21 at the Arcada.If you know your bluegrass music, you should know this band was the 2010 Rockygrass Bluegrass Festival winner, to go along with Chicago Music Awards the past two years.Considering event organizers Rev. Al Patten, the former senior pastor at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church in St. Charles, and his wife Maurine are major bluegrass fans, it's no wonder they worked with Acrada owner Ron Onesti to pull Henhouse Prowlers into town.It also didn't hurt that Patten is a member of the Rotary and the River Corridor Foundation.Concert tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for seniors and students. Tickets are available at oshows.com, the Blue Goose, or the Pottawatomie and Baker community centers.He's feeling better: The news has been good for those following Rich Flores' fight against primary amyloidosis, a rare heart disease.Flores, a golf instructor in the Tri-Cities area for more than 30 years, told friends through his blog on FriendsofRichFlores.com that the bone marrow transplant he underwent a few months ago has been holding up and he was feeling well enough to conduct a golf lesson again.Hundreds of friends showed up last July for a fundraiser at Pheasant Run for Flores, a resident of Batavia. The event raised more than $100,000 to help him pay astronomical medical bills. More than anything, getting back out near a golf course would be the tonic Rich needs to continue his recovery.Yoga for a cause: Strength and relaxation for the mind and body. That basically sums up the key benefits of yoga, but the art will be used for much more than that at an upcoming fundraiser.Yoga instructor Linda Karl of Batavia will conduct a yogathon from 4 to 6 p.m. Oct. 22 at State Street Dance Studio in Geneva to benefit the Mutual Ground Domestic Violence Shelter.The event takes place during Domestic Violence Awareness Month and suggested donation for the fundraiser is $20. Checks should be made out to Mutual Ground.Karl has been teaching yoga and meditation to the Hispanic Women's Support Group at Mutual Ground since 2004 and is certified to teach trauma sensitive yoga.Other healing methods: If something ails you, it never hurts to explore all of your options.That's what I've always felt about alternative medicine, and here's a good chance to learn more about it. The third annual Fox Valley Holistic Health Celebration will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at Soup to Nuts, 716 W. State St. in Geneva. The free event will cover a lot of bases in natural healing, from massage to acupuncture. 30812361While Alex Adams of St. Charles, portraying “Richie Cat,” holds his script, Austin Kinser of Elgin, portraying “Larry,” takes a peek at the upcoming scene during rehearsal in St. Charles of “Tooty’s Corner.”Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com 37612457Antonio Ciano of Glendale Heights portrays “Richie Rags” asking his friend “Professor,” played by Joey Amaro of Naperville, about the girl across the room named Rosemarie, who would later become his wife of more than 50 years in the play, “Tooty’s Corner.”Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com 40002657Michael Maione directs actors in his play, “Tooty’s Corner,” at a rehearsal in St. Charles. The play is based on his memories of Maione as a young man growing up on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s, at a store called Tooty’s Corner.Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com