ECC Theatre wraps season with production of 'Circle Mirror Transformation'

Elgin Community College Theatre wraps up its spring production, “Circle Mirror Transformation,” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 4, and Saturday, May 5; and at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 6, in the ECC Arts Center, 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin.

Winner of the 2010 Obie Award for Best New American Play, “Circle Mirror Transformation” centers on five diverse personalities that make up a community center drama class. As they begin to experiment with seemingly ridiculous acting exercises, the class members and their teacher begin to uncover enormous truths about themselves, each other, and humanity.

“All of the characters in this play have something they're overcoming and they face these things over the course of an acting workshop. It's an unintended outcome — a cathartic experience for the characters,” says Robert Hines III, the play's director and theater adjunct faculty. “My hope is that audiences enjoy watching the characters on their journey of self-discovery and that they find something of themselves in these people.”

Hines teaches Improv for Actors and the Improv Performance Ensemble courses at ECC. An experienced educator, teaching artist, arts administrator, actor and director, he is also an adjunct faculty member at the Second City Training Center and works as a senior teaching artist with Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. Hines earned his master's in acting from the Theatre School at DePaul University and is a graduate of the Second City Training Center Conservatory.

Members of the cast includes ECC students Geysa Baltazar of Elgin, Paula Smiech of Streamwood, and Christopher Zeglin of Lake in the Hills, as well as community member Jonathan Witt of Naperville.

Tickets are $11, $9 for students and seniors. Tickets are available at tickets.elgin.edu or at the ECC box office located in the arts center. To purchase tickets by phone, call (847) 622-0300.

Visit elgin.edu/arts for more information.