'Actor first' puts fresh spin on seasonal theater
Lots of theater people have day jobs, and most of these jobs have nothing to do with theater.
But a lucky few are like Mike Speller, director of "Xtreme Holiday Makeover" currently running at the New World Repertory in Downers Grove. His day job is an acting gig.
Speller works at the Isle Ala Cache history museum in Romeoville, impersonating noteworthy people in history. "I portray various voyagers of the 1600s," he says.
When Speller isn't acting at his day job, he's acting in the evening. He will appear in New World Rep's next show, "Betrayal." And when he isn't acting, he directs. He also writes plays and is a storyteller.
"But I am actor first and foremost," Speller says. "I always have been that, ever since college."
Speller, a graduate of Winona State University in Minnesota, worked for a time in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Most notably he worked for TheatreSports, an improv-based comedy show not unlike ComedySportz in Chicago.
He moved here in the '90s and appeared in a number of off-Loop productions, including Lifeline Theatre's well-regarded stage adaptations of Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle" and "The Sirens of Titan." Eight years ago, Speller hooked up with the folks at New World Rep in Downers Grove and never looked back.
Several members of the New World Rep ensemble, including Speller, came up with the premise for "Xtreme Holiday Makeover."
"Everyone does 'A Christmas Carol,'" Speller says. "We wanted something different, something spontaneous and entertaining, something to do with the holidays that doesn't look like a dozen other holiday shows in the listings."
The idea they came up with was a show that combined Second City-style comedy sketches with fully improvised scenes. Speller held auditions and found four actors who knew how to improvise and he thought would work well off each other. Rehearsals started around Halloween.
"There is a nice age range. One is still a student at the College of DuPage. The oldest in the cast is 32," Speller says.
The result includes character-based sketches, parodies of shows like "A Christmas Carol" and plenty of improv games of the sort Speller learned at TheatreSports.
The family friendly show is designed to entertain adults and children alike. "We do one improvised game called 'A day in the Life,'" Speller says. "We pick someone from the audience and ask them to tell us about their day. Then we act it out. We also do a skit called living statues. In that one, we have two kids come up from the audience. We improvise a scene with two actors and the kids have to move the actors' arms."
The show runs only 65 to 70 minutes - long enough to entertain, but short enough to keep from testing the patience of younger audiences. "I love doing shows for children," Speller says. "They are very intuitive and their sense of play is enormous."
"Xtreme Holiday Makeover"
Location: New World Repertory Theater, 923 Curtiss St., Downers Grove
Times: 7:30 p.m. Fridays; 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 28
Running time: About 1 hour, no intermission
Tickets: $10
Parking: Street parking, parking in bank lot after hours
Box office: Purchase at newworldrep.org or at the door
Rating: Suitable for families with children age 5 and up