W. Chicago students take on new comedy

Filled with adolescents, high school can often be a comedy with shifting and disguised personalities.

That will especially be the case today at West Chicago's Community High School, when students put on the play "Pirates' Rest."

"It would be fair to call it a screwball comedy," director and English teacher Mary Hafertepe said. "And it involves romance."

The audience should expect pure, light fun, with a handyman who hits his head and thinks he's a pirate; government agents in disguise; people assuming unnatural accents; and two shy people who find each other.

It's a contemporary tale, with nearly all of the action in a comely, weather-beaten bed and breakfast on the North Carolina coast.

Unlike West Chicago's last production, "Into the Woods," this play has a small cast of 13 actors and 15 students on crew.

Hafertepe met the "Pirates' Rest" author, T.W. Rieser, a quarter-century ago when both were doing local community theater. Rieser moved East, but still kept in touch, and recently asked Haftertepe to stage the play he had written.

It's only been performed once before. For the occasion, Rieser might attend tonight's performance, Hafertepe said.

If you go

What: "Pirates' Rest," a play by T. W. Rieser

When: 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday

Where: West Chicago's Community High School, 326 Joliet St., West Chicago

Cost: $5 for adults, $3 for students

Details: (630) 876-6200