Intriguing 'The Roommate' to open Feb. 1 at Lake Forest's Citadel Theatre

Scott and Ellen Phelps of Grayslake travel most years to the annual Humana Festival of New Plays produced by the Actors Theatre of Louisville in Kentucky.

Though the couple met when both were actors with that company, the trip is not just a sentimental journey. Their goal for those trips is to find new plays they can produce at Citadel Theatre - the professional theater company they founded in Lake Forest nearly 16 years ago - alongside their productions of well-known classics like last fall's revival of "The Little Foxes."

On their 2015 trip to the Humana Festival, they saw a new play they felt would be perfect for their company: Jen Silverman's dark comedy "The Roommate." The play has just two characters: Sharon, a shy divorced middle-aged woman living in Iowa City, Iowa, who takes in a stranger from New York City as a roommate to share expenses, and Robyn, the new roommate, who is far more worldly than Sharon and all the more intriguing to Sharon for it.

"'The Roommate' is funny, but it packs a punch," Scott Phelps said. "Its two characters, both middle-aged, are struggling to rediscover and redefine themselves as their previous roles as mothers and wives have faded away. It speaks to the way many people, particularly women, become 'invisible,' as they enter their middle-aged years."

The fact that the play requires just two actors was attractive as well. The smaller cast means it's less expensive to produce and that's always helpful to a small to mid-sized company like Citadel.

Finding a play is one thing. Getting rights to produce it is another. Having been exposed to a wide audience at the prestigious Humana Festival, "The Roommate" was attractive to a lot of companies around the US. Citadel applied for rights, as did other Chicago companies, but were initially turned down. The first Chicago-area company to stage "The Roommate" was the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, which performed the comedy last summer. Finally, Citadel was granted rights to the play, but with a catch.

"We weren't allowed to make it public until after the Steppenwolf engagement ended," Phelps confided. "As a result, we had to announce our four-season without being able to tell the public what our February show would be, but we felt it was worth it to be able to offer this insightful new comedy to our audiences."

Citadel's production will be the first in the Northern suburbs and will play from Feb. 1 through March 3. It will feature Actor's Equity members Ellen Phelps and Laurie Carter Rose as the middle-aged unmarried women who find themselves living together as housemates. Beth Wolf, the founding artistic director of Midsommer Flight, a Chicago theater company that has been staging productions of Shakespeare in Chicago's parks since 2012, is the director.

Since its premiere at the 2015 Humana Festival. "The Roommate" has been produced at such leading regional theaters as California's South Coast Repertory, San Francisco Playhouse and Williamstown Theatre Festival, as well as Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre. Reviewing the South Coast Rep production, The Los Angeles Times said "Silverman is an emerging talent to be reckoned with. Particularly impressive is her unsentimental insight into the risks of radical reinvention." Louisville Magazine's review of the Humana Festival production said, "'The Roommate' tugs at the heartstrings as much as it tickles the funny bone."

Ellen Phelps last appeared on stage at Citadel as the neurotic Sonia in Christopher Durang's "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike." Some of her other roles at Citadel include "'Til The Fat Lady Sings," "Prisoner of 2nd Avenue," "Something's Afoot," "Sirens," "Other Desert Cities," and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." Laurie Carter Rose was seen most recently at Citadel as the stage diva Irene Livingston in Moss Hart's "Light Up The Sky." Her career includes roles in the London production of "Sunset Boulevard" directed by Trevor Nunn, and a national tour of "Jesus Christ Superstar."

Citadel Theatre is at 300 S. Waukegan Road in Lake Forest.

Citadel Theatre is a nonprofit organization that seeks to provide a creative haven for passionate, visionary theatrical artists and a home for audiences seeking the emotional and intellectual riches that quality theater inspires. Other upcoming productions include its Theatre for Young Audiences show "Junie B. Jones: The Musical," to be performed at Gorton Community Center in Lake Forest, and "Sentimental Journey" written by and featuring Ross Lehman, from April 26 through May 26.

For information, visit www.citadeltheatre.org.

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