Illinois Theatre

This summer the Department of Theatre's Summer Studio Theatre Company will be presenting three gems: small plays rich in color, lively in character, and delightful in design.

The first is Lanford Wilson’s delicate romance, Talley’s Folly, which tells the story of two misfits. Matt Friedman, a Jewish refugee in St. Louis falls in love with Sally Talley, a headstrong young woman from the small town of Lebanon, Missouri. In the abandoned boathouse on the Talley place, these two loners come to terms with their pasts and their future.

The second play is Henry James’ classic mystery, The Turn of the Screw. This version, by contemporary playwright Jeffrey Hatcher, weaves the tale of a governess assigned to care for two recently orphaned children in a gothic English manor house. The spectre of the household’s former governess and her ghostly lover torture the would-be heroine. Many patrons will know the story from the classic film, The Innocents, or from 2001’s The Others. This classic ghost story is a moody tour-de-force for two fine actors.

Our third play of the summer season is a bit of a change: it’s The Last Five Years, a small musical that traces the growing romance between Jamie and Cathy, and at the same time explores how that relationship comes undone. While Jamie tells his story in “forward time” from beginning to end, Cathy reflects on the relationship “in reverse.” The music by Jason Robert Brown is full of rich, compelling melodies and heartfelt lyrics.

Finally, we have reserved the final two weeks of our summer season for a special project. As a beginning to the celebration of the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, we offer a staging of Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight by University of Illinois author, James Hurt. The play that was originally performed at The Great American People Show at Lincoln’s New Salem State Park near Springfield was a regional favorite for years. It depicts the influence of Abraham Lincoln on his fellow Illinois authors, Vachel Lindsay, Edgar Lee Masters, and Carl Sandburg. We are delighted to present this play for the whole family with the support of the Lincoln Bicentennial Committee.