3/8/10 – 3/9/10 – The Home of Just Jack and a Couple of Blues Brothers…Glen Ellyn, IL

We fondly waved goodbye to East Lansing, savoring our return in the near future, and galloped to Glen Ellyn, IL and Central Standard Time. How odd it is, not to be living on Eastern Standard Time, when that has been the norm for two solid months! With a population of around 27,000, Glen Ellyn is an affluent village suburb of Chicago, nestled 20 miles west of the city on Lake Ellyn. The city was established in 1834, and has been used as the setting for many movies, including the Winona Ryder and Corey Haim movie, Lucas. Prominent residents of Glen Ellyn include playwright Larry Shue (The Nerd, The Foreigner), performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson, and actor Sean Hayes (‘Jack’ of TV’s Will and Grace).

Glen Ellyn is also the location of the community College of DuPage, whose most famous alumni are John Belushi and Jim Belushi. Parked on the campus is the McAninch Arts Center, a state-of-the-art facility which opened in 1986 and houses an art gallery and three performance spaces – a studio theatre, Theatre 2 and our performance space, the Mainstage. The McAninch Mainstage has 793 seats and no seat is more than 16 rows or 75 feet from stage.



As with most of our venues, we played two good shows to packed, appreciative houses. I am noticing, however, a common trend among the cast now that we only have around twenty performances remaining in our tour. Everyone is restless, eager to move on to new projects, places and faces. It seems that most have grown tired of the show and the touring lifestyle, and a faint air of apathy is present in many castmembers. During one of our Glen Ellyn performances, a set piece was placed facing the wrong direction, and no one seemed to notice or care, for that matter, except for the one person who had to interact with the piece – me. Let me remind you, blog reader, that we have performed this show 125 times…mistakes like this should not be happening. While I, too, am weary from touring and ready to move on to new adventures, I have not stopped caring about the show. My commitment to the integrity of this show or any show is unwavering, regardless of how ready I am for a show to be over. I can only hope that this attitude of apathy does not continue to grow among the cast and skew their perspective.

On a completely different note, I have cultivated several ways, both old and new, to pass my free time on the road: working out, reading books that are not theatre-related, ordering room service, and watching crime shows on TV and DVDs on my laptop. Nothing beats a great hour-and-a-half workout followed by a nice, quiet meal in the comfort of your room while watching a Criminal Minds marathon on A&E. Or relaxing under the covers of your comfy bed while reading a chapter or two from Price and Prejudice and Zombies or watching The Hurt Locker. Again, some of the comforts of home away from home – it makes life on the road much more easy and enjoyable.

Next stop –the Freed Center in Ada, OH. Until the next adventure…

Ciao!
XOXO-
Janine