The first NEIU Stage Center Studio Series production this spring will consist of two short plays: Joe and Stew’s Theatre of Brotherly Love and Financial Success by Jacquelyn Reingold and Oedi by Rich Orloff.
Joe and Stew are cockroaches that live in an Off-Off Broadway theatre that has just been destroyed by a nuclear bomb. They contemplate what to do with the theatre now that the human occupants seem to have died.
Oedi (“Eddie”) is short for Oedipus and is a spoof of the classic Oedipus Rex story by Sophocles. If he killed his father and married his mother….
Please join us in F-109 on Feb. 5 or Feb. 7 at 1:40 pm (activities hour) or 7:30 pm. Tickets are free with your NEIU ID. These plays are both extremely hilarious! You won’t want to miss them!
Meet the Director!
Chris Leonard (Director): Chris is a graduate of NEIU with a Masters in Linguistics, concentration in ESL. He teaches Communications at El Centro and also is an actor at various other locals. He is currently also rehearsing a production in Kenosha, WI.
Meet the Cast!
Joe and Stew’s Theatre of Brotherly Love and Financial Success
Christine Harrison (Joe): Christine graduated from Ball State University in May 2007. She majored in Musical Theater, moved to Chicago in September and currently works in an English Pub. This is the first show she has been cast for, in Chicagoland and states “I’ve never been a cockroach before.”
Gail Wittenstein (Stew): Gail is a full time student in at NEIU in her senior year. She is majoring in Communication, Media and Theatre, with a focus on Theatre. She was in the Studio Series performance of Fitting Rooms in the spring of 2007 and directed the 2007 Vagina Monologues.
Oedi
Jamie Kolacki (Oedi): Jamie has been acting professionally since he was six years old. He moved to Chicago about 5 1/2 years ago and has been quite active in NEIU theatre, performing in Studio shows as well as the Stage Center productions including, Much Ado About Nothing (summer 2006), Picasso at the Lapine Agile (spring 2006) and Life is a Dream (spring 2005). This will be his last performance at NEIU as he is moving out of the area to follow his wife of three months to her new job.
Kara Ewinger (Jocasta): Kara has lived in Chicago for a little over two years, and studied acting in New Zealand for a year. This is her third show with NEIU; she played the fortuneteller in last semester’s Stage Center show, Skin of Our Teeth and the Studio production of Miss Julie. During the day, she moonlights as an ad distributor.
Hugo Rosado (Creon): Hugo will graduate in May from NEIU with a major in Communication, Media and Theatre, minor in Theatre. He directed last semester’s Studio Series Finding the Sun, and has been the stage manager and assistant director for other shows over the years as well. He currently also is an actor with Salsation Theatre Company, a Latino sketch comedy troupe.
Michael Villareal (Tiresias): Michael is a 2002 graduate of NEIU; he majored in psychology and now is a program coordinator for after school arts and drama programs with the Chicago Teacher’s Center. He is in his 10th year with Salsation, where he acts, writes and directs, as well as being a co-artistic director. (salsation.com)