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Spotlight Theater is a performing arts company that was founded in 2005 by Jane Cox, Jeff Gamlin, Bryce Gardner and Britney Louise. Our goal is to provide a unique selection of quality theatrical productions, big and small, to the Chicagoland area. Most of our productions have been staged in the south suburbs which we consider our home, though we do occasionally perform elsewhere, as was the case with our production of Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of The House of Usher, which was performed at an art gallery/performance space called the Galaxie in the heart of the city itself. Most of our productions are staged at Governors State University, though larger productions are occasionally staged elsewhere. We have performed shows with casts as small as 4 as in the case of our critically-acclaimed production of Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize-nominated Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and as large as 45 in our all-kids production Annie Jr.
We bring a wide selection of genres and interpretations to the stage in an attempt to provide an alternative to the usual fare of musicals and comedies performed by many theatres. A few examples of our more unique productions include our debut show of 3 years ago, the first non-equity production in the state of Illinois of the seminal tale of alienated youth, The Graduate, our modern interpretation of Shakespeare's Othello, featuring a unique twist in the casting of Othello as a woman in a homosexual relationship with Desdemona, the aforementioned Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, rarely performed by non-equity theatres, and the rare opportunity to see horror on stage in Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher. Our 2008-2009 season saw us visiting the thriller genre which gave us, Patrick Hamilton's Angel Street (also known as Gaslight), the longest-running non-musical play in Broadway history. Having had such a success with that show we decided to bring another of Mr. Hamilton's suspenseful shows to the stage: Rope, a thriller best known for its film adaptation by the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock but with a twist, traditionally performed with two men in the role of the young killers, our production had a glimpse into the mind of a female sociopathic murderer. Rope proved to be our best attended non-musical show thus far.
As much as we enjoy bringing good drama to the stage we also like to laugh and tap our toes every once in a while, and in an effort to see all genres represented, because for us, variety is truly "the spice of life," we do occasionally forray into the popular realm of comedies and musicals, as in the case of our recent staging of Lionel Bart's ever-popular Oliver!, the immensely hummable Annie Jr., and our 2009 Spring production of Oscar Wilde's classic comedy of manners, The Importance of Being Earnest.
Our 2009-2010 season consisted of works by three of America’s most celebrated writers: Veronica’s Room by Ira Levin (Rosemary’s Baby, Deathtrap); Play it Again, Sam by Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Bullets Over Broadway and Don’t Drink the Water) and The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams (A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie). Spotlight's future plans also include, amongst the usual selection of unique and rarely performed gems, the production of original plays by promising local playwrights.
Since Spotlight operates independently of a park district, school or any other organization, we rely on ticket sales and donations from patrons to survive. Our reason for operating independently is simply that we strive to bring courageous and provocative entertainment to the south suburbs and believe that creativity should never be censored. We strive to present theatre from alternative viewpoints and encourage free thinking and open-mindedness in our community. Beyond that, we strive to challenge our actors and artistic crew with material that most “amateurs” would never have an opportunity to tackle. Although we operate independently, Spotlight is a registered charitable corporation. Last February, half the proceeds from our show Love…American Style! went to Redeemer Lutheran Church to benefit organizations such as PADS for the homeless and Alcoholics Anonymous. |
The Cast of Spotlight's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
From left to right: Rick Baiker as George, Andrea Fleming as Martha, Jeff Gamlin as Nick and Jane Cox as Honey |
