Photos from Saint Sebastian Players’ 2021–22 season by Robert-Eric West.
The Saint Sebastian Players (SSP) announce the company’s 41st season, featuring a French romantic comedy from the ’60s, a look at Shakespeare behind the scenes and a comedy set on a Broadway opening night. Performances take place at SSP’s , home in the lower level of St. Bonaventure, 1625 W. Diversey, Chicago.
The season opens with Boeing-Boeing by Marc Camoletti, translated by Beverly Cross and Francis Evans. Set in the 1960s, the play is about bachelor Bernard, who has a flat in Paris and three airline stewardesses all engaged to him without knowing about each other. Bernard’s life gets bumpy, though, when his friend Robert comes to stay, and complications such as weather and a new, speedier Boeing jet disrupt his careful planning. Soon, all three stewardesses are in the city simultaneously, and catastrophe looms. Performances run October 28–November 20, 2022.
The comedy/drama The Book of Will by Lauren Gunderson, one of the most produced playwrights in the U.S., reveals what many don’t know about the man behind such literary masterpieces as Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet: Without Henry Condell and John Heminges, half of Shakespeare’s plays would have been lost forever. After the death of their friend and mentor, the two actors are determined to compile the First Folio and preserve the words that shaped their lives—borrowing, begging, and banding together to get it done. Set amidst the noise and color of Elizabethan London, the play is an unforgettable true story of love, loss, and laughter and sheds new light on the legendary playwright. Performances run February 17–March 12, 2023.
Closing the season is a comedy by the late Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally, It’s Only A Play. On the opening night of The Golden Egg on Broadway, the wealthy producer Julia Budder is throwing a party in her lavish Manhattan townhouse. Downstairs the celebrities are pouring in, but upstairs in the bedroom, a group of insiders awaits the reviews, including the excitable playwright; the possibly unstable wunderkind director; the pill-popping leading lady, treading the boards after becoming infamous in Hollywood; and the playwright’s best friend, for whom the play was written but who passed up this production for a television series. Adding a drama critic who has panned the playwright in the past and a new-in-town aspiring singer creates a prime recipe for the narcissism, ambition, childishness, and just plain irrationality that infuse the theatre—and comedy. Performances run April 28–May 21, 2023.
SSP began producing theatre in 1982 at its original home, the St. Sebastian parish, located at the corner of Halsted Street and Wellington Avenue on Chicago’s North Side. When the parish closed, SSP relocated to its current home, St. Bonaventure, at 1625 W. Diversey. During its history, the company has produced original and previously produced dramas, comedies, and musicals; original audience-participation mysteries for special events; and the Monologue Matchup Competition, as well as provided support for Sebastian Studio Projects produced by company members. For a complete production history, visit saintsebastianplayers.org/Production-History
Performances for each production take place Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. in the lower level of St. Bonaventure, 1625 W. Diversey, at Marshfield just west of Ashland, in Chicago. Free parking is available. Three-play subscription packages are $75 for adults, $60 for seniors and children younger than 12. Full-priced single tickets are $30 for each production; tickets for seniors and children younger than 12 are $25. Students with valid IDs may purchase $25 tickets at the door. Group rates also are available.
All programming is subject to change. For information, call 773-404-7922 or visit saintsebastianplayers.org.
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