Chicago’s reputation as a vital national center for theater has grown over the past 20 years largely on the strength of its actors. The “Steppenwolf-Second City syndrome,” as some call it, has emphasized the performer’s role. Most audiences are drawn primarily by their enjoyment of the people they see onstage, but that’s not conducive to the development of a comparably strong base of writers. And a theater company is likely to find it much less risky to mount productions of scripts that have been tested elsewhere than to spend the time and money to nurture new playwrights here. As a result, only a handful of writers have chosen to stay in Chicago to develop their craft; and of that small group, very few have been able to build any consistent record of getting produced.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
In this already select company, Douglas Post is apparently unique: a writer who not only produces a steady stream of work but who shifts easily from writing scripts to writing lyrics to writing music as the occasion demands. At 31, Post has authored more than a dozen works for stage and television, ranging from darkly Pinteresque mysteries to light musical comedy. He’s also contributed music and lyrics to more than 25 local productions, including a Jefferson Award-winning score for Oak Park Festival Theatre’s The Tempest in 1984.
Not coincidentally, the growth in Post’s income has been accompanied by a growing reputation outside Chicago. His trilogy of eerie one-act comedy-dramas, Longings and Belongings, was recently produced in New York by the off-off-Broadway 13th Street Repertory Theatre, His adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s children’s fantasy The Wind in the Willows has been published by Dramatic Publishing and given regional productions in Cleveland, Kansas City, and San Francisco. And although it didnt earn him any money, Post was one of a select group of writers produced last summer at the 1988 National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut, which gave him invaluable national exposure.
“Patricca’s vision is pretty broad and far-reaching,” Post says. “He wants CNP to be associated with other groups that are already producing. He also wants to form an alliance with other Chicago playwrights’ groups–there are five–in order to boost all our fund-raising efforts.”
The Wind in the Willows opens Wednesday, January 18, at the Theatre Building, 1225 W. Belmont, on an open run. Tickets are $14 and $16; call 327-5252 for information. Suffering Fools starts previews Friday, January 20, and opens January 27 at the Commons Theatre, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, as part of “The Commons Theatre Presents Chicago New Plays.” Suffering Fools runs through February 26; tickets are $2-$12. For more information, call 769-5009.
