Fine & Performing Arts

Elizabeth Futral

North Central College’s 2009-2010 fine and performing arts season continues this week with several opportunities to appreciate outstanding performers in great venues.

Soprano Elizabeth Futral, who has performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and many other of the country’s best opera companies, headlines at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4 in the magnificent Wentz Concert Hall at the Fine Arts Center. The performance is a chance to hear one of the world’s best coloratura sopranos perform in a world-class concert hall. Tickets are $40 and $50, with discounts available for groups of 10 or more.

For pop music fans, Gloria Gaynor performs at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, in Pfeiffer Hall. She’ll perform her 1978 disco classic “I Will Survive” and many other hits. Tickets are $55, $50 and $35.

The first theatrical performance of North Central’s season takes place this week with four performances of “The Poet and the Rent,” David Mamet’s children’s play about a young poet who struggles to find balance between writing the poetry he loves and paying his rent. “The Poet and the Rent” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, and Friday, Oct. 2, with two performances at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 3 in the “black box” Madden Theatre at the Fine Arts Center. Tickets are just $5/adults and $3/students and senior citizens.

Finally, new art exhibits open soon in North Central’s three galleries. Next up is an exhibit featuring the works of two North Central College students, Tamarra Love of Aurora, Ill. and Danielle Clark of Sparta, Wisc. Their ceramic and sculptural work will be featured in “Les Femmes Faithful” Oct. 1 through Oct. 31 in the Gallery at Meiley-Swallow Hall, 31 S. Ellsworth St. Love and Clark explore themes of faith and the search for spirituality in their works.

For more information about all fine & performing arts events, call the North Central College Box Office at 630-637-SHOW (7469) or visit www.northcentralcollege.edu/show.

North Central College presents the timeless production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” in a premier performance in the College’s new Madden Theatre, a showplace in the new Wentz Concert Hall and Fine Arts Center. Directed by North Central professor of theatre emeritus and Naperville theatre legend Donald “Doc” Shanower, the classic play chronicles the life of a young Jewish girl and her family’s concealment from the Nazis during the Holocaust. “As North Central was planning its first production in the new Madden Theatre, we felt it was only right that our pioneer get to use the space first,” says Carin Silkaitis, assistant professor of theatre. “We’re thrilled he’s back. And students and the audience will benefit from his extensive knowledge of theatre as well as his life experience; Doc lived through the time in history of this play.” 

For decades, theater in Naperville was synonymous with Doc Shanower. He joined North Central College in 1955 as its first full-time instructor of theatre and in 1969 founded Naperville’s community Summer Place Theatre. Even after his retirement, both ventures have continued to thrive and impact the cultural landscape of the College and Naperville community.   

Shanower says he chose “The Diary of Anne Frank” because of its powerful plot and emotional storyline. “This play strikes a chord in the hearts and minds of people, especially Jewish people, who had undergone this terrible experience. We’re telling their story and I’m remaining as honest with the playwriting as I possibly can,” says Shanower. “The Diary of Anne Frank” opens in the Madden Theatre, a 2,500-square-foot black box performance space that seats up to 150 patrons in a variety of seating and staging configurations to suit the production. “The Diary of Anne Frank” will be performed on a thrust stage, bringing actors and audience up close and personal during the play.