Summer Place could be the sport to find future stars
Just how good is the Summer Place Theatre in Naperville? Well, the group once fired John Belushi from a production still in rehearsal - a comedy, no less - because he didn't measure up to the theatre's requirements. Not just anybody can perform for Donald Shanower, Summer Place's founder and artistic director.
Belushi came along a couple of seasons after Shanower had started the company in 1967 in a converted used-car dealership in Naperville. A professor at the city's North Central College, Shanower was casting about for something his theatre students could do each summer when he hit on the idea of a resident troupe that might entertain drama-starved local residents while sharpening the actors' performing skills.
Actually, Belushi whose family lived in Wheaton, was a hit in a small part in the comedy "Any Wednesday," which Shanower produced while Belushi was a student at North Central. Belushi was rewarded with a major role that same summer in "A Thousand Clowns," but he proved to be an unpredictable presence at rehearsals. Belushi was dismissed and soon after migrated to Chicago and the Second City comedy troupe in the early 1970's.
"We dropped John because we couldn't count on him showing up. But even then, when he was 19 or 20, we could see that he had buckets of raw talent," recalls Shanower, who has taught for three decades at North Central. "His facial expressions and his mugging were so outrageous that he brought down the house doing "Any Wednesday."
Summer place can boast of many more illustrious alumni, marking it a bona fide training ground for future professionals. Hudson Hickman, now a producer in Hollywood for such popular shows as "Love Boat" was in residence a few years after Belushi. After that came Alene Robertson, now in "Dear Amanda" at Pheasant Run Theatre in St. Charles, and Catherine Lord, a star in the cabaret musical "Forbidden Broadway" at the Hotel Continental in Chicago.
Summer Place's 19th season, which perhaps a new crop of future stars, began Thursday with a revival of Bernard Slade's "Same Time Next Year," which continues at 8:30 pm Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays and 7:30 pm Sunday through June 30. A nine-show run of "The Fantasticks" begins July 5, followed by "Harvey" starting July 18 and the musical "Once Upon a Mattress" the first two weeks in August. All performances are at the group's summer house-style theatre on the North Central Campus, east of downtown Naperville.
At the beginning, Summer Place had enthusiastic student volunteers and little competition from other amateur groups, most of which took summer pauses. In recent years, though, plenty of competing theatre have decided that July is a good time to perform after all, just as financially pressed students have drifted away in search of paying jobs.
Through it all, Summer Place's commitment to excellence hasn't wavered. The group puts on some of the best community productions around Chicago.
DuPage County theatergoers recognize that. Summer Place plays to an uncommonly high 85% of capacity in it's 344 seat home, and its musicals are frequent sellouts. The annual $50,000 budget is financed virtually from ticket sales alone.
"Considering we have to go up against baseball, outdoor picnics and vacations, it's amazing we do so well each summer," observed Linda Quantock, Summer Place's managing director. "People keep asking us to extend our season, but our schedule won't permit it."
The 20-member board of directors had a hand in selecting "Same Time Next Year" a slickly sentimental comedy that drew respectful reviews when it opened on Broadway in 1975. It traces an adulterous couple who continue to meet in the same hotel room once a year to celebrate the anniversary of their first encounter. Through the years their separate families and ambitions change-not to mention their clothes and hairstyles
The director for "Same Time" is Roger Place, who previously directed a fine revival of "Our Town" for Summer Place. His two-member cast comprises Dick Hawks of Aurora, most recently a performer for the Ad Hoc group, and Julane Sullivan, who is best known for her costume work on other shows.
In an interesting democratic durn, theatergoers will be given ballots all summer to vote on the plays they want to see next year, which will be the group's 20th anniversary. Meantime, there will be auditions at 2pm Sunday in nearby Pfeiffer Hall for the still-uncast musical "Once Upon a Mattress.