Director Chosen for Beverly Theatre Guild Production and Open Auditions Launched

The Beverly Theatre Guild (BTG) is one step closer to staging the second production of its 61st season. Glenn Z. Hering has been hired as the director for Present Laughter, a comedy by English playwright Noël Coward. The play is scheduled to be performed on February 16 – 18, 2024. 

  

The American Association of Community Theatre points out that the director's role is most important because he sets the vision for everyone involved in the production. The director brings together the script, cast, set, costuming, lighting, and sound into a unified whole. 

  

According to Wayne Wendell, BTG president, BTG interviews several candidates for director for every production it stages, looking for the best fit between a director and that play. As part of its mission as a community theatre group, BTG regularly offers opportunities to less experienced directors when they can be partnered with veteran music directors and choreographers. However, a non-musical play like Present Laughter, one of Noël Coward's great comedies of manners, calls for a director with appropriate experience.   

  

Hering has extensive experience in the theater world. He has directed or served as music director for almost 40 plays. For 11 years, he served on Chicago's Jeff Awards Committee, including one year as Chair. He was also a co-founder of the DreamStreet Theatre, a professional equity theater. 

 

This play will be the ninth show Hering has directed for the BTG. He worked as the music director for three shows. A longtime resident of the Southside Chicago-Beverly neighborhood, he has been a member of BTG for almost 33 years and has served as BTG president for five terms. In 2000, he was the recipient of the BTG Distinguished Service Award.  

  

The play Present Laughter is notable as a theater classic, and while loosely based on his own life, Coward readily admitted he wrote it to give himself the leading part. Although the title comes from a line of Shakespeare, reviewers have said it accurately describes the reaction of the audience to the play.   

  

Present Laughter tells the story of a few days in the life of Garry Essendine, a self-infatuated matinee idol slipping into middle age. The intertwining relationships between the characters, which include his wife, girlfriend, secretary, manager, a young playwright who worships him, and others, have entertained audiences since Coward wrote the play in 1939. Critics consider the play “a timeless, imperishable comedy,” that is “wittily impudent and neatly invented.” 

  

BTG has sent out an open call for auditions, including descriptions of the characters in the play.  

  

Auditions are scheduled for December 4th and 5th at the Baer Theater at 2153 West 111th Street in Chicago. Information and sign-up can be found at https://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/rnjxn.  

  

The Beverly Theatre Guild is Chicago's longest running community theater company, dating back to the 1920s. BTG plays are performed at the Baer Theater, a 425-seat venue with state-of-the-art sound and lighting, located at 2153 West 111th Street on the campus of the Morgan Park Academy. Information on BTG may be found at beverlytheatreguild.org. 

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