Saint Sebastian Players Present IT'S ONLY A PLAY Next Month

The Saint Sebastian Players'(SSP) 41st season concludes with the comedy It's Only A Play by the late Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally, the first Chicago production since the playwright's death. Performances take place April 28-May 21, 2023 in the lower level of St. Bonaventure, 1625 W. Diversey, Chicago (enter on Marshfield).

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 await 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.

Directing and co-producing It's Only A Play is SSP company member Robert-Eric West, who directed last season's The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and, in previous seasons for SSP, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Oliver! and Love, Loss, and What I Wore.The cast includes SSP company members Sean Michael Barrett, Melinda "MJ" Deamon, Valerie Gerlock and Joshua Paul Wright. Other cast members include Layke Fowler, Nat Kier and Danne W. Taylor. The production team includes SSP company members Emil Zbella as set designer, West as costume designer, John Oster as sound designer, Renae Stone as assistant director, Paula Kenar as properties manager and John Austin as co-producer and stage manager.

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; an annual 10-Minute Play Festival; 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.

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