Don Haefliger – Independent Players

Mistaken Identity Russian Style: Gogol Satirizes Soviet Life

What happens when an unlucky nobody is mistaken for a powerful Russian government official by a group of corrupt small town officials? Find out when INDEPENDENT PLAYERS presents Nikolai Gogol’s The Government Inspector Fridays and Saturdays, March 6-7, 13-14, 20-21, 2020 at the Elgin Art Showcase, 164 Division Street, Elgin. Curtain time is 7:30 PM. Originally published in 1836, The Government Inspector was based upon an anecdote allegedly recounted to Gogol by Alexander Pushkin. Gogol attempted to write a satirical [...]

February 12, 2020

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INDEPENDENT PLAYERS presents RCLPC Theater’s Morning’s at Seven in Elgin

For three consecutive years, INDEPENDENT PLAYERS has taken a production from its current season to Crystal Lake and presented it for one weekend of RCLPC Theater’s Summer Season. Blythe Spirit, Tartuffe and Present Laughter experienced a new audience, and IP’s directors and actors loved being given the chance to perform each of these shows three more times. This fall, RCLPC Theater is reciprocating by bringing its most recent show---Morning’s at Seven by Paul Osborn---to Elgin for three weeks as part of IP’s 2019-2020 [...]

September 1, 2019

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UBU ROI—“Under the Microscope”

As its production at the 2019 Elgin Fringe Festival, INDEPENDENT PLAYERS is producing UBU ROI a revolutionary comic masterpiece (which, to IP’s knowledge,) has only been presented in Elgin once. That production was staged by a local high school director who produced theatre pieces which were new to the audience he served. He worked some of the scenes with his drama students, and they talked him into directing it so they could have the experience of doing it in its [...]

August 27, 2019

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Independent Players to Reprise Present Laughter in Crystal Lake

For the third time in three years, Independent Players is transporting one of its current season’s shows north to Crystal Lake in July-early August where it is co-sponsored by Right Center Left Production Company Theater’s Dinner Theater Extravaganza “Eat, Play, Give! 2019”. Having previously exported Blithe Spirit and Tartuffe in the past two seasons, it has selected Noel Coward’s Present Laughter as its contribution for 2019. As it stands, the production is basically the same as that which was produced at the [...]

July 3, 2019

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THE BIG MEAL: 60 Years in the Life of an American Family in 90 minutes!

Purchase Tickets Somewhere in America, in a typical suburban restaurant, on a typical night, Sam and Nicole first meet---and sparks fly. So begins a tale that traverses five generations of a modern family, from first kiss to last goodbye. The Big Meal by Dan LeFranc tells the extraordinary story of an ordinary family! This statement succinctly captures the essence of the Independent Players’ third production of 2018-2019 in a “nutshell.” Opening on May 4, the production is directed by Larry Boller and stars [...]

April 14, 2019

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Noel Coward Returns to the Independent Players Stage

Matinee stars, affairs both amorous and numerous---what is a man to do? Find out when Independent Players presents Noel Coward’s delightful comedy Present Laughter at the Elgin Art Showcase, Fridays and Saturdays, March 1-16. Curtain time is 7:30 PM. Based on a song in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in which the Bard says “present mirth hath present laughter,” the title suggests that one should “live for the day,” which is exactly what the characters in Coward’s play do. At the center of [...]

January 13, 2019

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DAVID BELASCO ON HIS FRIEND FERENC MOLNAR

David Belasco, legendary American theatrical director and producer, introduced the plays of Ferenc Molnar to America by presenting them at his equally legendary theatre in New York City. In The Forward of the edition of Molnar’s collected works published in 1929, he expresses his overwhelming love and respect for Molnar’s plays. The following is a complete transcript of that document. –>Purchase Tickets<– AN APPRECIATION “Receive them, then---the tribute that I owe!” ---SHAKESPEARE. Molnar! Author, stage-director, dramatist, poet: Ferenc Molnar. Today, whether at home in his own [...]

September 1, 2018

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IP PRESENTS FERENC MOLNAR’S CLASSIC “THE GUARDSMAN”

“I think The Guardsman is a very funny play about a very bad marriage.”---Gregory Mosher -->Purchase Tickets<-- INDEPENDENT PLAYERS 2018-2019 Season opens with a production of the very popular play entitled “The Guardsman” by the Hungarian-born Ferenc Molnar, who is widely regarded as Hungary’s most celebrated and controversial playwright. Some audience members might recognize Molnar if they saw his equally well-known “The Play’s the Thing” which IP produced in its 2003-2004 Season. “The Guardsman” has long been on the “must do” [...]

September 1, 2018

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IP at Fringe Fest Weekend

INDEPENDENT PLAYERS will participate in the Elgin Fringe Festival for the fourth year this September where it will present a relatively famous one-act play from the 1960s---Tad Mosel’s IMPROMPTU. This play, conceived in the Pirandello mode, “brings a fresh approach to a timeless theme---what should be the proper ratio of truth vs. illusion in the balanced life?” For those unfamiliar with Pirandello, he was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He [...]

July 24, 2018

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THE GLASS MENAGERIE

Continuing its 40th Anniversary Season of timeless classics---Jean-Claude van Itallie’s Interview (at the Elgin Fringe Festival), Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, and Moliere’s Tartuffe--- INDEPENDENT PLAYERS presents one of the most famous plays of the modern theatre, Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie. This American theatre masterpiece will be performed May 4-5, 11-12, and 18-19, 2018 at 7:30 PM at the Elgin Art Showcase, (on the 8th floor of the Professional Building), 164 Division Street, Elgin. This production is being directed by [...]

March 30, 2018

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Author - Don Haefliger