Philip Potempa News

Join us for a fun and folksy holiday dinner-show at Theatre at the Center. Experience 'Christmas From the Farm' with live music, storytelling, and audience participation. Don't miss this nostalgic and heartwarming production. Get your tickets now!

'Doubt - A Parable' by playwright John Patrick Shanley is being presented as a special one-performance event as 'a staged play reading with scenes' at 3 p.m. June 25, 2023 in Munster, Ind.

Chicago Tribune Media Newspaper Columnist Philip Potempa and comedienne Jeannie Rapstad are joined by WJOB radio personality Tony Panek on the Theatre at the Center stage in December 2022 for a new and entertaining spin on Charles Dickens' holiday tale classic.

A new one-man multi-media play written, directed and performed by Columnist and Author Philip Potempa marks the first small-run of stage programming at Theatre at the Center at The Center for Visual and Performing Arts, 1040 Ridge Road, in Munster, Indiana following the two-and-half-year hiatus following the COVID pandemic.

'Love Letters,' the timeless play by A.R. Gurney, will be presented for two dinner performances Saturday Feb. 12 in the ballroom at The Center for Visual and Performing Arts, 1040 Ridge Road in Munster, Ind. Directed by William Pullinsi, 'Love Letters' will star Philip Potempa, noted newspaper columnist for Chicago Tribune Media Co. opposite actress and comedienne Jeannie Rapstad.

Chicago Tribune Media newspaper columnist Phil Potempa is reunited again with his longtime editor Crista Zivanovic to perform their Charles Dickens dinner show with five performances in 2021 as the highlight of the December holiday events at The Center for Visual and Performing Arts, 1040 Ridge Road in Munster, Ind.

'Winchell: On the Air' is a 70-minute 'in person' production which includes a multimedia element for audiences when it premieres with two performances June 10, 2021 at The Center for Visual and Performing Arts, 1040 Ridge Road in Munster, Ind.

A Charles Dickens dinner show with two performances is a highlight of the December holiday events at The Center for Visual and Performing Arts, 1040 Ridge Road in Munster, Ind. The lobby Festival of the Trees, featuring more than 20 themed trees throughout the expansive atrium space also is open for display through Jan. 2, 2021.

Janet Ulrich Brooks, making her Theatre at the Center (TATC) debut, is cast as advice columnist Ann Landers in the TATC production of The Lady With All the Answers. Opening Night was on July 15.  Performances continuing through August 12.

HONEYMOON IN VEGAS opened at The Marriott Theatre in Chicago on August 23 and runs until October 15. The cast features Michael Mahler as Jack Singer, Samantha Pauly as Betsy Nolan, Sean Allan as Tommy Korman, Cole Burden as Buddy Rocky / Roy Bacon, Marya Grandy as Bea Singer, and Steven Strafford as Johnny Sandwich.

Cabaret, one of the great Broadway musicals of all time, opened to a packed house at Theatre at the Center (TATC) in Munster on opening night on May 7. The show continues through June 4. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening festivities below!

Theatre at the Center, 1040 Ridge Road, Munster, Indiana, one of Chicagoland's leading regional theatres, is thrilled to announce today the appointment of Philip Potempa, former Features Writer and Entertainment Columnist at the NORTHWEST INDIANA TIMES and beloved, well-known member of the theater community as Marketing Director. 

Goodman Theatre's world premiere of Disney's The Jungle Book opened tonight, July 1, and runs through August 11, 2013. Let's see what the critics had to say...

SHREK THE MUSICAL tells the story of a swamp-dwelling ogre who goes on a life-changing adventure to reclaim the deed to his land. Joined by a wise-cracking donkey, this unlikely hero fights a fearsome dragon, rescues a feisty princess and learns that real friendship and true love aren't only found in fairy tales.