Oak Park's Village Players Performing Arts Center Announce New Artistic Director and Vision

Village Players Performing Arts Center announces the hiring of new Artistic Director, Dan Taube, a long-time Chicago theater veteran. Taube is a graduate of the Acting program at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and also holds a MFA in Directing from The Theatre School of DePaul University. His background as a freelance director and teacher of acting and directing for theatre professionals has made him an obvious choice for VPT. Taube has been in the Artistic Director position before at Chicago's Thunder Road Ensemble and Chicago Styles Workshop.

After interviewing over 30 candidates Mr. Taube was chosen by VPT's Board of Directors due to the specificity of his vision for the future of their fifty year old organization. Taube plans to re-envision VPT's mission with a focus on "...the discovery and promotion of the new American classic for our Mainstage Theatre." Taube says, "For the longest time the term ‘American Classic' has belonged exclusively to plays that premiered pre 1960. Here we are almost a decade into the 21st century and it is time to evaluate the status of all the wonderful, universal and revolutionary plays and playwrighting that have occurred post 1960."

Similarly for VPT's lesser known Studio Theatre, Taube is developing an equally ambitious programming vision for the smaller theatre. "We will be starting a new tradition of producing a theatrically themed season of challenging, entertaining and thought-provoking plays." This year's theme for the Studio Theatre is "Women on The Edge". Taube adds, "All of the plays are either written by women playwrights with a certain ‘edgy' sensibility or focus on a central female character that possesses said sensibility."

Following previous Artistic Director, Carl Occhipinti, Mr. Taube takes over the direction of the theater as of August 1, 2009. Carl Occhipinti, VPT's previous Artistic Director of eight years, is stepping down after leading the Village Players out of financial trouble in 2001 and helping to bring the theater's quality level up to the professional level it now has. He also helped to have the building space remodeled in 2006. and provides Mr. Taube with the opportunity and the platform to showcase Village Players as the premier theater house in the Western Suburbs

VPT's "American Classics" 2009-2010 Mainstage Season is as follows "You Can't Take it With You" by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart (Oct 16 - Nov 22, 2009) "Brighton Beach Memoirs" by Neil Simon (Jan 15 - Feb 28, 2010), "A Chorus Line" by Marvin Hamlisch, Edward Kleban, James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante (Mar 12 - Apr 25, 2010) and "The Marriage of Bette and Boo" by Christopher Durang (May 7 - June 27, 2010).

The "Women on The Edge" 2009-2010 Studio Series will premiere with "The Miracle Worker" by William Gibson (Sep 10 - Oct 4, 2009), "Savage in Limbo" by John Patrick Shanley (Jan 21 - Feb 21, 2010), "Mud" by Maria Irene Fornes (Mar 26 - Apr 25, 2010) and "Polaroid Stories" by Naomi Iizuka (Jun 10 - Jul 18, 2010).

All performances will be presented at the Village Players Performing Arts Center, located at 1010 Madison St., Oak Park, IL. The theater is easily accessible by CTA, using either the Green or Blue line. Plenty of parking is available on the street. The theater is handicapped accessible; please call ahead to arrange for special seating. More information is available at http://www.village-players.org or 866-764-1010.