THE LAST BARBECUE Is Running Through 8/8 At The Berwyn Cultural Center

Chris Cantelmi, last seen as The Jogger in Tanya Saracho's Our Lady of the Underpass, has stepped in to the role of Barry in 16th Street Theater's production of Brett Neveu’s The Last Barbecue directed by Artistic Director Ann Filmer. The Last Barbecue is running now thru August 8, 2009 at the Berwyn Cultural Center.

Chris Cantelmi will go on this weekend to cover for Matthew Brumlow, the original Barry in The Last Barbecue in 2000 with The Aardvark. Brumlow is still recovering in the hospital due to complications involving a pancreatic inflammation.  After he was taken to the hospital Friday, shows were cancelled Friday night and Saturday, including press opening.  Brumlow is expected to return to the show July 23, succeeding a full recovery.  In the absence of a full recovery, Cantelmi will finish out the run.

"We all are heartbroken over Matt not being able to open the show.  And he is too," says Director Ann Filmer.  "But we keep quoting Barry in the play to make us feel better: It's just a reunion.  It's just for fun."

Filmer continues: "Chris is a superstar for jumping in and joining the cast. We are blessed to have such a perfect replacement.  We did not have to settle."

Chris Cantelmi  has been seen around town with Teatro Vista (Our Lady of the Underpass), TUTA (It’s Only the End of the World), Writers’ Theatre (Othello and Seagull), CityLit Theatre (The Hound of the Baskervilles),  Black Sheep Productions (Another Day in the Empire), Lifeline Theatre (Johnny Tremain), Victory Gardens (Berlin ’45), and Chicago Shakespeare Theatre (Amadeus, Hamlet, and Short Shakespeare! Taming of the Shrew).  Regionally, he has frequented the Illinois Shakespeare Festival (Cyrano De Bergerac, Hamlet, As You Like It, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, The Two Gentlemen from Verona, King Lear) and Connecticut Repertory Theatre (Red Noses, Measure for Measure, A Cry of Players, Violet, Misalliance, Sweeney Todd, and The Crucible).  Originally from Fountain Hill, Pennsylvania, Chris was educated at Northampton Community College (AA), Temple University (BA) and The University of Connecticut (MFA) and is on the adjunct faculty at Columbia College Chicago.  He also plays the drums in a rock band called The Holy Ghostly.

An audacious and dark comedy about a ten-year reunion of a son's high school graduation that coincides with the one-year anniversary of the next-door neighbor's death.  Non-equity Jeff-Nominated Nancy Friedrich (The Dastardly Ficus and Other Comedic Tales of Woe and Misery!) joins four out of the five original cast from The Aardvark’s 2000 production: Ashley Bishop, Matthew Brumlow (recently in Topdog/Underdog and True West at ATC), Ann James and Donald Blair as Ted.   Chris Cantelmi will open the show as Barry July 16 - 18.

Playwright Brett Neveu has worked with many theatres, including The Goodman Theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club.  Plays include Gas For Less, Eric LaRue and American Dead.

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