Village Players Performing Arts Center Presents 'Betrayal'!

Village Players Performing Arts Center Presents:

BETRAYAL

Kicking off the new season in the Village Players Blackbox is Betrayal, an intimate three person look at relationships by Harold Pinter, the 2005 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Betrayal is Pinter's award-winning drama following the tangled love affair of Emma, the doomed romantic, her husband Robert, and his best friend Jerry portrayed from its poignant ending to its wicked first kiss.  The play opens in a dimly lit pub with two ex-lovers reminiscing about the past. What happens next?  The audience journeys back in time to discover how everything began to fall apart.

"There is such a thrill in taking on the challenge of directing a play when we know the ending from the get-go, and in the case of Betrayal the ending is not a hopeful place to be," enthused director Thrisa Hodits.  "Our production is a memory wasteland.  We start where Emma starts, with hardly anything.  As the past is relived and secrets revealed, the space is uncovered.  I'm drawn to Emma's quest to simply find a place to fit in.  She is tossed up into the air and never, ever caught."

Hodits comes to Betrayal fresh from directing the devised piece Ghost Stories, a Journey into Grandmother's Attic for Summerplace Theatre in Naperville.  Up next, she will direct Ruddigore with G&S Opera Company at the University of Chicago, their third collaboration.

The cast includes David Schaplowsky as Robert (Dracula & Taming of the Shrew, Theatre-Hikes), Laurens Wilson as Jerry (Steep Theatre's Greensboro: A Requiem), Paulette Hicks as Emma, and Marco Tazioli as the Waiter (The Country Girl, Illinois Theatre Center).  The crew includes Set & Costume Designer Soule Golden (Cugat & Deshar Alhat, Luna Negra Dance Theater; Joffrey Ballet), Sound Designer Adam Hubbell (Asst. Sound Designer, Edward II, Chicago Shakespeare), Lighting Designer Eli Thorkelson (Iolanthe, Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company) and Dialect Coach Howard Timms (VP's You Never Can Tell; network playwright at Chicago Dramatists).

Betrayal will preview October 31 & November 1, opens November 2, and runs through November 13, 2008.  Performances are Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 PM & Sundays at 2:30 PM.  All tickets are $20.

Presented in the Playground Theater of the newly renovated Village Players Performing Arts Center located at 1010 Madison St., Oak Park. Plenty of parking is available on the street. The theater is handicap accessible; please call ahead to arrange for special seating.   Tickets available at www.village-players.org or by calling 866-764-1010.

Village Players Performing Arts Center offers an eclectic mix of entertainment that empowers and inspires while exploring the human condition.

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