First Folio Theater

Women in Jeopardy – First Folio Theater – February 10, 2018

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“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Or not, as there was no mail delivery at my building on Saturday, probably because of the seven inches of snow that fell Thursday night into Friday afternoon. Undaunted by the USPS’s shortcomings, I  didn’t let the snow stop me from driving to Oak Brook to see Women in Jeopardy at the First Folio Theater.

We left early and detoured slightly to head to Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen before the matinee for a drink and perhaps some gumbo or fried alligator (tastes like chicken – if chicken were made of leather). But, at 3:00 in the afternoon, it was jammed and we couldn’t even get a seat at the bar. Beads everywhere, Mardi Gras crowd getting started early.

So, with no food or drink to be had (fortunately we brought our own chocolate), we got to the theater early. I immediately ran into and caught up with an old friend, who was ushering for our performance as a member of the Saints (the volunteer arts organization unrelated to New Orleans and the aforementioned Mardi Gras).

They played the familiar theme from Jeopardy as a lead in to the play, but the show was about women in jeopardy (though a comedy), not women on Jeopardy (darn). Just as in the last play I saw at First Folio (Silent Sky), this production used their ceiling of stars (celestial, not theatrical) as part of the scenery, this time in a camping scene. It reminds me of the ceiling at the Aragon Ballroom (though not nearly as spectacular), which reminds me of the last concert I saw there, Chuck Berry in 1972, when he duck walked and played a very extended version of the lyrically sophisticated My Ding-A-Ling, his cover version of which incredibly was his one number one hit.

Silent Sky – First Folio Theater – April 21, 2017

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There probably aren’t that many places where you can see a play in a Tudor mansion on an estate in a forest preserve, but somehow I happened across Oak Brook’s First Folio Theater. We got there early because I had no idea where I was going and hate being late. I didn’t get lost, so we had time to explore the mansion. It needs some rehab, but it’s a pretty cool place. I was disappointed, however, by the fact that the free pieces of chocolate at the ticket desk were for subscribers only. Really! They couldn’t spare a couple pieces to help entice us to come back? Don’t they know how important the availability of chocolate is to every major life decision?!

Even without the aid of chocolate, we had no trouble staying alert during Silent Sky, a wonderful play about Henrietta Swan Leavitt, an astronomer at Harvard College Observatory in the early 20th century, who, along with other female colleagues, referred to as computers (just as at NASA as depicted in the movie Hidden Figures), made discoveries through the use of astronomical plates despite never being allowed to use the observatory’s refracting telescope.

Not so coincidentally I suppose, on November 4 I saw Dava Sobel speak at the Chicago Humanities Festival regarding her book, The Glass Universe, on the same topic.

The First Folio Theater also has an outside venue where they put on Shakespeare in the summer. I have mixed feelings about attending one of those performances. I generally prefer my Shakespeare skewed, as in Something Rotten (a wonderful romp that I’ve seen in New York and Chicago). And as much as I like to enjoy the arts outside, I’m not completely comforted by their promises that ‘biweekly mosquito abatement is conducted to ensure your comfort, and free repellent is offered at the site” and that their “well-lit Portapotties are cleaned often.” On the other hand, their summer concession stand carries chocolate.