The western suburb’s only professional year-round theater company, Forest Theatre Company, is wrapping up its first full indoor season this month with George Bernard Shaw’s “Arms and the Man.”
The plan will run at Madison Street Theater in Oak Park from April 23 through May 10. The satirical comedy follows a Bulgarian woman, Raina, at the end of the Serbo-Bulgarian War. Though engaged to be married, Raina falls for a Swiss mercenary fighting for Serbia, leaving her to decide between two men.
A known socialist, Shaw was an early advocate for feminism and was anti-war. Through “Arms and the Man,” first produced in 1894, Shaw punctures illusions of marriage and international conflict that were popular at the time, and remain so today.
“Shaw felt strongly that war was something promoted by leaders to achieve their ends, and it exploited notions of nobility and heroism that were inculcated in men and women from a very early age,” said Richard Corley, who launched Forest Theatre Company in 2021 as Forest Park Theatre. “He would be one of these people who says, ‘Who says that people have to be a certain way?’”
“We live our lives, many of us, in a kind of illusion that we have adopted from our society and our parents. Some of us, quite honestly, never grow up,” Corley added.
This is Corley’s first time directing “Arms and the Man,” Shaw’s third play and first commercial success. It’s also one of the first opportunities for Forest Theatre Company’s main group of actors to play different roles than they’re used to.
“I’m looking for opportunities for these actors to play roles that expand their abilities as actors and expand their notion of what they can do on stage,” Corley said, both as a way to develop actors’ repertoire and surprise audience members with their range.
“One of the great pleasures of having a company is that you get to know the artists well enough that you can see there’s a talent or skill set they have that they haven’t really had the opportunity to use,” Corley added. “It’s a challenge. These roles don’t necessarily land in the sweet spot of where these actors are. They have to stretch themselves. And at the same time, all of these roles are within their toolkit somewhere.”
For example, he said, Elizabeth Hope Nahulak displayed impressive emotions of grief and rage as the titular Elektra in the Forest Theatre Company play in November. But in “Arms and the Man,” Nahulak embodies Raina, a noble drama queen with comedic richness, Corley said. He added that she’s a fantastic singer and hopes to find a future role for her to show that.
Upcoming plays
After “Arms and the Man,” Forest Theatre Company will hold its annual Shakespeare in the Park, performing “All’s Well That Ends Well” in August.
While Forest Theatre Company typically hosts Shakespeare in the Park at the village-owned space at the Altenheim in Forest Park, the annual performance will take place in Oak Park for the first time this year at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Nathan G. Moore House.
“Even though we loved performing [at the Grove], we were looking for more community opportunities and partnerships,” Corley said, mainly as a way to keep the company growing when the arts organization doesn’t yet have a substantial donor base.
“Before we started in the fall, I was very concerned that we wouldn’t be able to do this season because of financial issues,” Corley said. “We’re living from play to play, basically.”
While Forest Theatre Company will end in the black this season, it continues the effort to raise more money. Last season was the first where the company sold subscription memberships, 65 of them, which Corley is hoping to double in the upcoming season.
“What we’re trying to do ultimately is build something that we can invite all of these communities into and they can find ownership of. We feel like the opportunity is there, and we feel like we’re growing. We’re not at sustainability yet, but we’re hanging in there,” Corley said. “My job is to continue putting really good, high-quality art on the stage and make sure that, when people come to see the work, they’re not only entertained, but they can see the vision behind what we’re trying to do.”
Forest Theatre Company donates to the Forest Park Review.
“Arms and the Man” runs April 23-May 10 at Madison Street Theater, 1010 Madison St., Oak Park. Buy tickets at https://ci.ovationtix.com/36958/production/1268212