CenterStage Dedicates American Classic Plays to Individuals, Organizations

in Lake Forest will dedicate its series of American plays to an individual or organization starting in November with Twelve Angry Men.

The performances will be staged in an intimate setting with the audience seated onstage in the midst of the performers.

Twelve Angry Men, by Reginald Rose, will be directed by Barbara Anderson, and will honor Lake Bluff resident Jay Criche, who recently passed away. Criche was one of the founders of CenterStage in Lake Forest 40 years ago and producer of such theatre classics as Under Milkwood (1983), I Never Sang for my Father (1980) and Bells are Ringing (1971).

The initiative is in response to last fall's staging of Our Town when the audience was seated on stage next to the performers, according to CenterStage board co-president, Carol Goldthwaite.

Following Twelve Angry Men, the series will include plays such as Steel Magnolias, by Robert Harling; Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams; The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, and Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee.

Twelve Angry Men will be included in CenterStage's 41st season, which opens in October with Community Capers, a joint production with the Chamber of Commerce. Twelve Angry Men will be featured as the winter drama, and Music Man is planned for the summer of 2012.
 
The season finale production of the current 40th anniversary season is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, scheduled for July 22-30 with evening performances at 7:30 p.m. and a matinee on July 24.

For more information, visit www.centerstagelakeforest.org.