Etel Billig of Park Forest serves as the producing director for the Illinois Theatre Center, whose home stage is in the Park Forest Library. She’s also an actress and teaches in the Illinois Theatre Center’s drama school.
Q. How long have you been in theater, and do you remember your first time on stage?
A. Sure, I was 6 and started in school things. But I’ve worked professionally since I was 16 and played one of the children in a production of “Our Lady of Fatima.”
Q. How did you come from the East Coast to the Chicago area?
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A. We came originally from New York because of a job my husband (the late Steve Billig) had, and we learned about Park Forest through a mutual friend.
Q. Was the Illinois Theatre Center here?
A. No, this is our creation. We opened this in 1976. Prior to that, we were familiar with the space because of the Park Forest Art Center, and we were in charge of a group there called Theatre 31, which put on plays in the months that had 31 days. It was an offshoot of the art center.
Q. You made it a professional theater?
A. Yes. We were doing plays in Chicago, and then we were working in Omaha, where we were in charge of an Equity dinner-theater and we were getting kind of tired of the place. We heard this space was for rent, and being Equity (union) actors, we decided to keep the theater an Equity company so we could get the best available talent.
Q. How many plays have you done?
A. This is our 22nd season. We’ve done over 200 productions. That includes main stage, children’s theater, workshops and summer musicals.
Q. Where does your audience come from?
A. We have subscribers from 69 communities in Illinois and 20 communities in other states. Individual ticket buyers have come from an eight-state area. When we did the play “Quilters,” they came in busloads.
Q. What’s the history of the phrase “break a leg” that’s repeated among the actors before they go on stage?
A. You’re saying the opposite of what you want to happen so that you break any jinx.
Q. You’ve been in theater for so many years. What keeps you in it?
A. It’s a need to reach out to people to communicate ideas. There are plays I wouldn’t be in because I disagree so strongly (with) the message of the play. Theater is a way that I have found to share with people great ideas, to have them participate in strong emotions. That’s why I do it.