Every time Director Julie Price sees a 1940s movie on television, she records it.
“So I can watch later, just to see if there’s any little nugget I can get from it,” she said. “Oh, they did this. They spoke like that. Women did this, men did that. They always wore hats. Different little things that would help us out.”
Check into the Palm Beach Royale Hotel when Elgin Theatre Company presents the “Suite Surrender” Jan. 24-Feb. 9 at Elgin Art Showcase in downtown Elgin. Performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays.
“Anybody who appreciates the glamour of the 1930s and ’40s, hopefully we’ll give a little bit of that to them,” Price said.
In this comedic love letter to the classic farces of the 1930s and 1940s by playwright Michael McKeever, two of Hollywood’s biggest divas are engaged in battle — for the same hotel suite.
America’s beloved matron of song, Claudia McFadden, and Athena Sinclair, great star of stage and screen, are engaged in a feud that could rival Joan Crawford and Bette Davis.
“They’re in the same place and the staff is trying keep them apart because they know they don’t like each other. So they want to keep everybody happy,” Price said. “So the big run-around to kind of keep everybody unaware of who is in the room.”
With a lot of doors in the suite, there’s a lot of coming and going by the characters in the attempt to keep the divas from discovering each other.
“There’s a lot of great aspects to this show,” Price said. “Timing, humor, physical comedy, huge personalities. And there will be a little bit of music to it, a little bit of singing in it.”
The show, which runs about two hours with an intermission, features nine cast characters, including the divas, hotel staff, personal assistants and a gossip columnist. There’s even a lap dog named Mr. Boodles.
“They’re well-defined,” Price said of the characters. “They all have purpose and motivation themselves, you don’t have to create it on your own. And the interaction between them is just hilarious.
“It reminds me of the great old classic movies from the ’40s, the black and white with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. They’re just real fast paced like that,” she said. “It’s very humorous and funny, there’s a lot of quick wit to it. And there’s a lot of physical humor, which has been a blast working through with the cast.”
When Price was reading scripts to pitch to Elgin Theatre Company for its 2019-2020 season, she came across one for “Suite Surrender,” a show she had not heard of before.
“I want strong female parts — it’s hard to find that sometimes — and I was just reading scripts and came across this and was like, ‘this is it! This is it! Perfect!’ I was shocked that I just ran across it myself,” the Palatine resident said.
The script, which Price gives a PG or PG-13 rating for a bit of mild language, features a lot of twists and turns, and “fun little things to discover in it,” she said.
“It’s just very funny,” she said. “Like hang on to your seat and pay attention.”
The director said she is very happy with the cast, which is working hard to bring so much to each of the characters.
“They’re finding all the places in between the words that are written to find some fun physical things to do,” Price said. “How can we build up this scene even more? … So we’re having a lot of fun finding all the little nuances.”
“The script has really been our Bible for this,” Price said. “A lot of times it’s not for a lot of shows you do. But this one really is, as far as all the dialogue and character development. The dialogue helps to build the characters.”
Cast members were off book early in order to work on the timing necessary for the show, she said.
“Everybody knew you can’t be looking at your script when you’re working on the timing,” she said.
Price said she is excited to offer audiences something “fun and delightful” to see.
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“It’s a nice getaway for everybody to just kind of forget about any kind of worries and have a good laugh with us at this one,” she said.
‘Suite Surrender’
When: Jan. 24-Feb. 9′
Where: Elgin Art Showcase, 164 Division St., 8th Floor, Elgin
Tickets: $20 adults; $18 students and seniors 65 and over
Information: 847-741-0532; elgin-theatre.org
Kathy Cichon is a freelance reporter for the Courier-News.