With many live theater venues being dark for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Morgan Park’s Lauryn family looked for a way to help Southland groups.
Husband and wife Dave and Gail Lauryn star in a benefit performance of “Chapatti,” which will be recorded to stream on April 9 and April 17-18 online via the ShowTix4U platform. Their daughter, Ariel Lauryn, directs the show while their son, Eric Lauryn, assists with the production.
“My dad was thinking about how Zoom productions are being done and how you do theater at this time,” said Ariel Lauryn, a New York resident who currently is staying with her parents and brother in Chicago’s Morgan Park community.
“Then he was thinking about how our community theaters are struggling because not only are they not able to do the community thing but also they’re not making money.”
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The Lauryn family will donate proceeds from each ticket to the purchaser’s choice of the Beverly Theater Guild, Curtain Call Theatre, Gaelic Park Players or Stray Dog Theatre Company.
“These are the four groups that my parents have been a part of since they moved to Morgan Park in 2000,” said Ariel Lauryn about her parents who met while doing community theater 40 years ago.
The Beverly Theatre Guild, which is preparing to stage “Harvey” from April 30-May 2 at Morgan Park Academy Arts Center in Chicago, is acting as the nonprofit sponsor for “Chapatti.”
Gail and Dave Lauryn starred in the Beverly Theatre Guild’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs” in 2006 and received the group’s 2013 Distinguished Service Award.
“Theater is very important to us. The theater is our lives,” said Ariel Lauryn, an animator, director, performer, puppeteer and writer.
“We wanted to do a little something to make people feel like they’re participating to give theaters a bit of a boost to help them keep going and to say, ‘Hey, theaters, we remember you. We love you, we miss you and we still want to support you.'”
Gail and Dave Lauryn starred in “Arsenic and Old Lace” in 2019 at Mokena’s Curtain Call Theatre, which is registering fourth- to eighth-graders for Disney’s “High School Musical Jr.” and kindergartners to third graders for “Arf!” for the Emily McCabe Summer Theater Program at St. Mary School in Mokena.
Stray Dog Theatre Company, which stages shows at Veterans Memorial Middle School in Blue Island, collaborated with This Moment Productions for the virtual world premiere of “A Very Covid Christmas Carol” in December.
“One of the shows my parents did with Gaelic Park Players took them out to Ireland to be a part of a festival,” said Ariel Lauryn about her parents work with the group that stages shows at Chicago Gaelic Park in Oak Forest and participates in the annual Acting Irish International Theatre Festival.
“My dad saw this show that he absolutely fell in love with by the playwright Christian O’Reilly. Then he looked up other shows by Christian O’Reilly and found ‘Chapatti.’ As he was thinking about what we can do to help theaters around here, he thought of ‘Chapatti.'”
The show world premiered in 2014 at Northlight Theatre in Skokie as a coproduction with Galway International Arts Festival starring the late John Mahoney and was nominated for two 2014 Joseph Jefferson Awards including new work for O’Reilly.
“It’s a two-person show. My parents are the right ages. My dad reached out to Dramatists Play Service and they recommended ShowTix4U, which is a different kind of streaming service,” Ariel Lauryn said.
“We’re going to film at Gaelic Park. It’ll be a bare-bones production because we didn’t want to have to involve a whole lot of people. It’s just the four of us. I’ll be filming and directing them. Because it’s specifically taped to be taped, I’m hoping it’ll look a little better than when you film a live performance.”
“Chapatti” is a comedy/drama about two animal lovers living in Dublin. Dan has a dog named Chapatti while Betty has 19 cats.
“It fits this time period well,” Ariel Lauryn said.
“They talk about other people in their lives so both of these characters have become isolated in their own way. They have no kids. They’re in their late 50s and they find each other. It’s about how to navigate feeling lonely.”
“Chapatti” is not recommended for younger or more sensitive audiences due to adult language used to explore serious themes, including suicide.
‘Chapatti’
When: 7 p.m. April 9 and 17; 3 p.m. April 18
Where: Virtual
Tickets: $10
Information: showtix4u.com/event-details/48641
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Jessi Virtusio is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.