Announced April 23, 2022, our NEW season was revealed at Heartland’s Season Announcement party. The season begins with Suddenly Last Summer in September 2022 and ends with the two play festivals: 10-Minute Play Festival in June 2023 and the New Plays from the Heartland One-Act Festival in July 2023.
Heartland’s 2022-2023 Season Shows:
Covid-19 Safety Protocols at Heartland
Season Tickets (Flex Passes) Apply:
- Suddenly Last Summer – September 2022
- The Revolutionists – November 2022
- The Lifespan of a Fact – February 2023
- Tiny Beautiful Things – April 2023
- 10-Minute Play Festival “The Waiting Room” – June 2023
Add-On Events: 2022-2023 Special Shows
Flex Passes Do Not Apply:
- Young at Heartland Showcases – October 2022 & June 2023
- The Play’s the Thing: New Play Reading – December 2022
- New Plays from the Heartland: One Act Plays from the Midwest – July 2023
To see show times for the current production, click here. For Flex Pass information, click here.
HEARTLAND THEATRE COMPANY’S 2022-2023 SEASON
Heartland Theatre Company’s 2022-2023 Season now begins September 1, 2022 with Suddenly Last Summer, ending in June 2023 with the 10-Minute Play Festival.
Suddenly Last Summer
DIRECTED BY TOM MITCHELL. Tennessee Williams reaches his Southern Gothic heights in this one-act mystery recounting a horrible tragedy, the murder of young poet, Sebastian. Who should be believed concerning the gruesome nature of his death? His cousin, mentally unstable Catherine, the only eyewitness to what took place? Or his mother, a wealthy matron determined to protect the reputation of her son, even if it means silencing her troubled niece through the most nefarious way imaginable? [ADULT CONTENT] SPONSORED BY CAROLE & JERRY RINGER.
THE CAST: Joi Hoffsommer (Mrs. Venable), Mindy Smith (Catharine), Mathew Green (Dr. Cukrowicz), Mary Rose Cottingham (Mrs. Holly), Sam Swope (George), Ann B. White (Sister Felicity) and Rosie Hauck (Miss Foxhill).
THE CREATIVE STAFF: Chad Lowell (Scenic Designer), Melissa Hall Reynolds (Costume Designer), Jesse Folks (Lighting Designer), Jeannie Breitweiser (Properties Designer), Tony Reimer (Sound Designer), and Stephanie Nauman (Stage Manager).
Performances: September 1,2,3 / 8,9,10,11 / 15,16,17 – 2022
The Revolutionists
DIRECTED BY SANHAWICH MEATEANUWAT. During the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, four women—a playwright, an assassin, an abolitionist, and the former queen of France (none other than Marie Antoinette) — cross paths in this comedy that celebrates the enduring value of sisterhood. Rebellious and irreverent, the quartet of beautiful, badass women banter and bicker, and finally bond as they confront the inequities of the day head on, while also trying to avoid losing their heads to the guillotine. [PG-13 – SUGGESTED VIOLENCE] SPONSORED BY LARRY & CHRIS EGGAN AND JOHN & MARILYN FREESE
THE CAST: Drea Fecht (Olympe), Janet Ademilua (Marianne), Mia Katz (Charlotte) and Brooke Moonan (Marie Antoinette)
THE CREATIVE STAFF: Lauren Lowell (Costume Designer), Jesse Folks (Lighting Designer), Lynda Rettick (Properties Designer), Dean Brown (Sound Designer), Connie de Veer (Dialect Coach), Nolan Schoenele (Stage Manager) and Stephanie Nauman (Assistant Stage Manager)
Performances: November 3,4,5 / 10,11,12,13 / 17,18,19 – 2022
The Play’s the Thing
SOPHIA HAYDEN DESERVES BETTER by Stephanie Walker
DIRECTED BY RHYS LOVELL. A full-length new play is read from scripts, on stools, by talented actors with professional response. SPONSORED BY DR. JOHN FICCA. Three invited respondents provide comments to help the playwright further develop her play after the matinee on Sunday, December 11. The respondents are Jean Kerr (Director of Illinois Wesleyan University’s School of Theatre Arts), Greg Koos (local historian and former Executive Director of the McLean County Museum of History) and Ann Haugo (Chair of Illinois State University’s School of Theatre and Dance).
The play features: JOHN BOWEN, DEAN BROWN, CONNIE DE VEER, LOGAN FREEMAN, MIA KATZ, BRENNA LONG, RHYS LOVELL, LYNDA RETTICK, ABBY SCOTT & TODD WINEBURNER.
Performances: December 10 (7:30 pm) and December 11 (2:00 pm) – 2022
$5 Donation at the Door or Book your ticket Online. Reservations are taken!
About the new play, SOPHIA HAYDEN DESERVES BETTER:
In 1891 a brilliant 23-year-old woman won an architecture contest to design the Woman’s Building for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. What should have been the start to a flourishing career in architecture became career-ending. Throughout the two-year process of building The Woman’s Building, the architect quietly endured bullying, micromanaging and undermining until she finally spoke up. In a time when women were defined as physically and intellectually weaker than men, her concerns were not only not heard, but she was sent to a sanitarium. Diagnosed with melancholia due to overexertion. Silenced. After the fair, her building was destroyed and she never built another building again. Her name was Sophia Hayden and she deserves better.
The Lifespan of a Fact
DIRECTED BY TOM DZURISON. Where do you draw the line between fact and fiction, especially when the reputation of your prominent but sinking New York magazine is at stake? It’s a question Editor-in-Chief Emily Penrose is forced to address as she referees a lively and hilarious debate between her fresh-out-of-Harvard fact checker and a talented writer with a transcendent essay—an essay that just might save the magazine from collapse. [ADULT CONTENT – TRIGGER WARNING: SUICIDE DISCUSSED] SPONSORED BY CHARLES & JOAN VANDEN EYNDEN AND LARRY & CHRIS EGGAN
FEATURING:
Emily Penrose: TRACY WILLET
Jim Fingal: ADAM ALEXANDER
John D’Agata: RHYS LOVELL
Understudy (Emily Penrose): LYNDA RETTICK
Understudy (Jim Fingal): NOLAN J. RICE
Understudy (John D’Agata): BOB KINSELLA
Performances: February 2,3,4 / 9,10,11,12 / 16,17,18 – 2023
Tiny Beautiful Things
DIRECTED BY DON LACASSE SPONSORED BY MAYUKO NAKAMURA & TERRY NOEL
A professional writer, mother of two, has agreed to write the online advice column, “Dear Sugar.” She finds her life invaded by a multitude of voices who circle her like wandering satellites, with questions on being spied on, to needing money, to love. And you find yourself in a delicate memoir that somehow is as much about you as it is its author. More than anything, TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS turns out to be about the endangered art of listening to – and really hearing and responding to – other people. [Adult Content- Adult Language]
TRIGGER WARNING: Please be advised that “Tiny Beautiful Things” has strong language and discusses the themes of depression, drug abuse, sexual assault, child sex abuse and physical abuse. The play is recommended for adults.
Performances: March 30,31 & April 1,2 / 6,7,8 / 13,14,15 – 2023
2023 Annual 10-Minute Play Festival: The Waiting Room
DIRECTED BY DARLENE LLOYD, LYNDA RETTICK, RICH TINAGLIA & JASON VALES. We’ve all been waiting. Here at Heartland, we waited for the day when we could open our doors again. Our patrons waited for the chance to get back to the things that they enjoy. For more than two years, we’ve all mastered the art of waiting.
Now our 10-Minute Play Festivals are back in production, but that doesn’t mean the waiting is over. In fact, we’re embracing it. The theme for our 2023 10-Minute Play Festival is The Waiting Room. We want to see what happens while people are waiting for something to happen.
It should be a uniquely complete night of theater. Haven’t we always been told that good things come to those who wait? But rocker Tom Petty told us that “the waiting is the hardest part.” And, of course, it will be another opportunity for Heartland to bring terrific artists and our wonderful patrons together to celebrate material written just for us.
We can’t wait!
THE WINNING PLAYS:
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE WAITING ROOM by Daphne Macy, New Rochelle NY
WEIGHT by Chris Shaw Swanson, Westerville, OH
THE CHOICE by Dale Griffiths Stamos, Santa Barbara CA
THIS BABY by William R. Boersma, Skokie IL
WHAT HAPPENS ON MONDAY by Benjamin Tyler Roberts, Maytown PA
THAT’S THE WORST PART by Katie Lee, Victoria AUSTRALIA
THE GOOD OLD DAYS by Roy van Hooydonk, Ontario CANADA
NEXT UP by Sean Abley, Los Angeles CA
SPONSORED BY DEANNA FRAUTSCHI & ALAN BEDELL
Performances: June 1,23 / 8,9,10,11 / 15,16,17 / 22,23,24 – 2023
The Mike Dobbins Memorial New Plays from the Heartland Festival
Three new one-act plays from the Midwest in enhanced staged readings. Guest Playwright Forum July 13. SPONSORED BY SANDRA & PAUL HARMON
DIRECTORS: John D. Poling, Kevin Yale Vernon, and Elaine Hill
Performances: July 14,15.16 – 2023
Young at Heartland Showcases
Young at Heartland Showcases: October 19 & 21, 2022 and June 21 & 23 – 2023
A donation at the door is requested for this special event, and booking online is unavailable.
INSTRUCTORS SANDRA ZIELINSKI, TERRI WHISENHUNT. PROGRAM DIRECTOR ANN B. WHITE
Our Season appeal packet, with Flex Pass offers and Donation opportunities, will be in your mailbox the week of August 8, if you are on our mailing list, with a deadline to reply by SEPTEMBER 1, 2022. If you want to receive a packet and are not on our mailing list currently, email your address to [email protected].
Box Office: 309.452.8709; [email protected]
Mailing Address: PO Box 104, Bloomington IL 61702
Physical Address: 1110 Douglas St, Normal IL 61761