Tickets: $6, at the door.Background
Katie Bush and Ben Corr went to DeWitt High, as its theater program was soaring. In "Grease," they had the comic roles of Rizzo and Kenickie; in "The Miracle Worker," she had the lead role of Annie Sullivan.
They graduated from high school in 2000 and immediately tried to leap into Chicago's theater scene. When Bush became pregnant, they retreated home.
After racing between work, home and Lansing Community College shows, they decided it was time to try their own theater company. "We could spend more time with our son," Bush said. "Every rehearsal is open to him."
Their first show, Neil Simon's "Rumors," was an ambitious production in the Hannah Community Center auditorium. It lost money.
Now comes a smaller production , in the intimate setting of Creole. Five actors share the eight roles.
That includes Bush and Corr, plus three others from Lansing Community College - J.D. De La Ossa (who recently starred as Darcy in "Pride and Prejudice"), J'esse Deardorff-Green and Jaralinn Patterson.
With strong language and sexual content, this isn't a standard theater experience, Bush said. "We will draw in a different crowd. We want the people who hate theater to want to see our shows."
After the next show ("Children of a Lesser God," in May), the group will switch to doing only original scripts.
"Trust us, it will be theater in a way you've never seen it done," Bush said. "We felt it was time to show our own art."