EP Candlelight Theatre Presents 'You Can't Take It With You'

EVERGREEN PARK, IL — After 20 months of stage darkness due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Evergreen Park Recreation Department Candlelight Theatre will bring up the stage lights in the Performance Hall at the Evergreen Park Senior Center, 9547 S Homan Ave.

The community theater group will light up the stage with the the Pulitzer Prize-winnning comedy, “You Can’t Take It With You,” by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart from 1936. The play was adapted to film in 1938, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director.

“You Can’t Take It With You” tells the story of an eccentric family, led by the wise Grandpa Vanderhof, who live their lives enjoying life and the things they love doing. Daughter Alice is the young professional in the family and it is her pending wedding that lights the fuse to one of the most scatterbrained “Meet The Parents” visits ever. This charming, funny and, believe it or not, “inspirational” story is one of the most performed plays ever produced.

There are two weekends of performances:

Friday, September 24 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, September 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, October 1 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, October 3 at 3 p.m.

A planned performance on Saturday, October 2 is preempted due to the village’s Octoberfest at the Community Center that night.

The Evergreen Park Recreation Department Candlelight Theatre offers a quaint and intimate “black box” theatre concept, now in its seventh year. Frequent performers in the group took part in the weekly “Candlelight Revue” variety show that appeared on the Village website over last fall and winter. All are excited to perform live again, with proper Covid safety precautions in place.

Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for senioss and students. All performances are door sales only; no reservations will be taken. Patrons are free to sit where they are most comfortable; and masks will be required and provided. The program’s usual table-seating will be put on pause until the spring. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for seniors/students.

A full schedule is planned for 2022, but on the heels of eighteen terrible months, the program coordinators felt it was time to offer a laugh or two this fall, and in a safe setting.

A full schedule is planned for 2022, but on the heels of 20 terrible months, the program coordinators felt it was time to offer a laugh or two this fall, and in a safe setting.