Cure for Writers’ Cramp
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For most of its nine-year history, Writers’ has been a one-man show. Artistic director Michael Halberstam, who founded the company with Marilyn Campbell (now literary manager) and first board president Betty Askow, hung on when the original ensemble fell apart after the first year. Since then, with minimal staff, he’s done everything from acting to swabbing the toilet. He made the tiny theater an Equity house, and his talents as a director (on display this spring in a terrific premiere of The Gamester at Northlight and in Writers’ current production of Strindberg’s The Father) have drawn some of the city’s best actors. Working in quarters tight as a living room, Writers’ has earned a half dozen Jeff nominations and won two Jeff awards; last month Halberstam got an award from the Chicago Drama League. “When I began to look around and I looked at this company,” says Adams, “I found that every artist I know of wants to work up there.”
Playwrights and Play Wrongs
Hard Core Shown the Door
