Elayne LeTraunik has tried many times to start a successful theater company. In 1978 she and her husband, Kenneth, founded a community theater in Hoffman Estates called Theatre Northwest. In 1983 they helped launch Goose Island Theatre in a Chicago storefront but bowed out after two years. She started Red Hen Productions in 1997 and installed the company in a 50-seat Andersonville space last year, after struggling for two years to get the building up to code. But while Red Hen’s 2002-’03 season got some good reviews–their production of That Championship Season snagged a Jeff recommendation, and they just found out that last fall’s Bloody Bess won an After Dark Award for best ensemble–houses were small, and money was tight. Elayne, however, is confident her latest effort, Chicago Jewish Theatre, will survive. “I think I got it right this time,” she says.
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The company still wants to focus on lesser-known work. There’s no blanket ban on Neil Simon, but, says Brian, “we didn’t want to pigeonhole ourselves into doing the same things that everyone else has done, we still wanted to challenge ourselves…and the more we look and see what’s out there, the more heartened we are that we’ll be able to keep from repeating ourselves.”
