This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

DP Theatre announces ETUDE THE MUSICAL

Des Plaines Theatre and the Sigman Brothers announce the first full production Musical in over 50 years!  Come see Etude The Musical Opens This Wednesday and runs until November 3rd visit www.etudethemusical.com

Read below about the Sigman Brothers, how Etude The Musical was born and a little bit about the production.

My brother and I wrote this musical called Etude. We had a dream and that dream was to produce our musical with the finest actors and to perform it at the Des Plaines Theatre to help revitalize the downtown area. We set out to find the talent that would best present our story and we were very successful in doing so. We grew up here in Des Plaines, went to what was called West School (now) Maine West. As children my brother and I went to the Des Plaines Theatre every weekend to enjoy the movies. I had my first kiss there and so the theatre holds a soft spot for me. One of the lead actresses is a junior at Maine West here in Des Plaines. She got her start in theatre at the Des Plaines Park District (Footlighters).

Over the last year and a half we have assembled a cast of over 23 talented actors who have worked very hard. We have our incredibly talented leads and a fine ensemble group. We have creative costume designers, a very experienced lighting and sound crew, wonderful publicity personnel who are working on promoting this production through normal publications as well as the web. Maybe some of you have seen the lovely Etude Billboard on 90 as you head from Barrington to the Des Plaines area that is promoting this show as well as inviting neighboring cities to join us here in Des Plaines. We have worked very hard and invested a lot so we are excited for the show’s opening coming up this week.

The story begins in 19th century France and is loosely based on one of the greatest unknown composers of all time Charles-Valentin Alkan. His life is shrouded in Mystery. He created music that was so brilliant and so advanced that all the great composers throughout Europe came to study at his feet. Composers such as Lizst, Chopin, Schuman, Mendelsson were likely all influenced by him, yet I’ll bet that no one reading this has ever heard of him. He sometimes performed publicly, however he was very shy and he preferred to create masterpieces.

Two things that interested me most when I first started learning about this character were that his pieces are so difficult to play that there are only a few pianists alive today that can play his work and the most interesting is that his death is shrouded in mystery. Some say he died while reaching to take a large heavy book called the Talmud from a shelf and the injury caused a stroke followed by his death. Others say he died from disease, but no one really knows. I theorized that maybe he didn’t die and asked what if he lives today?

Etude isn’t your typical vampire story. Of course there is blood thirst, but there is also love and war and sacrifice. Etude is a powerful piece full of surprises. It is passionate and sexy as well as fierce. On behalf of the Cast and Crew, we hope to see you at the show.

For tickets and information visit
etudethemusical.com
Jerry Sigman of The Sigman Brothers

Find out what's happening in Des Plaineswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?