Welcome to the website of Hyde Park Community Players.
We’re now deep in rehearsal for our June 1-3 production of Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros (And there’s still room for more rhinoceroses).
Hyde Park Community Players present Eugène Ionesco’s play Rhinoceros, which combines big laughs, big ideas, and big, big, big animals. In a small town on an ordinary Sunday, a rhinoceros goes charging by. Hilarity ensues; but the comedy gradually turns sinister as one by one the people transform into rhinoceroses. Will the comically unheroic protagonist, Berenger, reluctantly become the last best hope for humanity? With a large cast, a multi-level shifting stage, original music by Jenne Lennon, and a full complement of romping rhinos, Rhinoceros is the HPCP’s most ambitious production to date.
Tickets are on sale below, AND you can help fuel the rhinocerotic frenzy by Adopting A Rhinoceros!
Buy tickets online here!
All online tickets will be held as “will call” tickets to be picked up at the time of the performance at Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Avenue, Chicago 60637. (Please arrive at least ten minutes before show time to pick up your tickets. Our productions are open seating, so it’s a good idea to come at least a half an hour before curtain to get your pick.) Online purchases are handled through the security of Paypal. (Please note: there will be an additional $0.50 per ticket for online tickets to offset Paypal’s fees.)
Choose which performance you wish to attend below. Then Click the “Add to Cart” button. This will take you to a page where you can select the number of tickets you want to buy and then complete your purchase. Thank you for your patronage!
You can follow the progress of this production with our
RHINOCEROS Directors’ Blog
Check it out!
RHINOCEROS! What happens when the ordinary comic dialogue of a typical small town 
street is suddenly drowned out by a rhinoceros thundering past? And then, just when everyone settles down to being funny again, another rhinoceros storms past. Or was it the same rhinoceros? how many horns did it…they… have anyway?
And now, where are all these rhinoceroses coming from all of a sudden? Is this OK? And why does that one look strangely like your best friend…?
If you would like to be part of this production, there’s still room in this exciting pachydermical romp. Contact Paul at: director@hydeparkcommunityplayers.org You can get an idea of some of the important non-acting roles here. We’re sure we can find a place for you in the rhinoceros chorus or in the production crew. Watch this page for the developing news about this production.
This just in: Photos from Bittersweet Love are now up on our Facebook page. Check them out, and while you’re there, why not say you “like” us?
Our 2011-2012 Season of Productions
February 10-12, 2012
Bittersweet Love: two one-act plays Glory in the Flower & Strains of Triumph
By the Playwright of the Midwest,
William Inge
directed by Laura MacGregor
at Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Avenue, Chicago.
June 1-3, 2012
Rhinoceros
by Eugene Ionesco
directed by Susan Harris & Paul Baker
at Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Avenue, Chicago
We hope you will put these dates on your calendar. And, if you’re interested in joining us for this coming season, watch this page for audition and meeting dates, times and locations.
Who are we?
We are a not-for-profit, all-volunteer group dedicated to creating and nurturing
vital community theater in the greater Hyde Park, Chicago neighborhood. We are always happy to welcome new people who would like to join us in our planning, our activities, and our productions. We emphasize genuine engagement in the project of creating both community and theater. Active members commit to working on the implementation and the promotion of each HPCP production. (And, by the way, this is a fairly new and growing website. We hope it has what you needed today; we look to be able to offer much, much more in the future. Thanks for visiting.)
Our Productions to Date page is your gateway to records of past productions in pictures and words. Our most recent production, playing the weekend of February 10-12 was
Bittersweet Love: Two Plays, by William Inge
directed by Laura MacGregor
Two one-act plays, Glory in the Flower and Strains of Triumph, artfully woven into one exploration of love won and love lost, through an implicit follow-through story line, interludes of classic poetry and live music.