The Forest Theatre Company, which launched in 2021 as Forest Park Theatre to put on an annual outdoor Shakespeare play, is back with its second full indoor season as the only year-round, professional theatre in the near western suburbs.
The company’s production of “Little Eyolf” kicks off the 2026-2027 season on Nov. 20 at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Melrose Park, where the season’s other two shows will also be performed.
“Little Eyolf” by Henrik Ibsen is also the first of five Forest Theatre Company plays sponsored by the Norwegian Consulate General in New York. Following the Nov. 21 matinee performance, Richard Corley, producing artistic director of the company, will speak on a panel with Kimberly Kenny, a senior instructional professor at the University of Chicago’s Department of Germanic Studies — one of the scholars who helped connect him with the Consulate.
“The main thing she’s done is talk to me about the work, about Ibsen himself and where this play lands in the context of Ibsen’s long career,” Corley said of Kenny.
The Norwegian Consulate gave Forest Theatre Company $7,000 for “Little Eyolf,” to support Ibsen’s work in America, especially some of his lesser-known plays. Company productions typically cost between $22,000 and $30,000.
Corley decided to put on “Little Eyolf,” one of Ibsen’s rarely performed plays, before it got Consulate funding.
“I’ve always loved Ibsen. He’s the greatest world playwright after Shakespeare,” Corley said, citing Ibsen’s use of language and combination of storytelling, mythology and psychology.
Corley adapted “Little Eyolf” for Forest Theatre Company, slightly modifying its earliest English translation from 1910.
“I can shape it and work it so it feels very natural to contemporary American actors. I try not to flatten it out,” Corley said. “They don’t talk in American slang or anything. We keep it in the period, but I do try to keep it speakable.”
A mix of folklore and psychological insight, “Little Eyolf” centers Alfred, a writer who returns home from a retreat to discover a tragedy that he must navigate with his wife, sister and her suitor. The family’s grief, guilt and possible redemption creates an existential crisis around their son, Eyolf, played by 8-year-old Sky Friesem, a new company actor.
“It’s about how you recover from something that seems to be irrecoverable,” Corley said of the play. “What Ibsen’s really examining with this play is the way people either find a way to honestly face the truth of their lives or they take refuge in easy false ways of being.”
It’s a theme that Corley finds himself connecting to more with age.
“As I get older, one of the things that most interests me is how we reconcile ourselves with our past life, how we come to terms with decisions we make throughout our life — both good and bad decisions, right and wrong,” he said. “Telling the truth is the first step to moving forward. This is the foundational aspect of Ibsen that I love — can we really tell the truth to each other? If we can, we can move forward in a way that is true, fully alive and congruent with our souls.”
Company member Dan Maclawhorn plays Alred and is joined by India Culpepper and Megan Wells, along with new company actors Carmen Lio and Cameron Chamberlain.
Violinist Nina Badaglicco composed the play’s music and will play live during “Little Eyolf” — the first time the company has had a composer on stage for a performance.
2026-2027 season
Last year, Forest Theatre Company’s first full season of indoor performances was put on at Madison Street Theater in Oak Park. This year’s three-show season will take place at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Melrose Park.
The theater was once a part of St. Paul’s school that’s no longer open, though the church still is. The performance space is larger than that at Madison Street Theater, allowing for more flexibility in stage designs and seating configurations.
“I like the audience experience of the play to be different every time they come in,” Corley said. For “Little Eylof,” he said, “We’re keeping the audience configuration small, but the playing space for the actors will be a lot larger.”
Largely in charge of setting up the new space is Lisa Green, who earlier this year became Forest Theatre Company’s executive director. Her role consists of bookkeeping, administration, fundraising and local partnerships. One such partnership is with the Oak Park Arts Alliance, which gave the company $2,000 to bring plays to senior centers in the area.
Following “Little Eylof,” Forest Theatre Company will next put on “The Rivals” by Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
“It’s considered one of the greatest comedies ever written,” Corley said. In the spring, Corley is adapting a play by Arthur Schnitzler, which will be the first company performance he’s not directing. Annual outdoor Shakespeare in the summer will tail the season.
“Little Eyolf” is playing at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 1025 Lake St. in Melrose Park, on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from Nov. 20 to Dec. 6. Buy tickets at https://www.forest-theatre.org/.