Chicago Children's Theatre

Intern Jon's Blog

Only a couple  more weeks until Honus and Me opens at the Goodman's Owen Theatre! On Saturday, June 30, the staff of Chicago Children's Theatre took a field trip to go visit a rehearsal in progress and we got a sneak peak of a scene from the play. And believe me, you are in for a treat! While we were there we also got to see sketches and pictures from our Costume and Lighting designers and we saw the Set Designers drawings and learned that the Owen Theatre is going to be transformed into “Owen Field” for our production. There will be bleachers and stadium lights and everything!

Outside the rehearsal, the staff of Chicago Children's Theatre has been busy too, preparing for Honus and Me.  My name is Jon, and I'm the Artistic/Literary Intern at Chicago Children's Theatre for the summer, so I've been doing a lot of research about Honus and Me. I created a packet for the actors of all the information I've learned so they could use it to help create their characters and their world. Now, I'm going to share some of that information with you.

You might already know that Honus Wagner was a great shortstop who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but did you know that when he retired from baseball in 1917 he had more hits, runs, RBI, doubles, triples, games and steals than any other player in his league? Or did you know he was also the first baseball player ever to have his signature branded into a Louisville Slugger baseball bat, and one of the first five baseball players voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame? That's pretty impressive, right?

Honus won his first World Series with the Pirates in 1909, which is also part of our play. This was only the sixth World Series ever! This series, however, was more exciting than any others before it. The Pirates were playing their rivals the Detroit Tigers and for the first time in the history of the series, the teams played all seven games. The fans on both sides eagerly waited to see who would win and which superstar, Pittsburgh's Wagner or Detroit's Ty Cobb, could be called the best player in baseball. If you want to see who wins, come see Honus and Me at the Goodman Theatre, July 20-August 26.

Hopefully, I'll have the chance to visit another rehearsal soon and keep you updated on what's going on. And I'll definitely be back to give you some more new and interesting facts you may not know about America's Favorite Pastime. In the meantime, if you have any interesting baseball facts that you want to share with me, post them on the blog and we'll all learn together!