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Barry Kornhauser’s award-winning play, “Corduroy,” is now running at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre at the Navy Pier. The play began its run there on June 18 and will continue through July 14.
The Theatre for Young Audiences play, written by Millersville’s own Barry Kornhauser, assistant director of Campus and Community Engagement, is based on Don Freeman’s popular children’s book of the same name. The play first debuted in 2017 at the Tony Award-winning Children’s Theater Company in Minneapolis and went on to win the American Alliance for Theatre & Education’s “Distinguished Play Award.” The story features a stuffed bear who lives in a department store and has a missing button on his corduroy overalls. He goes in search of the missing button so a young girl named Lisa can take him home.
You can watch a teaser of the play here.
While Kornhauser cannot see his adaptation in Chicago, the writer has been in close contact with the director throughout the rehearsal process and since the play’s opening. The Chicago Shakespeare Theatre is the 25th theatre to put on Kornhauser’s play and is, like CTC, a Regional Theatre Tony Award winner.
The original play spans 90 minutes with an intermission which is typically considered an unusual length of time for young children to stay attentive. However, “Corduroy” has proved to keep thousands of children’s eyes glued to the stage. With school scheduling, however, Kornhauser has worked with the team at Chicago Shakes to offer a shorter hour-long version.
There are a lot of things people can expect to see in this play adaptation, and Kornhauser has left out no details. He put much of the focus on the deserted department store at night, as that reflected the book author’s favored scenes. He also brought to life scenes between Lisa and her mother the same evening that expanded the story and created a personal journey for Lisa. The attention to detail in the original story is what really helped Kornhauser bring the story to life on the stage.
When asked what inspired him to write a play adaptation of this beloved book, Kornhauser pointed to the deeper meaning behind the story and why he often read it to his own children. “For Corduroy, it’s the sadly mistaken notion we all may have now and again that we’re somehow not good enough and that we need to find a missing “something” to be worthy of another’s love,” says Kornhauser.
The play has been put on in over 25 different venues. Other sites include:
Olympia Family Theatre, Olympia, Wash.
- Denver Center, Denver
- TYKES Theatre, Rochester, N.Y.
- Le Moyne College, Syracuse, N.Y.
- Columbus State University, Columbus, Ga.
- University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo.
- Seattle Children’s Theatre, Seattle
- NCTC Drama, Gainesville, Texas
- Rose Theatre, Omaha, Neb.
- Emerson Stage, Boston
- Imagination Stage, Bethesda, Md.
- DeKalb School for the Arts, Dekalb, Ga.
- Woodland Opera House, Woodland, Calif.
- Winnipesaukee Playhouse, Meredith, N.H.
- Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Little Rock, Ark.
- Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine, Portland, Maine
- Cricut Theatre Company, Lake Zurich, Ill.
- Savannah Children’s Theatre, Savannah, Ga.
- Emerald City Theatre, Chicago
- Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Chicago
Fans in the Chicago area looking to experience the world of “Corduroy” can visit https://www.chicagoshakes.com/productions/corduroy/ to purchase tickets.
