Arts & Entertainment

DGN Alum Backstage Pro for Chicago Dramatists' Production

Emily Duffin is the production manager for "Hickorydickory," which opens Friday night.

Chicago Dramatists' production of "Hickorydickory" has a DGN alum backstage. 

Emily Duffin, of Woodridge, graduated from Downers Grove North in 2005. She went to the University of Missouri and studied English. She got an internship at Chicago Dramatists, a playwrights' theater, after college and was hired. 

She's been the production manager for the 2011 season, helping put together props, costumes and sets for the theater's productions.  

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"What I basically do is help out designers in any way possible to have what they need to make their dream come true, within the specifications of the director," Duffin said. "I'm running around town trying to find lots of things to free and making sure we're in budget." 

For "Hickorydickory," a production set in an old clock shop, Duffin said she was on the search for old tools to use as props. 

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"I was scavenging in my uncle's basement, going through my garage," she said. "I needed to find things that would fit in the cubby holes or to place on stage. It's a lot of fun to find different things." 

Another one of her challenges: finding herbal cigarettes for the actors to smoke on-stage, which required calls to 10 to 15 shops in Chicago to find one where they were sold. 

Duffin said she gets work from several theater companies through Chicago Dramatists' network. She has a stage management gig for a show in Italy this summer and will work on a show at the Denver Center of Performing Arts this winter.  

While she was in the pit orchestra for North's production of "The Sound of Music" in 2004 and was interested in play-writing in college, she had no intention of working for a theater while she was in college. 

But she said she enjoys the diversity of productions she works on and being a part of theater in general. 

"You can really communicate with people in a different way through art," Duffin said. "It's a different way to live...You're always learning, always finding out new things, trying to figure out how to do something differently." 

"Hickorydickory" was written by Marisa Wegrzyn, who received a $25,000 grant for the production after winning the 2009 Wendy Wasserstein Prize. 

The play follows a family who works not only with regular clocks but a person's mortal clock, which tells how and when the person will die. It can reside in the person's head or near his or her heart.

The family will extract a clock from a person's head so they won't hear the imminent ticking. They can also take time from one person's clock and give it to another. 

Duffin said the production is a dark comedy but is a lot of fun.

In case you need extra incentive to go see it, "Hickorydickory" is one of Chicago Magazine's don't-miss picks for the week. 

The play continues through June 12. Tickets are $15–$32. The theater is located at 1105 W Chicago. For more information, check out chicagodramatists.org


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