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| saturday FEBRUARY 21 | sunday FEBRUARY 22 2015
the north shore weekend
NEWS
Winnetka actor flourishes in ‘West Side Story’
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innetka’s John Gray plays the role of Officer Krupke in Drury Lane Theatre’s production of “West Side Story,” which has become the fastest-selling production in the theatre’s 30-year history. “It is a thrill to be involved with an unbelievable show,” Gray said. “I am so proud to be a part of [this production], and Drury Lane Theatre runs an amazingly tight ship.” Gray lives in Winnetka with his wife and two teenage children, both students at New Trier High School. The family moved to Winnetka four years ago from Chicago when their older son was preparing to go to high school. “It is gorgeous, and I am so glad that we made the move up here. I couldn’t be happier,” Gray said. Gray discovered his passion for acting at a young age. In fifth grade he had a small part in a musical about Thomas Edison and was “bitten by the [acting] bug by that show.” Growing up in a small town in Michigan, he became active in community theatre throughout high school and performed in a number of musical productions.
But it was through radio that Gray discovered his talent for entertainment. Gray produced his own morning radio show with a friend at his high school radio station. He went on to double major in theatre and broadcasting at Central Michigan University, combining his interests in both performing and radio. While Gray initially pursued radio broadcasting when he graduated from college, hosting a rock radio show in Traverse City, Mich. and later a jazz show at WBEZ in Chicago, acting ultimately became his focus. When he moved to Chicago he became involved with a theatre group called Corn Production, comprised of some of his college friends. The group performed a cabaret show that developed a cult audience, which Gray described as similar to “Rocky Horror Picture Show” – people loved the characters and the concept of the show. Since then Gray has gone on to perform in numerous productions at theatres throughout the Chicago area including Trap Door Theatre, Writers Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre and Glencoe’s Writer’s Theatre. ~ Emily Spectre
John Gray as Officer Krupke
Lake Bluff teen tapped for national polo team
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ared Zenni, 19, of Lake Bluff has been selected to join the U.S. Polo Association’s Team USPA along with three other new members following a tryout and selection process in Wellington, Florida. The Team USPA roster boasts 61 players. “Being a member of Team USPA will help me achieve my career
WRIGHT Continued from page 1
and vice versa. “No house should ever be on a hill or on anything. It should be of the hill. Belonging to it,” wrote Wright in his autobiography. “Hill and house should live together, each the happier for the other.” The Glencoe Historical Society is celebrating this way of thinking by honoring the centennial anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright in Glencoe, switching only one thing — the topography. It is trading hills in favor of the village’s ravines, while honoring the architect’s prairie-style homes. “[Frank Lloyd Wright] was terrific with these large, beautiful homes, but he also had this desire to create affordable housing,” says president of the Glencoe Historical Society Board of Directors Karen Ettelson. Capitalizing on the opportunity, Wright, along with friend and business partner Sherman Booth, developed seven properties that make up the Ravine Bluffs subdivision in Glencoe. Wright had just returned from a scandalous romp in Europe with a client’s wife — leaving behind his wife and children in Oak Park — when Booth commissioned the acclaimed architect to build a
mansion-size residence on 15 acres of triangular land in Glencoe. It was never built,
“basically because it was too expensive,” notes Ettelson. However, the drawings remain, which hint at the excess that may well have been the project’s downfall. (The proj-
goals as a professional polo player,” Zenni says. “It’s really a oncein-a-lifetime opportunity, and I feel extremely fortunate to have been selected.” Team USPA was created in 2010 to allow young players from around the United States to enhance their skills and grow the next generation of American polo. Team USPA provides mentoring, training, networking, and playing opportunities to young players so they can lead the way for the future of polo in America. The Team USPA program is funded in part through sales of the USPA’s officially licensed consumer brand, U.S. Polo Assn. “Team USPA represents the future of professional American polo and is therefore one of the most important player development programs of the United States Polo Association,” said Peter Rizzo, chief executive officer of the USPA.
ect called for stables, a tennis court, landscape design by noted landscape architect Jens Jenson, and an elaborate bridge that would lead to the property.) Seizing on the chance to subdivide, Booth and Wright decided to cut the land into smaller lots and sell them off. Seven of the 25 proposed lots were eventually constructed, including the bridge, the only Wright-designed bridge ever built. Those seven homes, along with two pre-existing buildings, give Glencoe the third largest concentration of Wright’s designs in the world. Built in the prairie style that Wright made famous, the smaller properties in Ravine Bluffs allowed him to flex his creative muscles. “A Fireproof House for $5,000” appeared in the “Ladies’ Home Journal” in April 1907 written by Wright. It called for an inexpensive home made of concrete, effectively making it fireproof. The Edmund F. Brigham house, built in Glencoe in 1915, is a variation of this design, featuring roof overhangs that extended significantly over the concrete walls of the house. In September, a house walk will allow guests to tour properties like the Brigham house, which haven’t been open to the public in over 20 years. “Even with the smaller homes, which is what most of these are — there’s a draw to them, not only for architects but also for Wright aficionados,” says Eddis Goodale, an architect and co-chair of the GHS Ravine Bluffs Centennial
Committee. “Particularly since there’s been very little experience of these homes, they’re private — they have not been open to the public.” “I think the other interesting thing about [them] was that today we talk about environmentally friendly and green architecture, and [Wright] was doing that and talking about it more than 100 years ago,” adds GHS Treasurer and Committee Co-Chair Adam Steinback. The GHS has various programs planned throughout the year with the goal of celebrating the architect’s influence on Glencoe. A public art project, Wright Around Town, modeled after Chicago’s Cows on Parade, will allow artists to design replicas of the Wrightdesigned street markers that delineate the boundaries of Ravine Bluffs. GHS will also unveil the results of new historical research at an exhibit opening at 375 Park Avenue museum this spring — culminating in a new book in the fall — that features three of Booth’s grandchildren who are providing “quite a few never-before-seen aspects” of the town’s history, says Ettelson. And programs like Wright in Context, starting at 5 p.m. this Sunday at the Glencoe Public Library, 320 Park Avenue, will provide more information for those interested in hearing about Wright’s life and career from architect and Glencoe resident Peter Van Vechten, who has lived in the Lute F. Kissam House in Ravine Bluffs for many years. “A lot of people look at [Wright] and his buildings solely from an architectural perspective: the various features, the details,” says Ettelson. “But one of the things I think that’s impressed all of us, and has impressed us even more as we’ve gotten into it, is the story here of the people behind these buildings.”
Jared Zenni