Sleazy 'Hot L Baltimore' Comes to Life on Drama Group's Studio Theatre Stage

A dilapidated hotel opens this weekend for a brief run in Chicago Heights as the Drama Group turns its intimate Studio Theatre stage into a remnant of a bygone era for the final production of its 80th anniversary season.

Warren Sampson directs Lanford Wilson’s 1970s award-winning, off-Broadway blockbuster The Hot L Baltimore that runs for the next two weekends.

It’s 1972, and the one-time luxury Hotel Baltimore has lost more than the letter e in its garishly outdated red neon sign. The tattered rooms and lobby no longer see the rich and famous but rather hold court to the down and out.

As the play opens, the sorry residents and remaining manager, Mr. Katz (Andy Leahy of Chicago Heights), of what has devolved into sleazy a single-room occupancy joint, have just learned their sorry lives are about to get tougher, according to Sampson.

“This is one day in the life of the residents and employees, and it’s not a happy Memorial Day,” the director said. “Everyone has just gotten an eviction notice and they’ve all been taken by surprise.”

Alas, most have no place else to go. “These are street people, elderly folks and some passers-through,” Sampson said.

The setting is the hotel lobby. Everyone shows up at some point and the play has many comic moments, Sampson added.

“The way Lanford Wilson (1937-2011) writes brings out the humor, and the laughter arises out of characters reacting to each other," he said.

“There’s chaos in the lobby with so many offbeat characters coming together. At the end of the first act, there are 12 or 13 people on stage and four simultaneous conversations, some of them intimate. There is an uproar about being displaced, having to move.

“There’s a lot of physical humor during the play,” Sampson said.

Sampson talked about one scene in particular, in which Suzy (Erin Schmidt of Homewood), a resident hooker, is most unhappy with the John (Emerson Caress II of Cedar Lake, Ind.) of the moment.

“There is a crisis, and the hooker chases the John out of her room and runs downstairs nearly naked.

“Everyone in the lobby reacts,” and for a moment, the level of activity stops, Sampson said.

“Then there’s the girl (Katie Antkiewicz of Homewood) who changes her name every day. All the characters have eccentricities … (and) illuminate the humor in their conditions. … Each has something to contribute.”

That holds true for the actors as well as the play’s characters.

“In community theater, you do not pick a play for specific people, but I was very fortunate with this cast,” Sampson said. “A lot of regulars showed up (for auditions) and (the production) has developed beautifully. The characters have trust in each other and a sense of playfulness. The cast really has evolved into an ensemble, but everyone in the audience is going to focus on a character.

“With so much going on, no one will see the play in the same way,” Sampson said.

“This was an era when Americans were more naïve. Watergate had just broken and the world would become a much smaller place very soon.

“Still, I hope people leave with the realization that if you move forward, there is hope,” Sampson added.

Other actors include Regina Gadotti, Andy Leahy and Mary Ellen Fawk of Chicago Heights; Betty Wigell and Kyle Decker of Flossmoor; Kanoa Mulling and Kaci Antkiewicz of Homewood; Deb Brunette-Cairns and Chuck Cairns of Park Forest, Cliff Felix of Frankfort and Karen Cassin of Beecher.

The Hot L Baltimore

• When: 7:30 p.m., Aug. 5, 6, 11, 12 and 13; 2 p.m. Aug. 6, 7, 13 and 14.
• Where: Studio Theatre, 330 W. 202nd St., Chicago Heights
• Cost: $18, $17 seniors and students; $15 per person, groups of 25 or more.
• Tickets and information: 708-755-3444 and at the box office before shows