The fall musical at the Theatre of Western Springs has four days left. Working closes Sunday, November 1. Saturday's matinee starts at 2 p.m., the same hour village trick-or-treating begins. After that, almost everything on the calendar at 4384 Hampton Avenue until mid-December is a student production.

That handoff follows from a casting rule the theatre has kept since it began, and that rule explains a lot about the building that sits between the pool and the recreation center.

The Last Five Performances, And The Hours That Overlap

Greg Kolack directs Working on the Lou & Nancy Schauer Mainstage. The show is a set of vignettes about everyday workers, with songs by Stephen Schwartz, Lin-Manuel Miranda and James Taylor. The theatre describes it as "a tribute to the unsung people who keep our communities functioning." The production page recommends it for ages 16 and older because of mature themes, strong language and sexual references. That matters for a weekend when many households are planning around younger children.

Here is the closing weekend from the theatre's ticketing page, set beside the village schedule:

The Saturday matinee is the run's only American Sign Language performance, and it starts at 2 p.m., the same hour the village calendar opens trick-or-treating across Western Springs. The Saturday evening curtain goes up half an hour before trick-or-treating ends. If you want an afternoon with no Halloween traffic at all, Sunday's closing matinee is the one. Thursday and Friday nights leave the holiday out of it entirely.

Tickets cost $32 for adults and $19 for children and students at every performance. E-tickets carry no fee. Print-and-mail costs $3 per order, and paying by credit card adds $3 per ticket. Cash and check carry no fees. The production page says no refunds, so pick your performance before you buy.

Working is the third and last production of the fall. Barefoot in the Park ran September 10 to 20 on the Mainstage, and Veronica's Room ran October 1 to 11 in the Mary Cattell Theatre. No adult subscription play opens again until late January.

The Rule Behind Everyone On That Stage

Theatre of Western Springs doesn't hold auditions in the usual sense. Its Work With Us page explains it this way:

Rather than holding traditional auditions, anyone interested in performing at TWS begins with Studio, a three-week program designed to introduce performers to our theatre and the process of performing and volunteering here.

Finishing Studio puts a performer in the casting pool. It also brings them into the volunteer corps that builds and runs the shows. The theatre's volunteer page calls these members "Actives." They handle acting, set construction, ticket-taking and the rest of the production work. The Studio class page spells out the terms. To be eligible for casting, a performer must complete Studio, hold a full season subscription, and volunteer at the theatre at least once per season.

None of this is new. According to the theatre's history page, Western Springs resident Mary Cattell founded The Little Theatre of Western Springs in 1929. From the start it used an in-house casting system that required company members to work backstage as well as perform. In 1961 the company outgrew its borrowed venues, raised the money for its own 400-seat building, and took the name The Theatre of Western Springs. A second space, a 100-seat black box now named the Cattell Theatre, opened in 1976.

The Children's Theatre of Western Springs was founded in 1946 and trains more than 400 students each year, on stage and backstage. A theatre that casts only people it has trained needs a steady supply of them. For almost 80 years, the Children's Theatre has supplied them.

Six Weeks Of Student Casts

After Sunday's closing, the building's next six weeks look like this:

1. Macbeth, November 6 to 8, presented by the High School Rep company in the Mary Cattell Theatre.
2. What Happened After Once Upon a Time, November 13 to 15, a Children's Theatre production.
3. Radio Gaga, Saturday, November 21 at 7:30 p.m. on the Mainstage. It's the one adult night of the stretch, a one-night concert in the theatre's Performance Series.
4. Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, December 4 to 13, a Children's Theatre musical cast from kindergarten through 12th grade, on the same Mainstage where Working closes Sunday.

One date needs checking. The theatre's homepage still shows an older November 13 to 15, 2025 listing for What Happened After Once Upon a Time. The Children's Theatre productions page lists the 2026 run. Use that page when you plan.

The Cinderella booking also says something about scale. A December musical for students from kindergarten through 12th grade gets the 400-seat Mainstage for ten days, the same room and roughly the same length of run as the adult fall musical. The spring follows the same pattern. Neil Simon's Rumors from High School Rep plays the Cattell March 12 to 14, 2027. Stories Under the Big Top for grades 3 through 8 follows March 19 to 21. Disney's The Lion King, again cast K through 12, takes the Mainstage April 16 to 25.

Radio Gaga tickets are $50 in advance and go up $5 on the day of the show. The theatre offers 5 percent off when you bundle concerts, and subscribers and Children's Theatre families get another $5 off per ticket by phone. Two more concerts are on the 2027 calendar, both at 7:30 p.m. The Neverly Brothers bring a Rock n' Roll Tribute from Elvis to The Beatles on February 27, and Sounds of Simon and Garfunkel plays May 1.

When The Adult Season Resumes, And The Seats It Will Use

Adult productions come back in the new year. Hound of the Baskervilles runs January 21 to 31, 2027 on the Mainstage. Making God Laugh follows in the Cattell February 11 to 21. The Girl on the Train closes the subscription season May 27 to June 6. The subscription page lists all of these with their dates.

The theatre is also replacing its seats. Its Choose-a-Chair campaign raises money toward buying and installing new theatre chairs. A gift of at least $250 puts an engraved plaque on one of them, in your name or in honor of someone else. A plaque lasts for the life of the chair, though it doesn't come with tickets or a seat assignment. People who sponsored the original seats will be honored with a commemorative display in the theatre. The campaign page notes that corporate matching programs can increase a gift.

The longer horizon is in view too. The theatre's 2025–26 impact report already looks ahead to its centennial in 2029. Counting from 1929, the season now underway is the 98th. The building is roughly 65 years old, and the new chairs will be in place for that centennial.

People who want to get on that stage themselves have a clear first step. New adult performers start with Studio, and the Children's Theatre's next audition weekend for the 2026–27 season is January 16 to 17. The production that comes out of that weekend will be cast the way Working was, and the way Cinderella will be next month, with performers who have also worked backstage.

Local institutions like the Theatre of Western Springs, and how they fill their calendars, are a big part of what makes Western Springs feel the way it does, and following them closely is part of how Colleen C. Wilcox advises clients in the village and the surrounding suburbs. If you are weighing a move into or out of Western Springs this season, Colleen welcomes the conversation. Request a private market consultation.