By Maureen Cullnan
The smell of warm chestnuts followed us through the midtown Manhattan streets as our family of four walked to the Classic Stage Company to see the play, “Dead Poets Society.” Running in a small theater setting of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and chalkboard, the play’s message, Carpe Diem, unfolds.
We all enjoyed the play. My daughters, both college students, liked it very much; they are at the time in their lives when they are preoccupied in seizing the day to find their paths in life.
The star of the show, Jason Sudeikis, had spent time living in Beverly/Morgan Park with his grandmother while he studied at The Second City. We didn’t know this, however, until we talked with him outside the stage door, where we fans waited after the performance for his autograph.
Sudeikis politely chatted with us about the old neighborhood and Original Rainbow Cone, and posed for pictures. He informed us that another former neighborhood resident is his uncle George Wendt, while dozens of his cousins still reside in the neighborhood and were planning a family vacation to NYC to see him perform.
We left with photos and autographs, chatting happily, on our way to see Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade characters get inflated near the Museum of Natural History.
