Rose Colored Glass at The Gallery Theater of West Chicago

Set in 1938 Chicago, in the back rooms of Lady O’Riley’s pub and Rose Fleishman’s delicatessen. Their disparate worlds, separated by much more than the alley between their kitchens, are about to collide. Peg O’Riley, the 13-year-old granddaughter of Lady, has grown determined that these two mistrustful widows will become friends, but it is not until they become involved in the same cause that their friendship has a chance to bloom. In a series of stunning flashbacks, Peg now older, remembers the moving story of how Lady and Rose formed a united front to fight American apathy in an attempt to bring Rose’s nephew out of Europe before the war. Rose Colored Glass is a unique work – it shows the beginning of the holocaust from our side of the ocean and how two remarkable women struggle not only with American apathy, but also with immigration laws and bureaucracy, in addition to their own prejudices…all in the name of one boy’s safe passage from Europe to America.

Cast: Carissa Zielinski from Itasca as Peg
Kathy Bright from Lombard as Rose
Helen Larsen from Elmhurst as Lady

Directed by Gail Cannata