Saturday Night Live veteran Nora Dunn will perform a benefit for Mercury Players Theatre this weekend.
"I am supporting the work of the Mercury Players because I saw their production of The Last Supper, a play that was written by my friend Dan Rosen," says Dunn, who performed on SNL from 1985 to 1990 and appeared in the 1995 film of The Last Supper.
"The play was wonderfully well done, and the theater itself is impressive and charming," she says. "I then met the folks connected with the play and the venue, and they were all so passionate about it. So it seemed a no-brainer to perform my one-woman show there as a benefit to the company."
Dunn's show is Mythical Proportions, an autobiographical collection of stories. It has current political overtones. "I am from the Midwest - Chicago - and in fact, the theme of Mythical Proportions includes the fact that I am a middle-class Midwesterner who is a union member," says Dunn.
She's been workshopping the show in Chicago since January and hopes to take it to Los Angeles. Meanwhile, she wants to lend a hand to Mercury.
"Having performed in live theater for many years, I'm a supporter of it," Dunn says. "It's costly, and most actors in community theater don't get paid."
