After 10 years of performing in everything from “Miss Saigon” to “Dick Clark’s American Bandstand,” Dustin Lewis comes to DeKalb to start a dinner theater.

The theater group he has planned, The At Home Players, will perform at The House, 263 E. Lincoln Highway.

There’s just one problem at the moment. He only has one person, NIU vocal department alumna Jill Bartels, to help him.

That’s why he is holding general auditions for the Players today from 6 to 9 p.m. at The House. Additional auditions will be from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday.

“I’m just really looking for anyone who can sing,” Lewis said. “But we will need people for everything, like musicians or light and sound techs.”

One of the reasons Lewis wants to get the dinner theater up and going is to try to get the entire NIU community involved.

“I’m really trying to incorporate the university as much as possible,” Lewis said. “I know that college students don’t always get to perform a lot, so this will help out. Plus, I don’t think DeKalb has ever had a dinner theater. I want to get some of the students that are going to be here next year. Hopefully, I would be able to call them over the summer and let them know that we are doing a show in August or something.”

The Players will focus more on the light-hearted side of theater and perform comedies or musicals.

The first show is scheduled for the beginning of June, The House owner Sven Hansen said. He added that the performances will be held twice a week, but he does not know which days yet.

Lewis has “The All Night Strut!,” a musical celebrating music of the ’30s and ’40s, slated for that performance. For that play, he needs four lead actors. Lewis said he will use the upcoming auditions to determine who will be in the first show.

While Lewis said the first few performances will be other works, he said he is open to using original material once the group has become more established.

Hansen said he is excited about the dinner theater and what it can bring to DeKalb.

“I’m very happy to offer this to DeKalb,” he said. “It should be really cool. [Lewis] is very serious about this and he is very talented … I could see this turning into a professional theater in DeKalb.”Jenny Gembala photo

Auditions for The At Home Players will be held at 6 p.m. today at The House, 263 E. Lincoln Highway.