REGIONAL ROUNDUP

Peace Prize winners come to city schools

Past winners of the Nobel Peace Prize — including former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and former Polish President Lech Walesa — will share their personal stories with students at 17 Chicago Public high schools April 23 to kick off the 12th World Summit of Nobel Laureates in Chicago.

Joining Gorbachev and Walesa on the school visits will be South African President Frederik Willem de Klerk and President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica.

High schools expected to receive Nobel Laureates are Amundsen; Benito Juarez; the Chicago Academy; Devry Advantage; Von Steuben; Gage Park; Hancock; Infinity Tech; Lincoln Park; Lindblom; Morgan Park; Phoenix Military; Prosser, Roberto Clemente; Theodore Roosevelt; Whitney Young and Walter Payton. Illinois Theatre Center evaluates future

The future of the Illinois Theatre Center in Park Forest is in question after the death of its founder.

Jonathan Billig, son of founder Etel Billig and one of the principals of the theater, said its board has to evaluate its next steps in light of his mother’s death March 27 from a brain aneurysm. She was 79.

“There are a lot of factors, including financial factors,” he said. “My mother was doing the work of several people for no salary, and I do the work of several people for little salary. I can’t do everything I do — and she did — by myself.”

Billig said the spring acting classes scheduled to start next week have been canceled. But the last scheduled show of the 2011-12 season, the musical revue “Showtune,” will open April 18 and complete its two-week run.

After the show opens, the board will meet and make a decision, he said.

“The priority right now is getting the show open. Nothing is decided,” he said.