Marj Halperin has a new job that takes her back to her first love—politics. Less than three months after ending her eight year tenure as League of Chicago Theatres executive director, Halperin has signed on as campaign manager for Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool in his uphill fight to unseat Cook County Board President John Stroger. Although no official announcement has been made, Halperin has been on the job for about a month, working towards the March 21 Illinois primary.

The primary will be a slugfest that will pit Democratic party regulars against reformers, independents and cross-over Republicans. Stroger, the  long-entrenched incumbent, is 76 and has been under fire from a new generation of reformist commissioners such as Claypool and gay commissioner Mike Quigley. Although Stroger’s iron-fisted control of a rubber stamp County Board of Commissioners has weakened considerably, he’s far from toothless. As he prepares to announce his candidacy for a fourth term, Stroger knows he will have the endorsement of the Cook County Democratic Organization and Mayor Daley, and Claypool concedes as much. Stroger also is African-American, thereby laying claim to a substantial voting bloc. Hey, Marj Halperin always has enjoyed a challenge.

Most readers will know that Halperin came to the League of Chicago Theatres from an extensive background in journalism, marketing and politics, with both Claypool and Mayor Daley among her former bosses. Halperin was a marketing executive for the Chicago Park District when Claypool ran it, and later was on the Mayor’s staff at City Hall.

Breadline Theatre artistic director Paul Kampf has resurfaced in Chicago after spending far more time in LaLaLand than might be considered healthy for a Theatre Person. He has, however, fulfilled the fantasy of many a struggling writer: your play is snatched up by Hollywood and greenlighted for production but only—the dealmakers insist—if you yourself direct it, even though you’ve never directed a film before!

The dream came true for Kampf with his play American Gothic, produced by Breadline in 2000 and adapted by Kampf into a screenplay. The script found its way into powerful West Coast hands who lent the prestige of their names if Kampf agreed to direct. Small-budget indie funding of $1 million was raised in six weeks, the film was shot on 35mm film in Utah during March and April, finished on the Coast (in part at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch) and now is ready for the festival circuit, perhaps beginning at Sundance.

All of this—start to finish—played out in just 18 months.

The powerful West Coast hands that discovered Kampf’s script were on the wrists of casting director Deborah Aquila of Aquila-Woods Casting, who marshaled Patrick Wilson, Neil McDonough, Scott Michael Campbell and John Heard to take four of the film’s five principal roles. Now, Aquila has agreed to conduct a two-day intensive acting workshop in Chicago at Breadline, October 28-29, possibly with return visits several times a year. She’s donating proceeds from the initial workshop to Breadline. Says Kampf, “She does a lot of films, and she wants to build a bridge to Chicago. She knows how much talent is here.”

Kampf says Aquila is extremely hands-on in the workshops and generous with her time. He says enrollment probably will be “around 20” maximum. Those seeking more information and enrollment criteria should call Kampf at Breadline, 773/327-6096.

Meanwhile, the ol’ playhouse itself, the Breadline space on Berenice at Ravenswood, is secure through October, 2008 under a new landlord. PerformInk reported earlier that the buildings housing the Breadline main venue and the studio theatre around the corner on Byron had been sold to a new owner who said at first that he would honor existing leases but then seemed to change his mind.

Well, he’s split the difference, Kampf tells us. He did toss out all the month-to-month tenants in the Byron building and is converting it into office suites even as you read this. But Breadline was the principal tenant of the smaller, two-story Berenice space, and had signed a three-year lease shortly before the building was sold. The new owner at first said he’d honor the lease, then changed his mind when he considered how far under market value Breadline was paying.

He tried to persuade Breadline to opt out of the lease early, but he didn’t offer a buy-out or any compensation. He then offered Breadline a new theatre space in another property he owned, but Breadline would have to design and build out the theatre. He offered some assistance in the build-out, but no concessions on market-value rent. Breadline declined these proposals, whereupon the new landlord decided to honor the existing three-year lease.

Steppenwolf patrons catching the new Frank Galati (adapted/directed) show, after the quake, may be surprised at permanent changes in the Upstairs Theatre, which is undergoing a major renovation. Basically, the flexibility of the large black box is being sacrificed for creature comforts and capacity as Steppenwolf makes permanent its plan to stage part of each subscription season in the Upstairs Theatre, freeing the 525-seat Downstairs Theatre for non-subscription events. Upstairs patrons will benefit from traditional cushy theatre seats and an end to confusion that arose from the changing configurations and capacity.

The house no longer will be adaptable for arena, L-shaped or facing parallel seating. Instead, it will have a semi-permanent proscenium stage with 299 seats steeply raked upwards from the apron. The highest rows of the seating will be treated as a mezzanine, approachable from a new permanent staircase at the back of the house.

Steppenwolf executive director David Hawkanson says the proscenium configuration may beremoved at some point, although he expects the new arrangement to remain for a few years. The stage is raised two feet above floor level, and will have a depth of approximately 28 feet. The set-up will be similar to those for Picasso at the Lapine Agile and The Dazzle, both staged in the Upstairs Theatre in seasons past. “It will serve the work better,” Hawkanson says, “and it will have very good sightlines and increased capacity.”

 Renovations began August 1 and will be completed in time for the Octo. 20-Feb. 19 run of after the quake. John Morris—who designed the Steppenwolf building—is the architect and ESD Construction is the muscle.

The 12th annual Merritt Awards for Excellence in Design and Collaboration were bestowed last Monday (Oct. 10) in a reception at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. The recipients were scenic designer John Lee Beatty (whose connection with Chicago goes back to his sets for the St. Nicholas Theatre Company in the late 1970s), lighting designer Jennifer Tipton (whose journeywoman work in Chicago goes back almost as far) and scenic designer Thomas Burch, who received the Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award. Proceeds from the awards program benefit the Michael Merritt Endowment Fund, a memorial to the outstanding scenic and lighting designer who died in 1992 at only age 47.

Bailiwick Repertory has announced the 2005 recipients of its annual Larry Osburn Trailblazer Awards. Topping the list are national figures Bruce Vilanch and Jason West. Vilanch, the roly-poly pixie of comedy writing, the Hollywood Squares and Hairspray, is a gay and Hollywood icon with long and deep roots as a Chicago journalist among his odd credits. Jason West is less well known, but is the Green Party mayor of New Paltz, New York (in the Hudson Valley north of New York City) who risked prosecution by conducting 25 same-sex marriages, and is an outspoken advocate of sound environmental and liberal social policy. Other honorees will include New Town Writers founder Randy Gresham, philanthropist Betsy Brille and playwright Patricia Kane. Awards presentation and receptions (one before, one after) are set for 30 October at Bailiwick and Joey’s Brickhouse restaurant.

The Eric Rosen, Andre Pluess and Ben Collins-Sussman musical adaptation of Winesburg, Ohio (from the Sherwood Anderson novel) is set for a second production at the Arden Theatre in Philadelphia, Oc. 6-Nov. 6. Created in collaboration with director Jessica Thebus, Winesburg, Ohio went through several developmental steps locally before emerging as a Jeff Award winning hit of the 2003-2004 season. The Arden Theatre’s Terrence J. Nolen will stage the show in Philly, with original Chicago cast members Lesley Bevan and Andrew White among the 13-person ensemble.

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