The Apollo Theater, 2540 N. Lincoln, formally has opened the 50-seat Apollo Studio in the space once occupied by Act One Bookstore. The space primarily will be a rental venue available for performances, classes or rehearsals. Apollo general manager Dan Schlaack explained that the little Apollo comes with all the advantages of the big Apollo, among them 7-day box office, parking and lighting and audio systems appropriate to the smaller venue. The studio also has flexible seating that can be configured as needed. A mini-box office within the studio has a ticket printer, so studio patrons can pick up tickets directly at the door. Down the road, Schlaack says remodeling will provide a single street entrance for both the Apollo and the Apollo Studio.

Schlaack wouldn’t state an absolute minimum rental figure for the studio, but emphasized that rates are negotiable depending on such factors as daytime, primetime or late-night rental and the number of performances/uses per week. For more info, call Schlaack at 773/935-9336.

Another merger might be on the horizon in Chicago’s theatre landscape. Serendipity Theatre and Terrapin Theatre are in talks about blending their two companies. Terrapin’s ensemble dissipated after the death of their artistic director, Brad Winters. But Terrapin has a strong board of directors who wanted to keep the company going. Serendipity has a strong, active ensemble.

Adam Belcour, a Serendipity ensemble member (and casting director at the Goodman) confirmed that the companies are talking, but would not discuss the particulars. “We have very similar missions and some cross-over artistic membership and it looked like something we should investigate,” said Belcour. There should be more to report in the July 22 Curtain.

Meanwhile, there is news on the Winters murder, which is approaching its year anniversary. Steve Grzanich at WBBM radio reports that Scott Paul Schweickert, was arrested in Florida and confessed to killing two gay men there after meeting them in a gay bar. Schweikert lived in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago until two months after Winters’ death. Grzanich reports that Chicago police are looking into a possible connection between Schweikert and the killings of both Winters and Kevin Clewer. Both men were stabbed multiple times and both may have met their killers in a gay bar.

And, just in as we were going to press: Rachael E. Kraft has been hired to take the place of Jacqueline Russell as the executive director of Lookingglass Theatre. Russell left Lookingglass in November to start the Chicago Children’s Theatre (see story page 1). Kraft, who is currently Goodman’s development director, will move into her new job in September.

Those who stayed up late May 14 to see ABC’s “Nightline,” delayed nearly an hour by the NBA game, were surprised to see the Chicago Tribune’s Chris Jones chatting with Ted Koppel and Thomas Hoving, former head of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The subject of the program was funding for blockbuster art shows, such as the upcoming “Treasures of King Tut” exhibit. Commercial entertainment producers, among them the behemoth Clear Channel Communications, have taken to mounting and promoting many shows and earning profits on them. This contrasts with the tradition of shows mounted by consortiums of not-for-profit museums. In part as a result, those with precious art works to lend now are asking for, and receiving, upfront cash in addition to a cut of ticket sales. The Egyptian government has received $20 million from the commercial organizers of the Tut show.

Jones—who writes principally about theatre but also more broadly about the business of the arts—had written a story in 2003 about Clear Channel’s entry into the art show biz. He surmises that it was this story, probably Googled by “Nightline” staff, which led to his selection as an expert commentator. He said he was called only the morning of the show and asked to go on the air.

Jones was there to argue that the public, and great institutions of art, should be cautious about commercial producers mounting art shows. He cited examples of shows of dubious artistic merit, promoted solely as entertaining money-makers, but often embraced by cash-strapped museums willing to compromise their standards and the public trust.

Hoving attacked Jones unrelentingly, ignoring issues of the value or quality of such shows, and saying he didn’t care how art reached the masses as long as it did. Although consistently jovial, the older, authoritative and arrogant Hoving was entirely dismissive of anything Jones said. Indeed, even Koppel was taken aback, saying at one point to Hoving, “I’m giving you the chance to be nice to each other.” Hoving’s reply: “I’m not a nice person.”

Jones, a local TV and radio veteran, said, “On these shows, they really want you to pursue one point-of-view and pursue it aggressively. Hoving was unbelievably hostile. I was sort-of gob-smacked, as they say in the UK.” We assume the British born Jones knows whereof he speaks. FYI: “Nightline” guests are not paid.

Finally, Andrew Patner e-mailed to point out that in the last column, we had omitted crediting Johanna Keller with her work at the National Critics Conference. Keller, who is founding director of the Goldring Arts Journalism Program at Syracuse University, worked closely with former American Theatre Critics Association Chair Michael Barnes in making the joint conference of arts critics happen.

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