It’s not enough that they tear tickets and pour wine and stuff envelopes and schlep people around and dig up door prizes and pass out programs and otherwise donate hundreds of hours of time and services every month to Chicago performing arts groups. No. The Saints want to give away money, too. The Saints are soliciting grant applications for their 2006 Donation Program. This is where they donate money to you, not the other way around.

Here are the rules: All non-profit performing arts organizations (theatre, dance, music) are eligible to apply for a one-time grant for a specific project. The exceptions are organizations that received Saints grants last year. Applications will be accepted through Feb. 15 only, with final decisions made in April and funds distributed in May. Application forms can be downloaded from www.saintschicago.org.

The total amount The Saints have to distribute varies from year to year, but is expected to be in the low five-figures in 2006. Last year’s awards ranged from $100 to $3,000. You can’t take it with you, but Chicago’s Saints don’t even want to keep it while they’re still alive and kicking.

Redmoon Theatre has staked a claim as one of Chicago’s 10 largest theatre companies, based on an operating budget that’s increased 55 percent over the last three years. Full-time staff also has increased, from 10 to 15 since 2003. The troupe, which defines itself as “the only spectacle theatre company in the nation,” is celebrating its status with a new top management structure. Christy Uchida has been promoted from business manager to managing director and Rebecca Hunter has been named to the new position of producing director, created to manage the production demands of Redmoon’s object-based and site-specific spectacles. Jim Lasko continues as artistic director in the new management troika and will “oversee Redmoon’s operations.” We believe that means he’s first among equals. Uchida joined Redmoon in 2002 after experience at Writers’ Theatre and Performing Arts Chicago. She has an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School.

Rebecca Hunter came as a project manager just last September after developing large-scale public events as the cultural manager for Creative Partnerships, London. She also spent three years in Belfast, Northern Ireland as program manager and acting artistic director for Young at Art, an international festival for children and young people.

As Redmoon expands, the Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook Terrace seems to be contracting. In December, founder and producer Anthony DeSantis fired longtime artistic director Ray Frewen, and then more recently also released the company’s longtime technical director. Inside observers suggest DeSantis may not be finished releasing senior staff earning high salaries, and that the moves appear directly related to his monetary hemorrhaging at Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place. Basically, his Oakbrook operation is going to pay for his losses Downtown with a reduced payroll as the first step.

We also have heard reports that the press-shy, 91-year-old producer is contending with serious health issues within his family. Tony DeSantis has been a major force in Chicago theatre for close to 60 years; we sincerely wish him, his family and his business well.

The Goodman Theatre has been in a mood to honor people this season. First it was Roche Schulfer for his 25 years as Goodman’s executive director. Now, Goodman will celebrate the life and career of Chuck Smith, resident director and member of the Goodman’s artistic collective. The Feb. 6 event is a joint presentation with The HistoryMakers, an organization that archives the oral histories of African American luminaries. To that purpose, the Smith Celebration will feature a conversation between Smith and Ch. 32-Fox News anchorwoman Robin Robinson. Tickets for the 6:30pm event are free, but reservations are required; 312/443-3811, ext. 578.

In addition to his long association with the Goodman Theatre, Chuck Smith is an artist-in-residence at Columbia College Chicago and an associate producer of the touring company, Legacy Productions. Chuck’s lengthy directing resume lists Victory Gardens, the Milwaukee Repertory, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Robey Theatre Company (Los Angeles), MPAACT, Kuumba, Pegasus Players, the New Federal Theatre (New York), Fleetwood-Jourdain and the Black Ensemble among many other credits. Chuck is a co-founder of Chicago Theatre Company, and a founding father of contemporary African American theatre in Chicago, involved since he co-founded XBAG (Experimental Black Actors’ Guild) in the 1960s. Smith will stage Lynn Nottage’s Crumbs from the Table of Joy in Goodman’s Owen Theatre, May 27-June 25.

New World Rep, the professional troupe that seems to have gained a foothold in Downer’s Grove, has appointed Alison Henderson as co-artistic director, sharing responsibilities with artistic director Jean Gottlieb, who co-founded the company in 2003. Gottlieb shared the artistic post for eight years at Footsteps Theater Company with Dale Heinen, and likes the partnership formula. Henderson has a directing MFA from Roosevelt University and also has studied in New York at the Broadway Musical Theatre Workshop. At New World Rep, Henderson has been active in the Children’s Theatre Program as head instructor for classes in Creative Dramatics and Theatre Fun and Games.

As of Feb. 2, actor Bradley Armacost will be able to add the credit “Soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra” to his long resume. Armacost will narrate three concert performances of Richard Strauss’ Le bourgeois gentilhomme, performed under the baton of guest conductor Andrey Boreyko. Strauss originally composed incidental music for the Moliere comedy (as adapted into German by Hugo von Hofmannsthal) in 1912, shaping the music into an orchestral suite in 1917. Far more recently, the late Sir Peter Ustinov adapted Moliere’s play into a solo English narrative to accompany the suite; so, of course, the CSO has selected an Irishman to perform it. We wonder if Equity has a contract for symphony soloists. At Symphony Center, Feb. 2-4; $15-$119, which is about as wide a range as the temperatures in a typical Chicago year.

It’s easy to plant yer butt in a seat, but if you want to put yer name on a seat it’ll cost ya’ some bucks. As part of our extensive services for the theatre community, we’ve done comparison shopping on what it costs to put your name on a plaque on a new theatre seat. A seat at the new Victory Gardens at the Biograph costs $3,000, a seat in the new pavilion at Peninsula Players in Fish Creek, Wis. is $2,500, both of which make a new seat at Live Bait Theatre a slam-dunk bargain at a mere $300.