1-18-08
Artistic Home Settling in Temporary Quarters
The last time we wrote about the Artistic Home and their hunt for new headquarters, the deal fell through a few weeks later. Cause and effect? We hope not, because the troupe has found temporary quarters for its winter classes and we’d hate to screw things up again! The winter term of classes, which just commenced, is being held at the Prop Thtr at 3504 N. Elston Avenue. The company might produce a winter show there as well.
Meantime, husband-and-wife founders John Mossman and Kathy Scambiaterra are negotiating for space in a mixed-used building currently being renovated in Uptown, which would provide the Artistic Home with two theatres. The potentially larger theatre requires a build-out, but the smaller space is ready for almost immediate use, Scambiaterra told Behind the Curtain. Depending on the speed and outcome of the negotiations, the Artistic Home could hold spring classes and produce a spring show in Uptown (or continue at Prop).
“If we stay fallow much longer, the house is going to explode. John says I’ve got to get out,” comments Scambiaterra. “We need to produce a show for the life blood of the ensemble.” Wherever the space, the next show is likely to be Dennis McIntyre’s Modigliani.
In a surprise December action in Congress, the National Endowment for the Arts was budgeted at $144 million for Fiscal 2008, or 13 percent more than the $128.4 million requested by President Bush (itself a $4 million increase over 2007). As the appropriation is part of an omnibus funding bill sent to the president’s desk, it’s likely to be approved. It would be the NEA’s biggest budget by far in a dozen years. Meanwhile, in Fiscal 2008 the NEA will phase out its site reporter program of visits by NEA-designated “government inspectors” to applicant theatre companies. A number of Chicago theatre professionals have served as site reporters over the decades, including this writer.
The Chicago Conservatory for the Performing Arts of Roosevelt University has named a theatre seat after Ellie Punkay, the memorable member of The Saints who died last year, and who was a long-time subscriber to Roosevelt’s student productions. Joel Fink, head of the CCPA theatre program, sent us a heartfelt e-mail in which he said, “Ms. Punkay (Which is what we ALWAYS called her) almost never missed a performance and usually she was there on opening night… Ms. Punkay had a particular seat that she liked in our theatre, and she made it very clear to me and to our house-managers that she expected to be seated there at every performance. We quickly learned to comply, as we saw the consequences when we didn’t.
“Our students got to know her as well, and it was a real lesson for them to discover that this woman who could be off-putting and rude was also incredibly well-versed in theatre and had seen EVERYTHING, going back for years. She truly loved the theatre. When we would do a production, she could speak quite brilliantly in comparing it to other productions she had seen over the years, and she seemed to remember every actor in every production she had ever seen.
“She was a lesson for us all in looking below the surface of people, and of accepting the wonderful complexities that make for the most unique and interesting human beings. In her memory, we have placed a plaque on ‘her’ chair in the O’Malley Theatre, and we can happily add her ghost to the wonderful collection here in the Auditorium Theatre.”
Speaking of The Saints, the halo’d ones held their annual gala brunch Dec. 2 at Gibson’s on Rush Street and raised some $15,000 for scholarships and grants to theatres. The Saints are amazing people: they pay annual dues for the privilege of doing volunteer work, and then pay more to attend their own gala. FYI: The Saints are now approaching a membership of 2,000! Yours truly was honored to be the speaker at the gala, pinch-hitting for Chris Jones who had to dash to New York the moment the stagehands strike was settled.
The Silk Road Theatre Project, having announced a Goodman Theatre collaboration among other grand plans for 2008, has moved into upscale new administrative Offices at 680 South Federal Street, Suite 301, Chicago, IL 60605. The suite includes a kitchen, a full bath and great views of Printer’s Row. Pierce Hall at the Historic Chicago Temple (77 W. Washington) will continue to be Silk Road’s performance venue.
2007 was the best year yet for Theatre at the Center in Munster, IN, which set new records for individual ticket sales and group ticket sales. Theatre at the Center artistic director Bill Pullinsi will celebrate his 50th year as a producer in 2009, having started his first theatre in 1959 while a student at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. Pullinsi’s partner then—and for years after—was fellow college student Tony D’Angelo, most recently co-producer of The Sparrow. Theatre at the Center opens its 2008 season Feb. 7 with La Cage aux Folles.
However good the Munster numbers, they can’t touch the Wicked numbers, which once again set a new house record at the Ford Center/Oriental Theatre. For the week ending Dec. 30, 2007, Wicked played to capacity and grossed $1,418,363.24. The show retains its status as the top box office earner ever for a single week in Chicago theatre history; although no adjustment for inflation is made for, say, 1935 dollars or 1963 dollars, so true comparisons with hits of the past aren’t possible. Whatever, Wicked passed the 1000th performance mark in November 2007 and has played to over 2 million and counting. McDonald’s still has served a helluva lot more hamburgers, although Wicked isn’t as fattening if you bypass the concessions.
A remount is in the works for A Steady Rain, the tough-as-nails Keith Huff cop two-hander that was a big autumn hit at Chicago Dramatists. Reports have a New York producer interested in running the show in Chicago before a possible Off-Broadway transfer, which could be at the expense of the original Chicago actors. We hear the producer is considering a 300-seat house for the local remount, which would be a great mistake for this very intense, intimate play.
Former League of Chicago Theatres executive director Marj Halperin has become a political pundit. During the primary season, Halperin will be part of WGN-TV’s morning news team analyzing the returns. A long-time Democratic partisan, Halperin will provide counterpoint to Republican Chris Robling. The only bad part: WGN’s morning news is rather early for showfolk, with Halperin appearing between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. the day after each vote. If you sleep in, you can catch the fric-and-frac act on WGN’s Web site by hitting the Decision 2008 link.
By now everyone is aware that August: Osage County is Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s greatest Broadway success since The Grapes of Wrath 15 years ago. Grapes brought Steppenwolf its first Broadway Tony Awards and August: Osage County is sure to earn multiple 2008 Tony nominations. In case you don’t get it, the obvious connection between the shows is Oklahoma, where both plays are set. No dumb bunnies, Steppenwolf’s management already is considering revivals of Lynn Riggs’ Green Grow the Lilacs and The Will Rogers Follies. We’d like to remind Steppenwolf that the musical Gypsy has a character in it named Tulsa.
Happy and healthy New Year to all.