BY LUCIA MAURO
Michael Halberstam, co-founder and artistic director of Writers’ Theatre, has likened his intimate literary-based company to a string quartet–a small musical ensemble that can evoke power and passion without florid accompaniment. But his 50-seat performance space (known as the Nicholas Pennell Theatre) in the back of Books on Vernon in Glencoe, is now attracting an orchestral influx of patrons. The company’s exquisitely crafted productions, rooted in excellent writing, consistently sell-out.
So Writers’ Theatre is in the enviable, but challenging, position of having to turn people away. Halberstam acknowledges that the theatre must continue to grow and–together with executive director Judi Jeroslow and its board of directors–is embarking on a search for a new space in the 200-seat range either in Glencoe or a nearby North Shore suburb. What they don’t want to lose is the comfortable, inviting quality that makes their current artistic environment so appealing.
"The notion of being surrounded by literature," says Halberstam, "is something we hope to keep. I have this fantasy of having a performing arts library in the lobby."
To better understand how Writers’ Theatre grew into a highly respected artistic center that attracts top Chicago and national talent, we need to go back to the beginning.
The concept for Writers’ Theatre (originally called Writers’ Theatre Chicago) initially grew out of Writers’ Theatre New York, an organization committed to the development of new plays. A vital creative incubator in the 1970s and '80s, it was founded by Marilyn Campbell, Tom Fontana and Linda Laundra. While Fontana and Laundra went on to write and produce TV shows, Campbell moved to Chicago to raise a family. Here she met Halberstam, an actor-director-producer, who was anxious to pour his producing skills into a similar kind of troupe.
They met Pat Rahmann who, together with Linda Wine and Diane Schwartz, had recently opened Books on Vernon. The store had previously been a sporting goods shop with an aerobics room in back, and this ante-room seemed to Rahmann–a published playwright–like a good place to conduct writing workshops, readings and small-scale theatrical performances.
Campbell (currently the company’s literary manager) and Halberstam founded Writers’ Theatre in 1992, but shifted the emphasis from encouraging original works to creating an environment "dedicated to the enrichment and development of the English language upon the living stage."
The theatre’s debut was a staged reading of Kristine Thatcher’s Niedecker, along with adaptations for children of works by e.e. cummings and Rudyard Kipling. Writers’ Theatre has staged more than 30 critically-acclaimed plays since then, including Oscar Remembered, Richard II, The Beats, Private Lives, The Glass Menagerie, Incident at Vichy, Nixon’s Nixon and a fully staged production of Niedecker (with Thatcher in the title lead), which was one of its biggest artistic successes.
Writers’ Theatre presents the regional premiere of Austin Pendleton’s Booth, starring Pendleton and directed by David Cromer, through Jan. 7. The rest of the season includes Simon Gray’s Butley and August Strindberg’s The Father.
Halberstam reports that the group plans to stay in Books on Vernon for at least one more season.
Words and the actors speaking those words are the main focal points of Writers’ Theatre. And when actors are delivering their lines mere centimeters from the audience, a special bond develops–one that may be extremely difficult to recreate in a larger space. That’s why the company is so conscientiously planning the next stage of its evolution.
A little over two years ago, Judi Jeroslow came on board as Writers’ Theatre’s executive director to help create a strong administrative structure. Some of the more significant changes, she explains, have occurred in the realm of organizational growth.
"Michael and his artists had taken very large and equal steps to fine-tune the artistic excellence of the company," says Jeroslow, who helped manage Boston University’s Huntington Theatre Company. "Michael has a brilliant instinct for management and business. He set the ground rules. But there was no one in place to devote their full attention to building a staff."
Right now, Jeroslow is in the process of forging an organizational structure that includes individuals well versed in marketing and development. The board is at the crucial transitional stage of moving from friends and family to a more clearly defined working and governance board.
"The challenge at this point," continues Jeroslow, "is to structure the company so we are primed and ready to handle a move. It’s very important for us to maintain the intimacy of who we are. It’s so vitally important that the environment is supporting what we’re doing on stage."
According to Halberstam, no major changes are taking place in the company’s aesthetic or programming. "We put all our focus into the playwright and the actors who interpret the playwright," he says. "My vision of any show is the playwright’s story. If you tell the story, the audience will make its own thematic conclusions."
He mentions that Writers’ Theatre may be doing more premieres and involving contemporary playwrights in the process. The company also has increased its design team. Since the early days, scenic designer Rick Paul cleverly reinvented the space with each production. He is now pursuing more film design work and is no longer Writers’ Theatre’s resident designer. While Paul was, as Halberstam describes, "a one-man crew," a new crop of designers works with assistants and various specialists.
"The fact that we have additional designers does not point to a fattening of the theatre," clarifies Halberstam. "We’re not becoming corporate and corpulent in the process. We’re becoming accountable to the artists. We’re providing a back up for artists to focus on creation."
He also notes that Writers’ Theatre’s audiences are getting younger. More mature patrons are exposing their children to this company’s pure and invigorating productions.
Jeroslow conveys the troupe’s long-term plans: "Michael and I share an ultimate goal," she states, "to change the face of American theatre by creating an opportunity for artists and audiences to participate in an intimate experience."