Local Drama & Comedy
"In 1912, two theatre groups were formed, the Toy Theatre
in Boston and the Little Theatre in Chicago, these events often cited as the
official start of the 'Little Theatre Movement' in the United States.
Continuing to react against commercialism, amateur companies began to write and produce their own works as well as new plays from Europe that had been ignored by the syndicates. A wide variety of experimental groups, clubs, and settlement houses like Hull House-Lake View undertook to reform the theater, bringing more inwardly directed plays to a wider public audience. New forms of drama, some influenced by or parodying the new science of psychoanalysis, began to be presented in smaller venues, many converted from other uses into makeshift theatres. The new groups began to experiment with new forms of storytelling, acting styles, and dialogue. This experimentation, influenced by European models, ranged from an ultra-detailed naturalism to, by the early 1920's, a wildly provocative expressionism, part of a new (kind of) stagecraft." - '
The Great Depression years of the 1930's had a great impact to the theatre movement creating venues in order to express the social/cultural issues of the day. In time 'The Little Theater Movement' would begin to express itself either in drama or in comedy real folks doing real things. The 1960's and 1970's there was an explosion of homegrown theatre in Chicago. Young ensembles began performing in unorthodox settings, back rooms, and vacant storefronts.
Continuing to react against commercialism, amateur companies began to write and produce their own works as well as new plays from Europe that had been ignored by the syndicates. A wide variety of experimental groups, clubs, and settlement houses like Hull House-Lake View undertook to reform the theater, bringing more inwardly directed plays to a wider public audience. New forms of drama, some influenced by or parodying the new science of psychoanalysis, began to be presented in smaller venues, many converted from other uses into makeshift theatres. The new groups began to experiment with new forms of storytelling, acting styles, and dialogue. This experimentation, influenced by European models, ranged from an ultra-detailed naturalism to, by the early 1920's, a wildly provocative expressionism, part of a new (kind of) stagecraft." - '
The Great Depression years of the 1930's had a great impact to the theatre movement creating venues in order to express the social/cultural issues of the day. In time 'The Little Theater Movement' would begin to express itself either in drama or in comedy real folks doing real things. The 1960's and 1970's there was an explosion of homegrown theatre in Chicago. Young ensembles began performing in unorthodox settings, back rooms, and vacant storefronts.
– Encyclopedia of Chicago
a scene of a production
from the Oracle Theatre ensemble
from the Oracle Theatre ensemble
Grand-Daddy of Local Theatre
The Jane Addam House - Lake View
Once such place was in a building operated by Hull House located at 3212 North Broadway Avenue now the home of
Lake View Athletics Club. While Hull House - Lake View served as a social net for the poor and the new populations of the area in its day this creative organization provide 'homegrown theater' to flourish in another area of the city. The main building on south Halsted Street harvested the establishment of Steppenwolf, Bailiwick, and About Face.
Hull House - Lake View
(par.84) 1963-2002
currently the Lake View Athletic Club
image - The Cambridge Guide to American Theater
(par.84) 1963-2002
currently the Lake View Athletic Club
In Lake View, one of those theaters on the north-side was the Oracle*. While the Oracle theatre group at a few locations on the north-side it will be remember at Hull House - Lake View as this 1976 article below indicates.
The tiny boxed-in and dingy theater at Hull House
- Lake View was known for its social commentary with creative scripts as this 1965 and 1967
Chicago Tribune article indicates below
1967 article - a First in the Country
page 2
St. Nicholas Theater
Another theatre group known at the time was the St. Nicholas New Works ensemble that moved into the
old Ivanhoe Theater space in 1980
This ensemble was once located 2851 N Halsted Street
Neo-Futurist:
a show with a pizza
page 2
The 'Little Theatres' of Lake View
From these early days of experimentation and dingy boxed-in theater spaces created a climate for a variety of theatre themes and exploration in Lake View. Basically, find a space somewhere and then start creating.
3809 N. Broadway Avenue
Stage Left Theatre
Shattered Globe Theatre
also located at Theater Wit
1226 W. Belmont Avenue
Remy Bumppo Theatre Company
1226 W. Belmont Avenue
3717 N. Ravenswood Avenue
3717 N. Ravenswood Avenue
Wellington United Church of Christ
615 W. Wellington Avenue
According to their website: "the TimeLine Theatre
Company presents stories inspired by history that connect with today's social
and political issues.
photo - Armando L. Sanchez via Chicago Tribune
‘The nonprofit theater announced it would be moving from
Lake View to Uptown in December [2019], adding to the effort to revitalize
Uptown’s entertainment district. TimeLine bought the building at 5033-35 N.
Broadway in December. The five-story, 45,120-square-foot former moving and
storage facility sits at the corner of Broadway and Argyle. TimeLine plans to
be ready by fall 2021. The plan calls for a 250-seat theater, a 150-seat
theater, a bar, lobby and staff offices’ according to Block Club of Chicago.
Hedwig Dance Company
4410 N. Ravenswood Avenue
While this organization is located on the other side of the (Ravenswood) tracks (North Central neighborhood) this dance ensemble performs periodically at the
Anthenaeum Theater
4410 N. Ravenswood Avenue
While this organization is located on the other side of the (Ravenswood) tracks (North Central neighborhood) this dance ensemble performs periodically at the
Anthenaeum Theater
2936 N. Southport Avenue
735 W. Sheridan Road
3175 N. Broadway Avenue
located in one of oldest theaters in Lake View
located in one of oldest theaters in Lake View
1225
W. Belmont Avenue
621 W. Belmont
Avenue
once located in Lake View
3110 N. Sheffield Avenue
929 W. Belmont Avenue
4830 N. Broadway-Uptown
and soon to be located at
and soon to be located at
851 W. Belmont Avenue
According to LakeView Historical contributor York Chan, this theatre group has traveled full circle; for this group was initially located in Lake View at the 3153 N Broadway.
That location housed 130-150 patrons according to 1990 Chicago Tribune article.
Kokandy Productions
That location housed 130-150 patrons according to 1990 Chicago Tribune article.
3209 N. Halsted Street
Originally performed at Saint Sebastian Church
on Wellington Avenue and currently at
The Public House Theatre
on Wellington Avenue and currently at
St. Bonaventure Church
1625 W. Diversey Parkway
The Public House Theatre
3914 N. Clark Street
Hoover-Leppen Theatre
@ The Center on Halsted
3656 N. Halsted Street
Chemically Imbalanced Comedy
1422 W. Irving Park Road
Newport Theater
956 W. Newport Avenue
Under the Gun Theater
The Community Theater Past
Post Notes:
Important Note:
@ The Center on Halsted
3656 N. Halsted Street
photo - Windy City Times
1422 W. Irving Park Road
956 W. Newport Avenue
'“Chicago is great in the sense that there’s a lot of work
for variety, burlesque and drag performers, but I think a lot of times when you
work in certain venues you’re trying to deliver what a client wants …,” said
Megan Hartmann, the theater’s programming director. “But with this place we
wanted it to be like, ‘What do artists want to create? What do artists want to
say?'”
Once called ...Under the Gun Theater
The Community Theater Past
The community theatre groups once located in Lake View that I did not mention above. Here are some of them:
once located on Hull House-Lake View that is currently the location of the Lake View Athletic Club
a promotional photo at the Belmont El platform 1982
Here's a shot of the northbound end of the Belmont
platform in 1982, in a publicity shot for the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. In
this photo are Oscar nominees Gary Sinise, John Malkovich and Joan Allen,
multiple Emmy winners John Mahoney and Laurie Metcalf, Emmy and Tony Award
nominee Terry Kinney, and Tony Award winner Rondi Reed. This was just before everyone started to get famous.
Malkovich got his first Oscar nom in 1984 or thereabouts, and got two others
around 1986-87. The woman standing in the photo near him is Glenne Headley, to
whom he was married at the time. - a testimonial from Chuck Winans
Theatre Oobleck
3824 N. Broadway in 1990 - former Chateau Hotel building
-now currently in the community of Edgewater-
3540 North Southport Avenue
photo - Sarah F via Yelp
-now currently in the community of Edgewater-
Defiant Theatre
"Few defunct theaters are looked back on by storefront aficionados with the fondness earned by Defiant, which wrapped in 2004 after 13 years of punchy, poppy, ambitiously physical productions of Shakespeare (a 2003 Titus Andronicus, starring Larry Yando, was a gory scorcher), provocative contemporary playwrights like Caryl Churchill and Sarah Kane, and their own creations, such as the satiric Action Movie: The Play franchise (yes, franchise)."
Cafe Voltaire
For much of the '90s, the basement of Cafe Voltaire, a
vegetarian restaurant on Clark Street in Lakeview, served as an ad hoc
performance space where you could see plays, poetry readings, sketch comedy and
more on the cheap, with line cooks schlepping produce upstairs all the while.
Collaboraction and the Hypocrites performed their earliest shows here. -
The Chicago Tribune mentioned that "evokes the spirit of its namesake, Cabaret Voltaire, the
Zurich cafe where Dadaism was launched.".
Bailiwick Repertory Arts Center
founded 1982
-currently located at 2433 N Lincoln Avenue-
It's other locations:
(Cabaret) Metro Building in 1984
Jane Addams Center from 1985-1990
According to Forgotten Chicago the old Bailiwick Theater that was once located at 1229 W Belmont Avenue
once served as a post office.
Lake View has a theater district to help market their countless venues within its' borders highlighted above.
once served as a post office.
Look out Uptown! - It's the Belmont Theater District!!
Post Notes:
View my other posts on the topic of entertainment in my
other blog posts called Theaters
Present and Theaters
Past.
Important Note:
These posts are exclusively used for educational purposes. I do not wish to gain monetary profit from this blog nor should anyone else without permission for the original source - thanks!
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