Chicago’s Theatre Y plans a campus in North Lawndale - Chicago Tribune

Theater Theatre, a small theater company in Chicago, is relocating from its storefront space in Lincoln Square to the West End of North Lawndale. While many non-profit theaters in Chicago have been thinking about their business models and how to measure social and racial equality for a long time, Y Theater is seeking to transform itself.

It is not only necessary to relocate the stage and chairs of the theater.

In the shadow of the CTA Pink Line, Y Theater plans to occupy a central position in the $500,000 project on South Pulaski Street, which may turn the vacant lots and apartment buildings in the past half block into various campuses, in outdoor gardens There are live music performances in the theater, there is a theater in the theater, and “Paris” in the corridor. Artists in the theater live side by side with their spaces, and some people may live in small houses. Artistic director Melissa Lorraine plans to move with her husband into the converted carriage house behind the theater.

The theater’s 18-member committee voted unanimously on Sunday to decide to move.

The block has heralded the first signs of imminent imminence. The Chicago developer Kevin Hunt, who grew up behind the area, and business partner Sam Olendorf have created an urban garden. They also took the first step to renovate an empty, brick building damaged by fire, which will become the core of the theater and campus.

Among the completed projects (planned for the end of 2021), the building will accommodate a 40-seat theater and 5 apartments (including coach rooms), which will be rented by Y Theater for its members-the theater plans to pay some of its artists And employees partly through housing.

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Renovating Woodlawn Church is an early step to bring more theaters to underserved communities in Chicago. But Theater Y’s proposal to also move there to live is unprecedented.

Lorraine said: "We really hope-we do need-to be clear about it." The biggest challenge in her mind: creating a theater campus in a way that helps the community, rather than moving towards the middle class One simple step. Will not lose all existing North Side viewers. Once the live theater returns to the Chicago stage, they can find the right combination of shows to perform in North Lawndale and make sure their new neighbors feel at home.

"But people ask me, what if you can go back to the old theater to watch a play? I can't do anything about it," she said. "People ask me, if the theater reopens tomorrow, what will you do? And I don't have the answer. The world has changed. The old normal, everyone misses it. But this year is a year of change-you must say "yes" to the invitation.

On a sunny autumn afternoon, Lorraine, Hunter, Orendorf, and Hillia McNary of the North Lawndale Community Coordinating Committee (NLCCC) were in the 2008 S owned by Hunter and his business partners. Meet on the sidewalk outside Pulaski. The apartment building, as well as the vacant 2006 S. Pulaski, has been refurbished and has tenants and Hunt's offices.

The 61-year-old Hunt is an energetic being who has given a new cliché "Yes, I am smiling behind this mask". He showed to the garden that brick pavers, small trees, ceramics, tables and tortoise ponds were scattered all around.

He said: "We have lived so many birds here."

Hanging lights are stringed around. The rose bushes are waiting to be planted. Hunter said that many materials were donated, including some urns imported from Italy and donated by relics from Wicker Park buildings.

Everything is in a small piece of land between the apartment building and the open space, supported by the concrete of the pink line in the south. Pulaski station is just across the road. At the back of the theater is a rest area, and the theater hopes to play live music next spring. Hunter said: "There is no locked door. Some neighbors have already gathered in the garden."

Hunt was born in Chicago and grew up on Arthington Street, a few blocks from the main street. His career has brought him to Italy, but most of his real estate business is in the Chicago area and Wisconsin. He recently abandoned several of his properties in Logan Square. He said that he hopes his next focus will be here. "Five years ago, I returned to North Lawndale, where there are many beautiful buildings. I thought, why isn't everyone excited about the architecture?"

The surrounding residential streets are lined with beautiful greystone buildings, some with boarded windows.

Hunter acquired and refurbished the 2008 S. Pulaski in 2015 with the partners of Brandon Lane in Arizona and Marvin Stuart in Chicago, and added the 2006 Pulaski in September. Adjacent property, the building will become a theater. The theater plan occupies three quarters of the ground floor and basement. The renovation project is jointly funded by the city and private funds and is expected to be completed by the end of next year.

Lorraine hopes to start living nearby before then. She and her sister work in the nearby YMEN Young Men Education Network, which was established by her sister's husband, who already lives nearby. On the advice of WBEZ Senior Producer Steve Bynum (and

As a consultant, she contacted NLCCC, and NLCCC provided a series of measures they hope to see when they move in from the theater.

The most popular is a youth program that teaches drama art to nearby children. The other is to provide a place that is open during the day for people who need to escape the cold or high temperature, so Theater Y has added a cafe to its lobby plan.

Lorraine said that she knows what to think of the Y Theater plan: the theater in the north is mostly white ensemble, and the audience is mostly white. She moved into the impoverished area near the west side, which is mostly black and non-theater. Hang out its shingles and start performing.

She said: “Every time I talk about this issue (with other people in the Chicago theater), I feel that I get a speech about everything we do first, and that’s not good.” In fact, I understood them. the opinion of. seriously. I take them very seriously. "

By Lorraine and

, Is a director who grew up in the Eastern European theater. Hungarian-Romanian playwright András Visky is one of the muses of the theater. Before the pandemic, the theater produced the third work of his "Juliet" earlier this year. The play is described as "in the Romanian wilderness under communist rule in the 1950s". Theater Y joined the Free Theater Movement in 2018 and has since given away plays for free.

Bynum joined the theater board earlier this month, and after voting on December 19, he won the support of current members and leaders to take over as chairman of the board. He is a proponent of the theater, and he said he plans to document upcoming moves. Launched Worldview Solutions, a social enterprise non-profit organization inspired by his previous long-term public radio show "Worldview". He hopes to turn the relocation into a podcast and video documentary.

Lorraine said: "He will tell the audience everything we did wrong." "Even small things, such as language. We try to expose the idea of ​​integrating the neighborhood. This is the goal. Gentrification is fear. We will be so stubborn, So that we are also afraid of the risks of the solution."

Of course, at present, the proposal to build a new theater campus anywhere and start live performances again seems to be speculative. Lorraine and Hunt stated that the project will be completed in phases. This is the first $500,000 refurbishment of the burnt-out 2006 S. Pulaski and coach house. Theater Y applied for TIF funding in October and applied for a $250,000 grant from Chicago’s Neighborhood Opportunity Fund in early November. The fund uses the revenue generated from urban development and uses it for neighborhood projects, especially West and South. Now that the theater board has voted to continue, it will start a capital campaign to raise up to $50,000 by the end of July. The US$250,000 Opportunity Fund will be used for the expansion of the theater and reimbursement of the Hunter lease rent to Theater Y. The theater will have a 40-seat auditorium and an advanced, always-on ventilation system. The planned elevated gate opens the north wall to the outdoor deck, allowing the audience to watch the indoor performance from the open air.

Hunt and his business partners, including Lane of Arizona, as investors, have budgeted for the four apartments of S. Pulaski in 2006 and added an additional budget of $250,000. It has been renovated, and if the opportunity fund’s funds fail to materialize, they will promise to pay the balance.

So, from now, one year after the opening of Theater Y, what will the typical performance of Theater Y look like? Do you want to attract local audiences through programs like Visky's "Juliet"?

In a word.

Lorraine attributed Bynum's advice to him-the show is one of his favorites. She said: "He emphasized that we will not change." "He said that the biggest mistake an organization like ours can make is to downplay what we have been doing."

The assumption is that viewers in North Lawndale will not come to a show like "Juliet" and will not like it. Theatre Y said it had previously been performed by Eastern European dramatists to bridge Serbia and Chicago. Letting North Lawndale listeners see themselves as part of the global stage is the next bridge.

Bynum said that to see yourself as part of a larger thing is to "form your identity." He said that as a black, he must leave the United States to see his place in the world more clearly. He said that the theater Y’s plays “can give people the opportunity to travel, just through their stories.”

Having said that, Lorraine said that she did not intend to wear "Juliet" again for new audiences, and it was not without new reasons. It is not until 2022 that the opera will begin in North Lawndale. She said the theater is not sure what they look like. These dramas may not only be Europe-centric dramas as before.

But she said that doing some drama about the community and trying to tell her story to North Lawndale was also wrong.

It is hoped that about half of the current audience of Theater Y will follow it to a new location. She said being close to the pink line would help. Matinee's performance may make some people feel more comfortable. Lorraine said, "But that also means we lost half of our audience." "A lot."

Y Theater also plans to emphasize its youth programs-hope some graduates will become part of this ensemble-and also hope to find storytellers and writers from nearby areas and bring their works to stage.

The first live performance will be modest, and once the weather permits, some free concerts will be held in the garden in spring. Lorraine hopes that music "will be a beacon for our community."

She also gave a lot of consideration to the relocation of her husband and her husband. They currently live in Lakeview City, do not have a car, and walks are part of her daily work. She said that many things must be changed.

She said: "Ok, now I need a car for beginners." "I know I can't walk three blocks to the grocery store."

During the tour, Hunter showed the vacant lot of the 2006 S. Pulaski property, which is currently filled with soot furniture and garbage from building fires. In the future second phase of the project, this may be filled by a row of small houses designed by Chicago architect Trish Vanderbeke on the Theatre Y board. Currently in Chicago, small houses are designated as RVs and they are not allowed to live in RVs, but they have been in contact with Ward Ald in Ward 24. Michael Scott; Hunter said that one of the benefits of North Lawndale is that people are willing to try. Another foreseeable project is the geothermal heating and cooling system proposed by Van der Beck, which will dig under the tunnel and utilize the underground heating and cooling characteristics. The plan is to cut energy costs for the theater and the houses on the surrounding streets.

At the end of the tour, Hunter stopped on a narrow passageway between 2008 and S. 2006 Plassky. Currently there is only one concrete sidewalk with tight brick walls on both sides.

He said: "This is Paris." The future space he envisioned is not difficult to discover. Hanging lights, stone pavers and small Parisian coffee tables are lined up in a row and are part of the 7th district of the 24th district. He turned to Lorraine. "You can see it, don't you?"

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