Tuesday, March 10, 2020
SoDo Theatre's closing shows what's good for building owners is bad for theater groups
Theater | news-gazette.com: The sad reality for Jaclyn Loewenstein began to settle in on Tuesday as she held one of her final acting classes at SoDo Theatre in downtown Champaign, which will leave several theater organizations without a home when it closes today.
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While I do empathize with Thomas Shay and the awkward position he is in, it is hard not to be upset when reading about this. It makes me especially upset because this place that was used for nonprofit theater is being taken over because of the possible future success of hockey in this area. My bias here probably comes from what I and many other arts students experienced in high school; funding is taken from basic arts programs to get more money to give to sports programs. My high school's theater teacher retired a few years ago, and instead of hiring a new teacher my school actually let go of another art teacher. A month later, the school board decided to use these funds that had mysteriously appeared to replace the football field with turf and update all of the sports facilities. I don't have an issue with sports or the people that play them, or even those that are enthusiastic about sports. My issue is that in many towns and cities sports and the activities that surround them often consume funds and space to the point that there are not even basic arts programs left. It shows the extremes of what we value as a culture.
While it’s disappointing to hear about this sort of community organization displacement, I did feel better after reading the statement made at the end of the article by Loewenstein. Although this may sound rude, This SoDo Theater is simply a space. Yes, it has been home to so many of these non-profit theater groups, but what it sounds like is that these groups will continue to exist with or without the space. It is disappointing that groups like Class Act will have this period of limbo as they try to find another space - but I don’t want to look at the administration as the bad guy either. It does make sense that as rent prices go higher, non-profit groups will have difficulty retaining ownership of property in high demand areas. Loewenstein seems convinced that theater organizations in Champaign, like Class Act, will continue to survive, they will just find another space to call home.
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