Chicago Tribune: A bizarre consequence of the pandemic is that private equity is flush with money. The Second City is an attractive legacy brand. Social media activists without a clear fiscal plan can unwittingly do the dirty work for venture capitalists who can then swoop in when a company is on its knees. And our hometown Second City, at least as Chicago has known it for the last 60 years, might be vanishing in a fistful of out-of-town dollars.
3 comments:
When I visited Chicago last year, I got to see a Second City show with my dad. My favorite mug is a Second City mug that I may or may not have stolen from my time there. While the show was enjoyable enough, (my dad is a HUGE Stephen Colbert fan, so you can imagine his excitement) I wasn’t all too aware of the political history of the establishment / company. It seems like there’s many faults behind the scenes now-a-days, and I can imagine with the pandemic that they’re not doing shows nearly in the same capacity and probably won’t be for a while.
I can see why locals want Second City to speak up. I can only hope that they can look to people and journals as such who wrote this article and take action like they seem to need to.
Another interesting side effect of this terrible pandemic is the loss of local ownership. I appreciated the perspective of the local newspaper on their own famous theater house. The article was saying that the organization most interested in acquiring second city is the same group that owns the GTA franchise. Hopefully, the management will be able to keep the group locally run and not attempt to over commercialize it. The article theorized that the parent company would make video content to supplement the main bread and butter of the franchise. In the event that the organization has to be saved by someone with outside money, hopefully they don’t attempt to change it too much. The pandemic is making people so desperate for money the wealth gap is just going to continue to increase between the people who have it all and average people. They did mention that an attempt to make it a non-profit seemed to be a no go as well.
Living in Chicago, and working in small theaters there, I have realized how closed the scene is. Most Chicagoans don't understand the scale of theater in the city. It doesn't surprise me that there is no outcrying support to save Second City, and that most of the money is coming from out of town.
Local ownership seems to be fading in the theater district as well, but I hope that Second City can be saved by ZMC, the parent company that is supposedly acquiring it. If this deal is true, then it is my next hope that the company will come forward about the allegations made against them, and finally speak out. The article mentioned months of silence from Second City. From what I've heard, many theater companies in Chicago have been advocating for Black Lives Matter, as well as relief for independent contractors during the pandemic. So it is upsetting that a theater company that is so fundamental to Chicago history, such as Second City, is not speaking up and giving their crucial support.
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