Chicago Reader: The theaters-to-apartments pipeline in Chicago has claimed several long-running venues in recent years, including Briar Street Theatre (longtime home of the Blue Man Group), the Royal George (which debuted in 1984 and primarily served as a rental facility), and Stage 773 on Belmont (which opened as the Theatre Building in 1977 and has been home to countless companies and productions in the decades since). All three sites are slated for residential or mixed-use development.
3 comments:
It is so sad to hear that more Chicago theaters are being lost to housing development. Chicago is well known for its impact on America’s arts and media, so the loss of theaters is going to be felt across the US. It does, however, warm my heart to hear that these theaters are continuing to search for and find new homes. I think this is a reflection of the larger reality of the housing crisis in America. We see countless empty residential areas, housing prices rising well above the average income, and people forced out into the street. The solution cannot be just building more and more, especially at the expense of the arts. Instead, we need to put focus on people that are unable to afford housing in their areas and the wages that people are expected to live off of. I see apartments going up in my home town where there used to be fields of green and I feel a part of me is lost.
It is always saddening to hear about theatres that are closing down. I remember reading another article about it last year, and it can be really worrying to see theatres that were staples of the community shut down, especially just so they can be turned into an apartment building. However, reading that there are so many new theatres that are getting ready to open gives me a bit of hope. And so many of them are immediately getting involved in their communities. I think it's great that UrbanTheater Company is partnering with architecture students, even if it's just renderings at first. It shows that they have a real commitment to making a difference. And they're not the only ones. Almost every single theatre in this list seems to make making a difference in their community a top priority. It's great to see that there are companies that care about the work, their people, and the audience, and not just making money.
As a lover of integrated/flex spaces, and found theaters, this is quite intriguing to me- although also heartbreaking, the beast that is appartments is a massive weed to many places currently. While I do have a theory that *tinfoil hat goes on,* This is in part a child of my generation’s trained brain that has no attention span, a drive to make a space multiple things at once, and a lack of funding for theaters making it more profitable if there’s room to shift the entire space around just in once theater stops making money. *Tinfoil hat comes off.* While this isn’t exactly the dream of every person in the theater industry, flex spaces are playing it safe- this is the long game. Who knows what the next trend will be, it’s hard to predict what will come next in this industry. To have a blackbox, of another weird flex space, in junction with housing, is a decent option to have when our industry is so uncertain. Nonetheless, I love a weird found theater. I love a weird dual purpose space that resembles a theater somehow, I love when there’s a stronger connection to everyday life of the audience and the performance itself. If I had it my way, I’d want fourth walls crumbling to the ground everywhere- but maybe not the apartments please.
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