Visitors to our city commenting on the abundance of theaters scattered throughout the neighborhoods are typically told that any empty room bigger than a bathroom stall eventually becomes a playhouse (smaller, and it probably hosts a weekly poetry reading). Despite the fears engendered by a shaky economy, this last year has borne witness to Chicago's thrifty utilization of vacant space. For every performance space lost, others have opened their doors.
In the vanguard of newly rehabbed entertainment palaces is Black Ensemble's snazzy new home at 4450 N. Clark St. where, since its gala opening last fall, the recently closed Jackie Wilson Story has lit the corner just north of Graceland Cemetery. Next up on the Black Ensemble Theater's documusicals roster is Don't Talk About My Father, Cause God Is My Friend, featuring the songs of Marvin Gaye, opening in early May (773-769-4451; www.blackensembletheater.org ).
Running a close second on the new-construction circuit are a pair of comedy outlets: UP, carved out of the former Tony 'n' Tina's Wedding environmental setting on the third floor of Piper's Alley (312-662-4562; www.upcomedyclub.com ) and The Laugh Factory, nestled in the shell of the former Lakeshore movie theater (773-327-3175; www.laughfactory.com ).
Other new tenants in the neighborhoods include the previously itinerant Rivendell Theatre, inaugurating its new Edgewater home at 5779 N. Ridge Ave. with the midwest premiere of Gary Kirkham's Falling: A Wake, running to April 14 (773-334-7728; www.rivendelltheatre.org ), and National Pastime, after 20 years in its Uptown Speakeasy, moving into the deco-splendor of the Preston Bradley auditorium at 941 W. Lawrence Ave., where it will break champagne on its landmark-status playpen with Michael Sokoloff's Sam Peckinpaugh-inspired A Bend In The Road (773-327-7707; www.npt2.com ).
The year has also seen acquisition of stageworthy properties that would otherwise be slated for non-artistic purposes. Foremost among the new landlords is Profiles Theatre Company, whose empire now boasts no less than three performance spaces: its well-established home base at 4147 N. Broadway, where Bachelorette has been extended through April 29, as well as the Wrigleyville storefront now dubbed "The Second Stage," at 3408 N. Sheffield Ave., where the long-running Assisted Living will make way for Liberal Arts: The Musical opening April 14. Profiles' third room is (surprise!) its longtime neighbor, the Old Speakeasy—a few doors away at 4139 N. Broadway—whose new ownership will be inaugurated April 19 by quasi-resident playwright Neil LaBute's In The Forest, Dark And Deep (773-549-1815; www.profilestheatre.com ).
Teatro Luna keeps the solitary Live Bait theater at 3914 N. Clark St. occupied, with a new show, Living Large In A Mini Kind Of Way, opening May 10 (773-819-5862; www.teatroluna.org ). The Den at 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave. (773-609-2336; www.thedentheatre.com ) and The Charnel House at 3421 W. Fullerton Ave.—the latter currently extending hospitality through April 7 to The Agency Theater Collective's Paradise Lost (773-490-5265; www.wearetheagency.org )—continue to provide rental space for homeless fringe troupes. Making headlines, too, is the news that Gorilla Tango has recently assumed management of the long-shuttered Skokie Playhouse in the north suburbs, where DC Pierson, a member of the Derrick Comedy group, provides the housewarming April 7 (773-598-4549; www.gorillatango.com ).
Urban Theatre, after being evicted from the Center for the Performing Arts in River North, found temporary shelter in, appropriately, a desanctified Wicker Park church, but its production of Suzan Lori-Parks' F***kin' A, playing through April 15 (312-239-8783; www.urbantheaterchicago.com ) is now housed in more artist-friendly quarters at the Beacon Street Hull House at 4520 N. Beacon St., presently leased to the reorganizing Pegasus Players. If that address strikes a familiar note among seasoned Chicago playgoers, it's because the community center was, for decades, synonymous with—wait for it!—Black Ensemble Theater. Thus comes full circle the tradition of Chicago Theater guarding its temples, without whose "empty space" (according to Aristotle and Peter Brook) there can be no performance.
