Closing Time at the Halsted Theatre Centre
The five-year-old Halsted Theatre Centre has fallen victim to the titans of commerce. Producing director Michael Frazier will close the two-theater complex at 2700 N. Halsted on June 13, when his present lease expires. The property is being taken over by a national chain of pet supply stores. “They were willing to pay my landlord three times the rent I was paying,” notes Frazier, “and it just wasn’t economically viable for me to match what the pet supply chain was offering.” Frazier said the current production of Lips Together, Teeth Apart may transfer to the Organic Theater complex when the theater closes. “Business has been building, so we’ll see,” he says. But the Cloud 42 production of Virginia, originally slated to move from Live Bait to the Halsted Theatre Centre, definitely will reopen at the Organic Theater Greenhouse instead. The imminent transformation of the Halsted Centre into a retail operation points up one of the most difficult problems in the theater industry. Says Wellington Theater owner Doug Bragan: “Real estate is worth a lot more today as something other than a theater.”
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During his years at the helm, Frazier presented a cunning mix of artistically daring and popular works in his 400- and 180-seat venues. Among the most notable attractions to play the spaces were the U.S. premiere of Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love, The Heidi Chronicles, Beau Jest, and the recent cabaret act of actress Liliane Montevecchi. Other local producers and theater owners reacted with dismay to the news of the Halsted Centre’s demise. “Michael Frazier is good for Chicago,” says Bragan, “and I hope we can find a way to keep him in Chicago.” Frazier said he has talked with producer Michael Leavitt of Leavitt/Fox Theatricals about taking over the lease at the Wellington, but is not yet close to an agreement. Under Leavitt’s control the Wellington has been dark for almost all of the past year. According to Leavitt, nothing currently is slated to go in there until the fall, when Remains Theatre and Fox Theatricals hope to open a joint production of David Mamet’s Oleanna. Frazier also suggested that the best way to produce commercially in Chicago may be to rent from another theater owner when he has a work ready to go, rather than constantly trying to fill a space year-round.
Also due to the company’s lack of funds, the dancers wound up working for only 27 weeks this season rather than the originally scheduled 33. The company is losing about a third of its 21 dancers and will reduce its corps to 18 next season. Some of the dancers are leaving of their own accord, and others, sources say, are parting ways through mutual agreement. Among the departees are two of the company’s brightest stars, principal dancers Petra Adelfang and Maynard Stewart. Adelfang is retiring to study interior design, and Stewart has accepted a position as a soloist with Pacific Northwest Ballet, in Seattle, one of the healthiest and most active regional companies. He notes, “Ballet Chicago simply can’t offer me the things Pacific Northwest is able to because Pacific Northwest is an older and more established company.”
