Jack Benny Center for the Arts

Last updated
Jack Benny Center for the Arts
Jack Benny Center for the Arts
Address Bowen Park
Waukegan, Illinois
United States
Coordinates 42°23′14″N87°49′57″W / 42.38729170°N 87.83249940°W / 42.38729170; -87.83249940 Coordinates: 42°23′14″N87°49′57″W / 42.38729170°N 87.83249940°W / 42.38729170; -87.83249940
OwnerWaukegan Park District
Website
www.waukeganparks.org/location/jbc/

The Jack Benny Center for the Arts, located in Bowen Park, Waukegan, Illinois, is the Cultural Arts Division of the Waukegan Park District. [1] The Center plays host to the Bowen Park Theatre and Opera Company (a professional theatre/opera company), the Waukegan Symphony Orchestra and Concert Chorus (community based performance groups), as well as numerous theatre, dance, and /visual art classes and private music and voice lessons. [2] The center started out as a not-for-profit corporation in 1964. Upon the death of Jack Benny in 1974, the name was changed. The music and fine arts school became part of the Waukegan Park District in 1982 as a division of the recreation department.

Contents

History

The Waukegan Park District completed a new home for the center and its departments in Bowen Park in 1987 and had become its own division of the park district. Originally the Center had been in Bowen Park, moved to Powell Park for a time, and was delighted to return to Bowen Park. With the addition of Goodfellow Hall, an eighty-nine-seat lecture-recital hall, the division founded Bowen Park Theatre and Bowen Park Opera in the mid 1980s. These two companies went from semi-professional to fully professional, non-Equity, non-union in three years.

Waukegan Symphony Orchestra was born on April 24, 1974, when favorite comedic son Jack Benny returned to his home town of Waukegan to star in the WSO's initial performance. It was a magical night, held at Waukegan High School's auditorium. Like the Music Center of Lake County, the Waukegan Symphony Orchestra has made itself synonymous with the broad range of culture that is the hallmark of the city.[ citation needed ] Through its thirty-five-plus-year history, the Waukegan Symphony Orchestra has engaged its audiences in both traditional and challenging works.[ citation needed ] Musical direction now rests in the hands of Maestro Stephen Blackwelder.

Waukegan Concert Chorus was established as a community chorus in 1976 to sing with the Waukegan Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Verdi's Requiem. [3] Both the members of the community[ who? ] recognized the great benefit of retaining such a cultural asset in the community and the Chorus continued as an independent sister organization to the Waukegan Symphony Orchestra.

Lynn Schornick and Ken Smouse founded Bowen Park Theatre Company in the spring of 1987 at approximately the same time as Bowen Park Opera. The company's objective was to produce mostly classical drama and comedies, avoiding musicals and the repertory of neighboring theatre groups. Within three years, Bowen Park Theatre became a fully professional, non-equity theatre, joining the professional ranks of only two other companies in Lake County. Currently, the Ensemble Players (college age), the Roundtree Players (14–18 years of age) and Stage One (8–13 years of age) give the youth to young adults of the community an opportunity to develop and study the art of acting, also use the Dr. Lynn Schornick Theatre in Goodfellow Hall.

Bowen Park Opera Company has its roots to the Waukegan Symphony Orchestra performances in the mid-1980s. In 1987, the new Jack Benny Center for the Arts facility was completed in Bowen Park. Lynn Schornick and Ken Smouse founded Bowen Park Opera Company to perform in Goodfellow Hall. Its first production was a double bill in the spring of 1987 of Holst's The Wandering Scholar and Mozart's The Impresario. In 2003, Goodfellow Hall was renamed the Dr. Lynn Schornick Theatre in Goodfellow Hall to honor the man who had led the Cultural Arts to where it is today. Dr. Schornick retired from the Waukegan Park District in 2004.

In 1994, the Cultural Arts Division became responsible for the programs of the Waukegan Park District's Historic Districts. The operation and restoration of the Haines Museum in Bowen Park was only a part of that. Programs were developed and the newest of the Cultural Arts' departments, Bowen Heritage Circle, was born. The Bowen Heritage Circle specializes in traditional and special interest crafts and lectures. The Waukegan Historical Society rents the Haines House and library space at Lilac Cottage. The society maintains the collections and the park district provides the organization with a museum supervisor.

Goodfellow Hall was a part of the Jane Addams' Hull House Settlement House's Bowen Country Club. [4]

Related Research Articles

Waukegan, Illinois City in Illinois, United States

Waukegan, is the most populous city in, and the county seat of Lake County, Illinois, United States. An industrial suburb of Chicago, Waukegan is situated approximately 26 miles (42 km) north of Chicago’s city limits, roughly 30 to 40 minutes from the North Side of the city. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 89,321, ranking it the seventh most populous city within the Chicago metropolitan area, the tenth most populous city in Illinois, and the 390th most populous city in the country.

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts US national cultural center in Washington, D.C.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. It was named in 1964 as a memorial to assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Opened on September 8, 1971, the center hosts many different genres of performance art, such as theater, dance, orchestras, jazz, pop, and folk music.

New Jersey Performing Arts Center Performing arts center in Newark, New Jersey, US

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), in downtown Newark, New Jersey, United States, is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. Home to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO), more than nine million visitors have visited the center since it opened in October 1997 on the site of the former Military Park Hotel.

The Elgin Symphony Orchestra is a regional orchestra founded and headquartered in Elgin, Illinois. Its Music Director is Andrew Grams, who was named the 2015 Conductor of the Year by the Illinois Council of Orchestras. The Orchestra's season includes some 40 performances annually at the 1,200-seat Hemmens Cultural Center in Elgin and the 440-seat Prairie Arts Center in Schaumburg.

Culture of London Overview of the culture in London

The culture of London concerns the music, museums, festivals and lifestyle within London, the capital city of the United Kingdom. London has frequently been described as a global cultural capital and is one of the world's leading business centres, renowned for its technological readiness and economic clout, as well as attracting the most foreign investment of any global city. As such, London has often been ranked as the world's capital city.

Houston Theater District Neighborhood of Houston in Harris County, Texas, United States

The Houston Theater District, a 17-block area in the heart of Downtown Houston, Texas, United States, is home to Houston's nine professional performing arts organizations, the 130,000-square-foot (12,000 m2) Bayou Place entertainment complex, restaurants, movies, plazas, and parks. More than two million people visit the Houston Theater District annually.

Augusta Read Thomas American composer

Augusta Read Thomas is an American composer and professor.

Denver Performing Arts Complex Entertainment complex in Denver, CO

The Denver Performing Arts Complex is located in Denver, Colorado and is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. The DCPA is a four-block, 12-acre (49,000 m2) site containing ten performance spaces, with over 10,000 seats connected by an 80 ft (24 m) tall glass roof. It is home to a professional theatre company, and also hosts Broadway musical tours, contemporary dance and ballet, chorales, symphony orchestras, opera productions, pop stars.

Greek National Opera

The Greek National Opera is the country's state lyric opera company, located in the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center at the south suburb of Athens, Kallithea. It is a public corporation under the supervision of the Greek Ministry of Culture and administered by the Board of Trustees and its Artistic Director, currently George Koumedakis.

The Cultural District is a fourteen-square block area in Downtown Pittsburgh, USA bordered by the Allegheny River on the north, Tenth Street on the east, Stanwix Street on the west, and Liberty Avenue on the south.

Alaska Center for the Performing Arts

The Alaska Center for the Performing Arts is a performance venue in downtown Anchorage, Alaska. Opened in 1988, it hosts over 200,000 patrons annually, and consists of three theaters:

National Theater and Concert Hall, Taipei

The National Theater and National Concert Hall are twin performing arts venues at Liberty Square in Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan. Completed in 1987, the landmarks stand on the south and north sides of the square with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall to the east. Together the venues are referred to by the abbreviation NTCH. The square itself sits near Ketagalan Boulevard, site of the Presidential Office Building, the National Central Library, the National Taiwan Museum, and the 228 Peace Memorial Park.

The Rockford Symphony Orchestra is a symphony orchestra in Rockford, Illinois, USA. Now in its 80th season, the orchestra is the third largest orchestra in the state of Illinois.

Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts) is a public four–year college preparatory visual and performing arts high school located in the Humboldt Park neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Operated by the Chicago Public Schools district, The school opened for the 2009–10 school year.

Tessitura is an enterprise application used by performing arts and cultural organisations to manage their activities in ticketing, fundraising, customer relationship management, and marketing. It refers to itself as "arts enterprise software".

The Choral Arts Society of Washington is a major choral organization based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1965 by Norman Scribner, it is regarded as one of the premier symphonic choruses in the United States. The Choral Arts Society of Washington consists of three vocal ensembles; the Choral Arts Chorus, the Choral Arts Chamber Singers, and the Choral Arts Youth Choir.

The Flint Institute of Music, also called the FIM, is located in the Flint Cultural Center in Flint, Michigan. It is ranked as the 8th largest community music school in the United States. The FIM is made up of The Flint Symphony Orchestra, Flint School of Performing Arts and Flint Repertory Theatre. The Flint Institute of Music offers music and dance lessons for all levels and drama school for ages 3 years to grade 12. Students perform in the dance and performance ensembles such as Flint Youth Symphony Orchestra, Flint Youth Ballet Ensemble, Dort Honors Quartet, Imrpov Squad, among several others. The Flint Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Conductor Enrique Diemecke, performs a full season of classical concerts as well as free Music in the Park concerts at Genesee area parks in the Summer season. Additionally, the FIM sponsors the Holiday Pops concert every holiday season, featuring the Flint Symphony Orchestra, Flint Festival Chorus and local choirs. FIM's production of the Nutcracker ballet has been a local tradition for over 30 years.

Bowen Park (Waukegan) United States historic place

Bowen Park is a recreational area in Waukegan, Illinois, along Sheridan Road. It includes an old-growth forest and a ravine. The 60.07-acre (24.31 ha) park was laid out as a residential property in 1843. It was the home of John Charles Haines, a prominent Illinois politician, from 1857 to 1896. In 1911, the Hull House Association renamed it the Joseph T. Bowen Country Club and began using the property as a summer retreat. The land was purchased by the Waukegan Park District in 1963.

References

  1. ↑ "Waukegan Park District reopens facilities". Daily Herald . February 23, 2021. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  2. ↑ "Talk of the County: Waukegan's cultural arts scene is going under". The Capital . February 11, 2016. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  3. ↑ Devore, Sheryl (October 29, 2019). "Waukegan Chorus holiday concert features beloved composer Mark Hayes". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  4. ↑ Wise, Winifred Esther (1963). Jane Addams of Hull-House. Harcourt pg. 233. ISBN   978-0-1523-9552-0.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.