The Merle Reskin Theatre is a performing arts venue located in the Loopcommunity area of Chicago, Illinois. Originally named the Blackstone Theatre it was built in 1910. Renamed the Merle Reskin Theatre in 1992, it is now part of DePaul University, and is also used for events and performances of other groups. It serves as the home of the Chicago Playworks for Families and Young Audiences series produced by The Theatre School of DePaul.
The architects who designed the new theatre in 1910 were Benjamin Marshall and Charles Fox of the firm Marshall and Fox, who also designed the adjacent Blackstone Hotel in 1909. As with the hotel, the theatre took its name from Timothy Blackstone, whose mansion had previously occupied the site.[1] The original address was on Hubbard Court,[1][2] which was later renamed Seventh Street, and renamed once again to East Balbo Drive, the current name. The building is six stories tall and built in a French Renaissance style. Constructed only seven years after the Iroquois Theater Fire, the theater was required to be fireproof and the management claimed the auditorium could be cleared in three minutes.[2] Seating capacity was 1,400 people until 1988, when renovations to reinstate the orchestra pit and to create seating for handicapped persons reduced the seat count to 1,325.[3]
The developers of both the Blackstone Hotel and Blackstone Theatre were Tracy C. Drake and John Drake, better known as developers and proprietors of the Drake Hotel.[4] Their father, John Drake (1826-1895) had been a business partner of Blackstone's.[1] The building of the Blackstone Theatre directly resulted in the shuttering of an older, nearby theatre, the Olympia.[2]
Blackstone Theatre Company
In an era when most entertainment was performed live on stage, the opening of a new theatre was considered so newsworthy that major newspapers reported on it. The proposed opening of the Blackstone was even noted by The New York Times, which wrote in mid-July 1909 that "...The new Blackstone Theatre, soon to be erected on Hubbard Place in Chicago... [will] have a large seating capacity, and is to be equipped with every modern theatrical device. The stage is to be patterned on that of the New Amsterdam Theatre in this city [New York]..."[5] The Chicago Tribune also announced the up-coming event, and in a front-page story, the newspaper elaborated on what the Times had reported. The new theatre would feature the productions of Charles Frohman, who would operate the theatre jointly with impresarios Klaw & Erlanger; the three had incorporated under the name "Blackstone Theatre Company" (which was part of their larger Theatrical Syndicate, formed in 1896).[2] The July 1909 Tribune article also pointed out that this new theatre would be an ornate "movie palace", able to seat about 1,200 people and costing in excess of half a million dollars to build.[6] The Blackstone Theatre officially opened on December 31, 1910, with the premiere of a Chicago playwright George Ade's newest play "U.S. Minister Bedloe."[3] It was a comedy that starred William H. Crane, and the critics were impressed by the play and by the beauty of the venue.[7]
The Blackstone was managed by Harry J. Powers,[8] a Chicago businessman with extensive experience in the theatre: he had worked his way up from his early days as an usher to ultimately become one of Mr. Erlanger's most trusted associated; Powers remained as the Blackstone's manager throughout its first two decades.[9] The Blackstone's first productions featured some of that era's best known performers and playwrights—for example, after "U.S. Minister Bedloe" came a David Belasco production, "The Return of Peter Grimm", starring David Warfield.[10] Many of the productions had already been well received in New York before coming to the Blackstone, such as another play that featured comic actor William H. Crane, "The Senator Keeps House."[11] But while some of these productions were the equal of the version that played in New York, Tribune theatre critic Hammond observed on several occasions that the Chicago companies lacked the biggest stars. Despite this, the touring companies that performed at the Blackstone tended to do a good job and Hammond praised them for their "effective" productions.[12] This trend of presenting touring company versions would continue in later years, when most of the performances at the Blackstone were plays which had already won the Pulitzer Prize or the Tony Award, and were presented by touring companies from New York.[3]
During the first decade of operation, the Blackstone Theatre featured a number of unique productions. Among them were the performances of the Stratford-upon-Avon Players. Under the direction of F.R. Benson, they offered fourteen of Shakespeare's plays in two weeks during early November 1913.[13] Also noteworthy was a presentation of George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion" in 1914; performances by the Boston Opera Company, featuring Mlle. Anna Pavlova in 1916 and Louis N. Parker's "Disraeli."[3] And during periods of time when there was no play being performed, the Blackstone opened its doors to events sponsored by civic and fraternal organizations such as the Elks or Chicago's University Club. When Big Sisters was still a new organization, it held one of its first benefits at the Blackstone.[14] The Blackstone was also the home to a large women's suffrage rally and conference in 1916; in attendance were 1,200 suffragists from all over the United States.[15] And keeping up with the times, some of the performances from the stage of the Blackstone were heard on Chicago-area radio station WTAS, thanks to station owner Charles Erbstein, who thought it was a good idea to use the theatre for live broadcasts, and began doing so in early 1925.[16]
At the end of 1930, it was announced that the Blackstone Theatre Company was terminating its lease.[17] Mr. Erlanger had died in March, the country was in the midst of the Depression, and newspaper reports remarked on how many businesses were suffering. Building owners John and Tracy Drake managed the theatre for a year before foreclosure loomed in 1932. In 1934, they leased the theatre to Playgoer's Incorporated, although this group only lasted a year.[3]
The Blackstone was saved in the 1930s by the Federal Theatre Project, which leased the theatre in 1936 and continued to use it for rehearsals and productions until the program was abolished by Congress in 1939. During this period, the Blackstone played host to original plays.[3]
In 1940, the theater was rented by Oscar Sertin, who staged "Life with Father" starring Lillian Gish, which opened in February and ran for more than a year. The following year, Buddy Ebsen starred in "Good Night Ladies!", which ran for 100 weeks. From 1942 through 1945, the theatre was run by Slavin Amusement Company.
In 1945, a reconstituted Blackstone Theatre Company managed the hall until 1948 when the Shubert Brothers bought the theatre.[3] With the rise of other forms of entertainment, such as television, attendance at live theaters declined and the Shubert Organization scaled back the Blackstone's season from 28 weeks to as few as 14 weeks each year.[3]
1959 saw the premiere of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun." Although the play was successful, after four weeks it left Chicago for New York City. Around the same time, a renaissance in Chicago theatre was taking place on the city's north side.[3]
The Blackstone was dark from 1986 until August 1988, when it reopened to Lily Tomlin's one woman show "The Search For Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe." At this time, the Shubert Organization decided it was time to divest itself of all Chicago theatres except for the Shubert Theatre on Monroe Street.
When the Shubert Organization decided to divest the majority of its Chicago theatres, the Blackstone Theatre building was offered to DePaul University. The Theatre School began officially performing in the Blackstone on March 21, 1989, with a production of The Misanthrope by Molière. In 1992, Harold and Merle Reskin made a sizable donation to the Theatre School, and on November 20, the theatre was renamed the Merle Reskin Theatre. Merle Reskin had spent five years as a professional actress, portraying Ensign Janet MacGregor in South Pacific on Broadway and appearing with Etta Moten. She gave up her career upon marrying Reskin in 1955; however, she spent thirty years as the Midwest Regional Auditioner for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.[3] In addition to The Theatre School, the building is also used by other arts organizations.[3]
The theatre serves as The Theatre School's main performance space. Each year The Theatre School presents the Chicago Playworks series as well as The Theatre School Showcase, which both run throughout the academic year at the Merle Reskin Theatre. Chicago Playworks presents works intended for families and young audiences, while the Showcase series offers contemporary plays and classics.[18]
Notes
1 2 3 Berger, Miles L., They Built Chicago, Bonus Books, Inc., 1992, p. 155, ISBN0-929387-76-7
The Shubert Organization is a theatrical producing organization and a major owner of theatres based in Manhattan, New York City. It was founded by the three Shubert brothers in the late 19th century. They steadily expanded, owning many theaters in New York and across the country. Since then it has gone through changes of ownership, but is still a major theater chain.
Abraham Lincoln Erlanger was an American theatrical producer, director, designer, theatre owner, and a leading figure of the Theatrical Syndicate.
The Majestic Theatre is a Broadway theater at 245 West 44th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1927, the theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp in a Spanish style and was built for real-estate developer Irwin S. Chanin. It has 1,681 seats across two levels and is operated by The Shubert Organization. Both the facade and interior are New York City landmarks.
The Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre is a Broadway theater at 242 West 45th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1927, the theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp in a Spanish style and was built for real-estate developer Irwin S. Chanin. It has 1,100 seats across two levels and is operated by The Shubert Organization. Both the facade and the auditorium interior are New York City landmarks.
The St. James Theatre, originally Erlanger's Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 246 West 44th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1927, it was designed by Warren and Wetmore in a neo-Georgian style and was constructed for A. L. Erlanger. It has 1,709 seats across three levels and is operated by Jujamcyn Theaters. Both the facade and the auditorium interior are New York City landmarks.
The Shubert Theatre is a Broadway theater at 225 West 44th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1913, the theater was designed by Henry Beaumont Herts in the Italian Renaissance style and was built for the Shubert brothers. Lee and J. J. Shubert had named the theater in memory of their brother Sam S. Shubert, who died in an accident several years before the theater's opening. It has 1,502 seats across three levels and is operated by The Shubert Organization. The facade and interior are New York City landmarks.
CIBC Theatre is a theater located at 18 West Monroe Street in the Loop area of downtown Chicago. It is operated by Broadway In Chicago, part of the Nederlander Organization. Opened in 1906 as the Majestic Theatre, it currently seats 1,800 and for many years has presented Broadway shows. In its early years, the theater presented vaudeville celebrity acts.
The Theatre School at DePaul University, previously the Goodman School of Drama is the drama school of DePaul University. Founded with its first class conducted at the Art Institute of Chicago on January 5, 1925, the Goodman School was associated with the Goodman Theatre Company. The school officially became part of DePaul University on July 1, 1978, and was renamed The Theatre School at DePaul University in 1982. The Theatre School is the Midwest region's oldest theatre conservatory and is ranked as one of the top professional theatrical training programs in the United States, enrolling approximately 450 students from North America and abroad. The Theatre School's main performance spaces are the Merle Reskin Theatre in Downtown Chicago, the Healy BlackBox theatre, and the Watts Theater in the Lincoln Park Campus.
The Blackstone Hotel is a historic 290-foot (88 m) 21-story hotel on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Balbo Drive in the Michigan Boulevard Historic District in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. Built between 1908 and 1910, it is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Blackstone is famous for hosting celebrity guests, including numerous U.S. presidents, for which it was known as the "Hotel of Presidents" for much of the 20th century, and for contributing the term "smoke-filled room" to political parlance.
The Ambassador Theatre is a Broadway theater at 219 West 49th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1921, the Ambassador Theatre was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was constructed for the Shubert brothers. It has 1,125 seats across two levels and is operated by The Shubert Organization. The auditorium interior is a New York City designated landmark.
The Woods Theatre was a movie palace located at the corner of Randolph and Dearborn Streets in the Chicago Loop. It opened in 1918 and was a popular entertainment destination for decades. Originally a venue for live theater, it later converted to show movies. It closed in 1989 and was demolished in 1990.
The Chicago Opera Theater (COT) is an American opera company based in Chicago, Illinois. COT is a resident company at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago's Millennium Park and is currently in residence at the newly renovated Studebaker Theater in the historic Fine Arts Building. In addition to productions of selected operas from the core opera repertoire, COT has an emphasis on American composers, Chicago premieres, and producing new contemporary operas for a 21st century audience.
Marshall and Fox was a United States architectural firm based in Chicago from 1905 to 1926. The principals, Benjamin H. Marshall and Charles E. Fox, designed a number of significant buildings of many types in Chicago and other cities, but they were best known for luxury hotels and apartment buildings.
John Burroughs Drake was a hotelier who was part owner of the Tremont House hotel in Chicago, Illinois. He managed the Grand Pacific Hotel from 1874–1895. His sons, John B. Drake and Tracy C. Drake were the developers and proprietors of the Blackstone Hotel and Drake Hotel, which are both located along Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. The former is located in the Chicago Landmark Historic Michigan Boulevard District and the latter along the Magnificent Mile. The Blackstone Hotel and Blackstone Theatre (now known as the Merle Reskin Theatre were built by his sons on the former site of the mansion of his business partner, Timothy Blackstone.
The Nederlander Organization, founded in 1912 by David T. Nederlander in Detroit, and currently based in New York City, is one of the largest operators of live theaters and music venues in the United States. Its first acquisition was a lease on the Detroit Opera House in 1912. The building was demolished in 1928. It later operated the Shubert Lafayette Theatre until its demolition in 1964 and the Riviera Theatre, both in Detroit. Since then, the organization has grown to include nine Broadway theaters – making it the second-largest owner of Broadway theaters after the Shubert Organization – and a number of theaters across the United States, including five large theaters in Chicago, plus three West End theatres in London.
Shubert Alley is a pedestrian alley in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The alley, a privately owned public space, connects 44th and 45th Streets and covers about 6,400 square feet (590 m2). It runs through the middle of a city block, parallel to Eighth Avenue to the west and Broadway to the east. The western half of the alley abuts the Shubert and Booth theaters, while the eastern half is adjacent to One Astor Plaza. Because it is near several major theaters, the alley has been considered the geographical center of Broadway theatre.
Red Light Winter is a two-act play by American playwright Adam Rapp. The Steppenwolf Theatre Company premiered the play on May 30, 2005 at their Merle Reskin Garage Theatre in Chicago. Rapp directed the production, which continued until July 10, 2005. The company took the play to New York to run Off-Broadway at the Barrow Street Theatre, where it opened for previews from January 20, 2006. It then ran there as a regular production from February 9, 2006, to June 25, 2006. In 2012 the play appeared at the Ustinov Studio in Bath, England.
Klaw and Erlanger was an entertainment management and production partnership of Marc Klaw and Abraham Lincoln Erlanger based in New York City from 1888 through 1919. While running their own considerable and multi-faceted theatrical businesses on Broadway, they were key figures in the Theatrical Syndicate, the lucrative booking monopoly for first-class legitimate theaters nationwide.
Percy Thomas Carne Waram was a British-born stage and film actor who spent much of his career in the United States. His career lasted 55 years on the American stage, and he had memorable roles in The Shanghai Gesture, Elizabeth the Queen, Mary of Scotland, Pride and Prejudice, and Anne of the Thousand Days. He starred in the Chicago production of Life With Father for three years, setting box office and attendance records, after which he took the production on the road for another 38 weeks. He starred in the Broadway production of The Late George Apley for a year, and then spent another 80 weeks with the show's national tour.
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.
