Reid | Playing Chicago theaters reopened—and several found innovative new leaders.

THE YEAR IN THEATER

Playing in a pandemic

In 2021, Chicago theaters reopened—and several found innovative new leaders.

By KERRY REID

By the time this year ends (it is gonna end, right?), Reader critics will, by my count, have reviewed 69 live theater and dance performances. That’s far less than in most years, but a veritable cornucopia after the onstage famine that began in March 2020.

But just when we think it’s safe to go back to the theater, Omicron might be pulling us out.

Last weekend, a rolling series of announcements of canceled performances hit my inbox and social media feeds as (fully vaxxed) members of the cast and crew of shows—ranging from the Jo rey’s The Nutcracker (which canceled two days of performances) to Lookingglass’s Her Honor Jane Byrne (which called o its entire last weekend)—came down with breakthrough cases of COVID-19. New York productions are getting it in the teeth even worse; the Rockettes won’t be kicking up a storm in Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas show anymore this season, and several other Broadway shows have announced at least temporary closings due to COVID infections.

As with so many other things related to this ungodly timeline, we’ll just have to wait and see what effect this latest variant will have on the performing arts. So far, no company with plans to open in January has announced that they’re canceling or postponing shows. At the shows I’ve attended since July, house sta has been diligent about checking vax cards against IDs and enforcing the mask mandates. The League of Chicago Theatres put out unifi ed protocols in August to help protect patrons and artists. But the rise in breakthrough cases among artists is troubling, even if the cases are mild. (You know the drill: get vaxxed/boosted, wear a mask, practice social distancing as much as possible.)

At least before the latest wave, though, going back to theater felt good. Weird, but good; I had to relearn the art of preshow chitchat, and realized how much that’s part of the live experience. I suspect that digital content won’t be going away anytime soon; reports suggest that, while the revenues aren’t anywhere near equal to live ticket sales, the reach of digital means theaters can access audiences that normally wouldn’t be able to see their work. Several Chicago productions this past fall, like Court’s Othello, o ered a ticketed streaming option in addition to in-person seating.

So it’s hard to say what will happen in 2022, and my crystal ball is in the pawnshop. (I’m the person who thought we’d have big problems with people fighting to GET vaccines, so clearly my powers of prognostication are wanting.) But if pressed to point out developments in the past year that do seem to bode well, I’d look at the new generation and models of leadership that have emerged at theaters in the area.

True, some changes this year weren’t so smooth; artistic director Michael Halberstam left Writers Theatre in Glencoe under a cloud of persistent allegations, and Joe Keefe, executive director of Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights, also resigned following public accusations of inappropriate behavior. Neither organization has named replacements as of yet.

With the announcement that Robert Falls is departing the Goodman in summer 2022, the ranks of the “old guard” artistic directors grow ever slimmer, with Barbara Gaines at Chicago Shakespeare, Charles Newell at Court, and B.J. Jones at Northlight remaining. (Northlight finally made major strides in their long-awaited plans to move back to Evanston this year.) Meantime, a wave of new leaders took over; Ken-Matt Martin at Victory Gardens, Lanise Antoine Shelley at the House, Marti Lyons at Remy Bumppo, and Ericka Ratcli at Congo Square among them.

But in addition to new blood, at least three companies this year announced shared duties in the top position.

Audrey Francis and Glenn Davis took over from Anna D. Shapiro as co-artistic directors at Steppenwolf, just in time for Steppenwolf to open its fancy new theater/education cen-

Audrey Francis and Glenn Davis took over as the new co-artistic directors for Steppenwolf.

FRANK ISHMAN

ter. Lorena Diaz and Wendy Mateo are the fi rst women to head up Teatro Vista, bringing with them not only a long resume in comedy, but also experience in digital production. (Steppenwolf’s Davis and playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney just announced their own digital production company, Chatham Grove, has inked a deal with Universal Studio Group subsidiary UCP.) Gift Theatre found a triumvirate of women (Brittany Burch, Emjoy Gavino, and Jennifer Glasse) to lead them into their next chapter, which includes the search for a new home in Je erson Park. Prop Thtr is exploring new models of development that are more artist-centered and focused on the needs of di erent communities. The list goes on. (For a look at how sketch and improv artists are adapting, see Wanjiku Kairu’s feature on page 30.)

I look at these announcements as welcome news. Pragmatically, the job of running a theater (or any other enterprise) is never down to one person’s vision, and many hands make light work, etc. But in ideological terms, I’m hoping that this focus on shared leadership represents a breaking down of hierarchy in a time when theater workers themselves are (rightly!) demanding better conditions and greater awareness of institutional racism, sexism, and classism. Actors’ Equity unveiled an “open access” policy to make it easier for actors to join the union, and IATSE (whose members include theater stage workers) showed their strength in the film industry by threatening a strike if working conditions weren’t improved.

Meantime, if you’re going to live shows, please be safe and respectful of the rules (most ushers are volunteers, and they don’t need people getting nasty with them in a pandemic). But also remember the wisdom of Lily Tomlin’s Trudy, the “bag lady” from The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe who took her space alien friends to a show: “I forgot to tell them to watch the play; they’d been watching the audience. Yeah, to see a group of strangers sitting together in the dark, laughing and crying about the same things, just knocked ‘em out. They said, ‘Trudy, the play was soup, the audience, art.’” v