Subscribers to the old Touchstone Theatre have become used to change. And through this theater company’s shifting identity and fortunes, the one constant presence has been artistic director Ina Marlowe, one of the Chicago theater community’s most intriguing figures.
Although founded in the suburbs, Touchstone spent most of the current decade at the Halsted Street former home of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. By 1993, Marlowe was heralding huge subscription growth, “a big new demand for humanistic, heartfelt theater,” and an expanded season.
In 1996, Touchstone merged with what was left of the Organic Theater Company, a once-illustrious troupe that had, by then, dwindled to being little more than a landlord. Under a new name, Organic Touchstone Theater, Marlowe’s organization sold off the old Organic Theater space on Clark Street and heralded the arrival of a major new Chicago theater company that would, it was hoped, combine the best of both companies and thus join the top tier of Chicago theaters.
Despite some memorable productions, the anticipated growth never happened and assets were quickly depleted. And by this year, the name Organic Theater (the Touchstone had by now been dropped from the moniker) was once again associated with a seriously cash-strapped company.
Unable to afford a high rent on Halsted, Organic announced its intention this summer to move to cheaper digs in the suburbs. And with Monday night’s opening of John Henry Redwood’s “The Old Settler” (previews are already under way), Organic relocates to Evanston and begins a shorter, three-show season at the McGaw YMCA Childcare Center Auditorium.
Marlowe, however, does not characterize this move as a financial necessity so much as an opportunity for further artistic growth. And she says her loyal subscribers are still very much along for the ride.
“We’re entering a significant new phase in Organic’s history,” Marlowe says, “and we’ve had a wonderful return of subscription renewals. . . . People from the city used to go to Wisdom Bridge (on Howard Street) for theater and we’re not much farther away than that.”
Besides, Marlowe argues, Evanston will be a much more hospitable home for a theater than fickle Lakeview.
“An organization of our size needs to really be a part of a community so as to build institutional strength,” Marlowe says. “Our old location was in such a transient neighborhood. People in Evanston already seem to appreciate that we want to be part of the fabric of their lives.”
In this latest incarnation of Organic, Marlowe will now share the running of the theater’s creative side with two associate artistic directors — William Pullinsi (formerly of the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse) and Jonathan Wilson. Both are Evanston residents. Nina M. Jones is the new managing director.
This first production of the year will be under Wilson’s direction. One of the most-produced plays across the country this year (and soon to be a movie), “The Old Settler” explores African-American life during World War II. The show stars La Donna Tittle and Valarie Tekosky. And playwright Redwood, an increasingly important and prominent name in the American theater, says he is happy and honored to be on the Organic’s docket, whatever the location of the show.
“A theater like this where they really care about the playwright is a rarity these days,” said the gracious Redwood on a recent visit to Evanston. “And this director and this theater are really right for this play.”
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The year 2000 will be double cause for celebration for the many Chicago-area fans of Frank Wildhorn, the Broadway composer whom critics love to hate but whose work is invariably greeted warmly by the theatergoers who actually pay for their tickets.
With country singer Larry Gatlin in the lead role (some other cities are getting John Schneider), a new touring version of Wildhorn’s much-maligned country-rock musical oratorio, “The Civil War,” is coming to the Cadillac Palace Theatre in February. That epic will join planned 2000 bookings of such other popular Wildhorn fare as “Jekyll and Hyde” (also coming to the Palace) and “The Scarlet Pimpernel” (arriving next summer to the Shubert Theatre). No other writer or composer in living memory can boast three separate post-Broadway tours coming to Chicago within six months.
Talking from Miami last week, Wildhorn first poked fun at anyone unable to see the ocean from their workplace. But then he assumed an appropriately humble tone.
“All any composer wants is for his or her voice to be heard,” Wildhorn said. “I was sad when `The Civil War’ closed on Broadway and I welcome the opportunity to share this very important American story with the country.”
Producer Ken Gentry, a savvy fellow, called to say last week that this 15-actor production will be entirely different from the much bigger version of the show attacked by Broadway critics.
And if three Wildhorn epics make you only pant for more, it’s coming: His next four projects are “Havana,” a big-band musical aimed as a vehicle for Linda Eder, Wildhorn’s actress wife; and new musicals based on “Dracula,” “Bonnie and Clyde” and “Blade Runner.” Why waste time?
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With the new Goodman Theatre complex on Randolph Street on schedule for an opening next fall, some folks are thinking that the currently playing version of “A Christmas Carol” will be the last time the much-admired classic will be performed in the old Goodman space. Actually, that’s not the case. Since the Goodman’s lease on its current home at the Art Institute of Chicago continues through the end of 2000, the theater has decided that next year’s Dickens perennial will still be performed, for one last time, in its old home.
