If everything at the Steppenwolf Theatre Co. was as consistently excellent as its Arts Exchange program–a season of short shows aimed mainly at school groups–there would be a permanent line of hungry theatergoers standing on Halsted Street.
The latest Arts Exchange show to score a big hit is “The Bluest Eye,” Lydia Diamond’s lean, stellar adaptation of Toni Morrison’s poetic novel about a young African-American girl growing up in 1940s Ohio. It’s a terrific little show–simple, beautiful, powerfully acted, deftly directed by Hallie Gordon. But it’s really just one in a growing line of outstanding Arts Exchange projects in the last couple of years, including “Winesburg, Ohio,” “A Tale of Two Cities,” “World Set Free” and, earlier this year, “The Chosen.”
“The Bluest Eye,” which has been extended through March 6, is attracting hordes of people and last Sunday morning I counted at least 30 people in line trying to snag tickets at one of the few public weekend performances.
This is remarkable. For not only are performance times seemingly inconvenient, but the show doesn’t even have its own full-scale set. It has to make do with sitting in front of the set to “Intimate Apparel.”
So why is this program working so well? And what lessons does it offer for the rest of Steppenwolf?
1. It’s a reminder that Chicago audiences still respond warmly to decent literary adaptations (remember “The Grapes of Wrath”?). These shows used to be on every block in the 1990s, but they’ve dried up in recent years.
2. There is a major African-American audience wanting to come to the Steppenwolf that the theater hardly has tapped to date. There was more of a minority presence last Sunday than at any Steppenwolf show I ever have attended.
3. People like short shows. It prevents indulgence and promotes direct storytelling. And this program’s lack of resources has fostered unusually intense creativity.
4. The younger creative staffers at Steppenwolf brim with talent and dispense with attitude. It’s time to let them loose more often on the mainstage.
5. Weekend mornings are popular times for shows; they don’t compete with as many other activities. Theaters should give those 11 a.m. slots a try. They might be very surprised at how many people show up.
Don’t let Apple Tree fall
Unlike most suburban downtowns, Highland Park is awash with top-tier retail: Saks Fifth Avenue, Williams-Sonoma, Restoration Hardware. Also unlike most suburban downtowns, Highland Park has an Equity theater with a stellar national reputation.
The retail looks to be doing fine. Apple Tree Theatre is on life-support. And in 2006, it loses its lease on its current space in the strip mall on Elm Place.
Apple Tree’s fate is up to the Highland Park City Council. Either this week or next (it depends on how much is on the council agenda), Apple Tree gets to make its case that the city should hand over a building called the Karger Community Center. Located right across the street from much of that ritzy retail, the little-used, city-owned Karger Center is basically a gym right now.
It would cost $5 million to $10 million to convert it into a theater. But Apple Tree executive director Eileen Boevers said her theater would hold a capital campaign to raise that money.
“We have the architect’s plans in our hands,” Boevers said.
“It’s the perfect location for Apple Tree,” said John Morris, the well-known Chicago theater architect who has looked at the space but has no ongoing involvement in the deal. “This needs to happen.”
A little history. Apple Tree, which started out in the same church basement as the Steppenwolf, has been subsisting for some two decades on the upper floor of a strip mall. This is a problematic venue–the lobby is tight, the performing space is tiny, the street presence is non-existent. Yet Chicago’s best actors still trek there, often to perform in the first local production of a major Broadway hit. Apple Tree attracts patrons from all over the region but has never had the level of fiscal support enjoyed by its peers in Chicago.
In 2002, I wrote about this theater’s financial travails. Back then, various city dignitaries expressed an interest in finding the right new location for Apple Tree–even as retail sprang up all around. But despite a lot of talk, nothing has happened.
Mayor Michael D. Belsky said he’s supportive of the theater and its effort. “It’s a matter of how the conversion would be financed,” he said. “And the council has to give its approval.”
These kind of $1-a-year-rent deals happen all the time in Chicago–witness the City of Chicago’s decision to let the Lookingglass Theatre take over the Water Tower Pumping Station. Highland Park needs to step up–and so do those local residents interested in keeping Apple Tree alive. Unless this works out, there’s a real chance the entire operation would vanish.
Boevers didn’t want to talk about the potential life-saving deal last week–fearing that it would look like she was trying to railroad the city. But it’s hard to imagine that such an enlightened community would let this fine theater disappear.
