It hasn’t opened yet, but there’s drama going on at Northlight Theatre’s future location in Evanston.
Exterior walls of the arts company’s long-dreamt-of new theater building at 1012 Church Street have gone up, and the stage has been built. Workers are in the process of putting up interior walls, and audience seats will be installed in about six weeks, according to a spokesperson.
The construction is about 82% of the way toward completion, and officials hope to start giving tours in July. August will bring a gala, and the curtain will finally rise at the new theater in September.
The inaugural season will include five productions, starting with Jeffrey Hatcher’s “The Front Page,” a new adaptation of the comedy that inspired the 1940 film “His Girl Friday.”
The new theater is the stuff of dreams for Northlight Theatre’s staff and many of its fans. After being in residence at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie for nearly 30 years, the theater company will be returning to Evanston, where it started in 1974.
“We were anxious to own our own space,” said Executive Director Timothy J. Evans.
Northlight has been accumulating funds for this new home for a long time, beginning with the Next Act Campaign in 2018.
“It started with some money from the state,” Evans said. “Governor Pritzker passed a capital budget and, through our state representatives, we got about $4 million, and that sort of kicked off the campaign.”
They also received money from the City of Evanston and from several other agencies, he said. “Nothing from the federal government.”
They were even able to raise money during the COVID pandemic.
As a result of the concerted fundraising effort, Northlight has raised $30 million of the total project budget of $32.2 million, Evans reported. The majority of the money has been raised from 450 individual donors, and 70% of them are from Evanston.
“We’re just a couple million dollars away from hitting our goal. Once we hit that mark, we won’t have any debt and we won’t have a mortgage,” Evans said.
The fundraising continues with two popular projects—naming seats and selling engraved bricks for the walkway of the theater.
“We’ve probably sold a third of the seats in the theater,” Evans said. “I think we’ve sold a couple hundred bricks.”
Patrons can purchase an 8-inch by 8-inch square brick for $500 and have six lines of text on it.
A rectangular 4-inch by 8-inch brick is $250 and holds three lines of text. Each line must be 13 characters or less including spaces.
Seats can be named for $1,500, $2,500, or $5,000, depending on the seat location. That does not include a guarantee of sitting in that seat for events.
In addition, there are naming opportunities within the theater for the rehearsal hall and other spaces.
“And, if someone wanted to name the front of the theater,” Evans said, “for $10 million they can put their name on the theater outside!”
“We’re starting to tour with donors and folks. It’s very exciting,” said Artistic Director BJ Jones, who has a long history with the theater company.
“I worked at Northlight when it was the Evanston Theatre Company. I was part of the first ensemble in 1977,” Jones said. He said that it wasn’t their intention to leave Evanston.
“We ran out of spaces and availability,” he explained.
When they were offered the opportunity to come to the North Shore Center, which was new at the time, Jones said, “It served our purposes and our budget, and it’s been a great home for 29 years now.”
“We’ve had a really good run here in Skokie and we’ve done really good work here, but it’s time we own our own house,” Evans said.
Jones has been artistic director for 28 of the years at the North Shore Center.
Having its own home will offer many benefits for Northlight, Jones emphasized.
“We’ll be able to control our own box office, our own schedule,” he said. “We will derive revenue from the bars. We’ll be able to do different programming that will be a revenue stream for us. There will be opportunities to invite other companies in to do TED talks, maybe a film festival.”
The new theater has 285 seats. There will be production offices in the new building but the business offices will remain at the Byline Bank, about two blocks from the theater.
Jones praised the fact that the building is located a half-block from the Metra and the El. “That is so important to us because artists and people from downtown can come up on the El or the Metra and walk half a block and they’re in the theater.”
For those who drive, free parking will be available in a nearby Evanston garage.
In addition, Jones reported, 7,000 people live within walking distance from the new theater.
Northlight’s new theater should also enliven the downtown Evanston area. “There are already new restaurants opening up,” Jones reported.
Evans concluded, “We wanted to be in downtown Evanston but, when we bought this property, there was not much going on. We felt we could be part of the Renaissance of downtown Evanston.”
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
