Last weekend, Judy and Liza—Once in a Lifetime: The London Palladium Concert—A Tribute became the first indoor theater production in Chicago to open in phase four (or reopen, more accurately, since it originally ran for one weekend in March before the COVID-19 shutdown). That experiment in bringing back live indoor theater backfired in the light of widespread criticism on social media even before the first performance, including a very public resignation from Greenhouse Theater Center general manager Derek Rienzi Van Tassel on July 18.
Starting in 2014, the Greenhouse moved into producing with the solo show Churchill by Ronald Keaton. According to Spatz’s letter, “In the last 5 years we have produced or co-produced 30+ plays, mostly in Chicago but also in NYC and Florida, including numerous world premiers [sic].” (Coproductions, according to Spatz, generally paid about half of the usual rent for one of the five current venues in the building, and resident companies receive rent reductions and “a little more in benefits.”)
New leadership at See Chicago Dance and About Face
Samuel G. Roberson Jr., the actor and artistic director of Congo Square Theatre Company, died in 2017 at age 34 of complications of pneumonia. Now the League of Chicago Theatres has announced the Samuel G. Roberson Jr. Resident Fellowship, designated for early-to-mid-career Black artists.
