Every year, nearly eight million people visit the 10 remarkable Chicago institutions that comprise Museums In the Park. That’s more than half the entire population of Illinois. In fact, museums are the top reason tourists visit our state. From education to entertainment and all the discovery in between, there is no limit to the value, impact and potential these museums hold.

For more information on becoming an Arts Partner with the Chicago Park District contact the program coordinator at 312-742-5017.

• Current List of Arts Partners in Residence
• Flyer for Arts Partners in Residence Program
• Guidelines and Application for Artists/Arts Organizations

The theater, on Morse Avenue at Wayne Avenue, opened as Morse Theater in 1912, a vaudeville and movie house house. In the 1930s, the facility was remodeled using an Art Deco theme and renamed the Co-Ed Theater because of its proximity to Loyola University. The Co-Ed closed in 1954, and from 1956 until 2008 the building served in various capacities from synagogue to a shoe repair store.

Now, with a recent multi-million dollar restoration and renovation project, the entertainment and dining venue is poised to be a magnet for significant development in this north-side neighborhood.

In addition to live performance, and utilizing its state-of-the-art audio and video systems, the venue offers space for studio recordings, rehearsals, educational programs, corporate events and private parties.

For more information and a schedule of events, please visit: http://maynestage.com

The LSSO once again performed a Young People’s Concert on November 19 at Mather High School. Approximately 600 students from the surrounding elementary schools including Peterson attended as well as 200 Mather High School students. Funded by a grant from Target, LSSO performed this concert free of charge. Roughly 40 orchestra members including doctors, lawyers, teachers and other professionals took off a half day of work without compensation to bring an exposure and understanding of the orchestra and orchestral music to students who would not otherwise have this hands on live performance experience. They also performed a Young Peoples Concert last year at Northside for approximately the same number of students from the surrounding neighborhood including Peterson and Jamieson schools who were excitedto attend.

LSSO continues to rehearse and perform at Northside Prep renting the auditorium four times a year. Orchestra members (wind and brass players) donate their time three times a year helping the Northside Prep orchestra by perfoming alongside the string players at Northside’s concerts.

Please check the LSSO website to find out when this high caliber orchestra with a conductor who was named Conductor of the Year by the Illinois Council of Orchestras, performs in our own backyard. www.lsso.org

History of the Griffin Theatre

Celebrating its twentieth season, the Griffin Theatre Company established in 1988, is a not-for-profit, professional theatre company located in Chicago. Headed by Artistic Directors Richard A. Barletta and William J. Massolia, the mission of the Griffin Theatre Company is to create extraordinary and meaningful theatrical experiences for both children and adults by building bridges of understanding between generations that instill in its audience an appreciation of the performing arts. Through artistic collaboration the Griffin Theatre Company produces literary adaptations, original work and classic plays that challenge and inspire, with wit, style and compassion for the audience. The Griffin is supported by an ensemble of Artist in Residence with a range of disciplines include acting, designing, directing and production.

Old 20th District Police Station

The Griffin Theatre Company originated in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood in a factory loft the company renovated. In July 1992, the Griffin relocated to Andersonville and renovated the historic Calo Theater. Two years ago the Griffin vacated its space in Andersonville after thirteen years and is in the final negotiations with the city of Chicago to purchase the located at 1940 W. Foster in the Lincoln Square / Bowmanville neighborhood. The Griffin Theatre has been working closely with Alderman Patrick J. O’Connor of the 40th ward and the city of Chicago to finalize the project.

Over the last twenty years the Griffin has provided a wide range of work including world and mid-west premieres of acclaimed scripts, critically lauded productions of Shakespeare and original adaptations of novels. Thirteen of the Griffin’s 70 plus productions have appeared on Chicago area critics “Best of the Year” lists. These productions included, Time and the Conway, Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging, Ash Can Alley, Shakespeare’s Dog, Much Ado About Nothing, The Art of Success, Women and Wallace, The Downside, Romeo and Juliet, Loving Little Egypt, and Independence.

The following productions been awarded the theatre communities, mark of excellence, Jeff Citations for Independence, Time and the Conways, The Wild Swans, Riding the Dolphin and Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging. The Griffin also produced the west coast premiere of Riding the Dolphin in Los Angeles in 1996 and its world premiere production of Henry and the Second Gunman was optioned by Miramax Films.

Children’s programming at the Griffin brings young people original productions of award-winning children’s literature. Productions over the last eighteen years have included the world premieres of Sleeping Ugly, Frindle, Catherine Called Birdy, Romeo and Juliet are Alive and Well and Living in Maple Bend, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales and The Flying Trunk. Additionally, the Griffin’s national touring company has brought it’s children’s productions of Catherine Called Birdy, Frindle, and The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales to a national audience performing it’s children’s plays to over 40,000 children in the United States each year. Tours have included such prestigious venues as Cleveland Playhouse Square, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, Florida, and the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota, Florida.

This year the Griffin added it’s hit production of Letters Home to it’s national touring roster bringing that production to both young people and adults.

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Our theater was originally built in 1912 as a vaudeville and movie house. It was called the Regent Theater, it had one screen and could seat 725 people total.

In 1930 it was renamed the “400 Theater.” This is due to the fact that at the time “The Four Hundred” was a popular term for the top four hundred people in high society.

Keeping the name for over 65 years, the theater changed with the times. Even splitting the auditorium into multiple screens, calling itself the “400 Twin.”

We opened as “The New 400 Theaters” July 1st, 2009. Our aim is to keep the tradition of the 400′s rich history alive showing first run movies on 35mm format in four refurnished venues. Our staff aims to keep every customer’s experience a positive one so that they can feel they too are part of the “New Four Hundred.”

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“City Lit Theater Company is dedicated to the vitality and accessibility of the literary imagination.  City Lit will be producing concert readings and full-stage productions of adaptations of literary material, scripted plays by language-oriented playwrights, and original material developed especially for City Lit.”

–City Lit mission statement, 1980 and today

City Lit was founded in 1979 and incorporated in 1980 by Arnold Aprill, David Dillon, and Lorell Wyatt. At the time it was the only theatre in the nation devoted to stage adaptations of literary material, a form that has since become quite popular. Over 26 seasons, City Lit has explored fiction, non-fiction, poetry, biography, essays, and drama in performance, and presented a wide array of voices, from classic writers such as Henry James, Edith Wharton, Oliver Goldsmith, Mark Twain, Colette, and P. G. Wodehouse to such contemporary writers as Alice Walker, W.P. Kinsella, Lynda Barry, Raymond Carver, Edward Albee and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. As an Illinois not-for-profit corporation and a 501(c)3 federal tax-exempt organization, it keeps its ticket prices below the actual cost of operation and production, and depends on the support of those who share its belief in the beauty and power of the spoken written word.

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As an ensemble, we seek out stories relevant to our audiences’ everyday lives. We aim to find works that showcase and broaden our ensembles talents and our ensemble style. Each production is chosen by the company members as a whole.

Steep Theatre Company is our family and Steep Theatre is our home. We have created an environment that other artists and audience members have always found welcoming, enjoyable and engaging. Each of our talented members are dedicated both artistically and administratively to making Steep a fixture in the Chicago theatre community.

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Lifeline Theatre specializes in original literary adaptations. Its ensemble of artists uses imaginative, unconventional staging to portray sprawling stories in an intimate space. Lifeline is committed to promoting the arts in its Rogers Park neighborhood and is an anchor of the Glenwood Avenue Arts District. We aspire to create art that is relevant to our culturally diverse, increasingly youthful neighborhood.

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Working within and beyond the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities, About Face Theatre is committed to innovation, artistic excellence and community transformation. Through our projects, we strive to challenge our artists’ and audience’s intellects, imaginations, self-conceptions, moral expectations, and ideas about gender and sexuality in contemporary and historical contexts.

About Face has three programming arms: its award-winning Mainstage Season, its innovative New Works Program, and our nationally recognized Education Programs, including the celebrated About Face Youth Theatre and Educational Outreach tour that collectively reach approximately 5,000 Illinois students and teachers each year.

About Face has emerged as one of Chicago’s most respected theatres, and is quickly emerging as a national center for the development of gay and lesbian theatre.