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

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.

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Redtwist Theatre… focuses primarily on the very best contemporary drama in a uniquely intimate space (36-42 seats), with friendly hospitality, living room comfort, and a compelling brand of acting that is the signature style of Redtwist Theatre. Redtwist Theatre (formerly Actors Workshop Theatre) integrates the exciting, risky, and innovative style that is specifically mentioned in the final words of our mission statement.

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Pegasus Theatre is a professional not-for-profit theatre that began operations in October 1985 with a fixed performing space in the Deep Ellum district of Dallas, Texas. The mission of Pegasus Theatre is to:

“Produce new and original comedies in a professional setting, highlighting the talents of North Texas theatre artists.”

The theatre produced an annual season of shows for 17 years in its performing space at 3916 Main Street in Dallas, a total of nearly 100 productions. In December 2002, Pegasus co-produced an Off-Broadway show in New York City, then went “dark” for two years (2003-2004) while its principals (Kurt Kleinmann and Barbara Weinberger) focused on other projects (a tour, a book, a new performing space.)

In early 2005, Pegasus Theatre began work on a North Texas production of one of its signature shows presented in “Living Black & White.”™ Mind Over Murder!, premiered in January 2006 to packed and appreciative houses at the Eisemann Center in Richardson, Texas. It was a calculated risk to produce in such a large venue, and the positive experience at the Eisemann Center confirmed that North Texas audiences were ready for the return of the Black & White shows.

No overview of Pegasus Theatre is complete without a description of this unique production style, created and perfected by Artistic Director Kurt Kleinmann. Mr. Kleinmann has written a series of plays (15 to date) that are affectionate spoofs of American black-and-white movies of the 1930s and 1940s. The acting as well as all physical production aspects of these shows (lighting, set, costumes, makeup, sound, etc.) are painstakingly designed to recreate the look and feel of an old movie, live on stage. The effect is truly amazing and has garnered the theatre national exposure as well as critical acclaim.

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Address: PO Box 409360 – Chicago, Illinois 60640
Telephone: 773.809.4782
Website: www.sideshowtheatre.org

“Familiar Stories. Unorthodox Methods. Perpetually Curious”

Sideshow Theatre Company, an Illinois non-profit, was founded in 2007 in Chicago, Illinois. Our first production, Dante Dies!! (and then things get weird) was originally mentioned jokingly as the strangest imaginable subject matter for a one-person show. But when the laughter died down, an intense curiosity remained, as well as one defining question: “What if?” From that question a show, a company, and a mission were born.

It is the mission of Sideshow Theatre Company to mine the collective unconscious of the world we live in with limitless curiosity, drawing inspiration from the stories, memories and images we all share to spark new conversation and bring our audience together as adventurers in a communal experience ofexploration.