The show that opened the theatre on March 15, 1977 was Cap Streeter, a musical play about an infamous Chicago legend, produced by the Dinglefest Theatre Company.
Company members toured the north side of the city on bicycles in order to search for a permanent space to produce. The chosen location: 1225 West Belmont.
Prior to its transformation into a theatre complex, the building served as a storage warehouse for foodstuffs for the Kuhn’s Delicatessen – principally chocolate.
A rose by any other name -- in our history we have been known as: The Luther Burbank Dingleberry Festival, the Dinglefest Theatre Company, Theatre Building, Performance Community, New Tuners Theatre, and the Making Tuners Workshop. Today our only official moniker is Theatre Building Chicago.
The Dinglefest Theatre Company, with its unique improvisatory style, produced many original plays. One was Verbatim, which won eight Chicago Drama Critics Awards. Another was RSVP Broadway, which featured that grand Chicago dance master Julian Swain. Other Dinglefest shows were Fresh or Frozen, Young Bucks, Bear, and Old Soldiers. Notorious Dinglefest performers include Bob Fiddler, Gary Konigsfeld, Dean Matthews, Eileen San Filippo , Colin Stinton and Karen Swanson.
The colander chandelier was the brilliant brainchild of founder Byron Schaffer, Jr. Don’t tell the electrical inspectors – Byron installed the chandelier himself.
Several friends of the theatre including arts patron, Hope Abelson, donated the gilded lobby mirrors. The first box office “safe” was Mrs. Abelson’s fur vault.
Pary Production Company was one of the original occupants of the theatre and produced such memorable plays as Berlin to Broadway, Drums, Frankenstein, The Irish Hebrew Lesson and Josephine the Mouse Singer, and The Phone Room. Several of Pary’s gifted artists are Larry Hart, Patricia Hart, and Gary Houston.
Lone Star & Bourbon presented by Travel Light in 1979 featured the tall and talented Sigourney Weaver.
Byrne Piven, the late great Chicago actor and teacher (and Jeremy’s dad), appeared in The Man in 605 by Allan Gross. The show also featured Aidan Quinn and was produced by TBC in 1979.
Absolute Theatre Company presented several seasons of fine work from 1982 to 1990 under founder Warner Crocker who directed numerous award winning plays such as The Ballad of the Sad Café. Warner later served as TBC’s artistic director and supervised such new musical productions as Trask & Fenn and Fat Tuesday. Warner now serves as artistic director of Wayside Theatre in his home state, Virginia.
Steppenwolf’s first show in the city of Chicago, Say Good Night, Gracie, opened November, 1979 at TBC and performed through early 1980 and featured John Malkovich and Austin Pendleton.
TBC has branched into dance events beginning with a special Dance Series in 1981. In 1993 Julia Mayer McCarthy performed the one-woman Detour and Atlas/Axis presented the choreography of Ken Thompson in Permanent Record. Pasqual Olivera and Angela Del Moral created and performed Te Amo produced by New Tuners/TBC in 2000. Rebound Dance, choreographer Ken Gash, and Dance Crash are the latest emerging artists to present new dance pieces.
The theatre has had an internship program since its inception. Our interns have come to us from around the world: over a dozen states in the US as well as Canada, England, France, Germany, Holland, Indochina, Italy and Scotland.
TBC’s exterior arch and façade were designed by the late renowned architect, Crombie Taylor, who restored the interior spaces at the Auditorium Theatre and was a member of the prestigious Institute of Design.
The dressing room toilets have gold-plated, silent flush handles and the public restrooms have marble-tiles floors all supplied from a Magnificent Mile luxury apartment complex.
Morning Call was the first televised play in Chicago in 1982. Tony Randall was the fine MC in this NBC and Steppenwolf joint endeavor.
Chicago Premier Society presented the unique Sharon Carlson in Summer Stock Murder by Chicagoans Kingsley Day & Philip LaZebnik in1982.
Tooth of Crime by Sam Shepard, a Remains Theatre presentation in 1982, featured Gary Cole and William Peterson (of TV’s CSI fame).
Occhipinti Productions presented John Herrera in March of the Falsettos by William Finn in 1983. Wisdom Bridge Theatre offered Falsettos in Porchlight Music Theatre Chicago later offered an entire FinnFest in 2005.
Stuart Oken, who currently heads Elephant Eye Theatrical, was one of the producers of the Chicago Theatre Project which ran for a season in 1983-1984 and presented such new works as Larry Shue’s Wenceslas Square which starred Gary Houston.
For many years the company mascot was the lovable mutt, Webster, also know as the Web. Long before the Internet, Web worked everyday at the theatre as the principal “meeter and greeter” to the great dismay of the mailman.
Babes in Barns, with lyrics and music by our artistic director John Sparks, played in the 1984-85 season and introduced us to John’s multiple musical theatre writing skills.
In our early days, we were pioneers in a rough and ready Lakeview. We were once notified by Chicago‘s special police force of a hostage situation in a building east of us. A police escort accompanied the staff and a crew of volunteers from Community Alternatives to safety through the alley to the auto parts store west of us. In the now gentrified Lakeview, we enjoy our current neighbors All Types Fireplaces and Bailiwick Repertory.
Absolute Theatre Company presented several seasons of fine work such as On the Razzle by Tom Stoppard and Loot by Joe Ortman, which were directed by Absolute’s assistant artistic director Michael Leavitt who is now a noted Broadway producer.
Chris Barry, a former TBC marketing director and managing director of the late great Immediate Theatre as well as the Next Theatre Company, was married to Jeff Webb in the lobby. We have hosted four weddings in our history.
TBC served as the home for the High Holiday services when a local synagogue was unable to use its meeting place due to fire damage. We are also a polling place and a regular meeting hall for various community forums and conferences.
Agnes Mooreheard, a stray calico cat maintained temporary quarters in TBC’s box office for several months in 1985 until she found a permanent place with local playwright George Gorham.
In 1986, founder Ruth E. Higgins initiated the musical theatre writers’ workshop with the name, The Making Tuners Workshop.
In 1986 Copper Productions/Apple Tree Theatre presented the incomparable Alene Robertson as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd. In 2004 Porchlight Music Theatre Chicago featured the Jeff Award-winning Rebecca Finnegan in the same role.
RapMaster Ronnie, a musical satire of the Reagan administration, was the longest running show at the theatre –81 weeks from February 1986 to August 1987. The show also entertained the theatre’s most famous audience member, President Jimmy Carter.
TBC has hosted several special musical groups and events. Gospel Arts Workshop called TBC home in 1977. Chicago Opera Theatre offered a new opera series in 1986-88. Nonono Productions presented the song cycle Songs of Love & Remembrance in 1992. Chicago a Cappella offered its inaugural concert at TBC in 1993. The Artemis Singers, an all woman ensemble offered Artemis Unplugged in 1995. The contemporary ensemble CUBE presented Jon Steinhagen’s opera The Tell-Tale Heart performed by David Holloway.
While starring in Chumbo First Dog Part II in 1986, Brodie, the Wonder Dog gave birth in her dressing room to a litter of pups. Brodie took two evenings off after the birth and then resumed her performances. The pups later found loving, non-theatrical homes.
The Off Off Loop Theatre Festival, produced by the League of Chicago Theatres in 1987 and again by the Douglas Theatre Group in 1991, featured such name-worthy emerging companies as Blind Parrot Productions, igloo, the theatrical group, Mina Sama No, Seahorse Theatre Project, and Theatre of the Reconstuction.
We premiered Charles Strouse’s The Future of the American Musical Theatre in 1987.
In 1987 “The Theatre Building” was honored to receive a Special Honors Joseph Jefferson Citation for a decade of service to Chicago’s theatre community.
Most troupes use TBC as a space for one long-running play. In 1988 in response to several companies’ requesting a seasonal home base rather than a spot for a single hit, we initiated “United Stages at Theatre Building.” Six companies comprised United Stages: Absolute Theatre Company, American Blues Theater (now American Theater Company), Chicago Shakespeare Company, Commons Theatre, Immediate Theatre and Touchstone Theatre, “United Stages at Theatre Building” lasted through the 1989 and 1990 seasons.
A Change in the Heir had a six-month run in Chicago in 1988 and was picked up for a Broadway engagement through Lewis Lazare’s entertainment column in Crain’s Chicago Business.
Jeremy Piven (prior to TV’s Entourage fame) performed in the Next Theatre Company’s presentation of Knuckle in 1989.
Bagley Perkins Productions’ 1989 holiday hit, The Wind in the Willows, by Douglas Post starred David Rice as Mr. Toad.
In 1990 American Players Theatre presented Anton Chekhov’s The Bear with Randall Duk Kim in the “title” role.
American Blues Theater (now American Theater Company) presented Keith Reddin’s Peacekeeper in 1990. The play was directed by David Petrarca, now a director on Aaron Sorkin’s NBC’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. The play also featured company members Kate Buddeke, Jim Leaming and Carmen Roman.
Charlie’s Oasis Museum and Bar played TBC in 1990 and then played the Music Theatre of Omsk in Siberia in repertory for five years as CharlieBar. We supplied the Siberians with a production team comprised of a director, a choreographer, the two authors, a set designer, and an orchestrator. Our founder Ruth E. Higgins and an interpreter also joined the team.
The various artwork displayed in the theatre comes from Siberian artists in appreciation of our trip to Omsk with Charlie’s Oasis Museum and Bar.
Edward Albee visited TBC to advise in the 1990 presentation of Tiny Alice and again in the 1995 presentation of Sand: The Beach Plays.
Lookingglass Theatre Company presented West in 1991 with David Schwimmer who subsequently really did go west to LA (and fame in TV’s Friends).
Barto Productions, under the direction of the late beloved Michael Barto, transformed the West Theatre into the Welsh seaside complete with a stage pond and boating dock for Under Milkwood in 1992.
Due to the summer blackout of 1992, Cloud 42 opened Zero Positive with emergency lights only and received the admiration of Chicago Tribune critic Richard Christiansen.
Former intern Will Chase played a starring role in the new musical Trask & Fenn in 1992. Subsequently he has gone on to starring roles on Broadway in Miss Saigon and Aida.
In 1993 Remains Theatre presented Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest. Directed by Michael Grief (later director of Rent on Broadway) the play, in a theatre full of cigarette smoke, offered insight into the infamous Romanian Revolution of 1989.
TBC’s intensive internship program offers students the opportunity to break into the field. Our interns have gone on to careers at institutions both here and abroad such as Chicago Opera Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the League of Chicago Theatres, Light Opera Works, the Royal Albert Hall, Second City, and the Teatro Sperimentale Spoleto, WWTTW.
Be My Guest with Ben Hollis of public TV fame was presented live and interactive by Bailiwick Rep in 1992.
CT20 Ensemble presented the swash-buckling The Fair Maid of the West under the direction of Kevin Theis in 1994.
Our long-running holiday musical, Hans Brinker, premiered in 1994, played for six seasons and is now under option in Europe in Dutch, Frisian and Flemish.
Dolphinback Theatre Company presented the multi-evening drama American Divine: The Spirit, The Fever, and Shining Souls in 1995.
Intense contract negotiations between TBC’s executive director Joan Mazzonelli and Dolphinback Theatre Company’s founding artistic director KellyAnn Corcoran resulted in the adoption of two stray cats, Janeway and Little Nell, who both found temporary living quarters at TBC and a permanent situation in the Mazzonelli household.
The Way I Wear My Hat by budding Chicago playwright Ann Noble was co-produced by Martini Productions and Seanachai Theatre Company in 1996. Seanachai also presented the playwright’s The Pagans, which won a Jeff Award for best new work.
The Chicago Underground Film Festival (CUFF) played for three consecutive summers, 1996-1998.
Arielle Tepper cut her producing teeth in 1997 on Vices, an original rock musical featuring the seven deadly sins. Currently she produces on Broadway and sponsors original work in New York in the Summer Play Festival.
About Face Theatre presented the updated edition of Mort Crowley’s The Boys in the Band in 1997.
Blood Curdling Productions offered the Chicago premiere of the West End hit The Woman in Black in 1997. The mystery was directed by Todd Schmidt and featured the fine Chicago actors Greg Vinckler and Timothy Gregory as well as the wicked wicket basket from the original London production.
Plan B Productions presented the Midwest premier of Pentecost by David Edgar in 1998. The set for this award-winning presentation was the construction site in the South Theatre as the space was being renovated and refurbished.
In 1997 the Illinois Theatre Association honored TBC with an Outstanding Contribution Award for twenty years of service.
Mike Leigh’s Beautiful Thing was presented at TBC in 1998 by Famous Door Theatre Company and then moved to the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City. The play was directed by Gary Griffin who later also moved to New York City to direct Broadway’s The Color Purple.
Many companies call TBC home for a season or two or three. We have been host to Bailiwick Repertory, Chicago Theatre Project, City Lit Theater, Congo Square Theatre, Emerald City Theatre, Famous Door Theatre Company, Griffin Theatre, Porchlight Music Theatre Chicago and Provision Theatre.
Theatre Building Chicago believes in recycling. The seats in all three spaces were originally in the late great Candlelight Theatre, Chicago’s first dinner theatre which closed in 1998.
In 1999 Famous Door Theatre Company presented Graham Reid’s Remembrance, which showcased the considerable talents of Mary Ann Thebus and Mike Nussbaum.
Lookingglass Theatre Company converted the South Theatre into a circus space complete with trapeze for its adaptation of The Baron in the Trees in 1999.
Princess Turandot, the “commedia” by Carlo Gozzi, was presented in 2001 by European Repertory.
In 2001 Light Opera Works’ artistic director, noted Broadway performer and choreographer Lara Teeter staged TBC’s presentation of Crazy Mary, a new musical about the life of Mary Todd Lincoln.
Theatre Building Chicago has presented STAGES, a Festival of New Musicals each summer for thirteen years from 1993-2006. In its history, STAGES launched 115 new musicals and nurtured authors from across the country and as far a field as Australia and England with many new musicals moving on to other productions both regionally and nationally.
Mark Ray Hollmann joined the TBC workshop for musical theatre writers in 1987. He won the 2002 Tony Award for Urinetown and TBC presented his new musical Wild Goat in 2004.
Susan DiLallo, a workshop alumna, won the 2003 Edward Kleban Award and the 2003 Richard Rodgers Award for Once Upon a time in New Jersey, which was presented locally at the Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre.
Dave Hudson and Paul Libman, TBC Musical Theatre Writers Workshop members, won the 2005 Richard Rodgers award for their new musical Dust and Dreams: Celebrating Sandburg, originally titled Bringers.
In 2006 Theatre Building Chicago produced the world premiere of Josephine Tonight! with book and lyrics by Sherman Yellen and music by the late Wally Harper. The rocking chair featured in the show made its first appearance at TBC in 1989 in Desire Under the Elms presented by American Blues Theatre.
In 2006 former TBC intern Marcella Goheen joined with TBC to present If Trane Wuz Here, a jazz/dance tribute to John Coltrane featuring Savion Glover, reg e gaines and Matana Roberts.
Our smoking passion for new theatre had new meaning when a fire hit TBC on April 13, 2006. Despite the fire, we maintained our “never-ending season” reputation with uninterrupted performances & rehearsals of five current or upcoming productions!
Bo, the red-tailed boa constrictor appeared in Bohemian Theatre Ensemble’s presentation of Side Show. When not performing, Bo spent his weekends in a warm cage in his dressing room for the duration of the run.
TBC has entertained children beginning in 1977 with Step on a Crack by Chrysalis Theatre Company and Adah! by Playworks in 1982. Child’s Play Touring Theatre offered Santa & the Witch and Write On Chicago in 1986. In 1993 pre-eminent storyteller Kathleen Post enchanted the little ones every Saturday with the Cookie Crumb Club. Schoolhouse Rock Live! by Theatre BAM played at TBC in 1996 and Emerald City Theatre Company presented Captain Virtue and the Champions of Justice, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Winnie the Pooh in 1997-1998. Most recently both Prologue Theatre and Lil Buds have offered winter classes and summer theatre camps for kids. TBC launched its own theatre for preschool children in 2004 with Tantrum on the Tracks and The Adventures of Anansi the Spider.
The Chicago Sketchfest has offered the full gamut of sketch and improv comedy at TBC every season since 2002.
In our 30-year history, Theatre Building Chicago has hosted over 800 plays; 9,000 events; 500 theatre companies; 1,078,000 audience members; 29,400 actors, designers, directors and other theatre artists appearing in over 25,000 performances. This goes to show you that opportunity and perseverance are the two virtues that epitomize the history of Theatre Building Chicago.
