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<DIV> Ok, I guess I'm going to date myself a bit here.</DIV>
<DIV> Back in the late 50's and early 60's (see- I told you so!)
Theater in Chicago was almost non-existent. I worked lighting at Encore Theater
in Chicago's Old Town. It was a semi-Professional Theater with a pass from
Equity to allow pro's to keep their hand in, so to speak. </DIV>
<DIV> Just down the block a bit was a fledgling group called Second
City. I'm proud to have taken lessons there, but discovered that I wasn't great
at improv. Loved her Theater exercises though!</DIV>
<DIV> Encore did Musicals mostly, had a 199 seat theater, and lost a
ton of money every year. It closed (sold to the Royal London Wax Museum, and do
I have stories about THAT!) in 1967. Towards the end, we began doing reviews of
about 1 1/2 hours, and were making money. Speaks to peoples attention span, I
guess! </DIV>
<DIV> Now to the point. 10 years later, Chicago had a vibrant and
extensive Performing Arts presence! I wish I could tell you how it happened, but
I was away at school, and then in the Marines. I suggest that anyone serious
about improving things here find out a bit more about how that happened. I do
know that a lot of small theaters sprung up first, and then larger ones
followed. Dinner theater was hugely popular! Something about watching from the
same table you ate at, and eating desert during intermission I suppose.</DIV>
<DIV> I have only lived in this area for a few years and thought
that it looked like you have a great performing arts community here. I guess
that the main challenge is in getting the audience attendance up. My guess
is that bringing in students from grade school and middle school is certainly a
great start.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> Curtiss</DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">The year's hottest artists on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards. <A title="http://music.aol.com/grammys?NCID=aolcmp00300000002565" href="http://music.aol.com/grammys?NCID=aolcmp00300000002565" target="_blank">AOL Music takes you there.</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>