A center for the community

If you had a chance to build a new home for creativity,
entertainment, and community hijinks, what would it contain?

Theater Wit has been thinking about that question since its beginning, knowing its future depended on not only answering it, but making it happen. Because of your support over the past few years, we have the possibility of that future and you have a new home to experience the best of Chicago storefront theater. In the first year alone, 19 incredible multi-disciplinary arts organizations are telling their stories for youth and adults in our three spaces. Since we officially opened Theater Wit on September 1st, the building has been hopping, with up to eight performances a day happening in all three spaces. I spent last Saturday here and it was a positive joy to see the building so active: four theaters held classes, auditions, one technical rehearsal, five performances, and one birthday party over a period of 14 hours. The staff was wiped out but really excited; you can really feel the theatre becoming a center for the community.

At last...

It's hard to believe we've finally reached opening. Seven years is a long time, and the last 16th months has seemed even longer. But, we're finally ready. As I type this, it's late, about 2am, and I'm sitting in the house of Theater 1. The space is dark and quiet but it doesn't feel empty. It feels anticipatory. When the building was under construction, being here at night was unnerving; I felt like a trespasser. It wasn't our space, it belonged to the construction workers and the city inspectors and the general contractor and the engineers.

First Time Sex

Spin had it's first preview last night to a crowd of about 60 random members of the public, and it was a smashing success. It's one of my favorite performances of a play, when it first interacts with the audience. Always amazingly unexpected, and so many discoveries get made during that first performance. Sure, it can be a little rough around the edges, but it's one of the most surprising and honest evenings a play has in it's life.

Penny made the observation afterwards that the first preview is a little like having sex with someone the first time. There is a lot of "Oh, you like that, do you?" and "Wow, that's one of my A-list moves--I was sure that was going to work a lot better." At one point, the audience started laughing and clapping; none of us had any expectation of that particular line eliciting any reaction at all and we lost the next few beats. The audience also applauded right before the last line of the play, so we had a bit of a premature climax moment.

But there were a ton of pleasant surprises as well: the timing of the dialogue was dead-on, the play seemed to move the audience effortlessly between the more heartfelt, emotional lines and the comic moments. The evening felt warm and effervescent. And at the end, the show got a standing ovation, which I have never had at a first preview.

We'll do it again tonight. I guess now we're in a relationship.