Who is merle reskin

And Maude Adams appeared in her last major role in as a starving waif who took care of some war orphans in James M. Barrie's A Kiss for Cinderella. On that occasion Amy Leslie reported that the audience called Adams back repeatedly for curtain calls in "a kind of hysterical ovation. During the s the Blackstone Theatre presented nearly 60 plays. Cohan's The Baby Cyclone. Plays at the Blackstone usually ran for two to four weeks.

The Blackstone continued to bring well-known stars to Chicago during the s. Tanqueray Spencer Tracy appeared in George M. Cohan's The Baby Cyclone In the late s the Theatre Guild selected the Blackstone Theatre as a home for its touring productions. Founded in in New York, the Guild decided in to enlarge its playing company and present subscription series in Chicago and five other cities. Dorothy and DuBose Heyward's Porgy , with an all-black cast, was scheduled for two weeks, but was held over for seven.

This was the play on which George Gershwin based his musical. Subsequently, attendance declined. O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra at the Blackstone in was considered "an event of the first magnitude," but it was the only Theatre Guild production to appear in Chicago that season. During the early s theatres that presented live drama were reeling as a result of both the introduction of talkies in and the stock market crash of Chicago Tribune critic Charles Collins, summarizing "The Season in Chicago" for for Burns Mantle's annual The Best Plays, lamented that the Chicago stage was struggling "like a wounded stag with the remorseless hounds of the economic depression in close, menacing pursuit.

Only seven theatres still tried to offer live productions on a more or less regular basis. When the total number of productions dropped to 21 in , Charles Collins feared that the legitimate stage in Chicago might soon "become totally extinct.

The Blackstone Theatre suffered with the rest, although there were bright moments. When Walter Hampden brought his revival of Cyrano de Bergerac on a cross-country tour to the Blackstone for one week in , the theatre was sold out for every performance, and box-office receipts for the week were the second highest in the Blackstone's history.

Nevertheless, the number of productions at the Blackstone declined and the number of dark nights increased. At the end of Mitchell Erlanger and Harry Powers terminated their lease. Tracy and John Drake, the owners of the Blackstone Theatre building, took over the management of the theatre for a year. But they had borrowed to finance the purchase of the land under the hotel and theatre in , and they were unable to meet the mortgage payments to the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, which foreclosed in A new organization called Playgoer's, Inc.

Playgoer's hoped to become "a permanent organization for the professional production of plays, with the avowed purpose of restoring the confidence of the Chicago theatre-going public by taking it out of the hands of the second-string road companies with cast-off productions which have been its fate for the last few years.

After a week of performances by the Abbey Theatre Players from Dublin in , no more professional touring productions appeared at the Blackstone until The Blackstone was by no means empty in the interim. The Federal Theatre Project, established by the Works Progress Administration in , leased the Blackstone and the Great Northern theatres for its rehearsals and performances in Chicago. From until Congress abolished the program in , the Federal Theatre Project staged more than 20 productions at the Blackstone Theatre.

Hoyt written in featuring a Texas rancher who bought his seat in Congress; and a revival of a melodrama by William Gillette called Secret Service , written in Several productions during the first season had substantial runs, especially Broken Dishes, a comedy by Martin Flavin about a family's rebellion against a domineering mother, which ran from mid-June to mid-October.

But Hallie Flanagan, national director of the Federal Theatre Project, dismissed the plays as "nothing but new heights of old hokum. Hallie Flanagan reported later that two attempts at experimental plays early in the first season had to be abandoned because of censorship. Rehearsals of Meyer Levin's Model Tenement , concerning housing problems that culminated in a rent strike, were halted after higher administrators in the W.

Kelly, who had recently banned a dramatization of Erskine Caldwell's Tobacco Road , was upset; and the state administrator of the W. Kondolf's goal was to produce new plays that originated in Chicago. The world premiere of Howard Koch's The Lonely Man , a drama about Abraham Lincoln's reincarnation as a liberal professor and union lawyer at a small college in Kentucky, ran for 12 weeks in , and was praised by Chicago Daily News critic Lloyd Lewis as "the most ambitious and literate of the W.

Another notable production at the Blackstone, Spirochete , was written by Arnold Sundgaard, a young dramatist on the Chicago project. Using the "Living Newspaper" format introduced by the Federal Theatre, the play dramatized the dangers of syphilis, a subject explored two decades earlier in Damaged Goods. Sundgaard's play was highly praised by the medical profession and the press. Even the Chicago Tribune, which was generally hostile toward the Federal Theatre and other New Deal programs, considered Spirochete a "valuable contribution.

By that time Chicago Tribune drama critic Cecil Smith could report in his summary of The Best Plays for that "for the first time in a decade it is possible to submit a reasonably bright and cheery account of theatre in Chicago. Starring Percy Waram and Lillian Gish, the Chicago production opened in February , and eventually ran for 66 weeks, establishing a record as the longest-running production in the city's history.

But this record was soon broken by another production at the Blackstone. Good Night Ladies! The week seasons achieved by the Blackstone Theatre in the early s reflected the return of some degree of prosperity for the remaining live theatres in Chicago. The total playing time for all theatres in Chicago reached weeks in , an increase of 39 percent over the previous season. This rose to weeks in and weeks in Playbills indicate that the Slavin Amusement Company operated the Blackstone Theatre from early to mid, followed by the Blackstone Theatre Company, which in was succeeded by the "Messrs.

The period of prosperity for live theatre in the early s did not last long. Attendance figures for live theatre and motion pictures shot up during World War II. After the war ended and more consumer goods became available again, people spent more of their disposable income on houses, automobiles and major appliances.

The most damaging impact on national attendance at both live theatre and movies resulted from the rise of television: the number of sets in American households soared from 14, in to 32,, in People stayed home to watch their favorite programs and went out for the evening much less frequently.

As a result, attendance at theatres declined during the s and s. Total playing time for all theatres in Chicago dropped back to weeks in and weeks in Seasons at the Blackstone dwindled to 28 weeks in and 19 weeks in During the s, the Blackstone's seasons ranged from 14 to 33 weeks. By The Best Plays no longer bothered to include Chicago. There were still some successful productions at the Blackstone Theatre.

Deborah Kerr appeared in in Elia Kazan's production of Robert Anderson's Tea and Sympathy , and Chicago Sun-Times critic Herman Kogan wrote that the ovation was the kind that audiences "reserve for a really rare performance that shines in every facet like a gem. Unfortunately, Chicago Tribune critic Claudia Cassidy reported, it opened on a "scalding August night" and "Wilting wags maintained that the air conditioning consisted of J. Shubert blowing on two ice cubes. Lee's Inherit the Wind ran for 17 weeks later during that season.

When Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne came to the Blackstone for their farewell appearance in , Cassidy reported that "no shoehorn could have squeezed more customers into the Blackstone for the painfully short three weeks allotted The Visit , by Swiss playwright Friedrich Duerrenmatt.

Its sight lines are good, and you'll be able to see and hear well from almost any seat in the house. By that time, a renaissance was taking place in Chicago theatre. In Second City began honing the improvisational skills of successive members of its ensemble in satirical reviews.

The success of innovative new productions at Hull House Theatre directed by Robert Sickinger beginning in , wrote Chicago Tribune critic Richard Christiansen, "proved that there was an audience in Chicago eager to see the kind of drama that was being produced Off Broadway in New York.

By the s Chicago was recognized as "the hottest theatre town in America. The exciting developments in Chicago's resident theatre companies were accompanied by continued stagnation and decline in the downtown theatres, which relied on touring productions from New York.

Most of the shows arrive here long after the fact, tired out, with cheap casts and absentee direction. Although seasons at the Blackstone now included more dark nights than evenings with performances, many good plays were offered there from to Lee's First Monday in October in For the season, the League of Chicago Theatres reported that its members had presented 12, performances of productions; and that attendance at professional theatres had reached 2,, Meanwhile, the Blackstone Theatre was dark throughout It had last been used in when the National Theatre of Great Britain performed there as part of the first International Theatre Festival.

By August of the Shubert Organization had decided to dispose of the Blackstone Theatre, as it had already done with all its other Chicago theatres except the Shubert. Chairman Gerald Schoenfeld offered the building to DePaul University because it is "an organization that is vigorously involved in the theatre arts in Chicago.

In it was renamed The Theatre School. The marriage of one of the country's oldest theatre schools to one of Chicago's oldest remaining theatres devoted to live performance was a momentous occasion.

DePaul also has made sure that the theatre's artistic content is at a high level for the reopening. Members of the theatre community in Chicago are delighted that this use by DePaul enables Chicago to save an important theatre. Since DePaul's purchase of the Blackstone Theatre, it has generously shared the theatre with many prominent Chicago performing arts organizations, as well as companies from around the world.

In , the DePaul Blackstone Theatre celebrated its 80th birthday. John T. Richardson C. Richardson was presented a Joseph Jefferson Award for his outstanding leadership and efforts in the rescue, nurturing and refurbishing of both The Theatre School and the Blackstone Theatre. Chicago's first lady Maggie Daley presented the award saying, "As if they were two abandoned or orphaned children, the Goodman School in and the Blackstone Theatre in were adopted and given homes by DePaul University.

As if they were long-lost siblings meant for each other, the nowyear-old theatre school and the year-old theatre have since been able to enjoy prolonged and productive lives. Theoni V. Current faculty member Nan Cibula-Jenkins designed the costumes for that production. In , due to the magnanimous gift from Mr. Since that time, the beloved theatre has served as the training ground for students of The Theatre School at DePaul University. Each season, the school offers a wide range of public programming for the community of Chicago.

The Theatre School is proud to maintain a busy, working schedule in the theatre — and delighted to honor the tradition that this theatre has been full of life and creativity for a century! There is a compelling openness about Merle Muskal Reskin — more than enough to conceal her shyness.

She would much rather be talking about myriad things rather than herself, but she must because her husband, Harold, has bestowed an enormous honor upon her: the gift of a theatre in her name.

Merle's name will become a permanent fixture on the historic Blackstone Theatre when the new marquee lights up, officially changing the name to the Merle Reskin Theatre.

What Merle is not shy about expressing is her happiness, awe and gratitude for what Harold has done for her, Chicago, DePaul University, and most importantly, the students of The Theatre School who are the real beneficiaries of this philanthropic tour de force.

This magnanimous gift came about through Harold's friendship with DePaul University president the Rev. Missing your show? Email us at [email protected]. Brooklyn Bridge. Closed: February 22, Closed: November 03, The Cat in the Hat. Closed: May 26, Augusta and Noble. Closed: November 11, Cinderella: The Remix. Closed: May 27, Peter Pan and Wendy.

Closed: May 28, Closed: June 08, Jackie and Me. Closed: May 10, Hansel and Gretel. Closed: November 16, The Coral King. Closed: May 25, Measure for Measure. Closed: April 28, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy. Closed: March 02, Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika. Closed: February 17, A Wrinkle in Time. Closed: December 01, Spring Awakening. Closed: October 07, Barrio Grrrl! A Musical. Closed: May 12, The Witches. Closed: December 03, Intimate Apparel.

Closed: October 09, Mayday Mayday Tuesday. Closed: May 22, Pinkalicious: The Musical. Closed: May 21, The Monster Under the Bed. Closed: March 01, The Secret Garden. Closed: December 04, Closed: October 10, Thieves Like Us. Closed: May 23, Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

Closed: April 25, A Midsummer Night's Dream. A Raisin in the Sun. Closed: February 14, Closed: October 11, Sex with Strangers. Closed: August 09, Ski Dubai. The Walls. Closed: June 20, Dancing at Lughnasa. Closed: February 15, A Streetcar Named Desire. Closed: October 12, Closed: March 04, The Burial at Thebes. Tales as Old as Africa. Closed: December 08, Closed: October 14, Einstein is a Dummy. The Trial. Closed: April 29, The BFG.

Closed: March 06, Life's A Dream. Closed: February 18, Sideways Stories from Wayside School. Closed: December 02, Cloud 9. Closed: October 15, Two Trains Running. The Kingdom of Grimm.

Closed: May 20, Closed: April 23,