Civic Center Tries to Collect Its Debts
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The Civic Center for Performing Arts is reportedly preparing to file suit against Wisdom Bridge Theatre to collect approximately $38,000 still due in production costs from Kabuki Faust and Hamlet, presented by Wisdom Bridge at the Civic Theatre in 1986. A Civic Center source close to the developments said the organization has tried to secure the money through every means possible, including a collection agency, but with no success. Civic Center backer Dino D’Angelo lost hundreds of thousands of dollars over a seven-year period presenting the work of local and touring not-for-profit organizations. The Civic Center source indicated that executives there were at least looking for some sign that Wisdom Bridge intends to make good on its debt, a sign that thus far has not been forthcoming. “We’re trying to work all those things out,” said John Conlon, one of the chairmen of the Wisdom Bridge board of directors. Joyce Sloane, a former Wisdom Bridge chairman, added that the debt isn’t likely to be paid off in the near future. Meanwhile, Wisdom Bridge producing director Jeffrey Ortmann boasted in last Friday’s Sun-Times that the company was working on the acquisition of the old Lerner Newspapers building, which is adjacent to the theater on Howard Street; if acquired, the building would be converted into second theater space. Wisdom Bridge also recently announced the transfer of its hit production of Only Kidding to Briar Street Theatre while the Howard Street stage is devoted to a dramatic adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
Slimmer, Trimmer League of Chicago Theatres?
