Theater League Lays Back
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It didn’t take long for the League of Chicago Theatres to revert to its blase attitude. In the wake of the resignation of executive director Diane Olmen and early attempts to revitalize the ineffective trade association, a meeting of the League’s full membership was called for September 10 to ratify a new bylaw officially expanding the board of directors to 21 from 15 members. Just this summer, at the League’s annual theater-industry retreat, the board expansion had been vigorously encouraged by the association’s not-for-profit contingent, presumably to ensure their interests wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the increasing clout of the city’s for-profit commercial producers. But the intense interest in the bylaw change seems to have diminished considerably since it first was broached in July. When the membership convened at the Royal George Theatre to pass the new bylaw, a quorum was not present despite a meeting announcement having been sent to the entire membership of more than 100 theaters. The meeting was temporarily adjourned while a number of theater representatives who did manage to show up hit the telephones in the Royal George lobby in an attempt to round up enough executives from nearby theater companies to produce the necessary quorum. Eventually the needed bodies materialized, and the bylaw change was passed with only one member voting against it. League vice-president Wes Payne sought to downplay the poor attendance. “I think there was so much unanimity within the membership about the bylaw change,” he explains, “that everyone figured their vote wasn’t needed. Plus it was the beginning of the season, and everyone was tied up with other things.”
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