Sunlight pours in through floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating the exposed steel, warm wood accents and sweeping grand staircase that anchors the lobby of the brand new Northlight Theatre in Evanston.
Just beyond the entrance, an intimate bar with leather lounge chairs invite patrons to gather before the house lights dim or linger during intermission to swap reactions about their favorite moments of the performance.
After nearly 30 years in Skokie, the acclaimed Northlight Theatre has returned to Evanston, its original home, welcoming theater lovers and local residents alike with a $32.2 million state-of-the-art performance space at 1012 Church Street.
“The real goal always was to try and have our own space and be in control of our own environment and box office,” said BJ Jones, Northlight Theatre’s artistic director.
“[Our patrons] are very loyal and clearly they have stepped up and donated to help build this building. Coming back to Evanston is a big thing for the community, but it’s just as big for Northlight.”
Northlight first opened its doors to the public in 1974 as the Evanston Theatre Company, founded as part of Northwestern student Gregory Kandel’s master’s thesis, according to Jones.
Kandel joined up with artistic director Mike Nussbaum and Frank Galati, and the three built what would become one of the largest and longest-running nonprofit theaters in the Chicago area and among the most beloved institutions of the North Shore.
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The theater relocated from Evanston to Skokie’s North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in 1997, ushering in a new artistic era for the organization, but still one that lacked a permanent home.
Jones and Executive Director Tim Evans told Pioneer Press the search for a performance space the company could call its own began about 10 years ago, with Northlight later settling on the Church Street location and negotiating a lease for ownership in 2020.
“COVID happened, and the deal fell apart,” Evans said.
“About a year or so later, we reignited the deal, and we were able to purchase the property. We tore down the building…and we continued to raise money for the project.”
Executives knew raising the full amount needed to finance the endeavor — $32.2 million to be exact — would be no small feat.
But by the time of its July 28 ribbon-cutting ceremony, a little more than a year after breaking ground, Northlight had reached the finish line.
“There’s 625 donors for this building; 70% of them come from Evanston,” Evans said.
About $4 million in state funding was awarded for the project nearly six years ago and $2 million came from city ARPA funds, he added, “but the rest is individual donations.”
“[These donations] reflect a passion for the city…this is a city and they care and they’re incredibly loyal. They came to Skokie, but they wanted to bring us home,” Jones said.
According to officials, Northlight patrons are expected to generate $56 million in new city spending and over $450,000 in tax revenue within the first five years of operation.
The 25,000-square-foot, 287-seat performance space will offer theater-goers an intimate yet elaborate viewing experience.
“There isn’t a bad seat in the house,” Jones added. “[The stage structure] is based on the old Greek sort of thrust. It’s not as deep a thrust as we had in Skokie, so it’s a little more accessible at 30 feet to the lip of the stage from the last row.”
A thrust stage extends outward into the audience, which is seated on all three sides of it. Typically, these stages are used to create intimacy between actors and their audience.
“We have backstage space that we never had before…and there’s the ability to raise and lower the thrust stage,” to facilitate whatever floor type is needed, he said.
Evans and Jones said they wanted both the stage and general building architecture to evoke an accessible yet “industrial look.”
“Because you know, we make stuff in here, we make art in here,” Jones said.
The exterior floor-to-ceiling window layout was also intentional, in the hopes that “people could look at the building and see what’s going on,” he said. “We wanted it to glow at night.”
While a full-service food menu isn’t in the works, a variety of drinks and snacks will be available for purchase starting at 5 p.m. and after the show concludes at the lobby bar.
Ticket prices will vary based on seating, but various discounts will be available for students and Evanston residents on Friday nights, officials said.
In collaboration with the theater’s community partners, about 2,000 tickets are set to be donated and distributed annually through the Arts for Everyone program.
With a city parking lot located behind the building, free parking available at the nearby Maple Street garage and the Davis CTA Purple Line stop just a few minutes’ walk away, event-goers will have multiple options in commuting to the theatre.
The inaugural performance season is set to kick off on Sept. 9, with the premiere of “The Front Page,” a 1928 stage play about the newspaper industry and the “unscrupulous politicians that inhabited Chicago’s political landscape at the time,” according to Jones.
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Jones said he had longtime friend and American playwright Jeffery Hatcher modernize and adapt the show, taking it down from “29 actors to 13” and from three acts to two.
“[The Front Page] is really about Chicago, and that was important to me, that we reflect our whole community in the first production.”
The show will run from Sept. 9 to Oct. 18.
“Everything’s up from here,” Evans said with a smile. “It’s exciting.”