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Feature story: Signs of Trouble - Can Our Storefront Theaters survive the Broadway Blitz. "On Division Street, at Ashland and Milwaukee Avenues, the Chopin Theatre overlooks the "Polish Triangle," where neighborhood residents and elote vendors gather around the Nelson Algren fountain. Behind the theater's shabbily impressive terra cotta facade, Chopin owners Zygmunt Dyrkacz and Lela Headd have played host to some of the most thrilling theater the city's had to offer during the last 17 years: performances by such essential storefront companies as the Hypocrites, Collaboraction, Backstage and Signal Ensemble, among others, not to mention the European troupes the husband-and-wife team has imported and produced on its own dime. The two also have seen the demise of several respected storefront companies; Roadworks, Defiant and Uma Productions each put up their final shows under the Chopin's roof in the past few years. Headd rattles off a list of Chopin-based shows that have played to rave reviews and sold-out houses-and still couldn't cover their production costs. Dyrkacz recalls how he offered to put up half the cost of an extended run so more audiences could see Collaboraction's well-received Guinea Pig Solo in 2005. Though the houses were full, Collaboraction couldn't find a matching donor and the show closed; it was $5,000 short" - Chris Piatt and Kris Vire, TimeOut Chicago 09/26/07 Critic's Choice - INDIA MATRI BHUMI. ".Chicago Cinema Forum showed this at the Chopin Theatre a really indispensable place for theatrical and other artistic gatherings in this case showing film. Even though there was very little publicity -- only a couple of notices, a long review by our essential critic of cinema by Jonathan Rosenbaum in the Chicago Reader -- all of the performances announced were sold out. They even had to add a third performance." - Andrew Patner, WFMT, Chicago's Fine Arts and Classical Music radio station 9/12/07 " The phrases "standing room only -- second show added" and "Roberto Rossellini's rarely screened 1958 film 'India Matri Bhumi'" do not sound like bedfellows and in fact may never before have been used in the same sentence -- not even at the 1959 Cannes film festival, where Rossellini's poetic, form-busting evocation of India blew the mind of, among others, Jean-Luc Godard. But there I was last Saturday night, in the bustling lobby of the Chopin Theatre in Wicker Park -- a community asset of the first order -- trying to weasel my way into a sold-out Rossellini screening presented by a rogue agent of the Chicago exhibition scene, the Chicago Cinema Forum. No go. Couldn't get in. But the Forum folks and the Chopin folks hastily arranged a 9:30 p.m. showing to deal with the overflow, and about 100 people stuck around for it" - Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune 9/7/07 Chicago Public Radio interview about Post Revolution Blues Polish Ukrainian Film Festival organized by Chopin Theatre, Columbia University New York Ukrainian Film Club and Ukrainian Institute Modern Art in Chicago. M Jerome McDonnel, Worldview on Chicago Public Radio 8/23/07 TimeOut Chicago publishes 2007- 20 People to Watch a list of Chicagoans on the verge of a major breakthrouh featuring Brandon Bruce and Mikhael Tara Garver. Brandon directed Slawomir Mrozek's TANGO which was produced by Chopin and his company, Backstage Theater has performed alot at Chopin Theatre. Mikhael is the very talented Artistic Director of Uma Productions which is in residence at Chopin Theatre. 2005 Producer of the Year - Zygmunt Dyrkacz. "For importing fromPoland exquisite, abstract theatre pieces which were emotionally Charged, mysterious, and visually startling". Orgie Theatre Award for production "La Luna" and "Aztec Hotel" by Teatr Cogitatur. Best of Theatre 2005 - “This year's best Chicago stage work ranged from against-the-odds revivals of MMPs (major `merican playwrights) to wonders of the Polish avant-garde -- “La Luna" by Teatr Cogitatur at Chopin Theatre. This Polish troupe put the whammy on adventurous local audiences in a spellbinding engagement that also brought back Cogitatur's "Aztec Hotel" for an encore” – Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune. Best of Theatre 2005 - Guinea Pig Solo by Collaboraction at Chopin Theatre. “Most attempts to combine theater with multimedia bite the dust. Not this one. Anthony Moseley's relentlessly kinetic depiction of the travails of a Gulf war veteran was the most visceral show of the year. And the actor Dale Rivera turned in a performance with the weight of a branding iron”” – Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune 2005 People Making a Difference in Theatre - "Chicago Shakespeare gets a lot of (well deserved) praise for bringing in high-profile European troupes. But those who wish to see the best of experimental European theatre (especially eastern European) know that Wicker Park's Chopin is the place to go. Zygmunt Dyrkacz and his wife, Lela Headd, have produced Poland's brilliant Teatr Cogitatur for three years running, and they also presented I-Fest, a festival of new work by solo artists from all over Europe this past fall, including many pieces in their original language. This is cosmopolitanism Chicago-style - the cozy Algren Café and lobby make Chopin one of the more inviting spaces in town, even when the work is more challenging fare." –Kerry Reid, Performink Ten Best Shows of 2005 - Recent Tragic Events by Uma Productions at Chopin Theatre. “A 9/11 comedy about Midwesterners watching the tragedy on TV with exceptional from the gut honesty. And Joyce Carol Oates’s cameo in the form of a sock puppet was brilliant and ballsy” - Christopher Piatt and Novid Parsi, Time Out Chicago “…and you’re at the Chopin Theatre to begin with – one of the cooler, brick-walled, atmospherically attractive performance spaces in Chicago” - Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune “…the impassioned and intelligent Dyrkacz is far from your typical theater owner. Not only is this a very viable space creatively, but the Chopin also is among the city’s most affordable little theaters to rent”. – Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune Algren Café at Chopin Theatre voted “Most Charming Espresso Bar. It makes you wish all theaters had one like it”. – Michael Philips and Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune „Question: Where will you find both the trendiest European audiences and the most European-style theater in Chicago ? Answer: At the Chopin Theatre” – Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times Winter Sketchbook by Collaboraction: “For audiences like this every theater in Chicago would kill for”. – Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun Times “For the past 15 years Zygmunt Dyrkacz has been presenting international experimental theater at the scrappy Chopin Theatre, including performances by Poland’s astonishing Teatr Cogitatur which despite more than two decades of international acclaim had never appeared in this country until Dyrkacz brought it here in 2003". – Justin Hayford, Chicago Reader “The Chopin Theatre, which has just completed a run of a play by the Romanian-born French playwright Matei Visniec, How to Explain the History of Communism to Mental Patients, was founded 14 years ago by Polish émigré Zygmunt Dyrkacz. It has been these smaller entrepreneurial, risk-taking venues that have provided fertile ground for Playing French, which includes in its list works by Bernard-Marie Koltès, Michel Vinaver and Philippe Minyana” – Jeremy Grant, The Financial Times "..though we’ve seen endless redoubtable local companies reinvent the Chopin Theatre’s space, Teatr Cogitatur somehow demolishes it completely to create an abyss that seems 100 yards deep...even with our army of artists that excel at visual spectacle and physical theater nothing in town looks or feels like this staggering collage" - Christopher Pliatt, Time Out Chicago Metromix.com Chicago: “Wicker Park's beautiful white terra-cotta Chopin Theatre was built in 1918, and served as an anchor of Chicago's Polish community for years. Now owned by Zygmunt Dyrkacz, the off-Loop venue hosts a whopping 500 presentations per year on the main stage (seats up to 226) and the more intimate black-box studio (with room for 175). You'll find European theater and literary events, annual festivals and a roster of guest artists”. Centerstage.net –“ The play's the thing!" says Hamlet, and at Chopin Theatre, it couldn't be truer. Hidden behind its Wicker Park storefront location, Chopin houses a main stage and a smaller studio, a cafe, ample dressing areas, a luxurious waiting lounge and a grand foyer. Though the entire building is masterfully decorated with Oriental rugs, antique furniture and photograph- and artwork-clad walls, there's no need to don your most respectably dull theater dress to attend a production here: The owners welcome everything from the most casual to the flashiest high-end couture. Since opening its doors 15 years ago, Chopin Theatre has averaged 500 performances a year; though mainly plays, the theater stages film and jazz events as well. With this kind of schedule, one might feel the inkling to compare Chopin to the conventional downtown theater. A word to the wise: Don't compare. Chopin prides itself on producing non-traditional, non-commercial plays purely for the sake of art. Here, making a buck comes second to producing quality theater. At a Chopin performance, there is no definite line between audience and actors; in some cases, the audience becomes the actors and vice versa. Swordfights break out, trapezes swing, nudity takes over and props hurl through the air, all in an effort to generate great and refreshing art”. "Currently Chopin is home to the much-admired Katowice-based Teatr Cogitatur, a troupe that has done a superb job of passing on the techniques and traditions of the Polish avant-garde. This is disciplined work of a type we do not see enough of even in as theatrically rich a city as Chicago" - Andrew Patner, Critic's Choice WFMT Radio NBC Channel 5: “Can you name the Chicago Theatre dedicated to Polish and Eastern European productions? In 1990, Polish émigré Zygmunt Dyrkacz opened an international playhouse in Wicker Park. Since its beginning Chopin Theatre has hosted over 6000 amazing events including many Polish and Eastern European plays, concerts, literary gatherings and films. I am Charlie Wojciechowski. October is Polish American Heritage Month and now you know”. “No one does more to bring European theater to the city than Chopin Theatre proprietor, showman and janitor Zygmunt Dyrkacz ” – Christopher Piatt, Time Out Chicago Best of Theatre 2004 - “Four Dreams of Holderlin – prime imagistic theater comes in many languages. This Polish troupe performed in English and for an hour the audience found itself inside a dream”. Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune “Best of Theatre 2003 - “Aztec Hotel – prime imagistic theater comes in many languages. This Polish troupe performed in English and for an hour the audience found itself inside a dream”. Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune |