City set to make life easier for theaters: license for smaller venues should cut red tape

November 9, 2005

By Hedy Weiss;
It is about to become a whole lot easier for Chicago's small theaters to do business.

If all goes as planned at City Hall, these spaces, the lifeblood of the local theater scene, will be nurtured and protected by a newly designed Performing Arts Venue license, one designed specifically to ease guidelines for houses containing 500 seats or less. Such venues account for a large percentage of the city's most active and experimental stages.

An ordinance creating the license, introduced last week by Ald. Helen Shiller (46th), addresses a subject that's been under debate since November 2003, when inspectors from the city's Revenue Department abruptly closed down a number of off-Loop theaters and cited them for an array of previously unknown violations. The measure is expected to receive full City Council passage in December.

"This will make it a lot less cumbersome for theaters to go through the licensing process," said PJ Powers, artistic director of TimeLine Theatre, one of the many companies affected by the 2003 shutdowns. "It is just much more sensible and user-friendly to look at small spaces in a different way from movie theaters, bowling alleys and nightclubs."

The new rules will cut much of the red tape associated with current applications for Public Place of Amusement licenses, whose guidelines would continue to govern larger theaters. The simplified procedures are the result of long negotiations among the League of Chicago Theatres (the trade and marketing association for 180 Chicago area companies), the new Business Affairs and Licensing Department, and the city's fire, revenue, finance and cultural affairs departments. The new ordinance also alters zoning codes to expand the areas where theater venues may locate.

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