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Theatre Profile at Performink

PerformInk
By Jenn Q. Goddu

Friday, January 19, 2007

“Every year I say, ‘We’re going to cut back,’ and ‘We’re going to do less,’” says Tim Rater. Yet the executive director at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre simply can’t resist programming a crammed-full season. “It gets to be the last moment and I think, ‘Wow, that would be a great thing to have at Metropolis.’”

In recent seasons the venue has hosted over 400 performances of 53 productions, drawing an audience of 70,000 people. It’s what puts the Arlington Heights venue in the top 10 of the League of Chicago Theatres ranking of largest professional theatres in the Chicago area.

“If you have the opportunity, and you’re not booked solid (which we generally are), you find these great folks that you just want to put on stage,” Rater said. “There’s just a tremendous talent out there.”

That talent includes the likes of Emerald City Children’s Theatre, Schadenfreude, Triplette or Griffin Theatre Company.

Rater, who was first hired at Metropolis in 2000 as a general manager under Alan Salzenstein, said that providing a suburban home to Chicago performing arts was part of the original aim and remains a major motivator.

“Technically, our mission statement has changed here and there over the years, but we still are committed to bringing quality entertainment, as well as education, to Metropolis,” said Rater, who became executive director himself in 2002.

That “quality entertainment” also includes Second City’s touring company.

Kelly Leonard, Second City vice president, says the relationship has been great for the company’s touring troupe. “What Metropolis offers us is a place for the director to really engage with the company over a period of time and craft the show,” he said. “It’s improved the quality of the touring production and it’s made for better growth of the actors.”

The venue itself is a boon too, Leonard said. “The key with this venue is that it has this great theatrical stage with wing space and curtains and a terrific lighting and sound package and still it’s intimate. That’s the rare thing. Basically, one in 10 spaces is perfect for Second City on the road. Nothing beats the intimacy of jumping off the stage and being able to screw with people, which we can do [at Metropolis].”

Metropolis isn’t only a presenting house, though. In 2002, a year when Metropolis shifted from for-profit venture to non-profit, it also moved into producing its own shows. The first was a production of A Christmas Carol.

“By producing our own theatre, we were able to do the show that we wanted to do,” Rater said, adding, “We were able to do it when we wanted to do it and how we wanted to do it. So it gave us a greater ability to present [to] our audience, our patrons, what they wanted.”

Already this season Metropolis has staged an extended run of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. Next up is Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park, opening Feb. 1. A Streetcar Named Desire and Don’t Dress for Dinner will follow.

“Just like we’ve grown, the quality of our productions has grown too,” Rater said, pointing to Christmas Carol as an example. “Whereas the first year we really had no set, no costumes, no anything to speak of, now we have snow coming down.”

In addition to the four shows in the season and the now-annual staging of Christmas Carol, Metropolis also produces two original late night shows such as the recent Dates from Hell, penned by resident playwright Scott Woldman and based on community members’ stories of their own horrible dating experiences.

Soliciting audience and community input to develop a script is just one of the initiatives Metropolis uses to relate to its surrounding community.

Casting director Robin Hughes, who first joined Metropolis as Mrs. Cratchit in that first season of Christmas Carol, also noted a shift in the community’s attitude after the developer decided to sell the venue in 2004. Arlington Heights had first dibs and decided to become Metropolis’ landlord.

The change in ownership generated attention locally, Hughes said. “They’re more invested in knowing that this professional theatre is their theatre. It belongs to their town.”

Another change the venue has enjoyed recently is the marked increase in actors showing up to its open call auditions. Rater recalls at the outset having to post notices for weeks and call friends to get them to encourage people to audition. Now Metropolis can expect well over 500 people to audition.

“Metropolis is gaining a reputation as a company that you want to go work for and work with and be a part of the process,” Rater said. “One thing that we do well is that we make sure people know that we appreciate them and we do that in whatever way we can. Although we’re not edgy, storefront Chicago theatre, we do very much appreciate what the artists bring to our stages.”

Hughes says it’s a matter of treating people professionally, while also giving them an opportunity to play in a fine facility. “We give them a space that is unrivaled to work at in the city. You don’t find facilities like this, so nice and new and clean [in Chicago],” she said. Metropolis also pays its staff and its artists well.

“The main challenge is that people think Arlington Heights is so far away,” she said.

Metropolis is also now seeing at auditions actors who were once students in its newly burgeoning education program. What started as a summer camp with a budget of $70,000 is now a multi-tiered training effort with funding closer to the million-dollar mark. Metropolis’ School of the Performing Arts (SOPA) has programs for participants of all ages in acting, singing, dancing, playwriting and creative drama. They also offer private and group lessons in vocal and instrumental music.

Growing numbers can also be seen in the subscription base (from 350 to start to 1,900 now), the operating budget (doubled from $1.2 million at the outset to a current $2.5 million) and the staffing (there were five full-time positions originally and now there are 12).

“We’re definitely in a better spot,” Rater said. Yet he’s cautious. “We are still growing and we are still very much in a situation where we need to be as fiscally responsible as we can.

”Everything that we have done, everything that we have built, we don’t take it for granted. It can all go away with the failure of a few shows. And so we try very hard to make sure that every show is something that, whether you know the show or not, or whether you’ve seen the show before and you think you know what to expect, we bring some truth to the production.”

Rater says he’s still learning. Part of that is in listening to the community and figuring out what they want. “We try to be careful about what we do.”

But Metropolis is not so careful as to stick to just one style of performance. Rater’s goal is to make Metropolis home to a wide-range of programs.

“It’s a mix, and I think that’s what this community likes to see. If we were to do all musicals, we might increase our subscription base, but then we wouldn’t be serving all of the people we currently serve.”

He concedes there have been misses along the way. For instance, bringing a flamenco guitarist to Arlington Heights did not prove a popular decision. Said Rater, “We are trying to provide a little bit of something for everyone in the Northwest suburbs and we continually learn what exactly that is.”

At times the audience seems markedly different from audiences one might expect in Chicago, but at others it is very much the same, Rater said. “We are continually amazed by how folks respond to different shows.”

Being in the Northwest suburbs also gives Metropolis the benefit of less direct competition. “The people that come to Metropolis are generally within five to 10 miles of Metropolis,” Rater said. “We draw from an area that really has nothing. There is no other performing arts center in that immediate area.”

It also helps that Rater resists regarding anyone as competition. He’s actually looking to find new ways to partner with other venues in the future – either transferring Metropolis-produced shows to other spaces or doing co-productions. Both of those would help with his other long-term goal of continuing to develop Metropolis’ subscription base.

Rater also hopes to one day expand into producing original children’s theatre – especially since one of the venue’s biggest areas of growth has been its youth education programs.

As Hughes, who is also education manager, sees it, getting kids and their parents into the Metropolis for classes is an essential part of the venue’s overall success. Once people are drawn into the Metropolis they keep coming back, she said.

It’s contributed to the revitalization of the arts in this suburban hub, Hughes said, describing the Metropolis as “a heart of the arts in Arlington Heights.”

Metropolis is located at at 111 W. Campbell St. in Arlington Heights, two blocks from a Metra stop.

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