New Interim Director for League of Chicago Theatres

Deborah L. Clapp has been named the Interim Director for the League of Chicago Theatres, the advocacy organization of almost 200 Chicago-area theatre companies.

"Chicago's theatre community is the most vibrant and innovative in the world and I am honored the League has asked me to help represent the community," stated Clapp in article by Playbill.

Clapp is faced with the challenge of helping the Chicago theatre community thrive in today's economy where theatre attendance is decreasing as gas prices and taxes are increasing. Despite the critical acclaim that Chicago theatre has gotten this year, it is still affected by the slowing economy and the rising competition in entertainment choices.

For more information, read Playbill's article by Kenneth Jones.

Paul Sills Memorial - Remembering One of Second City's First Fathers

CHICAGO- Approximately 170 people filled The Second City Mainstage Theatre (1616 N. Wells St), Sunday evening, June 29, to honor the life and legacy of Paul Sills. Sills was one of the founders of the iconic Compass Players and the world-renowned The Second City.


The memorial,which was originally scheduled as an hour-long program started at 3:30 p.m. and ended at 5:30 p.m. The evening was hosted by Sheldon Patinkin, Sills' longtime Second City partner and collaborator. A roster of prominent members of Chicago's theatre community, family and friends,spoke in tribute to Sills:

• Andrew Alexander - proprietor and Executive Director, The Second City


• Bernard Sahlins - co-creator of The Second City


• Joyce Piven - actress, teacher and original member of the Compass Players


• Jeremy Piven - actor and son of Joyce Piven


• Jeffrey Sweet - author and playwright


• Thor Thoreson - potter, actor in Sills' Wisconsin Games Theater


• Make King - Sills' grandson


• Dennis Cunningham - Sills close friend, Second City alum, and lawyer


• John Schultz - Sills friend, author, and professor emeritus of creative writing at Columbia College


• Cheryl Sloane - former producer at The Second City


• Carol Sills - Sills' widow

Sills was honored as an actor, a director, a teacher, a mentor, a grandfather, but most of all as a man who was passionate about his craft. With trembling hands and a shaky voice Sahlins said that Sills embodied all that was pure and unsullied about acting, and that "He is our Shakespeare and we (The Second City - past and present) are his company."

Emmy winnerJeremy Piven spoke about growing up under Sills' influence and using what he learned in his current work, "I think of the games often; it keeps me alive." Cheryl Sloane spoke about Sills' impact," For so many generations of people, Paul was a complete sense of joy." Patinkin summed it best, however, when he said, "There is no one doing improv, studying improv, teaching improv who doesn't owe anything to Paul Sills."

As each speaker took the microphone, each eventually became teary eyed with emotion at a memory of Paul Sills. The tears spilled onto an audience of Sills' family and friends, fellow actors that shared the stage with Sills, actors who were carving names for themselves in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles stages, actors who have yet tasted the limelight, students who are just learning the craft, and those who just admired the man for all the truth he had given the world of fantasy. As Joyce Piven said, "What a legacy he left us."

Paul Sills died of pneumonia at his home and studio at Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin.

Wilmette Park District Shuts Down Planned Park Performance of "Ragtime"

Park district officials in the Illinois suburb of Wilmette cancelled a planned outdoor performance of "Ragtime," fearing that park passersby would take offense to the word, "nigger," used throughout the script and score. As Lee Bailey's EurWeb article notes, park officials admitted that they should have made that decision when they aquired the permissions to the play in January.

"Ragtime" lyricist Lynn Ahrens responded on June 27th on Playbill.com. "I find this sad and also hilarious......We feel the language is accurate and honest in the context of the era, and important to preserve. That hasn't stopped Ragtime from being produced in numerous theatres, high schools and colleges, where the heads of these institutions don't underestimate the intelligence of their audiences, whether comprised of children or adults, nor feel the need to censor and protect them from their own national history."