Chef Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo has been committing hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to theaters in the city since 2018.
Chandler West
The Bayless Family Foundation has awarded more than $500,000 to four theaters across the city in its latest round of annual grants to the arts in Chicago.
Chicago Children’s Theater, Definition Theatre, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company and Timeline Theatre Company are this year’s recipients.
Chef and Frontera Grill owner Rick Bayless’ foundation has been committing hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to theaters in the city since 2018 when it awarded 17 theater companies with a $10,000 grant.
“Chicago is arguably the most vital theatre city in the country, and, as a theatre-loving family, we want to do everything we can to support that,” the Bayless Family Foundation’s website states.
Remy Bumppo Theatre Company in Lakeview was awarded a one-time $50,000 payment through the foundation’s Signal Grant. Margaret McCloskey, the theater’s executive director, said the industry is still recuperating from the lingering effects of the pandemic shutting down operations and that grants “of this size are massively impactful.”
“The grant will support all of our artistic programs, including mainstage productions and our educational series, Studio Bumppo,” McCloskey said. “Studio Bumppo offers year-round classes for all levels of theatergoers … where they can learn about literary analysis, playwriting, behind-the-scenes work, audition processes and more.”
Definition Theatre on the South Side and Timeline Theatre Company on the North Side were each awarded the foundation’s Stepping Stone grant — $180,000 over three years — that will be used for various operations as they transition into new locations.
The money aims to help cover Definition Theatre’s costs for hiring, equipment and leasing at its interim performance space at 1160 E. 55th St. in Hyde Park before it moves to a new larger space at 6400 S. Cottage Grove Ave. in Woodlawn. The theater had already been awarded a $1.6 million grant from the city’s Neighborhood Opportunity Fund to build the new theater and community center.
Timeline Theatre Company will use the grant money to “modernize the administrative and financial procedures,” according to the foundation. The company, after presenting more than 80 productions, including 10 world premiers, throughout its first 25 years at 615 W. Wellington Ave. in Lakeview, plans to move within the next couple of years to 5035 N. Broadway in Uptown.
Chicago Children’s Theatre in the West Loop received a one-time payment of $100,000, also through the foundation’s Signal Grant.
The $100,000 will benefit the theater’s Residencies of Arts and Resilience program, or R.O.A.R., which was developed in conjunction with the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Center for Childhood Resilience.
The program allows students an outlet to reflect on challenging situations, using child literature, theater and other arts as “trauma-informed activities and conversations that promote coping mechanisms, social-emotional expression, and resilience,” according to the Chicago Children’s Theatre. The grant also will allow the theater to add Spanish-language curriculum.
