Mourning Has Broken
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No one wants to laugh at a funeral, but suppressing the urge can often make a person laugh harder, and Noble Fool Theater Company has parlayed that into a long-running hit. Flanagan’s Wake, a partly scripted, partly improvised show at which audience members find themselves in the middle of an Irish wake, opened on Saint Patrick’s Day 1993 at the Improv Institute, where it ran successfully for a year. When that venue folded in 1994 the show moved to the 65-seat studio at the Royal George Theatre Center, and three years later it took over the center’s 90-seat space, where it continues to draw large crowds. Now the company is preparing to move into a new 8,000-square-foot space at 16 W. Randolph, the building recently purchased by the School of the Art Institute; the venue will include a 100-seat studio where Flanagan’s Wake will take up residence, a 155-seat main stage in which the company plans to mount an annual subscription season, and an open-door, after-hours basement cabaret with musical-comedy programming and interactive comedy similar to the wake. The venue has been designed by local architect John Morris, whose resume includes the Steppenwolf Theatre, the Old Town School’s new Chicago Folk Center, and Northlight Theatre at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie.
Yet the company faces some major financial challenges: Botts says they’re getting a loan to cover the $2.5 million build-out of the space and will hire a professional fund-raiser to help retire the debt. When the space opens in November, the company’s annual operating budget will leap from $400,000 to about $2.5 million, half of which should be covered by ticket sales and the remainder by sales of liquor and other concessions. Down the line Noble Fool also expects to generate revenue from improv classes offered as part of the SAIC’s continuing education program. David Kipper, former chairman of the board for the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, became a fan of Flanagan’s Wake during its early days at the Improv Institute, and now that his involvement with the ballet is winding down he’s agreed to serve as board chair for Noble Fool. The company’s new administration will include a managing director and directors of development and marketing, and the 22-member ensemble will choose an artistic director, possibly from its own ranks.
