It’s a half hour to curtain at Writers’ Theatre Chicago, and Michael Halberstam, the Glencoe company’s 30-ish artistic director, is greeting his patrons. Standing near the cash register that doubles as a box office, he smiles and bows slightly at everyone who passes, dapper in his vest and black velvet coat but also comic, slightly officious. He looks like the eager ambassador of a small country or a maitre d’ greeting a high-tipping regular.
Halberstam has loved theater for as long as he can remember. Growing up in Nottingham, he performed in backyard plays with his three older sisters, then school productions. “We went to watch him in a little play his elementary school was doing,” recalls his father, Heini Halberstam. “He was the King of the Rats. I was astonished–he really dominated the stage. He riveted attention. He was very calm. He was possessed by the role. That was when I realized he had talent in that direction.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
His schoolwork took a nosedive, but his interest in theater never flagged. After graduating from the university’s high school he enrolled in the theater program at U. of I., a course of study his father never discouraged. “I have suggested tentatively from time to time that I thought he should prepare himself for teaching drama at some university,” admits the elder Halberstam. “But I think he has his own sense of his destiny.” After completing his degree Michael wandered a bit in the profession. He took a job out of school performing in Colonial Williamsburg, the large-scale historical restoration in Virginia, but the experience wasn’t a happy one.
When Halberstam returned to Chicago in fall 1991, he and Campbell set out to create their own company. The original members of the Writers Theatre in New York gave them permission to appropriate the name, and Halberstam would call the company’s old artistic director, Linda Laundra, for advice. A friend told him and Campbell about a bookstore opening in Glencoe; the proprietor was looking for someone to turn its back room into a performance space that might attract customers with periodic readings and shows. The space was perfect for their needs. “We contacted a hundred of our most intimate friends,” says Halberstam, “raised $5,000, and put on our first season.”
