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  "path": "/theater-stages/2026/04/17/cash-strapped-depaul-closes-curtain-downtown-historic-merle-reskin-theatre",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-17T17:15:48.475Z",
  "site": "https://www.wbez.org",
  "textContent": "<p>For nearly 120 years, the Merle Reskin Theatre has hosted everything from \"Pygmalion\" and \"Life With Father\" to \"Mirror of Most Value: A Ms. Marvel Play,\" which opens mid-May for a two-week run.</p><p>What's playing after May? Darkness. And not the 2021 Andre Wright play with the same name either.</p><p>While the university won't officially confirm that it's shuttering the theater — \"No decision has been made about the Merle Reskin Theatre,\" a school spokesperson said Thursday — there's enough writing on the wall to indicate it's closing.</p><p>DePaul's Chicago Playworks for Families and Young Audiences — the Reskin's theater group that is set to perform \"Mirror of Most Value\" there next month — will be moved to the university's Theatre School building in Lincoln Park after the play closes.</p><p>And a DePaul spokesperson wouldn't say if the Reskin will be in use after May.</p><p>“The university is working to determine the future use of the Merle Reskin Theatre,” the spokesperson said earlier this week.</p><p>DePaul is dealing with an overall <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://chicago.suntimes.com/education/2025/10/17/fewer-international-students-are-studying-at-some-illinois-universities\" target=\"_blank\" >budget crisis</a> that helped lead to its decision to close the respected <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://chicago.suntimes.com/museums-zoos/2026/03/02/depaul-university-art-museum-closure-fullerton-lincoln-park-students-faculty-letter\" target=\"_blank\" >DePaul Art Museum</a> at 935 W. Fullerton Ave. in June. The university's budget problems have been aggravated by the Trump administration’s immigration policies that has reduced the amount of tuition-paying international students attending the school.</p><p>So for now, it’s lights out at the Reskin, 60 E. Balbo Drive. The decision places in limbo a landmarked 1,400-seat Beaux-Arts playhouse designed by Benjamin H. Marshall, one of Chicago's preeminent architects.</p><div class=\"Enhancement\" data-align-center> <div class=\"Enhancement-item\" data-crop=\"\"> <figure class=\"Figure\"><a class=\"AnchorLink\" id=\"image-360000\" name=\"image-360000\"></a> <picture data-crop=\"medium\"> <source type=\"image/webp\" width=\"490\" height=\"275\" srcset=\"https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ee0cbb1/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3024x1697+0+154/resize/490x275!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F54%2F66%2F60ed4a384825a53fa1f1c274a9f8%2Fblackstone-theatre.JPG 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/43facb3/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3024x1697+0+154/resize/980x550!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F54%2F66%2F60ed4a384825a53fa1f1c274a9f8%2Fblackstone-theatre.JPG 2x\" loading=\"lazy\" /> <source width=\"490\" height=\"275\" srcset=\"https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/421d49c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3024x1697+0+154/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F54%2F66%2F60ed4a384825a53fa1f1c274a9f8%2Fblackstone-theatre.JPG\" loading=\"lazy\" /> <img class=\"Image\" alt=\"Black-and-white 1988 image of DePaul University officials standing on stage, with one behind a podium announcing its purchase of Blackstone Theatre.\" srcset=\"https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/421d49c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3024x1697+0+154/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F54%2F66%2F60ed4a384825a53fa1f1c274a9f8%2Fblackstone-theatre.JPG 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d8d9a59/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3024x1697+0+154/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F54%2F66%2F60ed4a384825a53fa1f1c274a9f8%2Fblackstone-theatre.JPG 2x\" width=\"490\" height=\"275\" src=\"https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/421d49c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3024x1697+0+154/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F54%2F66%2F60ed4a384825a53fa1f1c274a9f8%2Fblackstone-theatre.JPG\" loading=\"lazy\" > </picture> <div class=\"Figure-content\"><figcaption class=\"Figure-caption\"><p>DePaul University announced its purchase of the Blackstone Theatre in a 1988 news conference on the venue’s stage.</p></figcaption><span class=\"line\"></span><div class=\"Figure-credit\"><p>Sun-Times File</p></div></div> </figure> </div> </div><p>\"I'm sick about it,\" Jane Lepauw, president of the nonprofit Benjamin Marshall Society, said of the Reskin's mothballing. \"I would pray and hope that some [theater] company would come along and claim it. But given the financial environment in general, I fear that it will be sitting there for a long time. It seems like it's really up for grabs for its future.\"</p><h3>Reskin ‘a wonderful asset’</h3><p>Built in 1910 as the Blackstone Theatre, the venue sits in the western shadow of the 21-story Blackstone Hotel, which was also designed by Marshall and completed in 1910.</p><p>Marshall and his firm Marshall & Fox designed scores of notable buildings around town, including the South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. South Shore Drive, and the Drake Hotel, 140 E. Walton St.</p><p>For much of the 20th century, Marshall's ornate Blackstone theater — with its columned entrances and mansard roof — and his elegant Second Empire-styled Blackstone Hotel were a swank brother-and-sister act that drew the best plays, conventions and events.</p><p>Legendary actors including John and Ethel Barrymore, Spencer Tracy and Helen Hayes performed at the Blackstone during the good years.</p><p>The venue closed in the mid-1980s and was bought by DePaul for its theater school.</p><p>A $2 million donation from businessman Harold Reskin and wife Merle, who had been an actress, singer and dancer, helped refurbish what would open in 1992 as the Merle Reskin Theatre.</p><p>Merle Reskin died in 2023. Harold Reskin passed away in 1996.</p><div class=\"Enhancement\" data-align-center> <div class=\"Enhancement-item\" data-crop=\"\"> <figure class=\"Figure\"><a class=\"AnchorLink\" id=\"image-780000\" name=\"image-780000\"></a> <picture data-crop=\"medium\"> <source type=\"image/webp\" width=\"490\" height=\"275\" srcset=\"https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/57044b2/2147483647/strip/true/crop/8081x4535+0+427/resize/490x275!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F97%2F9c%2Fc00b2ba34e17a4b1760bf70fd43c%2Freskin-2604160023.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ff4338b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/8081x4535+0+427/resize/980x550!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F97%2F9c%2Fc00b2ba34e17a4b1760bf70fd43c%2Freskin-2604160023.jpg 2x\" loading=\"lazy\" /> <source width=\"490\" height=\"275\" srcset=\"https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/096995a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/8081x4535+0+427/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F97%2F9c%2Fc00b2ba34e17a4b1760bf70fd43c%2Freskin-2604160023.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" /> <img class=\"Image\" alt=\"Close-up of two columns on the facade of the Merle Reskin Theatre.\" srcset=\"https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/096995a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/8081x4535+0+427/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F97%2F9c%2Fc00b2ba34e17a4b1760bf70fd43c%2Freskin-2604160023.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/5071bca/2147483647/strip/true/crop/8081x4535+0+427/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F97%2F9c%2Fc00b2ba34e17a4b1760bf70fd43c%2Freskin-2604160023.jpg 2x\" width=\"490\" height=\"275\" src=\"https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/096995a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/8081x4535+0+427/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F97%2F9c%2Fc00b2ba34e17a4b1760bf70fd43c%2Freskin-2604160023.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" > </picture> <div class=\"Figure-content\"><figcaption class=\"Figure-caption\"><p>Architectural details enliven the facade of the Merle Reskin Theatre.</p></figcaption><span class=\"line\"></span><div class=\"Figure-credit\"><p>Manuel Martinez/WBEZ</p></div></div> </figure> </div> </div><p>The theater's French-inspired auditorium remained intact, although it has faded somewhat in recent decades. </p><p>\"That DePaul, which is really such a great school and it's got a great theater department, will be bereft of this wonderful asset,\" Lepauw said of the Reskin, \"l think it's just so sad.\"</p><h3>What’s next?</h3><p>Whatever the Reskin's fate, it won't be demolition. The theater is listed as a contributing structure in the landmark-protected 12-block long Historic Michigan Boulevard District.</p><p>For DePaul, money is tight. But tight is relative: The university managed to come up with enough scratch to start construction this year on a <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://chicago.suntimes.com/real-estate/2025/11/20/plan-commission-approves-depaul-practice-facility-morgan-park-commons\" >$42 million</a> basketball and athletics center on its Lincoln Park campus.</p><p>It should be equally diligent in finding the funds to preserve, restore and reuse the Reskin. The city shouldn't lose a live entertainment venue anywhere, particularly Downtown.</p><p>And Chicago certainly doesn't need a dark, unused building glowering over Balbo Drive.</p><p>But suppose DePaul finds it no longer wants the Reskin. Then finding a new owner who can restore the theater and put it in league with Downtown's Chicago, Nederlander and Cadillac Palace theaters becomes paramount.</p><p>Rich Gamble, interim CEO of the Chicago Loop Alliance, said his group has been talking to DePaul about the Reskin. The university is a member of the downtown organization.</p><p>\"I'm not in a position to explicitly state the nature of those conversations,\" Gamble said. \"We're a supporter, an advocate and a promoter of what we would like to see happen, which is a vibrant district.\"</p><p><i>This story has been updated with a statement from DePaul University, which said a decision has not been made about Merle Reskin Theatre's future.</i></p>",
  "title": "Cash-strapped DePaul closes the curtain on Downtown’s historic Reskin Theatre",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-17T17:15:48.475Z"
}