The Auditorium Theatre—that massive, stony hunk of Chicago history—celebrated the anniversary of a rebirth earlier this month with an evening of spectacular dance by members of 14 top national and international companies, including Alvin Ailey, Berlin State Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre. Also on the bill were some familiar pleas for financial support.
The celebration came on the heels of some unexpected news, however. The Joffrey Ballet, which has been the Auditorium Theatre’s prestigious resident company for 22 years (in what seemed like a perfect pairing), will dump the Auditorium at the start of the 2020-’21 season and move in with Lyric Opera.
Roosevelt is now dealing with its own financial troubles, mostly stemming from debt taken on to build a new landmark—an adjacent, glassy blue tower with a zigzag profile that’s primarily used for student housing. The theater has been operating at a loss in recent years. Castroverde Moskolenko says fiscal year 2017 reversed the trend, closing with a balanced budget of about $14 million, but raising money for restoration and maintenance is an ongoing project. And Castroverde Moskalenko doesn’t yet know how much she’ll need.
