LOGAN SQUARE — After touring around the world and the United States, Chicago-based Theatre Y may have finally found a permanent home in Logan Square.
The theater company, founded in 2006 and inspired by Eastern European theatrical traditions, spent its first four years touring as far away as Romania, Hungary and Israel before returning to Chicago to hop around venues like the Greenhouse Theater Center and Royal George Theatre.
"So we've been nomadic for our entire existence, and now finally we're settling down in Logan Square," said Theatre Y co-founder Melissa Lorraine. "We're hoping that we're they're for quite some time."
Not only will Theatre Y become the first theater company to find a permanent home in the now art-centric neighborhood, but by doing so it may help preserve a piece of its history.
On Thursday night Theatre Y will premiere "The Binding," its first production to be performed in the original St. Luke's Lutheran Church of Logan Square, built in 1901, which had been left largely unused in recent decades.
"The building is actually quite vibrant," Lorraine said. "It offers this perfect, separate section where we have our own entrance off the alley."
The theater company came across St. Luke's by way of Partners for Sacred Places, a nonprofit group that works to get artists groups and the like to move into unused historical churches.
"So [St. Luke's] wish was to have a theater in their original church building," Lorraine said. "So we sat down and had conversations with them and felt the that it would be mutually exciting."
St. Luke's pastor Erik Christensen was not immediately available for comment, but a church employee said he was excited about the developments and the arrangements may indeed become permanent.
As for Logan Square itself, Lorraine said she is also happy to be bringing the theater to the neighborhood.
She and her husband — who wrote "The Binding" while Lorraine directs — used to live in Logan Square before moving to Pilsen.
Now she said they'll likely move back to be closer to their new theater digs.
"The neighborhood in general has a new life to it that seems conducive to the spirit of our theater company and the grassroots nature of it," she said. "The businesses have really embraced us, and it's cool to be the first theater in the neighborhood — so I'm hoping we can make it a real Logan Square gem over time."
Tickets for "The Binding" and more information about Theatre Y can be found on the theater company's website.
