{"id":701933,"date":"2026-04-03T12:17:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T12:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/701933\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T12:17:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T12:17:19","slug":"in-uptown-timeline-theatre-moves-into-its-new-home-nearly-a-decade-in-the-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/701933\/","title":{"rendered":"In Uptown, TimeLine Theatre moves into its new home, nearly a decade in the making"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mica Cole stood on the stage, with tears in her eyes. The occasion was TimeLine Theatre\u2019s first public showing of its brand-new building \u2014 the culmination of years of near-constant fundraising, nomadic productions, unexpected delays and stress-inducing construction woes.<\/p>\n

A week later, on a recent tour of the building, Nick Bowling gushed about everything from the walnut bar to the vintage lamps in the toilet stalls. And PJ Powers raved about the building\u2019s views as if he were looking out on the Taj Mahal, instead of a Red Line L stop.<\/p>\n

To appreciate all of this emotion for TimeLine Theatre\u2019s new $46 million home in Uptown, set to open May 6 with Henrik Ibsen\u2019s \u201cAn Enemy of the People,\u201d you have to understand where the company has come from<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For almost three decades, the ambitious, history-centered company had to make do with the second-floor of a 110-year-old church building in Lake View \u2014 along with dodgy electrical wiring, no elevator, toilets that didn\u2019t always work and no central air conditioning.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"TIMELINE-08XX25_19.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Mica Cole, executive director of TimeLine Theatre, and PJ Powers, artistic director, stand in front of the company\u2019s building, while still under construction last August. \u201cThis space is going to allow the art to expand beyond our imagination,\u201d Cole said. <\/p>\n

After a decade-plus search for a new home, the company finally bought a building in 2018, only to have the pandemic hit, causing TimeLine to go dark for nearly two years. The cost of construction more than doubled from the original $20 million price tag, due to inflation, supply-chain issues and other factors. But donations kept coming in; the largest amount, $10 million, came from the city of Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis space is going to allow the art to expand beyond our imagination,\u201d said Cole, TimeLine\u2019s executive director on a recent weekday afternoon. Powers, TimeLine\u2019s artistic director, Bowling, the company\u2019s associate artistic director, and Cole gave me a tour of the new five-story theater building at 5035 N. Broadway \u2014 gleaming and sleek, but also proudly displaying its concrete-and-brick former warehouse bones.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"TIMELINEBLDG_260401-14.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The sinks outside the bathrooms of the new TimeLine Theater. <\/p>\n

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"TIMELINEBLDG_260401-57.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The catwalks that hang above the main theater of the new TimeLine Theater located at 5035 N. Broadway, in the Uptown neighborhood. <\/p>\n

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

The theater seats 250 people, configurable seven different ways depending on the play, a significant jump in capacity from TimeLine\u2019s former space, which could accommodate 99 people.<\/p>\n

The excitement over what this new space will make possible, artistically, feels palpable. For example, the company\u2019s theater now has catwalks, those metal bridges high above that allow designers to hang lights from a grid and also lower set pieces to the stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the ability to re-hang a light, move a light, re-focus a light,\u201d said Powers, the artistic director. \u201cOn Wellington Avenue, if we needed to do that, we would have to stop everything, get out an extension ladder.\u201d<\/p>\n

The theater also has a large rehearsal space with a wall of glass windows, giving the actors a view of Broadway and the vibrant Argyle District.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"TIMELINEBLDG_260401-1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Four Art Deco brass chandeliers were painted to match. \u201cWe wanted it to feel like it was a collected history of the last 100 years,\u201d Bowling said. <\/p>\n

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"TIMELINEBLDG_260401-3.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The 1940s back bar from now-closed Fizz Bar on Lincoln Ave. The bar came to TimeLine through a long relationship with Salvage One, which consulted on the furniture acquisition. <\/p>\n

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"TIMELINEBLDG_260401-8.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Two William Switzer art deco-style club chairs, from an executive\u2019s office at Sony Studios, flank a 1950s television case on legs.<\/p>\n

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

The building\u2019s public spaces \u2014 including a first-floor bar\/cafe with ample seating \u2014 come to life with quirky industrial and artistic objects that Bowling found on a far-reaching scavenger hunt.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a 1950s Motorola TV set that\u2019s been fashioned into a side table. Vintage suitcases serve the same function elsewhere in the building. Each of the 20 or so toilet stalls has a unique light fixture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted it to feel like it was a collected history of the last 100 years,\u201d Bowling said.<\/p>\n

The staff are thrilled too that the theater sits directly in front of the newly refurbished Argyle Red Line stop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that because we\u2019re right here by the Red Line, which is this main artery through the city, that folks will come from up north from the south to see our work,\u201d Cole said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"TIMELINEBLDG_260401-41.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The third floor green room for actors, located backstage. The rugs throughout were provided by Minasian Rugs in Evanston.<\/p>\n

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

A hoped-for entertainment district in Uptown with the boarded-up Uptown Theatre at its center hasn\u2019t yet been realized. Double Door, the legendary music club, had plans to re-open in the old Wilson Theater, but its owner told the Chicago Sun-Times in February that ballooning costs, among other things, means that project won\u2019t be moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is already enough in Uptown that we are adding to,\u201d Powers said. \u201cI don\u2019t feel like our success was contingent on those other spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fundraising campaign for TimeLine is about 90% complete, but Powers chuckled at a question suggesting the hard work is now over. \u201cIt\u2019s basically just feet up on that desk from here on,\u201d he said sarcastically. \u201cNo, because everything is now at a far greater extreme. Our need to raise funds does not end because this building is constructed. Our operations are doubling\u201d in costs.<\/p>\n

The war in the Middle East and the potential impact on the local economy is a worry, as well as ongoing concerns about shifting audience habits following the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are real and formidable forces,\u201d Powers said. \u201cBut the fact that at least three theaters are opening a new building [in the Chicago area] in the next year \u2026 really speaks to the unique quality of Chicago theater when we talk about our peers in some other cities. It speaks to the investment that the city and state have made in many of these buildings, and it speaks to the investment that individual philanthropists have made.\u201d Northlight Theatre is constructing a new building in Evanston, and Steep Theater broke ground<\/a> on its new home last December.<\/p>\n

All of that is what brought Cole to tears during the recent ribbon-cutting ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust looking out into the house from that stage, I just lost it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was such an emotional experience. It was a reflection, a culmination of so many years, many incredible collaborators, many artistic ideas poured into the building.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mica Cole stood on the stage, with tears in her eyes. The occasion was TimeLine Theatre\u2019s first public…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":701934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-701933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116340736236568207","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}