LAKEVIEW — The enduring Music Field Theatre is increasing.
Because of a $1.2 million metropolis grant, the historic and world-famous movie show in Lakeview will quickly add a 3rd display screen to its 100-year-old constructing, the primary enlargement on the Music Field since a second display screen was added in 1991.
For the enlargement, the Music Field will convert two long-vacant business storefronts at 3727 and 3729 N. Southport Ave., simply south of its foremost entrance, into a 3rd auditorium with 115 seats.
Brody Sheldon, the co-owner and CEO of Music Field Theatre and Music Field Movies, stated the enlargement might be “big” for the cinema’s future and its many loyal prospects and followers.
“The third display screen will enable us to supply extra of what our patrons love and no different venue gives: a various mixture of traditional, impartial, cult, documentary and international movies in a good looking, historic and welcoming setting,” Sheldon stated.
Building plans are in movement after the Music Field obtained a $1.2 million Neighborhood Improvement Grant from the town to assist fund the $2.5 million mission.
The thought of increasing first got here up in 2022, Sheldon stated, however the mission stalled as a result of value considerations. Then in 2023, after a robust programming 12 months and rising demand from distributors and filmmakers, the house owners revisited the thought, notably after studying concerning the metropolis’s Neighborhood Improvement Grant.
“We had quite a few occasions and filmmakers come to us final 12 months, and we simply didn’t have the area,” Sheldon stated. “Our calendar was full, and typically distributors wished longer runs for his or her movies. With a 3rd display screen, we’ll be capable of rotate movies extra flexibly and accommodate extra requests.”
The enlargement is not going to solely embrace the brand new display screen but in addition extra loos and a few reconfigurations inside the prevailing area, Sheldon stated.
Theater 2, added in 1991, might be barely shortened to create a hallway connecting the foyer to the brand new display screen, Theater 3. Theater 2 can even shift to digital-only projection, whereas the brand new theater will embrace a projection sales space.
The brand new theater will seat 115 individuals and be bigger than the 70-seat second theater, however a lot smaller than the 700-seat foremost theater.
“We’re always requested to host Chicago filmmakers and group occasions, and too typically, we have now to say no,” Sheldon stated. “This offers us the area to say sure extra typically. It helps rising and established artists and retains us rising with the movie group right here.”
Along with giving the Music Field extra programming flexibility, the third display screen is supposed to assist maintain the theater long-term. Sheldon stated sustaining the century-old constructing is more and more costly, and the enlargement affords an vital new income stream.
“We’re hedging towards uncertainty,” he stated. “Now we have competitors in chains which have deeper pockets, and this can be a very outdated constructing. However we see ourselves as a historic property, a museum and a house for the Chicago movie group. This mission helps cement our function as all of these issues.”
The Music Field was one in every of 28 companies awarded Neighborhood Improvement Grant funding this spring as a part of the town’s effort to help small companies and revitalize business corridors. Different recipients embrace the South Aspect Beginning Heart, Soul Veg Kitchen and Maplewood Brewing.
“Each neighborhood deserves to share within the magnificence and financial alternative this metropolis has to supply,” Mayor Brandon Johnson stated in saying the grants.
Sheldon stated the Music Field is presently finalizing its workforce of architects and contractors, with development anticipated to start quickly.
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