Piven Theatre Withdraws Noyes Expansion Plan

After months of debate over a proposed expansion of Piven Theatre at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, the theatre group announced Monday that it would look to expand somewhere else instead.

“The primary importance for us is to find Piven a dynamic, sustainable home in the immediate future,” Executive Director Leslie Brown said in a press release. “While Piven is open to discussing Downtown Evanston as a possible home, it is one of several exciting options, both in and outside of Evanston, that have become available to us.” 

Piven submitted a proposal for expansion at Noyes after city officials approached the acting workshop two years ago, asking Piven to come up with a plan to make the 100-year-old Noyes Cultural Arts Center its permanent home.  The theatre group—which has leased space in the building since the 1970s—then proposed a $2.2 million loan from the city to renovate and refurbish the building, as well as a new, 50-year lease for $1 per year. 

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Terms of the lease, as well as the proposed reorganization within the building itself, were contentious with fellow tenants, who would likely have lost space to the theatre’s expansion. City officials, Piven Theatre and other artists who rent in the building went back and forth over different proposals for the expansion during the last several months, without coming to agreement. 

“The city of Evanston came to us, and we gave them what we thought to be a very sound proposal for Noyes,” said Piven Theatre founder and artistic director emeritus Joyce Piven. “We have significant internal resources to do the same anywhere and we will find the right space for our professional theatre and training center.”

Ald. Mark Tendam (6th Ward) announced the theater’s decision at Monday night’s city council meeting, asking aldermen to table discussion of a Piven expansion at Noyes. 

“We want to proceed in a positive direction toward a downtown theater building,” he said. “And Piven would play a critical role.” 

Tendam said he had spoken to numerous organizations and individuals about a downtown theater building, including the Evanston Community Foundation, the chamber of commerce, several local theater groups, State Sen. Daniel Biss and State Rep. Robyn Gable. Among the people with whom he spoke, Tendam said there was “wide support” for a downtown theater building that would incorporate multiple theater organizations.

He said he imagined that the city of Evanston would catalyze the process of organizing a downtown theater, but said the funding should not come from taxpayers.  Floating the idea at a city council meeting two weeks ago, Tendam suggested that the money could come from government agencies such as the NEA or corporate sponsorships, as well as private funding, and indicated Next Theatre Group might be another possible tenant in the building.

Beyond that, Tendam said he could not elaborate further on plans for a downtown theater building.

“I know that people are waiting to get more news, and it will be forthcoming,” he said.

The results of city-commissioned arts study completed earlier this year indicate a need for more performing arts space downtown, according to consultants on the study. 

“What we found were successful artists working in small venues—like Next, Piven, Mudlark and Piccolo,” consultant Todd Hensley of Schuler Shook Theater Planners told city council members in February. “They need a space that would allow them to grow.”  

The consultants talked to several local theaters and other Evanston stakeholders, as well as Skokie's Northlight Theatre, to determine what sort of theatre spaces the city needs They identified three types: a medium-sized flexible use theater, a theater with fixed seating and a stage for dance or music performances, and a larger theater that could possibly serve as a home for Northlight Theatre. 

“Northlight said to us, as part of the study, in no uncertain terms, ‘we wish to return to Evanston,’” Hensley said.  

Hensley and other consultants estimated that the cost of building those three types of spaces would total nearly $150 million.