Construction is on track at Northlight Theatre’s new Evanston location.
The building’s exterior is complete, and crews are now installing HVAC systems inside the building, according to Northlight Executive Director Timothy Evans. Upon completion, Northlight staff hope the theater will become an arts and culture hub for Evanston.
“We are doing what we wanted to do, which was to help generate the renaissance of Downtown Evanston,” Evans said.
The professional theater company started as Evanston Theatre Company 52 years ago, but has been based in Skokie for approximately 30 years. Northlight is moving back to Evanston at 1012 Church St. this fall.
Former Evanston resident Owen Baker said the theater’s move back to Evanston will fill a gap in the community’s cultural offerings.
“Sitting in 2026, Evanston still lacks the amount of entertainment and cultural options that you might want in a college town,” he said. “When I last lived in Evanston, there wasn’t, and there continues to not be anything on the scale of what Northlight is doing. I think you still have to go to Chicago to see that level of production.”
He added that Northlight will create an “anchor” to support economic growth in Evanston so that people will “come out and stay out” when they visit the theater. Baker said its presence will help sustain Evanston’s economic recovery from the pandemic.
Since breaking ground last March, construction has moved quickly. All concrete for the auditorium risers has been poured, and soon the auditorium will be lined with sound abatement, Evans said.
In addition to the building’s infrastructure, he said the lobby, including a bar, has been framed out, and drywall will go up in the next few weeks. Flooring installation begins in about a month, he said.
According to Evans, the nonprofit has raised about $29.7 million from hundreds of donors, with about $2.5 million remaining to reach its fundraising goal of $32.2 million and finish the project debt-free.
The theater is expected to generate $56 million in spending in Evanston and more than $450,000 in tax revenue, according to a 2019 economic impact study conducted by a consulting firm hired by the theater.
Major construction is scheduled for completion June 1, when the theater will assume control of the building, Evans said. A gala is planned for Aug. 15, with the first show opening Sept. 17.
The space will feature wider seats than the Skokie location, a lobby with a bar and rehearsal space upstairs, said Northlight Artistic Director BJ Jones.
The new location is a little more than a block from Davis St. Station, with access to the Metra and Chicago Transit Authority. Northlight’s previous home at North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie is primarily accessible by car.
Baker said the convenient location near public transportation will make the theater more accessible to people without cars and to Chicago residents.
“That’s night and day to me or anyone else in Chicago choosing to see a play there rather than where they are right now in Skokie,” Baker said. “Evanston will be a huge improvement for them in that experience of exiting the theater into a community as opposed to a parking lot.”
Jones said he hopes the space will serve as an event space and cultural space when Northlight is not putting on a show.
Events such as city debates, other theater group productions like Mudlark Theater Company or Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre and Northwestern symposiums are all possibilities for alternative events to be hosted there, Jones said.
“We want them to feel like it’s their home,” Jones said. “We are the people’s theater.”
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