Aug. 26--Chicago venerable, anti-establishment Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company announced Tuesday that its 30th season, which opens Sept. 10, will be its last.
Rich Cotovsky, the 61-year-old founder and artistic director of the company, said that he had lost the lease on the theater's home for 26 years, a second-floor space located at 735 W. Sheridan Road and known as Angel Island. The block is slated for redevelopment.
For years, Mary-Arrchie (randomly named after the parents of an actress in an early workshop), produced edgy, alternative works of theater, including hit productions of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" and Tracy Letts' "Superior Donuts." The ambiance was rough and ready, but all of the work was unstinting and some of it was formidable. Along with a cultish annual festival, known as "Abbie Hoffman Died for Our Sins," Mary-Arrchie produced more than 100 shows at Angel Island (named for the aspirational island beloved by the prisoners of the old Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary).
Cotovsky said Tuesday that the time seemed right to hang it up.
"It's not a bad thing," he said. "It will take the weight off my back. We struggled and we fought to do what we thought was best. And now I can look back and say, 'Wow, we did all that.'"
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