The History of
Heartland Theatre Company

Heartland Productions, now known as Heartland Theatre Company, was founded in 1986 by Philip Shaw, Carol Reitan and Rita Kohn for the purpose of presenting staged readings of unpublished plays. After a couple of years of vagabonding around different spaces with original scripts, Phil Shaw, the founding Artistic Director, wanted to move to classic contemporary plays and offer full productions. Guest performances continued anywhere Heartland could find suitable, from the McLean County Arts Center to Illinois Wesleyan University…to coffee houses and churches.

In 1990 the theatre moved into an empty building at 1110 Douglas Street in the abandoned Illinois Solders and Sailors Children's Campus School. The space was converted from a garage into a 68-seat black box theater with no storage and little space for dressing and no box office. Over the years, we have slowly upgraded the theatre space, adding improved lighting, dressing rooms, an expanded box office and reception area, and storage for costumes, props, etc. In 1999, the building was purchased and remodeled by the Town of Normal for the Community Activities Center at One Normal Plaza, as well as remaining the home of Heartland Theatre Company, where full productions of both contemporary published plays and original scripts take place today.

In addition, Heartland has frequently put at least one production a year offsite in another venue, often partnering with other non-profit organizations. Most recently we staged “I Love You, You’re Perfect, now Change” in the Community Room at the Normal Activities Center (partnering with Prairie Fire Theatre, an operetta-oriented organization), “The Andersonville Trial” and “Clarence Darrow” at the McLean County Museum of History (partnering with the museum) and “Sylvia” at the Normal Movie Theatre. “Art” and the “Gin Game” were performed at the Prairie Sky Room in the Prairie Building in downtown Peoria.

Heartland Theatre Company continues their tradition of staged readings of unpublished plays and has partnered with groups such as the Tale Spinners (a local storytelling group) and cooperates with Heartland Community College (not affiliated with Heartland Theatre Company) by providing space for acting classes and showcases.

Heartland’s Annual National Ten-Minute Play Festival, in its sixth year, continues to be very successful, attracting entries from nearly every state and around the globe and including eight new directors and twenty-some actors selected from open auditions. This year Heartland embarks on a new playwriting competition especially for Illinois playwrights called “Emerging Illinois Playwrights.” The winning short original plays will be work-shopped with Richard Kalinoski, a New York published playwright who wrote “Beast on the Moon” which was premiered at Heartland before its debut on Broadway.

Heartland’s Young-at-Heart-land senior theatre troupe for those 55+ remains a training ground for senior actors and offers opportunities to stage their craft to other seniors in the region.

In the last six years, Heartland has experienced tremendous growth for a theatre its size. Attendance, season ticket sales and donations nearly tripled due to new business and marketing efforts initiated by a hands-on board of directors. Two-week performance runs were extended to three weeks and then four to get patrons in who wanted to see the plays. After considerable qualitative and quantitative research, strategic and business planning, Heartland Theatre Company initiated its first-ever fund development campaign to rejuvenate its theatre space. This reconstruction, taking place in July/August of 2007, will afford the theatre’s audiences a safer, more comfortable experience and enhance the artistic talent and production values with better sightlines and lighting. Still facing continuous sold-out weekends, the addition of 20% more seats in the theatre will not only help Heartland with its financial feasibility, but will allow more patrons to see its quality productions.

Chicago Theatre Caliber…Newcomers tell us, "Heartland Theatre Company is this area's best-kept arts secret". We've been producing plays at One Normal Plaza for eleven years. Come find out for yourself why people say Heartland is "as good as anything in Chicago theater."

The Heartland Board of Directors

WORK OF THE BOARD

• The Board of Directors is the governing body of the not-for-profit corporation, chartered in Illinois in 1986, called Heartland Productions, Inc. This corporation is commonly known as Heartland Theatre Company.
• It is the responsibility of the Board to hire the Artistic Director and any other administrative personnel, such as a General Manager. It is the Board's responsibility to evaluate those in charge to see that they act in ways consistent with the Mission of Heartland Theatre Company.
• The second major responsibility of the Board is to approve budgets, set ticket prices, raise funds, and generally manage the financial resources of the corporation.
• The third responsibility is to evaluate the activities of the Board to see that it is operating in accord with its own rules and the Mission of the Theatre.
• Often Board members also take on the added job of a volunteer - fulfilling a necessary function for the Theatre.