“While the university won’t officially confirm that it’s shuttering the theater — ‘No decision has been made about the Merle Reskin Theatre,’ a school spokesperson said Thursday — there’s enough writing on the wall to indicate it’s closing.
“DePaul is dealing with an overall budget crisis that helped lead to its decision to close the respected DePaul Art Museum at 935 W. Fullerton Ave. in June.
“So for now, it’s lights out at the Reskin, 60 E. Balbo Drive. The decision places in limbo a landmarked 1,400-seat Beaux-Arts playhouse designed by Benjamin H. Marshall, one of Chicago’s preeminent architects.
“‘I’m sick about it,’ Jane Lepauw, president of the nonprofit Benjamin Marshall Society, said of the Reskin’s mothballing. ‘I would pray and hope that some [theater] company would come along and claim it. But given the financial environment in general, I fear that it will be sitting there for a long time. It seems like it’s really up for grabs for its future.’
Reskin ‘a wonderful asset’: Built in 1910 as the Blackstone Theatre, the venue sits in the western shadow of the 21-story Blackstone Hotel, which was also designed by Marshall and completed in 1910.
Marshall and his firm Marshall & Fox designed scores of notable buildings around town, including the South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. South Shore Drive, and the Drake Hotel, 140 E. Walton St.
A $2 million donation from businessman Harold Reskin and wife Merle, who had been an actress, singer and dancer, helped refurbish what would open in 1992 as the Merle Reskin Theatre. Merle Reskin died in 2023. Harold Reskin passed away in 1996.
“‘That DePaul, which is really such a great school and it’s got a great theater department, will be bereft of this wonderful asset,’ Lepauw said of the Reskin, ‘l think it’s just so sad.’
“Whatever the Reskin’s fate, it won’t be demolition. The theater is listed as a contributing structure in the landmark-protected 12-block long Historic Michigan Boulevard District.
“For DePaul, money is tight. But tight is relative: The university managed to come up with enough scratch to start construction this year on a $42 million basketball and athletics center on its Lincoln Park campus.
“It should be equally diligent in finding the funds to preserve, restore and reuse the Reskin. The city shouldn’t lose a live entertainment venue anywhere, particularly Downtown.” (Bey, Chicago Sun-Times, 4/16/26)
Read the full story at Chicago Sun-Times
- Cash-strapped DePaul closes the curtain on Downtown’s historic Reskin Theatre; The landmarked 1,400-seat Beaux-Arts playhouse was designed by Benjamin H. Marshall, one of Chicago’s preeminent architects, Lee Bey, Chicago Sun-Times, 4/16/26
- Column: Who will love the old Blackstone Theatre? David Bowie’s former stomping ground is likely to need a new owner, Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 5/13/26
- DePaul to close DPAM, reduce library, theater operations amid budget crisis; University-wide cutbacks have led to a reevaluation of campus real estate, Khadija Mujahid, Annie Koziel, Opal Green, Ruby Elliotte, and Rutaiba Siddiqui, The DePaulia, 3/2/26