Cinderella Story

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The plotline is similar: a Cinderella company lands a fabulous new home in the downtown theater district, where it’s expected to live happily ever after serving an intimate off-Loop-style experience to tiny audiences. Silk Road, the not-yet-four-year-old creation of partners Jamil Khoury and Malik Gillani, will present Yussef El Guindi’s Back of the Throat as its inaugural production in the temple’s newly constructed 80- to 120-seat venue. Located on Washington between Clark and Dearborn–facing Daley Plaza, a block away from Marshall Field’s, and down the street from Millennium Park–it’s a prime piece of real estate. Gillani just doesn’t want you to call it a basement.

The temple is home to the First United Methodist Church, which was founded in 1831 and has had a mixed-use facility on the site since 1858. The current building has 17 floors of offices, most occupied by lawyers (Clarence Darrow was on six), which provide an income stream for the church. That commercial orientation is something the church shares with Silk Road: both artistic director Khoury and executive director Gillani have more experience in business than they do in theater. That could be a weakness, but Khoury, a cross-cultural consultant and fledgling playwright, thinks it’s an advantage.

There was grumbling among the Saints, the city’s volunteer usher corps, after a recent advisory that they should be prepared to stand for the entire performance of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place. The show uses four Saints at every performance to augment the theater’s paid staff. “It’s unusual,” says Saints president B.J. Nelson. “We go on duty at 7 and the show’s out at 9:15, and this is one of the theaters that wants us to pick up afterward. A lot of people can’t stand that long.” Eileen LaCario of Broadway in Chicago, which is presenting the show, and Drury Lane general manager James Jensen say the problem is that the show’s been sold out. “If we have four unsold seats at showtime,” Jensen promises, “the ushers can sit.”

INFO: 312-857-1234 or srtp.org

WHERE: ComedySportz, 2851 N. Halsted