The Chicago Shakespeare Theater can seat up to 500 patrons in its existing festival stage on the city’s Navy Pier. Another theater in the building seats nearly 200, but that isn’t enough for some of the shows the company wants to stage.
“They have so many different shows they want to put on that they needed more space,” says Jay Quinn, superintendent at Bulley & Andrews. Quinn is in charge of delivering The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare, a $35-million, 35,000-sq-ft, indoor theater that’s being shoehorned into the footprint of a former outdoor stage on the tourist-friendly pier.