Count me among the admirers of Writers’ Theatre. I’ve followed this 20-year-old company since the very beginning, starting with artistic director Michael Halberstam’s first Christmas reading of Dylan Thomas in the tiny back room of the bookstore that’s still one of their performance spaces. They’ve always been extraordinary.
I wasn’t even surprised when the Wall Street Journal stumbled upon them a few years back and declared them “the best drama company in the nation.” (They’re great with musicals too: if you haven’t seen their production of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music and can still snag a ticket, you’re in for a treat.)
But Thursday’s announcement that the National Endowment for the Arts is bestowing a $100,000 grant on the theater and the village of Glencoe to help build Writers’ a new home gave me pause. Really? Was it silly money day?