Our History and Mission
Stage 212, Inc. has been the Illinois Valley's community theater for over 50 years. Our story began in 1968 as a summer project of the Spring Valley Youth Center, which at the time was located at 212 W. St. Paul Street and is how we got our name! The community theatre group was chartered as an independent, 501c3 non-profit corporation in 1970.
By 1980 Stage 212 had moved to LaSalle-Peru and evolved into a year-round operation involving participants from every age group. Since its founding the organization has mounted more than 200 major productions (including a full-scale play or musical quarterly since the summer of 1978), along with children's productions, one-acts, revues, and traveling shows.
The theater building, acquired by Stage 212 in 1996 and dedicated the following year as The Robert D. Manahan Center for the Performing Arts, is also the organization's corporate headquarters and is located at 700 First Street in La Salle, Illinois.
Our mission at Stage 212 is to educate folks of all ages in the theatre arts by involving them in the creation of high quality theatrical productions which are performed for the edification of the community. We encourage everyone interested in theater, with or without previous experience, to become involved in our projects. Auditions for performing roles in each production are publicly announced and there are no fees required to participate. We also welcome any volunteers to help with set construction, backstage and technical crews, costuming, and more.
The business affairs of the corporation are supervised by a Management Board, and we employ a Business Manager, a Production Manager, and Box Office personnel.
An Abridged History of
700 1st Street
The jewelry business of brothers Edward and Henry Zimmerman opened in LaSalle in 1884. In 1889, the jewelers' success enabled them to build an opera house on this corner of Marquette and First, which also provided a desirable corner location for their jewelry store to be located in as well. During the theater season, the store was used as the daytime box office of the Zimmerman Opera House.
The auditorium had a seating capacity of over 1200. A veranda paralleled the front of the opera house on the second floor, and prior to a performance, the actors would put in an appearance on the veranda, joined by the opera house band playing in the front of the building. It was billed as the “best playhouse west of Chicago,” producing Alexander’s Rag Time Band, Way Down East, Nelly Bly, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and many others.
In the mid-twentieth century, the opera house was converted into a furniture store. In the late 1960’s, the building was demolished to make way for a 2-screen movie theater in front and a multi-story municipal parking garage in back. The upper stories of the garage were subsequently torn down, leaving the parking lot that is still there today. The movie theater went through several ownerships before the building was sold to Stage 212 in 1996, and after remodeling the space became our performance venue the following year.
The Robert D. Manahan
Center for the Performing Arts
Robert D. Manahan is one of the Illinois Valley's most prolific directors of musical theatre. His educational credentials include a bachelor's degree in music education and a master's degree in vocal performance from Illinois Wesleyan University, with further study in drama at Northwestern University. Bob taught vocal music and English from 1960-1993 at L-P High School and later came out of retirement to start the Musical Theater Department at Hall High School in 1999. While teaching at L-P, he founded Summer Stage Playhouse (1963), the success of which inspired the Illinois Arts Alliance Award.
In 1996, when Stage 212 acquired the new building at 700 First Street in LaSalle, a significant endowment from "Mister M" enabled the organization to transform a twin-cinema into a performance venue. To recognize this contribution and all of his contributions to theater in the Illinois Valley for more than four decades, Stage 212 dedicated the facility as The Robert D. Manahan Center for the Performing Arts.
Robert D. Manahan
James Jewell, an Indiana native who taught speech at Illinois Valley Community College for a quarter century, began his Stage 212 career performing the role of Emcee in the 1972 Summer Musical Cabaret. It was a relationship that would last a lifetime.
The Jim Jewell Auditorium
James Jewell
Jim acted in a total of 15 Stage 212 productions and directed 11 others. He also edited the 212 newsletter for 17 years and served on the Management Board. In 1991 he was awarded the Joan Grabowski Memorial Award for Outstanding Contributions to Community Theater in Illinois.
A prolific writer, Jim authored the standard reference book, Broadway and the Tony Awards: The First Three Decades, and the play, Milo Lookingale, which had its premiere performance at Stage 212.
Jim died at age 49 in 1994. He left Stage 212 a significant bequest, which became the seed money for the acquisition of the new theatre at 700 First Street, LaSalle. The building’s performance space is dedicated in his honor as The Jim Jewell Auditorium.
