Chicago, COVID, & Commitment

If there’s one thing that working actors don’t take for granted, it’s just that: working! This crazy industry is competitive, cutthroat, and requires a commitment to the grind, grind, grind. This we knew all too well long before our comfortable reality was pulled out from under us. Many, if not all, folks in our industry felt the sudden whiplash from the halt that COVID demanded. Shirley Hamilton’s hearts ached as we witnessed theatres closing their doors, premiers cancelled, sets emptied, shoot dates pushed, auditions halted.

Across decades Chicago has continued to prove that we are a force to be reckoned with. We’ve got the goods to compete and to flourish in this industry – putting astonishing talent up on stage, on screen, in print, and in your ears! Writing and producing entertainment in our own backyard that garners accolades and fandom, with global recognition and longevity. We’ve delivered on the notion that success in our industry isn’t an East vs. West conversation; we’re smack dab in the middle of it all and our momentum is infectious. 

COVID-19 may have pressed pause on our plans, but Chicagoans (natives and transplants!) are nothing if not tenacious and determined. One incredible example of this willpower? Exhibit A (for Ashley), one of our very own:

Production of new single-cam, mockumentary style comedy series Zen Room is set to commence early March… While plenty of film production has been shuttered due to Covid-19, actress and writer Ashley Joyce (Gilmore Girls, Everyone is Doing Great) forges boldly ahead with a strong female crew. 

And tapping her hometown as ground central from writing to shooting was a clear choice: “The Chicago film and theater community is the perfect place to create something that is desperately needed these days due to lack-of productions as a result of the pandemic. One thing Covid has shown the film industry is that there are places outside of LA that are creating content. Writers’ rooms can be anywhere. We would love to create that in Chicago, where productions not only just come to shoot but they begin and end with Chicago talent from writing to editing,” notes Joyce.

[Text selection from: “Production set to begin on Zen Room…” By Reel Chicago Feb 23, 2021]

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Throw anything you’ve got at us: Chicago entertainment ain’t going anywhere. This is our official rally cry to anyone out there, on our own amazing roster and beyond, who is feeling discouraged: KEEP YOUR TALENTED CHINS UP. We’ve all felt the impact of this unprecedented time in one way or another, and one way or another we will all get thru it. There are things happening. Want proof? Exhibit B:

The owner of a sprawling former Marshall Field’s warehouse complex wants to bring a touch of Hollywood to the Northwest Side. Knickpoint Ventures, which acquired the 22-acre property at 4000 W. Diversey Ave. in 2018, is in preliminary discussions with Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration to create a film production campus that would create hundreds of jobs.

The film operation at The Fields would be a smaller version of the Cinespace Chicago Film Studios campus on the West Side, where TV shows and movies are filmed and produced. If the project moves forward, it could help the city expand film industry jobs at a time when the city faces a long economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Chicago has relevant assets and an opportunity to take advantage of this moment while positioning itself as a long-term hub for entertainment production,” the [Chicago Recovery Task Force report] said. “We possess an abundance of available industrial and warehouse buildings in the South and West sides that can be repositioned as studios.” 

[Text selection from: “Film production studio…” By Ryan Ori | Chicago Tribune Feb 5, 2021]

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In even newer news, The CW has given a straight-to-series order for THE 4400, a sci-fi cult classic re-make “expected to film in the Chicagoland area beginning in June, through the end of the year.” The series reboot is a reimagination of the original concept, in which “4400 overlooked, undervalued, or otherwise marginalized people who vanished without a trace over the last hundred years are all returned in an instant, having not aged a day and with no memory of what happened to them.”

We’ve also been neck deep in AMC’S 61st Street auditions, callbacks, and castings, which has been “ordered as a two-season television event series with eight episodes per season”, shooting right here at Cinespace, executive produced by Michael B. Jordan. The series will tell the story of the Chicago criminal justice system’s corruption thru the perspective and experiences of a high school athlete.

[Text selections from: “CW Series Chooses Chicago” By Screen Magazine | March 25, 2021
& “Michael B. Jordan’s ’61st Street’…” By Reel Chicago | March 19, 2021]

Times are hard, folks. It’s been a weird year! Take a breather if you need to, but don’t give up that Chicago momentum. There is so much to be excited about, and more to come.
Remember: Midwest Is Best!

xoxo, SH

author: lara freeman-erbin