The Merle Reskin Theatre is a performing arts venue located in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. Originally named the Blackstone Theatre it was built in 1910.
- Venue
- Merle Reskin Theatre
- Address
- 60 E. Balbo Drive, Chicago, IL 60604
- Town
- Chicago, US
- Capacity
- 1,325
The Merle Reskin Theatre is a performing arts venue located in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. Originally named the Blackstone Theatre it was built in 1910. Renamed the Merle Reskin Theatre in 1992, it is now part of DePaul University, and is also used for events and performances of other groups. It serves as the home of the Chicago Playworks for Families and Young Audiences series produced by The Theatre School of DePaul. In April, 2026, DePaul announced the Merle Reskin Theatre would close. The theater was designed by Marshall and Fox, and developed by Tracy C. Drake and John Drake of Drake Hotel fame on the former site of Timothy Blackstone's mansion, adjacent to the Blackstone Hotel. The theater has a history of live performances that have often been touring productions of hit and prize-winning shows. The architects who designed the new theatre in 1910 were Benjamin Marshall and Charles Fox of the firm Marshall and Fox, who also designed the adjacent Blackstone Hotel in 1909. As with the hotel, the theatre took its name from Timothy Blackstone, whose mansion had previously occupied the site. The original address was on Hubbard Court, which was later renamed Seventh Street, and renamed once again to East Balbo Drive, the current name. The building is six stories tall and built in a French Renaissance style. Constructed only seven years after the Iroquois Theater Fire, the theater was required to be fireproof and the management claimed the auditorium could be cleared in three minutes. Seating capacity was 1,400 people until 1988, when renovations to reinstate the orchestra pit and to create seating for handicapped persons reduced the seat count to 1,325. The developers of both the Blackstone Hotel and Blackstone Theatre were Tracy C. Drake and John Drake, better known as developers and proprietors of the Drake Hotel. Their father, John Drake (1826-1895) had been a business partner of Blackstone's. The building of the Blackstone Theatre directly resul