Editing Hull House (section)

==Theater==
Addams felt that the community benefits from theater plays and thus established an amateur theater in the Hull House in 1899.<ref name="EOCTC">{{cite encyclopedia|author=Christiansen, Richard|title=Theater Companies|url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1246.html|editor=Grossman, James R. |editor2=Keating, Ann Durkin |editor3=Reiff, Janice L.|year=2004|encyclopedia=[[The Encyclopedia of Chicago]]|publisher=[[Chicago Historical Society]]}}</ref> "The neighborhood Greeks performed the classic plays of antiquity in their own language and the children of European immigrants produced Shakespeare" as well as others.<ref>[[Marcet Haldeman-Julius|Haldeman-Julius, Marcet]]. ''Jane Addams As I Knew Her'' (Grand Rapids: Kessinger, LLC, 1999 [1934]), p. 4.</ref> Early one December, the Greeks performed ''Odysseus in Chicago''. The auditorium was filled with a multi-ethnic crowd and packed too close for comfort. The audience was very eager and gave the performers "rapt attention."<ref name="retro">"Hull-House Retrospect", ''Hull-House Bulletin'' IV, no. 1 (1900), n.p. Urban Experience In Chicago: Hull-House and Its Neighborhoods. 25 Apr. 2006. University of Illinois Chicago. Fall 2008 <http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/urbanexp/contents.htm>.</ref> They watched neighbors and co-workers execute this primitive play, but it was very powerful, plausible, and personal. The actors seemed to pay "tribute to a noble ancestry" and plea for the respect of the audience.<ref name="retro"/> Indeed, they did gain this respect because it was said that not even trained college students could give the same play with as much zeal and patriotism.<ref name="retro"/> America's [[improvisational theatre]] scene has its roots in Hull House, as [[Viola Spolin]], noted improvisational techniques instructor, taught classes and developed her techniques at Hull House.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n3Xn7jMx1RYC&q=spolin+jane+addams&pg=PA517|title=The American Midwest|author1=Richard Sisson |author2=Christian K. Zacher |author3=Andrew Robert Lee Cayton |isbn=0253003490|date=2006-11-08|publisher=Indiana University Press }}</ref> In 1963, when road tours of [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] productions became common, the Hull House Theater in the Jane Addams Center at 3212 North Broadway fostered the development of Chicago Theater companies for the rest of the century.<ref name="EOCTC" /> Founder [[Robert Sickinger]] created an environment to nourish young talent with professionalism.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|author1=Telli, Andrea  |author2=Richard Pettengill|title=Acting, Ensemble|url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/21.html|editor=Grossman, James R. |editor2=Keating, Ann Durkin |editor3=Reiff, Janice L.|year=2004|encyclopedia=[[The Encyclopedia of Chicago]]|publisher=[[Chicago Historical Society]]}}</ref>