Circle Theatre artistic director Kevin Bellie moves his company in as the main tenant in the old Village Players Theatre space at 1010 W. Madison Street in Oak Park this fall, where the Circle production of The Wedding Singer starts previews on September 17. (The company’s current production of Philip Barry’s The Philadelphia Story runs through September 5 in their old home at 7300 W. Madison Street in Forest Park.) Circle’s lease in Forest Park expires at the end of October, and their current landlord had been reluctant to renew.

Megan Wells, who has taken over as artistic director for the Company Formerly Known as Village Players, got a heads-up that Circle needed a new space just as VPT was trying to figure out how to keep their venue viable. (The company has a mortgage on the two-venue building.) Says Bellie, “This makes it a great win-win situation for both companies. They own the building and this allows us to pay their mortgage while they regroup.”

Circle has a 14-month lease, and will perform in the 170-seat mainstage, which is nearly double their old 95-seat mainstage in Forest Park. “The shows that we have coming up are really appropriate for that size of house,” says Bellie. After The Wedding Singer (the 2006 stage version of the 1990s Adam Sandler romantic comedy has only played locally in very brief touring pit stops at venues such as Paramount Theatre in Aurora), Circle continues on the musical path with a revival of Kiss Me, Kate.

Even though Bellie estimates that they will make about $10,000 in improvements (including some that are necessary to bring aspects of the space up to current fire codes), the prospect of selling more tickets is enticing.

“We had simply outgrown the [old] space,” says Bellie. “We couldn’t really raise the ticket prices and we couldn’t sell any more tickets, so the idea is to really go someplace with more seats. We’ve had a season of really successful shows, but there is less grant money, so we’re really supporting ourselves on ticket sales. We’ve always been at about 65-70 percent of our income from ticket sales, but it’s getting harder to find even 30 percent in grants to cover the rest.”

Village Players Theatre will go away under that name, but the company plans to regroup and continue producing. Wells, who was a runner-up for the artistic director’s position that went to Dan Taube last year, says, “Village Players has been reverted back to its original form and mission, which is a performing arts building. It was initially put together as the Oak Park River Forest Civic Theatre. ‘Civic’ is a really dated term. So now it’s the Oak Park-River Forest Performing Arts Center. It’s just a clearing out and returning to the model of the space being a jewel for everybody.”

What this means in practical terms is that, while the mainstage venue will be occupied by Circle, the 50-seat black box is available for rentals. Wells identifies Open Door Repertory and Oak Park Festival Theatre as two local companies in need of rental space—the latter performs in the summer at Oak Park’s Austin Gardens, but has been looking around for an indoor space to perform in the winter, after doing a few shows at Oak Park’s historic Pleasant Home. “I am making sure that everything that goes into that space has artistic integrity,” says Wells. “We aren’t going to be blindfolded landlords. We’re serving the community.”

Another aspect of the community-service mission is to continue to offer youth classes in acting—something for which both Wells (a professional storyteller) and Rosemary Foley (board president of the old/new VPT) have a keen passion. “Our touchstone is story,” says Wells. “We’re going to expand on the story and the narrative base. It’s building their acting skills while building their literary mind and their imaginative mind.”

In addition to being a presenting organization and a youth training facility, Wells says that VPT will come back to produce work under a new name that is yet to be determined. “The new production company is currently being shaped and envisioned,” she says. Some new board members have come on since the crisis hit in late May. “We’re in a position where the board is potentially growing again,” says Wells.

For his part, Bellie has plans beyond the 14-month lease at the old VPT space. A couple of years ago, Circle had hoped to move into a new facility in the Oak Park Art District on Harrison Street. Those plans fell apart when the prospective landlord didn’t want to go beyond five years on the lease. Currently, Circle is working with an Oak Park developer to find a brand-new space that will serve the company for years to come. Bellie projects that their operating budget for the upcoming season, given the possibility of increased ticket sales, could increase from $350,000 to $400,000, even though they will be paying double rent through October.

Still, says Bellie, “It’s ridiculous how perfect this [interim arrangement] is. It’s exactly the right time frame for us, and it lets us produce a full season.

Wells notes that the old VPT has received many overtures of support from the Oak Park community, but promises that whatever model emerges for the new production arm will be different than what came before.

“Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. The same old thing is ‘wagged by the finances, so throw something on the stage,’ and that doesn’t work anymore.”