Chicago Shakespeare Grows Audience with Better Technology

Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage.” Since its debut in 1986, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre’s stage has become increasingly larger as it has grown into one of the top cultural attractions in the Midwest. From its first performances on the roof of the Redline pub to a state-of-the-art facility on Navy Pier, the theatre company has experienced enormous growth — and its technology needs have grown, too.

Micro-Tech U.S.A. has guided the company by providing consultation, network design and implementation, and ongoing support for the company’s evolving demands. Today, the company has hired its own IT staff member, yet Micro-Tech U.S.A. still provides a critical support role.

A little more than four years ago, the company had a handful of donated 486 computers in a simple daisy chain network. Today, the company boasts a high-performance network serving more than 50 users and supporting administrative tasks that keep the company running.

“We were really going from the most primitive computing environment,” said Criss Henderson, director of the company. “Technology is not something we are comfortable with as ‘show folk.’ Micro-Tech U.S.A. was really great about understanding that and guiding us into areas where we needed to be.”

The biggest technology change for the company came when it moved into a new facility on Navy Pier. The facility features two theaters, production facilities, educational workshops and administrative offices. Micro-Tech U.S.A. designed the network from the ground up, installing Ethernet 10/100 switching equipment and a fiber connection between the facility’s two floors. Five Microsoft NT servers are at the center of the network, running file services, Exchange messaging server and SQL database services. In addition to messaging and productivity applications, the network is running PASS, a box-office ticketing software. End-user’s desktops run the Windows 98/2000 operating systems.

Henderson credits Micro-Tech U.S.A. with providing the right services at the right time and taking care of day-to-day operations for three years.

“Micro-Tech U.S.A. had been our sole support and helped keep us afloat through the most critical period as we grew and changed into a larger and more complicated organization,” he said. “But it became clear that I needed to have a full-time person here.”

Henderson hired Jeanne DeVore last year to manage the systems on a daily basis and Micro-Tech U.S.A. has evolved its role to more of a support profile.

“It was an economic and practical move to bring me in, but keeping the Micro-Tech relationship is important for network consulting, repairing printers and other things I can’t do alone,” DeVore said. “It’s especially important to have backup support if I’m not available or I’m on vacation. If the box office is down, they don’t sell tickets and we aren’t making money, so we need to have access to someone at all times.”

Micro-Tech U.S.A. is also brought in when major upgrades are required, as when two new servers were added last year. Smaller projects like an intranet site for company news and calendars also benefit from Micro-Tech’s support.

“Since they are the ones who installed everything, I certainly value Micro-Tech’s input,” DeVore said. “They ran the network for 18 months, so they still know more about my servers than I do. It’s great having someone to turn to.”

Shakespeare’s work continues to be relevant today, as evidenced by the growth of Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, which performed for more than a quarter million people last year. Both DeVore and Henderson believe the IT resources designed and implemented by Micro-Tech U.S.A. will serve the company well into the future.

“Had we not had a good base of technology available to us, we may well have crashed and burned in terms of being able to handle the success that we’ve enjoyed as quickly as we have,” Henderson said.