Ravinia Festival's Martin Theatre, the last original structure still standing from the 36-acre wooded park that opened in 1904, will go dark after Jacob Collier performs on Sept. 23 to begin a $38 million renovation. The 122-year-old Arts and Crafts building will get new light and sound systems, upgraded dressing rooms, improved bathrooms, and seats spaced farther apart, with construction beginning in October and the venue not fully reopening until sometime during the 2028 season.
As reported by WBEZ, the project is being funded by a gift from the Northbrook-based Negaunee Foundation that Ravinia officials describe as the largest in the festival's history. The theater originally opened as a cinema and vaudeville house in 1904, and it needs restoration of rotting wooden beams, corroded electrical lines, and rain damage, according to the same report. Ravinia CEO Jeffrey P. Haydon called the building the soul of the festival, telling the outlet that the Martin Theater has always been the heart of Ravinia.
A Building That Shaped Ravinia's Newest Stage
The Martin Theatre's stained glass windows and crafted wood details actually inspired the design of the acoustics shell inside Ravinia's newly renovated Hunter Pavilion, per WBEZ's reporting. That $70 million pavilion project, which also delivered a bigger stage, wider chairs, and better acoustics, opened this summer, though it resulted in fewer overall seats. The Wenger Corporation-built shell, which debuted as part of the $70 million Hunter Pavilion renovation, features chevron-patterned walls designed by Michael C. Barnes of Lohan Architecture that directly echo the Martin Theatre's century-old glasswork, according to WTTW. The custom acoustical shell includes two 7.5-ton motorized pivoting walls, the station reported.
The Martin Theatre work will pause during the 2027 season and resume shortly after that summer's programming ends, WBEZ reported. Once finished, the redesigned space is expected to support Ravinia's youth music education programs, while the festival continues classical programming there with chamber music recitals and operas alongside new support for jazz, folk, americana, and pop, per the same report.
Part of a Bigger, Debt-Free Campaign
The Martin Theatre project is the second major milestone in Ravinia's $75 million “Setting the Stages” capital campaign, which aims to modernize the festival's entire 36-acre Highland Park campus ahead of its 125th anniversary in 2029. Ravinia announced in July that the campaign had reached its $75 million fundraising goal, anchored by a second major gift from the Hunter Family Foundation that allowed the festival to open the renovated Pavilion debt-free, according to Broadway World.
The Negaunee Foundation's gift for the Martin Theatre builds on the organization's earlier $21 million donation in February 2025 to create the Negaunee Foundation Artist Center for backstage facility upgrades, following a separate $21 million gift to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association in March 2024, according to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Ravinia has served as the CSO's official summer home since 1936, hosting 100 to 150 events each summer that draw an estimated 400,000 to 600,000 annual visitors to Highland Park, per the orchestra's account. Future renovation phases beyond the Martin Theatre include updates to the Carousel Stage and Bennett Gordon Hall, WBEZ reported.
Designed to Draw Weekend Crowds a Century Ago
The 850-seat Martin Theatre was designed by German-born Chicago architect Peter J. Weber in a blend of Prairie Style and Arts and Crafts architecture, featuring smooth stucco, red tile roofing, twin bell towers, and opalescent stained glass, according to Hoodline's earlier coverage of the capital campaign. It was built by Chicago and Milwaukee Electric Railroad president Albert C. Frost to drive weekend commuter rail traffic to his North Shore amusement park, the outlet's report noted.
Ravinia also unveiled the renovated Sandra K. Crown Theater inside the Bank of America Pavilion, known as the Audrey, in 2025, part of the same broader push to modernize the historic grounds before the end of the decade, per WBEZ. The festival's Reach Teach Play initiative already provides music instruction, free instruments, and live classroom performances to more than 20,000 public school students across Cook and Lake Counties every year, and the redesigned Martin Theatre is expected to give that programming a permanent, updated home once construction wraps.
