Listening Room offers new venue 
for intimate live performances

It’ll be like watching a concert hall production in your living room.

That’s how creators of “the Listening Room,” describe what’s in store for the new venue at Lakeside Legacy Arts Park in Crystal Lake.

With its formal dedication today, “the Listening Room” will provide an intimate place for both the performer and the audience to enjoy performance-based entertainment, they say.

Future events could include jazz nights, one-act plays, classical music, inspirational speakers, recitals, comedy acts, corporate events and “anything and everything that has to do with performance art,” said Jim Coughlin, a Lakeside Board member who oversaw the room’s creation through a major donation from an Alabama studio.

Coughlin is the former executive director of Beach CITE Studios, Inc., which closed down its operations along the Alabama Gulf Coast and relocated a major portion of its assets to Crystal Lake.

An art education facility in Orange Beach, Ala., CITE Studios used its assets to remodel about 2,200 square feet at Lakeside.

Coughlin predicts a fall schedule for the Listening Room will be released within the next couple months.

“We have no problem with growing slowly and to make sure we’re growing this right,” he said.

To test out the room, Lakeside has hosted invitation-only events during the past month.

Once a fall schedule is created, tickets to events will be made available to the public, and it will offer a space for private rentals.

“The room is very warm and inviting,” said Coughlin, who compared the production quality to that of the Raue and Woodstock Opera House.

“We can do some of the things they can

do on a smaller scale, and the audience and performers can connect more closely because it’s a smaller seating venue,” he said.

The room can accommodate about 100 people. It also includes an outdoor patio and entranceway area that has been remodeled to become handicapped -accessible.

With a small stage on one end, the space contains moveable seating and a Steinway piano.

“What is unique about it is it’s small and intimate and state of the art,” said Erin McElroy, advancement coordinator for the Lakeside Legacy Foundation.