Fox TV filming "The Big Leap" in Joliet at Rialto Square Theatre

It's show time of a sorts again this week at the Rialto Square Theatre.

Fox TV is filming parts of its new series "The Big Leap," a show described as a comedy-drama with a ballet theme, at the Rialto into next week.

"It's really nice to have people in the theater," Rialto Executive Director Valerie Devine said. "Don't get me wrong. Court was great. But the theater is being used for its purpose."

Cameras, lights, and actors are in and around the theater again if only for a week.

"Van Buren Street is three trailers deep of dressing rooms," Devine said.

The court Devine mentioned was Will County Circuit Court, which held sessions in the Rialto for several months during the pandemic.

It was about the only theater activity, which has been shut down for show business under COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, and a welcome source of revenue for the Rialto.

The filming of "The Big Leap" also will bring revenue to the Rialto, which otherwise has been virtually dormant since March.

"It's amazing how you can go from zero to 100," Devine said of the change of pace inside the theater this week.

Fox TV crews arrived Tuesday for two days of set-up, and filming began outside the theater on Thursday. The schedule now is for filming inside the theater on Friday and Monday with a last day of filming outdoors on Tuesday.

The Rialto is familiar ground for Fox TV, which visited the Joliet theater at least three times in the past to film parts of "Empire," another show about the arts and entertainment business.

But it may be awhile before arts and entertainment is staged at the Rialto again for the public.

New vaccines offer some hope but not enough assurance that Devine can say when performances will return.

"We'll have to see how things work out and what the governor tells me we can do and can't do," she said.

But at least for a week the theater is abuzz again. Joliet Stage Hands Local 124 has work to do. And Fox TV is back in the Rialto.

"We're very blessed to have them," Devine said, "because they are absolutely the nicest people."

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