Marriott's Lincolnshire Theatre: The influence of corporate ownership on theatre management

Marriott's Lincolnshire Theatre twenty-five miles north of Chicago, Illinois, is owned and produced by the Marriott Corporation, a Fortune 500 Corporation. The theatre is an unlikely alliance of two separate entities with possibly irreconcilable differences. For this reason, the theatre was examined to learn whether it can be managed by the Marriott Corporation and still maintain its artistic integrity. Research was done mostly by gleaning information from books on success in business and from talking with artistic personnel associated with Marriott's Lincolnshire Theatre. Based on the research, this theatre is managed by the Marriott Corporation and still maintains its artistic integrity. It is difficult to know whether this situation can be emulated elsewhere or whether its success is a unique occurrence. It may be possible that this type of management success could be transferred to other arts organizations and to other major corporations.