Letter from the Executive & Artistic Director - Welcome to FY26!

It may be hard to believe, but it’s been TEN YEARS since we arrived in Chicago!

In 2016, after four summers in Louisville KY, TSOC joined the thriving storefront opera scene of Chicago. Our first production here was a double bill of works for young audiences, co-produced by the Inoffensive Theater Series at Stage773. A few months later, in January 2017, we performed The Final Battle for Love to our first ever sold-out house.

Since then, a lot has changed! Our organizational structure has expanded, the number of artists we work with has exploded, we’ve undergone a full rebrand with logo and website redesign, added new grant funders to our portfolio, and undertaken structural initiatives designed to strengthen our ability to continue producing art without burning our leadership out. 

Something else that has changed dramatically in the last ten years is the economy, both locally and nationally. When we first came to Chicago, we were one of more than ten storefront opera organizations producing work in small theater spaces around the city and near suburbs. Fewer than half of those companies still exist, and while some ceased operation during the pandemic, others continued through 2022-2023 before closing in response to the increasing financial and logistical pressures on organizations of our size. With the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs reinstating a consecutive year funding restriction [1] (requiring grantees to take a year off after receiving an award before applying again), and Federal funding for the arts and humanities in Illinois being cut by nearly half [2], 2026 is shaping up to be rough. On top of all that, the larger consumer economy is also tightening, and with people feeling squeezed by an astronomical rise in basic living expenses, the amount of money they’re comfortable donating to the arts has shrunk dramatically. 

Not to bore you with statistics, but the outlook for small organizations has been bad for a while, and is only getting worse; in 2025, while the total amount of charitable giving in the US increased, all those gains went to large and mid-sized organizations; donations to small organizations decreased by 6.5% [3]. What’s more, individual donors have been declining as a percentage of national charitable giving over the last 30 years– while in 1990, nearly 80% of charitable giving came from individuals, in 2026 that amount is projected to be below 60% if recent trends continue [4]. With giving to the arts making up only 4% of charitable giving nationally, we are looking at an ever-shrinking slice of an ever-shrinking pie. 

I’m telling you all this not to scare you– I’m sharing this because I want to make it clear how easy it is for you to have a major impact on our long-term stability. As a small organization, small donations make a much bigger difference than they do to larger organizations, and consistency is even more important than size. Setting up a recurring monthly donation of $15/month or more will make a huge difference in our ability to plan ahead, while also not emptying out your wallet once or twice a year. 

If you’d like to help us in ways beyond monetarily, we are always eager to hear from you. If you, like us, are crazy busy and can’t think of adding another thing to your plate, consider setting up a small recurring monthly donation. You may not notice it, but we definitely will. 

We hope to see you at our next show! 

Claire DiVizio

Executive & Artistic Director