"Our dream was to be right in the heart of it all," John Dumas told the Riverside-Brookfield Landmark in late September. He leads the Brookfield Theater Corporation, the nonprofit behind the Strand Theater.
The heart of it all is the 3700 block of Grand Boulevard. The group was under contract for two storefronts there and planned a grand opening on Dec. 4. That address is a short walk from the historic Theater Building that started the whole effort. The village owns that building now and plans to tear it down.
So the next few weeks matter for this group. Its November show is one more production on borrowed ground in Riverside. If the plan holds, December is its first season on Grand Boulevard.
Two years and three locations
The Strand started at the Theater Building, 3723 Grand Blvd. That building once ran as a movie theater called the Strand, and the village bought it in September 2024. When officials first talked about what could go there, Dumas pushed to bring the building back to its roots as a theater. Instead, the village bought the house next door at 3717 Grand Blvd. and began planning to demolish both for a new development.
Here's the path from there, as the Landmark reported it:
- 3723 Grand Blvd., fall 2024. The old Strand movie house was the group's first choice. The village went another way.
- 8916 Fairview Ave., 2025 into 2026. In October 2025 the group announced plans to buy the building where Rodriguez Auto Repair operates, with an opening set for May 2026. Adelfo Rodriguez later said he planned to buy the building from his landlord so his 16-year-old shop could stay open, and that ended the Strand's plans for the site.
- 3740 and 3742 Grand Blvd., fall 2026. These are the former Burger Antics and the former Prairie Path Vintage Market. In the September report, the corporation was paying $725,000 for the pair with about $500,000 in loan financing from the First National Bank of Brookfield, and it planned to close in October.
"We never thought we would get onto Grand Boulevard," Dumas said in that same Landmark story. He noted that when the search began, Burger Antics was still a thriving business. Burger Antics served its last day at 3740 Grand Blvd. on Dec. 21, 2025, and that storefront is now at the center of the theater's plans.
How two storefronts become one theater
The plan uses each building for one job. The former Burger Antics becomes the performance room, with seating and a stage. The former Prairie Path building holds the lobby, restrooms, box office and concessions.
According to Dumas, the Burger Antics building was already largely empty. The kitchen equipment was gone, and mainly the restrooms were left to clear out. The group eventually plans a single doorway between the two buildings rather than one big open room, and that connector is meant to be easy to remove if the buildings are ever separated again. Dumas said the doorway might not be done for the Dec. 4 opening or the first Christmas-themed performances on Dec. 5 to 7 and Dec. 12 to 14.
The schedule Dumas described goes well past plays. The Strand is home base for the Glaser Players, and he listed local theater troupes, film screenings, spoken word, music, dance parties and religious services as uses. "We're a nonprofit. We look at it as a community facility, and we want it to be used," he told the Landmark.
The neighbors are part of what makes this block work for a theater. Milk & Manna Boba and Cafe opened at 3738 Grand Blvd. on Jan. 5, 2026, with boba, baked goods, snacks, coffee and a children's play space. That puts a café right next to the theater's doors. Around the corner on Prairie Avenue, New Book Joy Booktique moved into a permanent storefront at 3741 Prairie Ave. in late April after graduating from the Brookfield Shops incubator. Grey Phoenix Art Studio is at 3730 to 3732 Prairie Ave., where Ryan Bothwell of Bothwell Pottery teaches ceramics.
Adding a stage puts a theater, a café, a bookstore and a pottery studio within a block of each other.
One more run in Riverside first
The Glaser Players' November show is still on the road. Their September production, Neil Simon's "California Suite," played at St. Paul's Parish in Riverside, and the next show goes back to the same church.
The show is "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged & Revised)." The Strand's production page calls it a farce in which three actors stage every Shakespeare play in 90 minutes. Titus Andronicus becomes a cooking show, and the history plays turn into a football game with the crown as the ball.
- Dates: Nov. 6 to 8 and Nov. 13 to 15
- Times: Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m.
- Venue: St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 60 Akenside Rd., Riverside
- Tickets: $20 general admission through the Zeffy ticket page, for six performances only
This post goes up the day before opening night, so the first weekend starts Friday.
December's show is "Seasonal Bells." The Strand describes it as a mix of light comedy, dark comedy and drama, and it's the ninth production in the "Seasonal" series. Each short play tells its own story, and pieces of the first five come together in the finale. The West Suburban Theatre Connection lists it in Brookfield.
The Strand's website also sells yard signs to fund the theater and asks for volunteers to clean the building, sell tickets and work concessions.
The old Strand is a block away, with a different future
The building that started all this is still standing up the street from the theater's new home. Dumas said the closeness means something to his group. "There's definitely a connection there," he told the Landmark.
The village's plans for that site have nothing to do with performance. Brookfield owns 3723 Grand Blvd. and the house at 3717, and trustees directed staff in September 2025 to demolish both. This spring the Village Board heard from two developers:
| Developer | Proposal heard in March 2026 |
|---|---|
| Redwood Construction | 20 apartments over ground-floor retail, or a hotel of at least 20 rooms and possibly 30 |
| Nath Construction | Five-story mixed-use building with about 2,600 square feet of retail space, a lobby and publicly accessible amenity space on the ground floor, and 40 apartments above |
The Landmark covered both pitches, Redwood's on March 17 and Nath's on March 31. Each option would bring new apartments or hotel rooms to Grand Boulevard, a short walk from the stage that ended up on the block.
More streetscape work is coming nearby. Grand Boulevard's 3700 block got its upgrade last year. Prairie Avenue's 3700 block is set for new sidewalks, curbs and brick pavers in 2027, along with pedestrian-focused lighting from Broadway to Grant.
December 5 puts it all on one block
If the December plan holds, the Strand's first Saturday of shows lands on the busiest day of Brookfield's holiday season. The Brookfield Chamber of Commerce lists the 4th Annual Kris Kringle Market for Saturday, Dec. 5, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The market has local vendors, young entrepreneurs, Santa and letters to Santa, trolley stops, woodcarving, a petting zoo, family activities, entertainment and food. A tree lighting is planned "as evening arrives."
That means a family could spend the afternoon at the market, wait for the tree lighting, and then walk to Grand Boulevard for one of the Christmas-themed performances the Strand planned for Dec. 5 to 7.
Brookfield Zoo Chicago's Holiday Magic gives the rest of the season a steady rhythm:
- Nights: Nov. 21 to 25 and 27 to 29; Dec. 3 to 6, 10 to 13, 17 to 23 and 26 to 31; and Jan. 1 to 3, 2027, from 3 to 9 p.m.
- Tickets: Starting at $29.95, and free for members.
- Gates: Entry and parking at the Main-North Gate are free and need no reservation. South Gate entry is paid and requires advance admission and parking reservations.
- Sensory Friendly night: Thursday, Dec. 3, with dimmed lights, softer music and fewer visual effects.
Both the zoo and Grand Boulevard have Dec. 4 through Dec. 6 on the calendar. That stretch has Holiday Magic every night, the Strand's planned grand opening on Friday, and the market and tree lighting on Saturday. The theater's planned Christmas performances start Saturday and run through Monday, Dec. 7.
I write about Grand Boulevard because I spend time there with clients, and the walk from Milk & Manna to New Book Joy and now to the Strand's doors is the kind of detail buyers ask about. If you live near downtown Brookfield and want to know what your home is worth with a theater opening on the block, The Casselyn Group can start with an instant home valuation, and I'm glad to walk the street with you afterward.
