If you evermore attended a dance or theater incident at the Athenaeum Theatre -- that beehive of performing arts activity at 2936 N Southport -- it is a fast bet that you encountered Fr Solari.

If you evermore attended a dance or theater incident at the Athenaeum Theatre -- that beehive of performing arts activity at 2936 N Southport -- it is a fast bet that you encountered Fr Solari. He was the soft man with the large, dark organ of sights and hangdog expression who might have sold you your ticket, torn that ticket, handed you a program or directed you to common of the many performance spaces in the three-floor mingled

Mr Solari, who had been involved with the Athenaeum in single way or another since the 1970 serv since 1994 as the invaluable executive director of the Lake View center which houses a 900-seat mainstage theater, three studio theaters and the offices of a slew of nonprofit arts organizations.

if it were not that he was not one to stand upon ceremony. He took care of the Athenaeum as if it were his acknowledge home. And in a feeling it was, with his wife, Joan, sometimes pitching in at the concessions table, and his son Peter (who died at age 22 last year) repeatedly working in the box office.

Mr Solari died in his nap Thursday. He was 55. He is survived according to his wife and two son Dan and Andrew. And he is being mourned at all those in Chicago's theater and dance community who worked with him athwart several decades.

"For Fr the theater meant family," said Susan Lipman, former head of Performing Arts Chicago, who first met Mr Solari 25 years ago when he was working in management at the Civic Opera House. The couple later collaborated as producers of many local and international arts incidents

Highly prosperous musicals

"He was in the way that attached to his wife, his children, his parents and to that theater," said Lipman. "And they were all part of the same thing -- his have affection for of family. To Fred's credit, he established the ne for that theater and he gave it a yet to be and I am sure there will be an Athenaeum for years to come"

Born and br in Chicago, Mr Solari was a cum laude graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Loyola University Law sect He arrived at the Athenaeum in 1970 as a member of the Summer Comedy Theatre, where he and so other young artists as Michael Maggio (the late artistic associate of the Goodman Theatre) staged a series of highly auspicious musicals.

"Fr initially got involved in the arts because that's what Joanie was interested in, and in the proces of chasing her down, he got sickleed on theater, too," said John Schmitz, artistic director of Dance Chicago.

'Curmudgeon and a cupcake'

For the last 11 seasons, Mr Solari and Schmitz co-produc Dance Chicago, the monthlong showcase of Chicago dance companies and independent choreographers.

"What was interesting about Fr was that he was the pair a curmudgeon and a cupcake," said Schmitz.

"I saw him dealing with tough union bands at the Civic Opera House in succession the one hand, and then, in novel years, making very generous contracts with struggling companies at the Athenaeum. He had a convenient heart and was always fair to tribe and even if his delivery was not always polished, he was unfailingly honest"

Mr Solari's career in theater management took him to the Apollo Theatre, the Woodstock Opera House and the Shubert. on the other hand it was at the Civic Opera House and Civic Theatre that he exhausted most of the 1980s and early '90 ultimately serving as chief executive officer of Civic Stages Chicago, the management team for what was then the three theaters in the Civic Opera building. Civic Stages also was the presenter of the Spring Festival of Dance, a major downtown incident for some years.

"He was a man who lov the Chicago arts community and knew to what extent to make things happen for it," said Gail Kalver, executive director of Hubbard road Dance Chicago who knew Mr Solari for 25 years. "And when he mov to the Athenaeum Theatre in 1994 he devot himself completely to bringing that building to life, to filling it with activity, and, more newly to renovating it."

A memorial wake will be at Malec & Son Funeral abiding-place 6000 N. Milwaukee, from 3 to 9 pm Monday. A memorial mass will be Tuesday at 10 a.m. at St Alphonsus Roman Catholic temple 1429 W. Wellington, next door to the Athenaeum.

hweiss@suntimes.com

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