List of theaters in Chicago

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This is a list of notable theatre companies, performance venues, and rental performance spaces in the Chicago area.

Contents

Chicago area theatre venues and organizations

Resident companies and venues

Itinerant companies

Touring and rental venues

Inactive, historic companies and venues

Companies

Venues

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyric Opera of Chicago</span> Non-profit organisation in the USA

Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1954, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicola Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma. The company was re-organized by Fox in 1956 under its present name and, after her 1981 departure, it has continued to be of one of the major opera companies in the United States. The Lyric is housed in a theater and related spaces in the Civic Opera Building. These spaces are now owned by the Lyric.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Hall (director)</span> English theatre, opera and film director (1930–2017)

Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall CBE was an English theatre, opera and film director. His obituary in The Times declared him "the most important figure in British theatre for half a century" and on his death, a Royal National Theatre statement declared that Hall's "influence on the artistic life of Britain in the 20th century was unparalleled". In 2018, the Laurence Olivier Awards, recognising achievements in London theatre, changed the award for Best Director to the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Auditorium Building</span> United States historic place

The Auditorium Building in Chicago is one of the best-known designs of Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler. Completed in 1889, the building is located at the northwest corner of South Michigan Avenue and Ida B. Wells Drive. The building was designed to be a multi-use complex, including offices, a theater, and a hotel. As a young apprentice, Frank Lloyd Wright worked on some of the interior design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joffrey Ballet</span> Ballet company (founded in 1956)

The Joffrey Ballet is an American dance company and training institution in Chicago, Illinois. The Joffrey regularly performs classical and contemporary ballets during its annual performance season at the Civic Opera House, including its annual presentation of The Nutcracker.

Defiant Theatre was a Chicago-based theatre company founded in 1993 by a group of students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which includes Nick Offerman. The eclectic troupe specialized in productions that emphasized inventive stagecraft, perverse and controversial topics, and skillful stage combat. While the company is highly regarded for original plays such as Action Movie: The Play and Godbaby, Defiant Theatre received notable attention for productions of plays by Caryl Churchill, Alfred Jarry, Sarah Kane, and William Shakespeare. Chicago Magazine named Defiant the "Best Experimental Theatre" in their August 1999 Best of Chicago issue. The company disbanded in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyric Performing Arts Center</span> Music venue in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.

The Lyric Performing Arts Center is a music venue in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, located close to the University of Baltimore law school. The building was modeled after the Concertgebouw concert hall in Amsterdam, and it was inaugurated on October 31, 1894, with a performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Australian opera singer Nellie Melba as the featured soloist. Beginning in 1904, it was also used for touring performances by the Metropolitan Opera, and from 1950, it was the home of the Baltimore Opera Company until that company's liquidation in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theater in Chicago</span> Theater performed in Chicago, Illinois

Theater in Chicago describes not only theater performed in Chicago, Illinois, but also to the movement in Chicago that saw a number of small, meagerly funded companies grow to institutions of national and international significance. Chicago had long been a popular destination for touring productions, as well as original productions that transfer to Broadway and other cities. According to Variety editor Gordon Cox, beside New York City, Chicago has one of the most lively theater scenes in the United States. As many as 100 shows could be seen any given night from 200 companies as of 2018, some with national reputations and many in creative "storefront" theaters, demonstrating a vibrant theater scene "from the ground up". According to American Theatre magazine, Chicago's theater is "justly legendary".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Auditorium Theatre</span>

The Auditorium Theatre is a music and performance venue located in the Auditorium Building at 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive in Chicago, Illinois. Inspired by the Richardsonian Romanesque Style of architect Henry Hobson Richardson, the building was designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan and completed in 1889. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed in the theatre until 1904 as well as the Chicago Grand Opera Company and its successors the Chicago Opera Association and Chicago Civic Opera until its relocation to the Civic Opera House in 1929. The theater was home to the Joffrey Ballet from 1998 until 2020. It currently hosts a variety of concerts, musicals, performances, and events. Since the 1940s, it has been owned by Roosevelt University and since the 1960s it has been refurbished and managed by an independent non-profit arts organization.

Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts) is a public four–year college preparatory visual and performing arts high school located in the West Town community area, in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Operated by the Chicago Public Schools district, The school opened for the 2009–10 school year.

Tessitura is an enterprise application used by performing arts and cultural organisations to manage their activities in ticketing, fundraising, customer relationship management, and marketing. It refers to itself as "arts enterprise software."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DuPage Opera Theatre</span>

The DuPage Opera Theatre (DOT) is one of three professional opera companies located in the Chicago area, along with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Opera Theater. Founded in 1977 as a resident, professional ensemble at the McAninch Arts Center at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, DuPage Opera has mounted several hundred performances since its inception.

Oak Park Festival Theatre (OPFT) is a professional theatre company in Oak Park, Illinois, under contract with Actors' Equity Association. The company was founded in 1975 by Marion Kaczmar, an Oak Park resident and arts patron, and performed Renaissance works, almost exclusively by William Shakespeare, until 2004, when it broadened its scope to classics of other eras. Its outdoor venue has been Austin Gardens, a wooded park near downtown Oak Park within walking distance from restaurants, Frank Lloyd Wright landmarks, and Metra and CTA trains. To attract a greater following, Renaissance, classical, and modern American works were added to the offerings, some being produced indoors in historic Farson-Mills Home and, in the 2010-11 season, in the studio space in the Madison Street Theatre.

Margot Grimmer rose to prominence as a dancer in several companies, including the Lyric Opera Ballet, the Ruth Page International Ballet, the New York City Ballet, and the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She studied ballet as a child in Chicago, and was among 50 from 3,000 applicants selected for the children’s ensemble of the New York City Ballet’s Chicago production of George Balanchine’s Nutcracker at the Opera House. At age 14, she danced professionally in Broadway musicals at the Kansas City Starlight Theatre and continued at the St. Louis Municipal Theatre and Music Theater in Highland Park. After high school, Grimmer’s career flourished. In 1962, she appeared with Ruth Page’s Chicago Opera Ballet in the American debut of Russian defector superstar Rudolf Nureyev at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In 1965, she danced a principal role in the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of Carmina Burana at the Opera House. From 1965-1968, she performed in the International Ballet’s Nutcracker, starring Erik Bruhn, Carla Fracci, Henning Kronstam and Kirsten Simone, at McCormick Place and the Opera House. From 1965-1968, she gave lecture-demonstration performances in ballet and modern dance, under a federal grant from the National Endowment for Arts, for the War On Poverty’s Cultural Enrichment program in Chicago’s inner city schools. In 1967, she was featured in the experimental dance movie Statics, which won awards in cinematography and art direction at International Film Festivals. On off-seasons, she attended Northwestern University, majoring in acting and English Literature.

A Shakespeare festival is a theatre organization that stages the works of William Shakespeare continually.

References

  1. American Theatre Company is shutting down...
  2. Body Politic Bows Out/Auditorium Suit Dismissed
  3. Caffeine Theatre To Close
  4. Theatrical days appear numbered for Chicago Center for Performing Arts
  5. "Famous Door closing after venerable run". Chicago Tribune . Archived from the original on 2022-12-06.
  6. Infamous Commonwealth Theatre closes
  7. Money Trouble at Wisdom Bridge/What Remains of Remains?/Rotational Success/Hot Mikado
  8. Windy City Performs, a performing arts school, closes in Jefferson Park