Dinner theater is a form of entertainment that combines a restaurant meal with a staged play or musical. "Dinner and a show" can also refer to a restaurant meal in combination with live concert music, where patrons listen to a performance during a break in the meal. In the case of a theatrical performance, sometimes the play is incidental entertainment, secondary to the meal. In the style of a night club, the play may be the main feature of the evening, with dinner less important or optional. Dinner theater requires the management of three distinct entities: a live theater, a restaurant and, usually, a bar.
Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Chicago theater company founded in 1974 by Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry, and Gary Sinise in the Immaculate Conception grade school in Highland Park, Illinois and is now located in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on Halsted Street. The theatre's name comes from Hermann Hesse's novel Steppenwolf, which original member Rick Argosh was reading during the company's inaugural production of Paul Zindel's play, And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, in 1974. After occupying several theatres in Chicago, in 1991, it moved into its own purpose-built complex with three performing spaces, the largest seating 550.
Hollis Resnik was an American singer and actress, especially in stage musicals.
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".
Intiman Theatre is a resident theater company in Seattle, Washington, founded in 1972 by Margaret "Megs" Booker, who named it after Strindberg's Intimate Theater in Stockholm. Through its history, the professional theatre company has been based at various venues in Seattle; since 2021, it has been located as theatre-in-residence at Seattle Central College, performing in two venues on that campus.
Steven Dietz is an American playwright, theatre director, and teacher. Called "the most ubiquitous American playwright whose name you may never have heard", Dietz has long been one of America's most prolific and widely produced playwrights. In 2019, Dietz was again named one of the 20 most-produced playwrights in America.
Gary Griffin is an American theater director.
Nathan Davis was an American film and television actor. He was featured in Holes, Chain Reaction, Flowers in the Attic, Stony Island.
Encores! is a Tony-honored concert series dedicated to reviving American musicals, usually with their original orchestrations. Presented by New York City Center since 1994, Encores! has revived shows by Irving Berlin, Rodgers & Hart, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim, among many others. Encores! was the brainchild of Judith Daykin, who launched the series shortly after becoming Executive Director of City Center in 1992. Besides initiating Encores!, Daykin is credited for turning City Center from a rental hall into a presenting organization. The series has spawned nineteen cast recordings and numerous Broadway transfers, including Kander and Ebb's Chicago, which is now the second longest-running musical in Broadway history. Videotapes of many Encores! productions are collected at the Billy Rose Theater Collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The series was led by artistic director Jack Viertel from 2001 to 2020; in October 2019, City Center announced that Lear deBessonet will take over as artistic director beginning with the 2021 Encores! season.
The Joseph Jefferson Award, more commonly known informally as the Jeff Award, is given for theatre arts produced in the Chicago area. Founded in 1968, the awards are named in tribute to actor Joseph Jefferson, a 19th-century American theater star who, as a child, was a player in Chicago's first theater company. Two types of awards are given: "Equity" for work done under an Actors' Equity Association contract, and "Non-Equity" for non-union work. Award recipients are determined by a secret ballot.
Etel Billig was an American actress and director; her career spanned more than 60 years. She founded Illinois Theatre Center (ITC) in 1976 with her husband, Steven.
Robert Falls is an American theater director and the former artistic director of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.
Court Theatre is a Tony Award-winning professional theatre company located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, where it was established in 1955. Court Theatre is affiliated with the University of Chicago, receiving in-kind support from the University and operating within the larger University umbrella. Court Theatre puts on five plays per season, which are attended by over 35,000 people each year, in addition to various smaller performance events such as play readings.
Richard Pilbrow was a British stage lighting designer, author, theatre design consultant, and theatrical producer, film producer and television producer. He was the first British lighting designer to light a Broadway musical on the Broadway stage with the musical Zorba.
Chicago Dance Crash is an American physical theater and street dance company based in Chicago, Illinois. The company tours year round while sustaining a calendar year ‘season’ of local premiers and commercial work as well as a spring/fall educational outreach program. The company has received widespread critical acclaim while being considered one of the most notable American dance companies to emerge during the first decade of the 2000s.
Rachel Rockwell was an American theater director, choreographer and performer.
Michael P. Price is the longest serving artistic director of a professional theatre in the United States. As the Executive Director of Goodspeed Musicals from 1968 to 2014, he produced more than 235 musicals, including 75 world premiers and transferred 19 productions to Broadway, including the world premieres of Shenandoah, Man of La Mancha and Annie. His productions have won 13 Tony Awards and 33 nominations. He has also accepted two special Tony Awards on Goodspeed's behalf. In 2019, he was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.
Porchlight Music Theatre is a professional theatre company in Chicago, Illinois that has won numerous Joseph Jefferson Awards in its 25-year history. The company has come to embody the slogan "American musicals. Chicago style".
Henry Godinez is a Cuban-American actor, director, and professor of theatre who is committed to the production of Latino theatre in Chicago. He has also directed and acted in New York City, Kansas City, Indiana, Colorado, Washington, D.C., and San Diego. He is the resident artistic associate at the Goodman Theatre, founded and serves as director of their biennial Latino Theater Festival, and has directed and performed in multiple productions at the Goodman. Additionally, he is the co-founder and former artistic director of Teatro Vista, a Latino Theatre company in Chicago.
David Darlow is an American actor and stage director.
