The Players was written by Fabrizio O. Almeida, Lisa Buscani, Brian Hieggelke, Sharon Hoyer, Valerie Jean Johnson, Nina Metz, Dennis Polkow, William Scott, Andy Seifert and Monica Westin
1.
Tracy Letts
Playwright, actor, Steppenwolf ensemble (steppenwolf.org)
He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play and the
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, but 2008 might be primarily
remembered in Tracy Letts’ mind as the year that he lost his father, Dennis
Letts, a college professor and actor who had appeared in “August: Osage
County,” the play that had brought his son so many accolades. Family has
always been the grounding force for Letts and, not surprisingly, “August” is
based in part on his growing up in Oklahoma. Despite Letts’ manic year of
immense loss while becoming the hottest playwright on the planet, he went
ahead with the opening of his latest play, “Superior Donuts,” at Steppenwolf
as if nothing had happened. Next? A film version of “August: Osage County”
is in the works, as is a New York run of “Superior Donuts.”
2.
Robert Falls
Artistic director, Goodman Theatre (goodmantheatre.org)
With more than thirty years of work in Chicago theater under his belt, Falls
is, like the Goodman itself (and its executive director Roche Schulfer), a
Chicago institution. His creatively rich and sometimes risky programming has
kept the Goodman at the top of the heap for more than two decades, coupling
brilliant revivals of classic plays with premieres of new works by some of
the most sought-after young playwrights working today (including Brett Neveu
and Sarah Ruhl). With the launch of the ambitious Eugene O’Neill Festival
this month, Falls delivers a powerful one-two punch: as curator, featuring
works by Chicago favorites The Neo-Futurists and The Hypocrites, companies
from Brazil and Amsterdam, and avant-garde legends The Wooster Group; and as
director, teaming up once again with stage favorite Brian Dennehy for the
highly anticipated “Desire Under the Elms.” In his downtime, he puts in
regular gigs on Broadway, most recently helming the short-lived revival of
“American Buffalo.”
3.
Lou Raizin
President, Broadway in Chicago (broadwayinchicago.com)
Naysayers in Chicago lament that Broadway in Chicago is the worst thing ever
to have happened to Chicago theater. Yes, it can be frustrating when a
long-running production such as the record-breaking “Wicked” or “Jersey
Boys” moves in for years at a time, meaning that important downtown theaters
lose the chance to host other more cutting-edge touring fare. Yes, you wish
that BIC would be more supportive in presenting local fare, as it claimed it
would after sponsoring the revival of House Theatre’s “The Sparrow.” But
getting folks downtown to catch a big show can only help Chicago theater,
not hurt it, and the entire city has benefited from the millions of dollars
that have been pumped into the theater economy here as a result of the
revitalization of the downtown theater scene that Raizin has spearheaded.
Not to mention that BIC’s run of “Wicked” has meant steady work for a few
select Chicago actors.
4.
William Petersen
Actor, Steppenwolf ensemble (steppenwolf.org)
Within weeks of William Petersen’s spellbinding performance as the lead in
Steppenwolf’s production of Conor McPherson’s “Dublin Carol,” the
announcement was made that Petersen had become the forty-second member of
the Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble, leaving his enormously successful and
lucrative role as Dr. Gilbert Grissom on the popular CBS television network
series “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” to return to Chicago full-time. Long
before his success in film and television, Petersen was a founding member of
Remains Theatre, a Chicago ensemble that, like Steppenwolf in the 1970s, had
helped define the storefront theater scene of the 1980s and whose
co-founders also include current Steppenwolf members Gary Cole and “Dublin
Carol” director Amy Morton.
5.
Barbara Gaines
Founder and artistic director, Chicago Shakespeare Theater (chicagoshakes.com)
The 2008 regional Tony award went to Chi Shakes this past year, and the
company has certainly proven its mettle under Gaines’ artistic direction.
More than anyone in town, she’s made it a practice to import shows from
around the world—usually somewhat experimental works that have nothing to do
with Shakespeare. But the Bard is still the company’s bread-and-butter;
Gaines current production of “Macbeth” is provocative (hello nudity!) and
supremely modern in its stylized world of video and violence.
6.
Anna D. Shapiro
Director, Steppenwolf ensemble member (steppenwolf.org)
Of course we’re excited about Shapiro’s upcoming projects in 2009:
co-directing “Our Town” next month; a world premiere by playwright Regina
Taylor in March; a new play titled “Up” this summer. Most exciting, however,
is that they’ll all be here in Chicago—at Lookingglass, the Goodman and
Steppenwolf, respectively. This 2008 Tony Award-winning director of “August:
Osage County” could have done anything anywhere after helming the American
play of the decade at Steppenwolf and, subsequently, as it took Broadway and
London by storm, but she chose to keep her teaching gig at Northwestern and
continue to work in the city with the ensemble closest to her heart. Focused
on the work but not the hype, Shapiro represents everything that is singular
about Chicago theater artists.
7.
Kelly Leonard
Vice president, The Second City; president, Second City Theatricals (secondcity.com)
Otherwise known as the man who gave Tina Fey her first major gig, Leonard
has an undisputable eye for talent (former cast members populate not only
“Saturday Night Live” and “The Colbert Report,” but whole swaths of
Hollywood). And it is Leonard who has maintained the company’s consistency—some
shows are better than others, but they all bear the recognizable Second City
stamp.
8. William Mason
General director, Lyric Opera (lyricopera.org)
Although he lacks the originality and vision of his pioneering predecessors
Carol Fox and Ardis Krainik, Bill Mason is the perfect custodian of
Chicago’s largest and most successful opera company during troubled economic
times. Yes, the trend is to name everything after donors these days and
present mostly crowd-pleasing Italian warhorses, but one thing is for sure:
when the smoke clears and other area arts organizations are gasping for
breath or even going under completely, Lyric is likely to stand tall and in
the black.
9.
David Cromer
Director
Cromer has had one of the most dramatic career-exploding years for a
director imaginable; he not only directed two of the biggest hits in 2008,
The Hypocrites’ “Our Town” and “Picnic” at the Writers’ Theatre, both of
which also earned buckets of critical acclaim for the way Cromer revived the
classics in ways that truly confronted audiences but he kicked off the year
with an Off-Broadway stint with Next Theatre’s “The Adding Machine” and
ended the year with news that he’d been hired to helm the Broadway revivals
of “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “Broadway Bound” and that his “Our Town” was
headed for Off-Broadway.
10. Bonnie Brooks
Chair, The Dance Center of Columbia College (colum.edu/dance_center)
Brooks, along with executive director Phil Reynolds, curates consistently
compelling programs of contemporary dance that have established the Dance
Center of Columbia College as one of the best places to see groundbreaking
movement art in Chicago. Last season the Dance Center hosted heavy hitters
like Karole Armitage and Merce Cunningham’s company and brought the Urban
Bush Women and JANT-BI—an all-male Senegalese troupe—together for a
cross-cultural collaboration. This season includes performances by the
cerebral local company The Seldoms, Latin American Delfos Danza
Contemporanea and three emerging Japanese companies.
