Neighborhood News: The Goodman Theatre, home to great drama, comedy
Many years ago, I was a young teen writing about drama for my high school newspaper. One Sunday, I went to my first ‘adult’ play with my friends. It was Peter Shaffer’s ‘Equus,’ with Richard Burton, at the Goodman Theatre. While slack-jawed throughout the performance, its sheer psychological force hit me between the eyes. I realized I was witnessing professional acting at its finest.
I felt the same way last weekend, when I saw ‘Tommy The Musical‘ at their 170 N. Dearborn Street location.
Since 1925, ‘The Goodman,’ as it’s referred to, has built its reputation on quality of its productions. As Wikipedia sources tell it, “Chicago’s oldest and largest not-for-profit theater, has won international renown for the quality of productions, the depth and diversity of artistic leadership, and the excellence of its many community and educational programs.”
Why It’s Called The Goodman
Chicago playwright Kenneth Sawyer Goodman died in the Great Influenza Pandemic in 1918. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. William O. Goodman, donated $250,000 to the Art Institute of Chicago to establish a professional repertory company and a school of drama at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is now an independent entity. The drama school affiliated with the Goodman Theatre was acquired by DePaul University in 1978.
As the Goodman’s website notes, three of Goodman’s one-act plays were presented at the theater’s dedication ceremony. Two nights later the Goodman began its first regular season with John Galsworthy’s ‘The Forest.’ Their first artistic director, Thomas Woods Stevens, built the new theater’s repertory with a mix of classics, contemporary hits and experimental and new plays, a formula that the theater has generally adhered to ever since.
The Goodman Drama School built a formidable reputation over the following decades and graduated many stellar theater artists, including Karl Malden, Sam Wanamaker, Geraldine Page, Linda Huntand Joe Mantegna.
Thousands of Chicagoans got their first taste of theater at the Goodman’s weekend children’s matinees.
Goodman ‘Falls’ Under An Artistic Spell
In 1986, the Goodman hired Robert Falls as Artistic Director. As WBEZ tells it, under his leadership, the Goodman produced more than 150 world premieres. It also sent more than two dozen shows to Broadway, where they garnered 22 Tony Awards by the theater’s count. Falls won his own Tony in 1999 for his direction of “Death of a Salesman,” starring Brian Dennehy. Under Falls’ stewardship, the Goodman also collected a whopping 160 Joseph Jefferson Awards (the local version of the Tonys). With Goodman executive director Roche Schulfer as point man, Falls helped steer the theater’s monumental 2000 move from a subterranean space behind the Art Institute to a $46 million, two-theater campus in the heart of the Loop.
Falls also created several special events, including the Goodman’s annual holiday production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a Yuletide tradition for thousands of Chicago families since 1978, and the annual New Stages Festival, a showcase of new work.
Today
The 2022-23 season was Falls’ final season. Schulfer remains as Executive Director, while Susan C. Boothcarries the distinction of being the first woman Artistic Director at the Goodman.
Special Free Event This Weekend
This summer, four plays written by members of the Goodman’s 2022/2023 Playwrights Unit are showcased in live readings.
On Saturday, July 15, CAMPY; THE SEARCH FOR SUMMER’S CAMPIEST CAMPER, by Dillon Chitto, and directed by Bo Frazier, concerns Chicago friends returning to a gay summer campground to continue their annual tradition of competing to be named “Summer’s Campiest Camper.” As the competition draws closer, the campers are forced to reveal their true selves and confront their hidden feelings.
ST. MILES by Jarrett King and directed by Gabrielle Randle-Bent, on Sunday, July 16 at 7:30pm. What are protests if not a form of prayer? Five years ago, the Ellis family lost one of its members, a young Black man named Miles, to an act of police violence. Now Miles’s mother Opal wants him to be recognized as a saint. As the Ellises navigate the arduous canonization process, the family clashes and battle lines are drawn. Is true salvation on the other side of it all?
For tickets and information on all the Goodman’s upcoming performances, click here.
Alison Moran-Powers and Dean’s Team Chicago
