Theatre

The Goodman Theater is the oldest nonprofit organization located within Chicago central business district. This building was errected in 1925 to honor playwriter, Kenneth Sawyer Goodman, who died in 1918 from the flu. His legacy was carried on by his plays performed opening day at his theater on October 20th, 1925. Actors performed three of Goodman's plays, Back of the Yards, The Game of Chess, and The Green Scarf.
At a cost of $250,000 from William and Erna Goodman via Art Institute of Chicago the Goodman Theater was constructed in 1922. Thomas Woods Stevens became the first artistic director at Goodman’s. Stevens’s first play here was The Forest by John Galsworthy. Stevens is also noted for establishing the “first theater degree-granting program in America at Carnegie Mellon University. “ After five years time Steven retires due to an argument about the about of debt that Goodman Theater had achieved over the years.
Maurice Gnesin took Stevens place in 1930. Gnesin had full control over the school for 27 years with her assistant David Itkin, Russian actor. From Gnesin great theater actors grew,” Karl Malden, Sam Vanamaker, Geraldine Page, Shelley Berman, Havey Koman, jose Quintero, Linda Hunt, and Joe Mantegna.” Goodman’s Theater was all about giving kids there first experience to theater. Thousands of young Chicago kids were taken to see a week end Matinee of so some theater at Goodman’s. The year 1957 came around and Gnesin died along with Itkin retiring Goodman’s is in need of new leadership.
This was filled conditionally by John Reich, director that trained with Max Reinhardt. The condition was that the theater had to start a new professional acting company. Forty years of having no professional company at their theater, Goodman’s produced a fully professional cast that led to bigger plays and audiences. This also led to a higher debt since they were not able to pay all the actors. Reich had his reign for 15 years where he was forced to retire. Ken Myers was brought in for a year to try to see where the financial problem was within the company.
1973 William Woodman is the new director. They separate themselves in 1976 from the Artistic Institute. They then join Chicago theatre Group, Inc. This gave the theater opportunities to do their own fundraising along with the development of Stage 2, a testing ground from amateur actors, directors, and writers. A few more theater directors came in and out of the theater until they ended up with 24+ good years with Robert Falls. He is known for his off-loop theater boom in the 1970’s. 1990 Falls appointed Mary Zimmerman, Chuck Smith, Henry Godinez, and Regina Taylor to the Goodman’s theater staff. Falls and staff produced Galileo, Death of a Salesman, and Long Day’s journey into Night.
Chicago was changing the path of center loops throughout the city. This gave Goodman owners the chills. 1980 they started to look for new places since there shake behind the art institute would not suffice. So they built a new one which opened in 2000. The opening act was King Hedley by August Wilson.
“Other notable productions in the Goodman's recent history include Artistic Director Robert Falls' stagings of The Iceman Cometh starring Brian Dennehy, The Night of the Iguana with Cherry Jones and William Petersen, and The Young Man from Atlanta starring Rip Torn and Shirley Knight; Frank Galati's world premiere of John Kander and Fred Ebb's musical The Visit, featuring a book by Terrence McNally and starring Chita Rivera; David Petrarca's world premiere productions of Marvin's Room and the musical The House of Martin Guerre; Chuck Smith's acclaimed revivals of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, A Raisin in the Sun and The Amen Corner; Mary Zimmerman's premiere productions of The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, Journey to the West, The Odyssey and the Philip Glass opera Galileo Galilei; the world premieres of Regina Taylor's Drowning Crow and Oo-Bla-Dee; the Chicago premiere of Zoot Suit, staged by Henry Godinez; nine of ten works in August Wilson's cycle of plays exploring the African American experience in the 20th century including the premiere productions of Seven Guitars, King Hedley II and Gem of the Ocean; plus several premieres of David Mamet's plays, including American Buffalo and A Life in the Theatre, and of Rebecca Gilman's plays Spinning into Butter, Boy Gets Girl, Blue Surge and Dollhouse.”( http://www.goodmantheatre.org/About/History/Index.aspx)
Goodman Theater likes to keep close that they are the oldest and largest not-for Profit Theater. They also feel strongly about the quality that is produced there along with diversity, artistic leadership, and its well built educational systematic theater system. Goodman rules of three guiding principles: Quality, Diversity, and Community. They want to be a mixing pot of cultures in the Chicago area.
Robert Falls, Artistic Director, and Roche Schulfer, Executive Director, run the show at Goodman Theater. They strive to produce classic and contemporary style production and allowing a lot of free expression with artists, actors, plays, and thoughts. This has been shown throughout history with this wonderful theater