Court Theatre in Hyde Park wins Regional Theatre Tony Award
Court Theatre, the long-established professional theater in residence at the University of Chicago in Hyde Park, is the winner of the 2022 Tony Award for excellence in regional theater.
The award, which is returning this year after a two-year absence due to pandemic closures, was announced Wednesday by the American Theater Wing and the Broadway League, following a recommendation by the American Theater Critics Association.
“I can’t believe it,” said Court’s long-standing artistic director Charles Newell, who said he was amazed to get the news. “It is such an honor.”
Court becomes the first Chicago theater to win the award in more than a decade. Previous Chicago winners include the Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago Shakespeare and Lookingglass Theatre. Unlike the traditional Tony Awards given for specific productions, the Regional Theatre Tony Award is an honor reflecting sustained excellence, often over decades. The award has included a grant of $25,000 and goes to nonprofit theaters across the country.
“We are in amazing company when it comes to the other winners of this award,” Newell said.
Court Theatre (at 535 S. Ellis Ave.) began in the 1950s as an outdoor summer theater under the direction of Marvin E. Phillips and Paul Sills, an early improv pioneer. The late Nicholas Rudall, a professor at the University of Chicago, became artistic director in 1971, and emphasized the classics, from the ancient Greeks to William Shakespeare to more contemporary authors such as Tennessee Williams.
By 1975, Court had become an Equity theater affiliated with the actor’s union and in 1981, it opened a new theater, known as the Abelson Auditorium. By 1983, it had incorporated as a nonprofit, separate from the university. Newell took over artistic leadership after Rudall’s retirement in 1994. He largely kept the classical emphasis, but also produced more contemporary works by such writers as Tony Kushner, Caryl Churchill and David Auburn. After the hiring of associate artistic director Ron OJ Parson, an influential force, Court produced several works by August Wilson.
Notable recent world premieres at Court include Oren Jacoby’s dramatic adaptation of “Invisible Man,” Nambi E. Kelley’s adaptation of Richard Wright’s “Native Son” and “The Good Book,” a daring exploration of the Bible by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare. Many of its productions and premieres have moved subsequently to New York and to other prominent regional theaters. It also has worked extensively with a large group of Chicago actors including (among several others) Timothy Edward Kane, Jacqueline Williams, Elizabeth Ledo, Chaon Cross, Kelvin Roston Jr., A.C. Smith, Erik Hellman, the late Hollis Resnik and the late Guy Adkins.
Over the last decade or so, Newell, Wilson and the theater’s two executive directors, the late Stephen J. Albert and, more recently, Angel Ysaguirre, have paid increased attention to the theater’s South Side community, beyond Hyde Park and the university, re-imagining the theater as a catalyst for artistic diversification and cultural development on Chicago’s South Side.
The award will be presented, along with the other Tony Awards, at a ceremony at Radio City Musical Hall in New York on June 12.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
