Chicago’s famous theaters have suffered through a rough couple of years: a long, forced, COVID-19 closure, a talent drain, costly new vaccine checks and the need for company testing. Those challenges continue this spring with lingering COVID-19 cases causing last-minute cancellations, understudy deployments and nervous audiences returning far more slowly than most theaters had hoped.
So the news Wednesday that Chicago’s Court Theatre has been honored with the annual Tony Award given for excellence in regional theater was especially welcome and well-timed news. This venerable artistic operation in Hyde Park has long been a collaboration with the University of Chicago, which generally has been smart enough to let the theater run independently as a separate, professional operation on its campus, while still supporting its physical plant, programming and personnel.
Court has been a heady joint, for the most part, mostly appealing for the last half-century or so to those numerous Chicagoans with a practiced taste for intellectual inquiry, complex thinking, existential angst and an appreciation of the rich history of dramatic literature, including the nuggets that originated in this city.
But in recent years, Court has reached out beyond its Hyde Park comfort zone and also contributed greatly to the education of talented and curious young Chicagoans, especially on the South Side.
Congratulations, Court. A world class theater in our midst.
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