Northlight Theater
The Northlight Theater is one of Chicago's largest, oldest, and most respected professional theaters. It is the premier producing theater of the Chicago's North Shore, serving the city, as well as the entire Chicagoland area, with audience members traveling from as far as Indiana and Wisconsin to enjoy award-winning theater.
Northlight enhances the cultural life of Chicago and its North Shore, presenting theatrical works which reflect and challenge the community it serves and involves them in the theatrical experience. As the resident theater company at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, the Northlight Theater mounts five original productions each season, from September through June.
Northlight was founded in 1974 by Mike Nussbaum, Frank Galati, and Greg Kandel. Northlight has garnered dozens of prestigious local and national awards while building a reputation for incisive interpretations of contemporary plays and musicals, adventurous world premieres, and original adaptations of the classics. Northlight celebrated its 35nd season in 2009/2010.
The first season included Tom Stoppard's Jumpers, The Au Pair Man by Hugh Leonard, and Nourish the Beast by Steve Tesich. The theater's subscriber base grew to over 6,000 in just three years, making it one of the largest not-for-profit theater companies in Chicago. Outreach programming evolved in tandem with the productions: in 1975 the Veterans' Access Program began, and the Student Theatre Arts Resource (STAR) program followed in 1984. In 1983, Michael Maggio accepted the reins from Northlight's founders, and as Artistic Director oversaw productions of City on the Make and Heart of a Dog (1984/85), Dealing (1986/87) and many others. Russell Vandenbroucke then served as Artistic Director from 1987-1997.
In 1990, Northlight moved to Evanston's Coronet Theater for four years. From 1994-1997, Northlight produced theater in various spaces in Chicago and on the North Shore. Despite the lack of a home base, several notable productions were staged during this time including The Rhino's Policeman (1991/92), which won the prestigious Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays award, Jar the Floor (1992/93), the world premiere of Steven Dietz's Lonely Planet, and Unmerciful Good Fortune (1995/96), which garnered a grant from AT&T OnStage. The organization also joined forces with National Jewish Theatre, which was valued by the community but no longer independently viable, and Northlight's search for a permanent home intensified.
Northlight Theatre's nomadic existence ended when it became the resident theater company at North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie in 1997. A permanent home permitted Northlight to enter a new era of growth - in size and quality - which was galvanized by a new Artistic Director, B.J. Jones.
Northlight Theatre has mounted more than 160 productions, including nearly 40 world premieres in its 35 year history. It has grown into the fourth largest nonprofit theatre in the Chicago area with 8,100 subscribers, serving audiences totaling nearly 60,000. Northlight is an award-winning theatre (three Edgerton Foundation for New American Plays awards, and 145 nominations and 27 awards from Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Committee) with an excellent local and national reputation. With dynamic leadership from Artistic Director BJ Jones and Executive Director Tim Evans, Northlight's $3.3 million operating budget supports five mainstage productions each year, workshops and readings of new works, audience outreach to Veterans and many other groups, and a comprehensive arts education program for underserved public school students. .
