Theatre Building Chicago celebrates its 30th season as an incubator to develop original musical works and to support both acclaimed and emerging theatre companies and artists. We provide unique space and technical, marketing and consulting services. Over 1,000 artists in 15 theatrical presentations and 300 special events call Theatre Building Chicago home each year. Since opening its doors on March 15, 1977, Theatre Building Chicago has hosted over 800 plays, 9,000 events, 500 theatre companies, 1,078,000 audience members, with more than 29,375 actors, designers, directors and other theatre artists appearing in over 25,000 performances.
Theatre Building Chicago is also devoted to the cultivation of musical theatre writers, lyricists and composers through a special writers’ workshop and presentation program. Each season we present about 20 new musicals in a variety of styles and development formats. Over the last two decades we have premiered 260 new musicals in Chicago and seen several of them soar into other productions on Broadway and across the country.
Theatre Building Chicago offers an intensive and comprehensive internship program that offers theatre students the opportunity to break into the field. Our interns have gone on to careers at institutions both here and abroad such as Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the League of Chicago Theatres, the Royal Albert Hall, Second City and the Teatro Sperimentale Spoleto.
Theatre Building Chicago serves as a forum for a variety of important community and civic events – people have voted, married and memorialized every kind of life event at Theatre Building Chicago.
Theatre Building Chicago is proud of its place in the Chicago performing arts community. We are grateful for the generosity of all the individuals and institutions that have lent us support. We celebrate the vision of our founders, Ruth E. Higgins and Byron Schaffer, Jr., who brought a great idea to life. We admire the vision of all the artists who have shared their talent by creating and crafting their work at the crossroads of Chicago theatre.
