A Red Orchid Theatre

A Red
Orchid Theatre was founded by a group of theatre artists
in 1993. Since its founding, the theatre has received
extensive critical acclaim from local and national
press. The theatre has grown in size from a few dedicated
individuals to twelve highly accomplished and highly
skilled ensemble members who boast impressive credits
throughout the Chicago theatre community. An artistic
staple on the near northside of Chicago, the theatre
is situated on Wells Street among many fine restaurants
and upscale boutiques in the bustling Old Town community.
Within its cozy space, designed and built by the founding
members, A Red Orchid Theatre has sustained itself
for nearly fifteen years as one of the few professional
theatre houses in Chicago with a seating capacity
of an intense and intimate eighty seats. We are committed
to presenting new and rarely seen works at reasonable
prices, permitting they aspire to our exceptional
standards of production, artistry and professionalism.

The theatre opened in 1993 with Jack Gelber’s
The Connection, a reflection on the beat generation
in a nihilistic comedy. The play concerns a group
of heroin users – jazz musicians, street folk, and
other artists – who come together to wax poetic on
the trappings of modern society, do drugs, play music,
and suffer the consequences of a bleak existence.
This first play, a study on the unique beat subculture,
led to the theatre’s name. Writers and poets seemed
the best source from which to draw the name for the
company and since the company’s first play was
from the beat generation of writers it only felt right
that the name come from the same inspiration. The
founding members looked to many beat writers to name
the company. There were considerations from the Jack
Kerouac canon; as well as Gregory Corso, Allan Ginsberg
and many others; however, in the end William Burroughs’
novel Naked Lunch won out with an inspired passage
in which the “a red orchid” name is used
to reflect on the fragile beauty of life on the edge.

A Red Orchid Theatre quickly earned a name for itself
in the early years by producing a rapid series of
successful shows to extraordinary praise from the
press, audiences, and awards committees. In 1994,
Born Guilty by Ari Roth presented an examination of
the lives of adult children of Nazis in post World
War II Germany. This production was produced with
such success that it was moved to a larger venue for
an extended run, and received national press coverage
in The Wall Street Journal. The 1996 production of
The Caine Mutiny Court Martial received acclaim that
announced A Red Orchid to be “the essence of
Chicago theatre.” During this founding period,
five consecutive productions were Jeff-Recommended,
and, in the summer of 1996, Canus Lunis Ballonis,
a twisted story of a Sunday night poker-game amongst
drinking buddies gone weird, received a Non-Equity
Jeff Citation for Best New Work. Through the founding
members pursuit of new works and past classics in
need of a fresh approach, A Red Orchid Theatre garnered
a reputation for producing experimental and edgy shows
with impeccable acting and designs.

In 1996, A Red Orchid Theatre became an Equity Theatre
house. This decision emphasized the theatre’s
priority to use and reward Chicago’s best actors
with a Cat I Equity contract, providing health insurance
for the theatre’s working artists, and mandating
an increased budget and box office revenues to secure
the theatre’s longevity.

In the latter half of the company’s history, the theatre’s
profile and acknowledgement from the Chicago theatre
community intensified. In 1998, Mike Cullen’s
The Cut garnered the Joseph Jefferson Award for best
scenic design – acknowledging Stephanie Nelson’s transformation
of the Red Orchid space into an elaborately convincing
coalmine. In the fall of 2000, Tracy Letts’
Bug was nominated for three Jeff awards, including
nominations for Best Actor to ensemble member Michael
Shannon, Best Actress to Kate Buddeke and Best Sound
Design for ensemble member Joe Fosco. The Red Orchid
production brought a new vision to Letts’ play
– a story of love, paranoia, and government conspiracy
in a motel room on the outskirts of Oklahoma City-
and inspired The Barrow Street Theatre to bring Letts’
script, along with many of the original Red Orchid
cast members, for Bug’s New York City premiere.


Since the theatre’s founding in 1993, nine ensemble
members have joined early members Guy Van Swearingen,
Michael Shannon, and Larry Grimm. In 2001, Tiffany
Wilson, resident stage manager, Joe Fosco, resident
sound designer, and actors Kirsten Fitzgerald and
Doug Vickers were asked to join the creative team
at A Red Orchid. In the summer of 2004, accomplished
local playwright Brett Neveu along with renown Chicago
actors Lance Baker, Danny McCarthy, Jennifer Engstrom,
and Mierka Girten cemented the ensemble in its current
state as a group of highly accomplished professionals
with diverse artistic specialties.

On the cusp of its twelfth anniversary in the fall
of 2004, A Red Orchid Theatre launched its first full
three-production season with a subscription offer,
and accrued fifty regular subscribers. A Red Orchid
looks to the future to bring a regular season of shows
to the Chicago community as well as grow its subscriber
base and visibility, and continue to increase its
production and operating budgets. A Red Orchid Theatre
operates with the conviction that passionately committed
theatre will draw passionately committed audiences,
and hopes to see that conviction bring fruit to its
dreams of steady success for itself and for the state
of modern theatre in Chicago.