For this year’s list, we’ve organized everyone by category and alphabetical order.

Players 2024: The Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago (Introduction)
Players 50 2024: The Music Makers
Players 50 2024: The Advocates and Changemakers
Players 50 2024: The Rising Stars and Storefront Stalwarts
Players 50 2024: The Producers and Places

Here are the Players from Chicago’s institutions.

Kate Lipuma and Braden Abraham/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Braden Abraham and Kate Lipuma
Artistic Director and Executive Director, Writers Theatre
Now in its thirty-first season, Writers Theatre continues its tradition of staging both new works and new interpretations of the classics. Artistic director Braden Abraham says that the Glencoe theater is pursuing “a more expansive vision” to better serve its changing community as well as reach more audiences. In the new year, it’s putting on “The Band’s Visit,” and the Chicago premiere of Katori Hall’s “The Hot Wing King.” Writers Theatre is also partnering with local theater companies like Manual Cinema and Filament. Abraham says he sees post-pandemic audiences coming back. Sarah Ruhl’s “Eurydice” was one of its most-attended shows since before the pandemic, and “Once” was its best-selling show of all time. But Abraham says there is still work to do: “We’ve got to do the basics well: deepen personal connections with audiences, meet them where they are at, surprise them with unexpected choices, do consistently good work, advocate for arts funding, and take down any real or perceived barriers to coming out by creating fun, social and meaningful experiences.” (Mary Wisniewski)

John Collins, Susan Booth and Lewis Warrick/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Susan Booth, John Collins and Lewis Warrick
Artistic Director, Managing Director/Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Goodman Theatre
Goodman Theatre had a smash hit last year with “Tommy,” the highest- grossing show in its ninety-eight-year history. But the Goodman is facing the same economic headwinds as other large theaters. New artistic director Susan Booth says you can’t just blame the pandemic—theaters have known for decades that the subscription model is dying. Theaters must reach out to new audiences, she says, while believing that it’s possible to program for the audience you’re looking for but not displace the audience you have. “It’s possible to do both—it’s not an either-or scenario,” Booth says. The theater’s production of “Lucha Teotl” last fall brought multigenerational Mexican American families into the theater. “That’s an audience you can start to build relationships with,” Booth says. “When you have scarcity thinking, when you think, oh, this is what we don’t have anymore, you get fearful. And nobody does their best thinking when they’re fearful.” (Mary Wisniewski)

Kimberly Motes, Edward Hall and Rick Boynton/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Rick Boynton, Kimberly Motes and Edward Hall
Creative Producer, Executive Director, Artistic Director, Chicago Shakespeare Theater
It’s a new era at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Longtime artistic director Barbara Gaines and executive director Criss Henderson are gone. Taking up those roles are Edward Hall, son of Royal Shakespeare Company founder Sir Peter Hall, and Kimberly Motes, former managing director of the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis. They join Chicago Shakespeare creative producer Rick Boynton. Both Hall and Motes say they’re excited to be in what Hall calls “such a dynamic, energetic arts community.” Motes says it has been “thrilling” to see full houses around town, including at the theater’s recent production of “Twelfth Night.” Hall promises that Shakespeare will continue to be the center of the theater’s work, and he’s looking forward to directing “Richard III” early this year, starring Paralympian and bilateral above-knee amputee Katy Sullivan. “Now is the time to come out punching,” says Hall. “My reflex is not to withdraw and be defensive—my reflex is to take risks and be ambitious. That’s the way to stimulate people back into your theater.” (Mary Wisniewski)

Cody Chen/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Cody Chen
General Manager, The Joffrey Ballet
Cody Chen was fresh on the job when the Joffrey Ballet remounted and took to the Kennedy Center a recent triumph, Yuri Possokhov’s stark and achingly gorgeous “Anna Karenina.” Since then, he’s been busy behind the scenes coordinating one hit after another—including the recent “Frankenstein,” which sold out the Lyric Opera House on more than one evening. Chen himself names “Winning Works”—Joffrey’s showcase of works by choreographers of color, and commissions from two female choreographers, Cathy Marston and Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa—as highlights of his still-fresh tenure. Chen says he’s looking forward to building the sets for the remount of Alexander Ekman’s spectacularly trippy “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and the company’s upcoming tour to the Baden-Baden Festival in Germany. (Sharon Hoyer)

Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell and David McDermott/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell and David McDermott
Artistic Director and Executive Director, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
When Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell took the creative helm of Chicago’s leading contemporary dance institution two years ago, she had no intention of resting on prestigious laurels trimmed from high-profile European repertoire. Fisher-Harrell, a former Hubbard Street dancer, set out to develop a warmer relationship with audiences, commission work from U.S. choreographers and diversify the company. The effect: programs peppered with works by talented up-and-comers new to Chicago audiences; appointment of sought-after choreographer Aszure Barton as resident choreographer; virtuosic and versatile company dancers who reflect the diversity of the city; and ticket sales up twenty-five percent in a year when most larger theater companies report the reverse. Along with David McDermott, Fisher-Harrell is keeping the forty-six-year-old company fresh and at the top of the game. (Sharon Hoyer)

Audrey Francis, Glenn Davis and Brooke Flanagan
Co-Artistic Directors and Executive Director, Steppenwolf Theatre
With the performing arts hit by the pandemic, it’s tempting to hope to draw audiences with comforting, familiar plays. But Steppenwolf Theatre has always been known for work that disrupts the routine, and co-artistic directors Audrey Francis and Glenn Davis, along with executive director Brooke Flanagan, say that’s not going to stop. “This season, we made an active effort to maintain the integrity of our mission to produce bold, irreverent and challenging work, and marry it with our desire to meet the moment with a healthy sense of humor and hope,” Francis, Davis and Flanagan say in a joint statement. “We have found a way to strike a balance where our audiences are experiencing joyful, thought-provoking and challenging work all at the same time.” They say that Steppenwolf recognizes that finances have been hurt by both the post-pandemic economic recovery for theater and inflation, but it is working on new sources of revenue and new ways to develop an audience. Meanwhile, it will continue to provide an artistic home for its ensemble and a collaborative space for itinerant artists and companies, be a launch pad for new work, and serve as a partner to Chicago schools and teens. “Steppenwolf is looking to the future with hope,” they say. (Mary Wisniewski)

Marissa Lynn Jones/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Marissa Lynn Jones
Executive Director, League of Chicago Theatres
League of Chicago Theatres Executive Director Marissa Lynn Jones admits that the pandemic had a big impact on theater, and that recovery is still an uphill climb. But she says that not many cities have an organization like the 200-member League, which for almost forty-five years has assisted theaters, audiences, artists and audiences. “Theater embodies the stories of our community, and with Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods there is a story for everyone,” says Jones. “Theaters across the city have supported their community through educational programs for all generations, offering reduced price tickets, and giving back to local organizations.” The League hosted its first career fair in 2023, and last year’s annual Chicago Theatre Week had its highest-ever participation, with over 20,000 people. The League plans to host a national theater conference with Theatre Communications Group this June. Jones notes that the League’s “Hot Tix” website allows theaters to reach new audiences, and returns ninety-five percent of profits back to theaters. (Mary Wisniewski)

Enrique Mazzola/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Enrique Mazzola
Music Director, Lyric Opera
Although Enrique Mazzola was announced as only the third music director of Lyric Opera in the company’s history back in 2019, pandemic cancellations prevented the planned celebratory handover from his twenty-year predecessor Sir Andrew Davis. Instead, it fell to Mazzola to start his music directorship from scratch in the fall of 2021 with Verdi’s “Macbeth.” More Italian masterpieces followed, though a planned production of Missy Mazzola’s “Proving Up” in his first season was canceled due to a COVID surge. The 2023-24 season is really the first where Lyric audiences have the opportunity to experience the eclecticism of Mazzola’s repertoire: his first-ever Wagner with “The Flying Dutchman” last October, his first contemporary work at Lyric later this month when he conducts Terence Blanchard’s “Champion,” his first-ever “Aida” and his first foray into Mozart at Lyric with concert performances of Mozart’s “Requiem” in March. It will be fascinating to see whether Mazzola will have more of a say in the direction of the company after the exit of departing Lyric general director Anthony Freud, who brought Mazzola to Lyric. And for that matter, if Mazzola will have an influence on the choice of Freud’s successor. (Dennis Polkow)

Jorge Pérez/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Jorge Pérez
Executive/Associate Artistic Director, Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theatre
Jorge Pérez began working with Ensemble Español forty years ago as a student office aide. Now, following the tenure of revered founder Dame Libby Komaiko, the irrepressible executive director has kept the company’s legacy as Chicago’s steward of flamenco, escuela bolera, Spanish folkloric and classical dance strong, continuing to build relationships with artists and companies nationally and internationally—and always with a spirit of generosity and gratitude. Perez and his board—whom he never fails to credit—are busy planning the company’s fiftieth-anniversary year (2025-2026) for which they have commissioned new works by a dozen esteemed guest artists and musicians. (Sharon Hoyer)

Meredith Sutton and Roell Schmidt/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Meredith Sutton and Roell Schmidt
Artistic Director and Producing Director, Dance Center of Columbia College
For fifty years, the Dance Center of Columbia College has been a training ground for generations of dancers as well as a presenter of top-shelf, innovative work in an intimate house with a stage equal in footprint to the seating. Sutton and Schmidt, in collaboration with dance department chair Lisa Gonzales, are experimenting with ways to erase that “and” by “moving away from the ‘gatekeeper’ model of dance presenting.” The Dance Center kicked off their current season with a symposium that brought students, professional companies and, at moments, audience members together onstage. In the year ahead, the Dance Center celebrates the tenth anniversary of their street dance “B-Series,” hosts performances of the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival and launches a research project on the effects of dance on loneliness in older adults. (Sharon Hoyer)

Parisa Jalili and Ed Wells/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Ed Wells and Parisa Jalili
CEO and COO, Second City
In 2022, Second City, the world leader in improv-based entertainment and education, hired new chief executive officer Ed Wells to join chief operating officer and revenue officer Parisa Jalili in its quest to recover from the pandemic and thrive in the future. Wells and Jalili have spearheaded the recovery of Second City’s popular improvisation classes and performances and facilitated the expansion toward a new branch in Brooklyn, and a move to a new venue for the Toronto branch. “Our work is always going to be important to the zeitgeist,” says Jalili. “People want to come and laugh. We’re grateful for that.” (Tristan Bruns)

Angel Ysaguirre/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Angel Ysaguirre
Executive Director, Court Theatre
Originally from Belize, Angel Ysaguirre has spent the last five years as executive director of the historic Court Theatre in Hyde Park. Ysaguirre says that Court Theatre’s unique location was a major draw—a classical theater company in the heart of the University of Chicago, surrounded by the rich cultural heritage of the South Side. “The biggest challenge at Court is figuring out how a theater fully embraces the community it’s in,” says Ysaguirre, “whether it be a scholarly community or an African American community.” (Tristan Bruns)

The Institutions
Hall of Fame

Greg Cameron and Ashley Wheater
President/CEO and Artistic Director, Joffrey Ballet of Chicago

Anthony Freud
General Director/President/CEO, Lyric Opera

BJ Jones and Timothy J. Evans
Artistic Director and Executive Director, Northlight Theatre

Kelly Leonard
Vice President, Creative Strategy, Innovation and Business Development, Second City

Charles Newell
Artistic Director, Court Theatre

Lou Raizin and Eileen LaCario
President and Vice President, Broadway In Chicago

Roche Schulfer
Executive Director/CEO, Goodman Theatre

Jacqueline Russell
Co-Founder/Artistic Director, Chicago Children’s Theatre

Heidi Stillman
Ensemble Member, Former Artistic Director, Lookingglass Theatre