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 Advocates and Changemakers
Players 50 2024: The Institutions
Players 50 2024: The Rising Stars and Storefront Stalwarts
Players 50 2024: The Producers and Places

Here are the Players from Chicago’s music makers.

Christopher Pazdernik and Fred Anzevino/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Fred Anzevino and Christopher Pazdernik
Artistic Director and Producing Director, Theo
From its beginnings at the fondly remembered No Exit Café in Rogers Park, what was originally called Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre has always been about presenting quality musicals and music-related shows with imagination and innovation in an intimate setting. In its twenty-sixth season and in an Evanston venue since 2019, the company is now known as Theo. Founder and artistic director Fred Anzevino used to do it all on a shoestring and the results were always heartfelt and often astonishing. The addition of producing director Christopher Pazdernik, who was a producing associate and company manager at Porchlight Music Theatre, is part of an impressive company expansion that has included an emphasis on developing new works. Last season Theo produced “Refuge,” a multi-disciplinary, bilingual work by Satya Jnani Chávez—one of the inaugural recipients of the Jeff Award Impact Fellowship—and Andrew Rosendorf with translations by Mari Meza-Burgos. The show won three Non-Equity Jeff Awards. This season opened with “Baked! The Musical,” written by Deepak Kumar and Jord Liu, which received a great deal of development all around the country. This month Theo welcomes eight productions as a part of their inaugural WinterFest of Hot New Work. The performances will range from play readings to cabaret concerts with both new and established artists. Meanwhile, the season emphasis is on Stephen Sondheim, his less-produced “Assassins” given a stunning fall performance with a Sondheim Tribute Revue to follow in March with “A Little Night Music” closing out the season. (Dennis Polkow)

Daryl Brooks/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Daryl Brooks
Producing Managing Director, Black Ensemble Theater
You have to admire the impact that Daryl Brooks has had on the Black Ensemble Theater. Brooks began twenty years ago as a volunteer usher, was promoted to box office attendant and climbed the ladder as his talents were realized in his role today as the company’s producing managing director. Brooks produced “Reasons: A Tribute to Earth, Wind & Fire” and “Taste of Soul,” and works with their Black Playwrights Initiative, an incubator for local talent. Brooks is also a director—his credits include “Dreamgirls” for Phoenix Theater Company, “Assassins” at Theo Ubique and the upcoming “The Time Machine: A Tribute to the Eighties” for Black Ensemble. (Tristan Bruns)

Kyle A. Dougan/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Kyle A. Dougan
Producing Artistic Director, Music Theater Works
Founded in 1980 as Light Opera Works, Music Theater Works has steadily veered from the operettas that had defined the company. Under the leadership of its fourth artistic director and first producing artistic director Kyle A. Dougan, the emphasis has turned to Broadway repertoire with less emphasis on classics and greater emphasis on more recent shows. Dougan is committed to making Music Theater Works artistically relevant, equitable and welcoming, which has, refreshingly, meant a range of more diverse casting. The company’s move from its only previous home of Northwestern University’s Cahn Auditorium to the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie has given Music Theater Works the flexibility of staging larger productions in the main theater and smaller productions in the intimate North Theater. The Village of Skokie issued a proclamation last August honoring the company for its 150th production. Dougan created CommunityREACH in partnership with community organizations as a way to remove barriers and for YouthREACH programming to engage more young people in theater. Dougan’s next step is ArtistREACH, which seeks to create an artists’ board and a repertory company and to address company pay equity. (Dennis Polkow)

Scot Kokandy and Derek Van Barham/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Scot Kokandy and Derek Van Barham
Executive Producer and Producing Artistic Director, Kokandy Productions
Kokandy Productions’ executive producer Scot Kokandy and artistic director Derek Van Barham have revitalized the storefront musical in Chicago since 2012, producing cult favorites and film adaptations as well as works for all ages. In residence in the basement of the Chopin Theatre, the company is a leader through presenting premieres of musical theater hardly even seen at the storefront level, including “American Psycho,” “The SpongeBob Musical,” “Heathers” and “Cruel Intentions.” After the closing of Underscore Theatre Company, Kokandy Productions took over production of The Chicago Musical Theatre Festival, providing for the survival of the much-lauded incubator for new works by emerging artists. (Tristan Bruns)

Jeannie Lukow/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Jeannie Lukow
Executive Director, Porchlight Music Theatre
At a time when theaters are closing, grants are slipping away and formulas for piquing audience interest are phantoms, Porchlight Music Theatre executive director Jeannie Lukow is overseeing productions of the enviably debt-free company. Lukow carries an ace up her sleeve: the nearly thirty-year history of the company sits at her desk. She knows all the players and how they connect to the company and the art form. “It is an unnerving time to be producing theater.” Lukow says. “The performing arts did not rebound. But individual supporters, amazing patrons, and a few angels, whose generosity was instructional, is keeping Porchlight running. Our holiday appeal is an ask for patrons to be producers with us this season. We’re keeping our audiences closer than ever, educating them about what it costs to produce a musical, how many hands it takes to get the opening-night curtain up, and asking them how they want to fit in, and what in the overall process speaks to their individual interests.” Lukow owns that the company has needed to scale back on the number of productions and projects and is waiting to open this season in the new year with “Anything Goes,” starring Meghan Murphy. Lukow’s passion and savvy, means musical theater is safe in Chicago. (Aaron Hunt)

Music Makers
Hall of Fame

Jackie Taylor
Founder/CEO, Black Ensemble Theater

Michael Weber
Artistic Director, Porchlight Music Theatre