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 Institutions
Players 50 2024: The Producers and Places

Here are the Players from Chicago’s rising stars and storefront stalwarts.

Charles Askenaizer/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Charles Askenaizer
Artistic Director/Founder, Invictus Theatre Company
Artistic director of Invictus Theatre Company, Charles Askenaizer has been on a mission since 2017 to produce works of “heightened language”—text with elements that lift it beyond everyday speech. From Shakespeare, Arthur Miller and Lorraine Hansberry to more contemporary playwrights, like Katori Hall, Askenaizer is passionate about bringing lofty prose to Chicago audiences. “I find heightened language to be inspiring and transformative,” says Askenaizer. “Our foundation is Shakespeare and we’ve branched out to more contemporary work, but always with the idea of a sense of high-stakes poetry.” (Tristan Bruns)

Bril Barrett/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Bril Barrett
Founder/Artistic Director, M.A.D.D. Rhythms
The founder of Making a Difference Dancing (the M.A.D.D. part of the name) continues to do just that. His twenty-three-year-old organization, founded to disrupt the “school-to-prison pipeline,” has influenced a generation of artists. Many dancers who came up in M.A.D.D. Rhythms education programs now perform with the professional company and beyond—with other groups, in solo projects, across dance forms. In 2022, Barrett launched a podcast network with his own topical “Either/And” show and Tristan Bruns’ wildly witty and educational tap history show “Gasps From a Dying Art Form.” Barrett and Mark Yonally of Chicago Tap Theatre continue co-presenting as Chicago Tap All-Stars, an ongoing project to heal Chicago’s at-times fractious tap community. And last year, M.A.D.D. Rhythms joined the Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project, ensuring the company’s continued growth and reach in years to come. (Sharon Hoyer)

Nicole Clarke-Springer and Makeda Crayton/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Nicole Clarke-Springer and Makeda Crayton
Artistic Director and Executive Director, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater
It’s been an exciting year for Deeply Rooted; the longstanding African/African American contemporary company is booming under the leadership of Nicole Clarke-Springer, artistic director since 2019, and Makeda Crayton, who was named executive director this last year—making it one of Chicago’s only dance companies led by two women of color. The company lengthened professional dancer contracts to twenty-six weeks, launched the Creative Communities educational program, and sought more performance and touring activities here and abroad. The bombshell announcement in 2023 was a capital campaign for the Deeply Rooted Dance Center, a 33,000-square-foot-plus property the organization will transform into a state-of-the-art presentation and educational facility in the heart of Woodlawn. Deeply Rooted plans to open the center in early 2025. (Sharon Hoyer)

Mica Cole/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Mica Cole
Executive Director, TimeLine Theatre Company
Raised in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood, Mica Cole began her career as an actor before serving as repertory producer for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for eight seasons. At TimeLine Theatre Company, Cole, who became executive director in April 2022, helped land the Tony Award-winning “The Lehman Brothers Trilogy” to begin the 2023-2024 season and is facilitating the company’s upcoming move to a new, 250-seat theater in Uptown. “I want to influence what stories are told,” says Cole, “stories about justice and history that center voices that are typically not heard on our stages.” (Tristan Bruns)

Lorena Diaz, Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel and Wendy Mateo/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Lorena Diaz, Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel and Wendy Mateo
Executive Artistic Director, Managing Director and Producing Artistic Director, Teatro Vista
Founded in 1991 to build a place for Latine artists in American theater, Teatro Vista has had a fantastic year. Its silent-movie romance “The Dream King” won eight Equity Jeff Awards, second only to the Goodman’s “Tommy.” Vista’s most recent production, “¡Bernarda!” has also won acclaim. Producing artistic director Wendy Mateo says that while critical favor helps the company’s visibility, Teatro Vista’s success comes from a commitment to treating and collaborating with its artists with care, empathy and shared accountability. “We believe the artists who walk through our door are inherently genius, and when you treat your artists with that respect, they produce extraordinary work,” Mateo says. “Audiences have responded in a really positive way, engaging with us both online and in person.” Mateo says the company likes to take big risks in terms of how it chooses to express its art, whether on stage, through film, or audio content. Teatro has grown its operational team in the past year and continues to expand its board. “We’ve been here for thirty-four years and hope to be here for another thirty-four,” Mateo says. (Mary Wisniewski)

Ilesa Duncan/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Ilesa Duncan
Artistic Director, Lifeline Theatre and Executive/Producing Director, Pegasus Theatre
As a leader of not one but two old-line, much-loved Chicago theater companies, Ilesa Duncan carries more than the usual weight on her shoulders. As artistic director at Lifeline Theatre, the producer-director-writer-teacher is shepherding the literary adaptations that the Rogers Park-based troupe has been known for since 1982; as executive and producing director at Pegasus Theatre, she runs the company’s annual Young Playwrights Festival, marking its thirty-seventh season this month. A local theater veteran, Duncan has also worked at companies including Goodman, Congo Square, ETA, Writers Theatre and Stage Left. In 2016, under the Pegasus banner, she co-adapted and directed “Rutherford’s Travels,” a powerful stage version of Charles Johnson’s National Book Award-winning novel, “Middle Passage.” Four years later, she was preparing to revive the play at Lifeline as “Middle Passage” when the pandemic intervened. When Lifeline reopened in 2022, it was with that show, which now represented the triumph of faith and perseverance over serious adversity. “The recovery has impacted everything,” says Duncan, but she and her colleagues soldier on, working on stage adaptations (Richard Wright’s “Native Son” is coming this spring in an adaptation by Nambi E. Kelley), developing new work and younger talent, and continuing to cultivate relationships with writers. She’s hopeful about theater’s future in this post-pandemic world: “There’s something about the communal experience of viewing art together—it’s something we don’t get from a screen. If we stop doing that, we’ll be in a world of hurt.” (Hugh Iglarsh)

David Feiner and Miguel Angel Rodriguez/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

David Feiner and Miguel Angel Rodriguez
Co-Executive Directors, Albany Park Theater Project
The Albany Park Theater Project’s “Port of Entry,” a multilayered, immersive show about the immigrant experience, is the nearly-twenty-seven-year-old company’s most ambitious production. It’s also a massive hit, with a waiting list for spring performances. Five years in the making, the production needed 300 “world builders” to research and create the stories and build a reproduction of a courtyard apartment building inside of a warehouse. Co-executive directors David Feiner and Miguel Angel Rodriguez say that they’ll keep the show going for as long as people want to see it, since it’s the project’s mission to share the stories of the Albany Park community and particularly immigrants and first-generation Americans. “We see it as our responsibility to tell those stories with compassion and with complexity and with joy,” Feiner says. Performed by a teenage ensemble, Rodriguez thinks the show is also a source of healing during a tough time in the world. “I think people really respond to the hopefulness that is pervasive in ‘Port of Entry’ and the sense of welcome and looking out for each other, and offering the best of themselves to one another,” Rodgriuez says. (Mary Wisniewski)

Ivan Vega, Antonio Bruno and Miranda González/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Miranda González, Antonio Bruno and Ivan Vega
Producing Artistic Director, Company Manager and Co-Founder/Executive Director, UrbanTheater Company
For nearly twenty years, UrbanTheater Company has produced work that challenges the Eurocentric perspective of mainstream theater by presenting counter-narratives that reflect the lived experiences of marginalized voices. The team behind UrbanTheater—co-founder and executive director Ivan Vega, producing artistic director Miranda González and company manager Antonio Bruno—have fostered a pipeline for creative artists to move into the next phase of their careers. (Tristan Bruns)

Princess Mhoon/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Princess Mhoon
Director, Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project
Now in its second iteration, the Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project provides transformative, multi-year support in the form of funding, presentation, marketing and documentation to influential, Black-led Chicago dance companies. Princess Mhoon has been at the helm since the project’s inception in 2019 and has impressively expanded its size and scope for round two: more funding (from existing and new sources) for more companies (from eight up to ten) working in more movement styles (adding footwork and tap). Mhoon directs an archive project with the Newberry Library, ensuring that the rich traditions of Black dance are included in the collections. And her hand is visible on stage as well; she directed last year’s concerts at the Logan Center and Ravinia, and “The Big Bang: Movement Theory + the Black Dancing Body,” the group’s debut for Art on The Mart. (Sharon Hoyer)

Neel McNeill/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Neel McNeill
Executive Director, Definition Theatre Company
Executive director Neel McNeill, began working with Definition Theatre from early in its conception after being approached by founding artistic director Tyrone Phillips while McNeill was working at Steppenwolf Theatre. Under McNeill’s tenure, Definition plans to open their future Woodlawn flagship, dedicated to the company’s three pillars—education, theater and community. It will serve as a community center that hosts classes and workshops, afterschool programming; a diverse ensemble dedicated to telling stories created, inspired by and intended for people of color. They also produce the “Amplify New Play Commissioning Program” for emerging artists and the “Definition Innovator,” an incubator for small businesses. (Tristan Bruns)

Charlique C. Rolle/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Ericka Ratcliff and Charlique C. Rolle
Artistic Director and Executive Director, Congo Square Theatre Company
Now in its twenty-fifth season, Congo Square Theatre pursues a three-part mission—radical generosity, community and expansion. “We’re trying to find ways to expand the ensemble, how many shows we can offer and how many spaces that we can explore so that we can reach new audiences,” says artistic director Ericka Ratcliff. Theater is a challenging industry, and Ratcliff says she believes Chicago’s is figuring out ways to stay healthy, while she’s encouraged that shows are being extended because of audience interest. “Theater can’t go away,” she says. “It’s too important to culture, it’s so important to social issues and it’s a great vehicle for social change.” Congo Square’s new permanent home in Bronzeville is under construction. Meanwhile, Ratcliff says the theater is learning from its host spaces how to be good partners, and how to be ready when it gets a space of its own. (Mary Wisniewski)

Sandy Shinner/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Sandy Shinner
Producing Artistic Director, Shattered Globe Theatre
“I’ve been working in theater all my life,” says Shattered Globe Theatre’s Sandy Shinner. Since arriving in Chicago in 1979, the Massachusetts native has seen her share of ups and downs in that magical but precarious world. Beginning in a non-directing job at the now-moribund Victory Gardens Theater—“at a time when there were only two women directing in Chicago,” she notes–Shinner worked her way up to become a creative mainstay at the North Side company, directing a range of productions and launching the troupe’s resident writer program. She moved to Shattered Globe in 2013, attracted to the idea of helping the much-praised ensemble recover from a bad patch following the 2008 recession. As producing artistic director, Shinner wore both business and creative hats, and was for a while the troupe’s sole paid staffer. Now the theater is thriving, with new staff positions, a full three-play season planned and a sense that COVID-shy audiences are returning. “We’ve employed over 200 artists in the last season-and-a-half,” says Shinner—seasons that included the Jeff Award-winning operatic musical “London Road,” as well as a superb remounting of Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge,” directed by Lou Contey, who helmed the company’s first production back in 1993. What’s your own biggest thrill in theater? “I love working on new plays with the playwright in the room, helping create something that might contribute to theater everywhere. That’s beyond exciting to me.” (Hugh Iglarsh)

Jumaane Taylor/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Jumaane Taylor
Artistic Director, Chicago Human Rhythm Project
Since taking charge of the longtime tap and rhythmic dance institution, Jumaane Taylor has kept busy both on and offstage. Taylor and team relocated CHRP in 2022 from the Fine Arts Building to the historic Mayfair Academy in Calumet Heights, updating the building and transforming it into the Mayfair Arts Center—a nexus of dance education, incubation and performance on the South Side. Last year, CHRP had a city-sponsored residency in Millennium Park, performing alongside four other Chicago-based companies. And Taylor continues to create and present his own work, most recently as part of their annual holiday concerts at Jazz Showcase. Taylor says that in his role as director and artist he is “annually being reintroduced to the infinitely growing structure of the art sectors in Chicago.” (Sharon Hoyer)

Graham Miller and Tova Wolff/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux

Tova Wolff and Graham Miller
Co-Founders/Co-Artistic Directors, Refracted Theatre Company
After two seasons in New York City, Refracted Theater Company co-founders and co-artistic directors Tova Wolff and Graham Miller moved the company to Chicago in 2021. “Chicago always felt like the place where we could build the kind of community where you can be true to what you stand for,” says Miller. Last year’s production of “Tambo & Bones” showcased Refracted’s goal of producing works that find the gray in the black-and-white. “Our mission,” says Wolff, “is to ask our audience to wrestle with divisive questions in order to analyze their own biases and engage in an empathic discourse with one another.” (Tristan Bruns)

Rising Stars and Storefront Stalwarts
Hall of Fame

Lane Alexander
Co-Founder, Chicago Human Rhythm Project

Elizabeth Auman and PJ Powers
Director of New Home Development and Co-Founder/Artistic Director, TimeLine Theatre

Henry Godinez
Curator, Latino Theatre Festival/Co-Founder, Teatro Vista

Marti Lyons
Artistic Director, Remy Bumppo

Meida McNeal
Artistic/Managing Director, Honey Pot Performance/Senior Manager, Arts & Community Impact Investments

Tyrone Phillips
Founding Artistic Director, Definition Theatre Company

Vershawn Sanders-Ward
Founding Artistic Director/CEO, Red Clay Dance Company

Blair Thomas
Founder/Artistic Director, Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival

Michael Patrick Thornton
Co-Founder, The Gift Theatre

Gwendolyn Whiteside
Executive Artistic Director, American Blues Theater