Design: Dan Streeting
Players 50 2026: Introduction
Players 50 2026: The Music Makers
Players 50 2026: The Advocates and Changemakers
Players 50 2026: The Institutions
Players 50 2026: The Producers and Places
Here are Chicago’s Rising Stars and Storefront Stalwarts.
Peter G. Andersen/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux
Peter G. Andersen
Producing Artistic Director, Oak Park Festival Theatre
During Peter Andersen’s time as producing artistic director of Oak Park Festival Theatre, the company has seen tremendous growth in audience and artist engagement. Says Andersen, “Audiences have been appreciating our change of aesthetic and larger focus on design,” as in “Twelfth Night,” which Andersen directed, with scenery emblematic of lush Southern California that transforms as the play progresses. Andersen says the company couldn’t have done it without their community: “Partnerships with the Park District, Downtown Oak Park and the Chamber of Commerce and the influx of local audience attendance feels like the whole village is coming together to support us.” (Tristan Bruns)
Homer Hans Bryant/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux
Homer Hans Bryant
Founder/Artistic Director, Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center
“I’m not just making good dancers, I’m making better human beings,” says Homer Hans Bryant, who started the Bryant Ballet School in 1992, later renamed the Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center. A visionary who sees dance as both discipline and brain architecture, Bryant is devoted to making ballet accessible to all. To draw more young dancers into the artform, he started the Rap Ballet and later trademarked Hiplet. The CMDC is the only contemporary ballet school that teaches the form, which fuses classical pointe technique with hip-hop and urban dance styles. “Our approach is Eurocentric, but our delivery is Afrocentric because of who we are. We are diversity at its best.” Bryant is a former principal dancer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem and has performed for the Royal families of Norway and England, with Eartha Kitt in Timbuktu, and with Diana Ross in “The Wiz.” His teaching and training experience include working with several Cirque Du Soleil productions. Bryant is dedicated to bringing dance excellence to the community through the discipline of dance. His legacy is one of innovation and inclusivity. (Amy Danzer)
Mica Cole
Executive Director, TimeLine Theatre
The mission of TimeLine Theatre is to connect audiences to the world, events and people around them. “Our goal is to confront the present through the lens of stories about the past,” says Mica Cole, citing their season opener, “Hundreds and Hundreds of Stars,” about a young woman and daughter grappling with the implications of immigration policies, a story Cole says “felt very timely and important.” After years of operating out of rented facilities, TimeLine is opening a theater in Uptown this spring, planting roots to deepen their connection to the communities they serve. (Tristan Bruns)
Nicole Clarke-Springer and Makeda Crayton/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux
Makeda Crayton and Nicole Clarke-Springer
Executive Director and Artistic Director, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater
Nicole Clarke-Springer took the creative helm of Chicago’s preeminent Black American contemporary dance company shortly before the pandemic, when she was tapped by Deeply Rooted co-founder and former artistic director Kevin Iega Jeff. Clarke-Springer brought Makeda Crayton on board as executive director and, together, shepherded the company through crisis and on to new heights. Now in its thirtieth season, Deeply Rooted is in the final stretch of fundraising for construction of the Deeply Rooted Center for Black Dance and Creative Communities—a dedicated home in Washington Park for Chicago’s expansive and vibrant Black dance scene. Under Clarke-Springer and Crayton’s stewardship, the deep roots of the company have nourished a towering and verdant organization. (Sharon Hoyer)
Drew Dir and Julia Miller/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux
Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller and Kyle Vegter
Co-Founders/Co-Artistic Directors, Manual Cinema
From the humble origin of using a single projector to make a simple puppet show, Manual Cinema has grown into one of Chicago’s most exciting and unique theater and film production companies. “I am fortunate that we have an amazing group of artists to build the medium with,”says Julia Miller, one of the five co-founders and artistic directors, “because the work is so technical. With them, we can push the art to a higher level.” Every puppet is handmade from pedestrian objects—paper, kabob skewers, painters tape—but the magic they create is undeniable, with every new work a must-see event. (Tristan Bruns)
Todd Henry Faulstich and Charles Askenaizer/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux
Todd Henry Faulstich and Charles Askenaizer
Executive Director and Founder/Artistic Director, Invictus Theatre Company
After a fire displaced them from their theater in Edgewater, Invictus Theatre Company returned with gusto, drawing from across the country with Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” the two-part, nearly seven-hour masterpiece directed by Charles Askenaizer and produced in their new home at Windy City Playhouse. But they didn’t do it alone. “Charles is brilliant at putting pieces together, but we’re nothing without the actors, designers and people who support us,” says Todd Henry Faulstich, adding that part of the company’s mission is creating a platform for creatives to thrive and prosper. (Tristan Bruns)
Audrey Billings-Stone and Kirsten Fitzgerald/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux
Kirsten Fitzgerald and Audrey Billings-Stone
Artistic Director and Managing Director, A Red Orchid Theatre
A Red Orchid Theatre is known for producing cutting-edge plays, but to Kirsten Fitzgerald Audrey Billings, it’s the fearless way they’ve overcome obstacles that makes the ensemble-based company stand out. “[After COVID], we had two options,” says Billings, “we could either play it safe or choose shows that were small and give people a reason to invest their time and money into live theater. If that meant we were close to going out with a bang, so be it.” But their risk taking paid off, with recent productions about hot-button issues drawing large crowds. (Tristan Bruns)
Ivan Vega, Miranda González and Antonio Bruno/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux
Miranda González, Ivan Vega and Antonio Bruno
Artistic Director, Executive Director and Managing Director, UrbanTheater Company
Since 2005, UrbanTheater Company has been serving the Humboldt Park community by preserving stories from the neighborhood as well as the Puerto Rican diaspora. Miranda González, Ivan Vega and Tony Bruno are committed to “doubling-down on community” with the opening of their new Performing Arts Center on Paseo Boricua, expanding their programming through play development for local artists, readings for BIPOC works and community partnerships with resident theater companies. González cites “gentrification and erasure” as the main threats to cultural preservation, and that UrbanTheater is committed to archiving local Chicago stories to sustain a thriving communal ecosystem. (Tristan Bruns)
Joel Hall/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux
Joel Hall
Founder/Artistic Director Emeritus, Joel Hall Dancers & Center
Joel Hall is an institution-builder, educator and pioneer. In the early 1970s, the Chicago native—raised in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood—opened on the North Side the Chicago City Theatre Company, which included the training facility for the Joel Hall Dancers. For over fifty years, Hall taught dance while creating more than seventy ballets, and earned international acclaim for his signature Urban Jazz style, a fusion of jazz foundations with classical, modern and street dance traditions. With an academic background in the social sciences, he’s keenly aware of societal shifts and how they show up in dance. Hall says, “to see this transition in dance and students has been spectacular—and I’m so honored to be a part of that culture. Dance is about culture and making statements about it.” Now artistic director emeritus, he’s passed the baton to Artistic Director William Gill and Executive Director Joseph Pindelski. But Hall’s compulsion to choreograph continues; he’s working on concepts for a new ballet—one that will no doubt have something meaningful to say about the period we’re in. (Amy Danzer)
Matthew Lunt and Karissa Murrell Myers/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux
Matthew Lunt and Karissa Murrell Myers
Co-Founders, Executive Producer and Artistic Director, Bramble Theatre Company
In 2021, when graduates of the School at Steppenwolf decided to combine their love of theater and artistry, Bramble Theatre Company was born. Matthew Lunt and Karissa Murrell Myers are committed to sustainable growth and community engagement, including the opening of the Bramble Arts Loft, a multi-purpose performance venue and art gallery in Andersonville, and their summertime “Festival of Unfinished Works,” where a ten-page, unfinished script has the chance to be produced as part of their fall season. Their motto: To become more than the sum of their parts by producing works by novel new voices. (Tristan Bruns)
Tara Mallen/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux
Tara Mallen
Founder/Artistic Director, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble
Not satisfied with the common portrayal of women onstage and in mass media, Tara Mallen and a group of artists founded Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, an ensemble-led company now celebrating its thirtieth anniversary. As artistic director, Mallen produces new works that dramatize accurate representations of women and their stories. “It doesn’t feel satisfying to us to produce a play where the playwright is not involved,” says Mallen. She stresses the need for companies to develop relationships with artists, and that Rivendell regularly draws from their new play development program, “Fresh Produce, A Celebration of New Plays by Women,” a week-long incubator for up-and-coming talent. (Tristan Bruns)
Wendy Mateo and Lorena Diaz/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux
Wendy Mateo and Lorena Diaz
Producing Artistic Director and Executive Artistic Director, Teatro Vista
Under the leadership of Wendy Mateo and Lorena Diaz, the thirty-five-year-old Teatro Vista theater company is headed in exciting directions. “We’re going through a radical restructuring in our operations department,” says Diaz, “and this will give us the foundation to spur this company on for another thirty-five years.” Fresh off their success with “God Complex” (2025), this spring kicks off the company’s residency at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theater, and their ventures into multimedia—a radio play, an animated digital graphic novel, two short films and two podcasts—have increased their audience reach by substantial proportions. (Tristan Bruns)
Brian Pastor/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux
Brian Pastor
City Lit Theater
Brian Pastor, executive artistic director of City Lit Theater Company, likes to joke how they and the forty-five-year-old company are almost the same age. “I always say that it’s a couple of months older than me,” says Pastor, “and I hope it stays that way.” Pastor is serious about City Lit’s core principle: to present plays rooted in literature, or “literate theater.” While Pastor has been executive director of both Sideshow Theatre Company and Raven Theatre, City Lit has been a formative influence throughout their career, and they now continue the mission of presenting works inspired by the literary imagination. (Tristan Bruns)
Tim Rhoze/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux
Tim Rhoze
Producer/Artistic Director, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre
Tim Rhoze, artistic director and producer at Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre, has for fifteen years continued the mission set by founder Gloria Bond Clunie of amplifying the voices of Black Americans through stories, plays and special events. Situated in Evanston’s Fifth Ward, historically known as the “Black ward,” Rhoze and the theater have brought to life stories that “challenge the audience to absorb the Black experience,” like “Honeypot: Black Southern Women Who Love Women,” and “Pass Over,” based on “Waiting for Godot” but grounded in the struggles of Black citizens in an urban setting, and “The Baldwin | Giovanni Experience,” a conversation between two prolific writers enhanced by original music, poetry and choreography. (Tristan Bruns)
Miguel Angel Rodriguez/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux
Miguel Angel Rodriguez
Co-Executive Director, Albany Park Theater Project
Miguel Angel Rodriguez has been part of the Albany Park Theater Project nearly since the beginning—first as a high-school company member, then as a board member, and now as co-executive director alongside co-founder David Feiner, who launched the company with his late wife, Laura Wiley. The theater’s acclaimed “Port of Entry”—an immersive production within a three-story, 12,000-square-foot building—continues to sell out every performance in its seventh season. Featuring a rotating cast of nearly fifty youth artists from the theater’s after-school program, the show highlights the power of young people telling stories rooted in their communities. What draws Rodriguez most to his work is the privilege of witnessing young people transform—watching their confidence grow, their understanding of the world deepen. While he sees their work as critical—“an immigrant theater company telling immigrant stories at a time when immigrant rights are being dismantled”—he also believes “anyone creating art right now is critical to the revolution we’re trying to ignite together.” Albany Park’s next premiere, “The American Project,” arrives Summer 2026. (Amy Danzer)
Sarah Slight/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux
Sarah Slight
Executive Artistic Director, Raven Theatre Chicago
The Raven Theatre just wrapped a dynamite 2025 season, producing acclaimed works like “Oak,” written by Terry Guest and directed by Mikael Burke, a horror play set in the Deep South, and “Gorgeous,” a collaboration with Rivendell Theatre, written by Keiko Green and starring Tara Mallen and Stephanie Shum. But the theater’s mission goes deeper than producing world-class plays. “Especially now,” says Sarah Slight, “when the world needs empathy more than ever, I see our role as an integral way to connect people to culture through theater.” Raven remains steadfast in supporting Chicago artists, cultivating community and telling powerful stories. (Tristan Bruns)
Jumaane Taylor/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux
Jumaane Taylor
Artistic Director, Chicago Human Rhythm Project
Jumaane Taylor, artistic director of Chicago Human Rhythm Project, is committed to preserving the legacy and evolution of tap dance. The organization has undergone an expansion, continuing to produce the historic “Rhythm World” tap and percussive dance festival while planning construction on a major development at their Mayfair Arts Center in Calumet Heights. Despite rapid institutional growth, Taylor remains focused on “the dance.” “It’s always been about the connection to foot-drumming. It’s what [CHRP] is known for,” says Taylor while hinting at upcoming commissions and Chicago premieres by well-known hoofers from across the tap diaspora. (Tristan Bruns)
Beth Wolf/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux
Beth Wolf
Founder/Producing Artistic Director, Midsommer Flight
Continuing a centuries-old tradition is Midsommer Flight, producing six presentations of the works of Shakespeare at parks across Chicago. Partnering with the city’s Night Out in the Parks program, the company shows Shakespeare’s plays in their original setting, outdoors. “There’s something intangible about it,” says Beth Wolf, “hearing and speaking these words under an open sky somehow makes them more emotionally accessible.” (Tristan Bruns)
Marcella Muñoz, Rosario Vargas and Augusto Yanacopulos/Photo: Joe Mazza | brave lux
Augusto Yanacopulos, Rosario Vargas and Marcella Muñoz
Founders and Co-Artistic Directors, and Producing Artistic Director, Aguijón Theater Company
With Chicago’s longest-running Latino theater, Aguijón Theater Company’s Rosario Vargas, Augusto Yanacopulos and Marcella Muñoz question what it means to be an American by producing original works by Latinos in their original languages. “The American story comes from all over the world,” says Muñoz, “and it’s important to tell those stories in the dialects and accents of these artists.” The company presents work that is a mix of local, national and international talent, inviting artists to tell their own stories in their own voice. “We speak many languages,” says Yanacopulos, “but say one thing, that theater is universal.” (Tristan Bruns)
The Rising Stars and Storefront Stalwarts
Hall of Fame
Lane Alexander
Founding Director, Chicago Human Rhythm Project
Elizabeth K. Auman and PJ Powers
Director of New Home Development and Co-Founder/Artistic Director, TimeLine Theatre
Bril Barrett
FounderArtistic Director, M.A.D.D. Rhythms
Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel
Managing Director, Teatro Vista
David Feiner
Co-Executive Director, Albany Park Theater Project
Henry Godinez
Director, Latino Theatre Festival/Co-Founder, Teatro Vista
Marti Lyons
Artistic Director, Remy Bumppo
Meida McNeal
Artistic/Managing Director, Honey Pot Performance/Deputy Commissioner, Cultural Grants and Resources, DCASE
Tyrone Phillips and Neel McNeill
Founding Artistic Director and Executive 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
