How Do Theaters Survive and Thrive in a Changing Entertainment Landscape?

Susan V. Booth (Goodman Theatre Walter Artistic Director) joined Goodman Theatre in the fall of 2022, having previously served as Artistic Director of Atlanta’s Tony Award-winning Alliance Theatre, premiering new work that went on to national, international and commercial life. She has directed at The Goodman, Hartford Stage, National Playwrights Conference, The Contemporary American Theater Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, St. Louis Repertory Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, New York Stage and Film, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Northlight Theatre, Victory Gardens, Court Theatre and others. She has held teaching positions at Northwestern, DePaul and Emory Universities. She serves on the boards of the Erikson Institute and Denison University, the Executive Board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Union, is past president of the Board of Directors for the Theatre Communications Group, the national service organization for the field, was a 2024 Leadership Greater Chicago Daniel Burnham Fellow, and is a member of the Chicago Network.

Audrey Francis currently serves as Artistic Director of Steppenwolf Theatre, alongside Glenn Davis, where she has been an Ensemble member since 2017. Audrey directed You Will Get Sick in Steppenwolf’s 2024/25 season and POTUS in the 2023/24 season. She has performed on stage in Noises Off, The Thanksgiving Play, The Herd, Between Riverside and Crazy, The Fundamentals, The Doppelgänger (an international farce) and Dance Nation. TV and film credits include Justified: City Primeval, Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, Empire, Perpetrator, Knives and Skin and Later Days. Audrey is an acting coach for NBC, Fox, Showtime and Amazon. She is also the co-founder of Black Box Acting and the co-creator of Steppenwolf’s corporate training program, Steppenwolf IMPACT.

Acclaimed theater, television, and film director Edward Hall joined CST in October 2023. In February 2024, he directed his debut production as Artistic Director—Richard III starring Tony nominee and Paralympic champion Katy Sullivan and subsequently productions of Henry V, Sunny Afternoon, Short Shakespeare! A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Hamlet. He previously directed the Jeff Award-winning Rose Rage trilogy at CST in 2003. Edward has built his love of Shakespeare around original interpretations of the Bard’s plays, staging acclaimed productions in London’s West End and on tour around the globe. He led the UK’s Hampstead Theatre for nearly a decade, transforming it into one of the nation’s most successful theaters for new work development, with over 100 world premieres. He was the founder and Artistic Director of Propeller Shakespeare for twenty years touring across the US, Europe, Asia, and beyond. He has served as an Associate Director at the National Theatre and Old Vic in London. His extensive film and television credits include The Heist Before Christmas starring Timothy Spall, Blithe Spirit starring Dame Judi Dench, multiple HBO and BBC series, and the season 4 finale for Downton Abbey. This season, Hall will direct The Winter’s Tale and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in repertory. He is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago.

Dr. Avery Willis Hoffman is proud to join Court Theatre as the new Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director. Avery recently served as inaugural Artistic Director, Brown Arts Institute and Professor of the Practice of Arts and Classics at Brown University. Over the last two decades, she has curated multidisciplinary projects as inaugural Program Director at Park Avenue Armory, led content development for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History, managed Avery Productions, and produced multiple artistic collaborations with director Peter Sellars. A Marshall Scholar, Avery earned a DPhil and MSt in Classical Languages and Literature from Oxford, and a BA in Classics and English from Stanford.

Chris Jones is the editorial page editor of the Chicago Tribune after spending two decades as the Tribune’s theater critic, although he continues to cover the performing arts going forward. He received his PhD in theater in 1989 and has taught undergraduate and graduate classes for more than 25 years. He is the author of both Bigger! Brighter! Louder!, published by the University of Chicago Press, and Rise Up! Broadway and American Society from Angels in America to Hamilton, published by Bloomsbury/Methuen.