2000

Milestones

500 Clown, Steep Theatre, the side project and Teatro Luna are founded

Broadway In Chicago launches as a joint venture between Live Nation and the Nederlander Organization

Goodman departs its original home in the Art Institute of Chicago and moves into $51 million new digs in the North Loop

Chicago Shakespeare moves into a $24 million theater on Navy Pier

Collaboraction produces its first Sketchbook

The City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs opens The Storefront Theater

Passings

Michael Maggio, Goodman Theatre Associate Artistic Director and Dean of The Theatre School at DePaul University

2001

Milestones

The House Theatre of Chicago, Infamous Commonwealth, New Leaf Theatre and TUTA Theatre Chicago launch

Victory Gardens wins the Tony Award for Regional Theatre

Steppenwolf’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” wins Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play

“The Producers” opens at the Cadillac Palace before moving to Broadway and collecting twelve Tony Awards, the most ever for a musical at the time

Historic Off-Loop playhouse The Ivanhoe Theatre closes

Passings

Martin deMaat, longtime teacher and artistic director at The Second City Training Center

2002

Milestones

Richard Christiansen steps down as theater critic at the Chicago Tribune, after 40 years of covering theater in Chicago. Michael Phillips is brought in to replace him, but eventually shifts to film and former Newcity theater editor Chris Jones takes over the role, which he holds to this day.

Mary Zimmerman wins the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for “Metamorphoses,” which she’d developed and premiered at Lookingglass.

Hull House Theater, the historic venue Bob Sickinger launched the Off-Loop movement in the early sixties, with many subsequent milestones to follow, closes for good.

Passings

Byrne Piven, legendary Chicago actor and director dating back to pre-Second City origins, and co-founder of The Piven Theatre Workshop

2003

Milestones

Lookingglass moves into Water Tower Works

Writers’ Theatre opens a second, larger space with 108 seats in the Woman’s Library Club of Glencoe

Goodman’s “Long Day’s Journey into Night” wins Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play

Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s “Pacific Overtures wins London’s Olivier Award for Best Musical Production

Signal Ensemble Theatre is founded

21 nightclubbers dies in a stampede at E2. The resulting city crackdown on code violations threatens the viabililty of storefront theater in Chicago

2004

Milestones

Roadworks Productions and Defiant Theatre disband

Hobo Junction launches

Retired Chicago Tribune critic Richard Christiansen publishes “A Theater of Our Own: A History and Memoir of 1,001 Nights in Chicago.”

Passings

Tim Beamish, actor

Ray Wild, actor

Brad Nelson Winters, Terrapin Theatre artistic director

2005

Milestones

Famous Door Theatre disbands

Passings

Hope Abelson, producer and patron of the arts

August Wilson, playwright who had a long relationship with the Goodman

2006

Milestones

Victory Gardens Biograph Theater opens, following more than $11 million in renovations to the historic site

Theatre Seven is founded

Passings

Nick Brenner, Infamous Commonwealth Theatre company member

Gene Janson, actor

Fred Solari, executive director of the Athenaeum Theatre and co-founder of Dance Chicago

2007

Milestones

16th Street Theater is founded

Writers’ opens “Crime and Punishment” at 59E59 Theatre in New York to unanimous critical acclaim, breaking box-office records for the theater

Passings

Joe Van Slyke, actor and Remy Bumppo Artistic Associate

2008

Milestones

Chicago Shakespeare Theater wins the Tony Award for Regional Theatre

Steppenwolf ensemble member Tracy Letts’ play “August: Osage County,” which premiered a year earlier at Steppenwolf Theatre, wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play

Next Theatre’s production of “Adding Machine: A Musical” is an Off-Broadway hit under the direction of David Cromer

ComedySportz Theatre moves into a new theater at 929 West Belmont

Passings

Page Hearn, actor affiliated with City Lit

Paul Sills, seminal figure in the development of The Second City and the son of Viola Spolin

Studs Terkel, author, actor, Chicago icon

2009

Milestones

“Wicked” closes its record-setting run after playing to 2.9 million people in three-and-a-half years at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre.

David Cromer’s “Our Town,” which he directed for The Hyprocrites, is an Off-Broadway hit, the longest-running production in the play’s history

Goodman Theatre’s “Global Exploration: Eugene O’Neill in the 21st Century” features six theater companies from three countries, fourteen plays and programs and plays to nearly 50,000 people

Goodman Theatre’s “Desire Under the Elms” opens and closes on Broadway

After spending eight months or so as a gypsy company after leaving its longtime hom on Belmont, Bailiwick Repertory closes its doors and reincarnates a month later as Bailiwick Chicago under new leadership

Apple Tree Theatre in Highland Park closes a few months after the death of founder Eileen Boevers

Lynn Nottage’s “Ruined,” a play commissioned by and premiered at the Goodman, wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama

“A Steady Rain,” by longtime Chicago Dramtists resident playwright Keith Huff and first staged there, opens on Broadway for a limited run that sets weekly box-office records for a new musical, thanks in large part to its cast of Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman

Steppenwolf’s production of ensemble member Tracy Letts’ “Superior Donuts” opens on Broadway

Second City celebrates its fiftieth anniversary with a star-studded reunion weekend

Passings

Dan Allar, Equity actor and stage manager

Eileen Boevers, the founder and longtime leader of the Apple Tree Theatre in Highland Park

Steve Cinabro, actor and member of European Repertory Theatre

Esther McCormick, actor and member of Raven Theatre Co.

Michael Philippi, lighting and set designer who worked closely with Goodman artistic director Robert Falls and many other Chicago theater companies

Will Schutz, actor

Did we miss something? Email brian@newcity.com