Remy Bumppo Theatre Company is an award-winning theater in
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
known for literary-minded productions from playwrights such as
George Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
and
Tom StoppardSir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
. Their mission is "to delight and engage audiences with the emotional and ethical complexities of society through the provocative power of great theatrical language." Timothy Douglas serves as the company's Artistic Director.
History
Remy Bumppo was founded in 1996 by Artistic Director Emeritus James Bohnen, Carol Loewenstern, and John Stoddard as Remy Bumppo LLC. The company was named after 2 of the founders' pets – Bohnen's dog Natty Bumppo (named after the
James Fenimore CooperJames Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...
character) and Loewenstern's cat Remy (named after
Remy MartinRémy Martin is a brand selling cognac , specialist of the Cognac Fine Champagne originally produced by Rémy Martin, a French winemaker, who founded the company in 1724...
cognac). In their first year, the company produced 2 plays,
Night and Day by
Tom StoppardSir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
and
The Seagull by
Anton ChekhovAnton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
.
On June 20, 2001, Remy Bumppo incorporated as a not-for-profit company under the name Remy Bumppo Theatre Company. At that time, they added five Artistic Associates: Annabel Armour, David Darlow, Shawn Douglass, Linda Gillum, and Nick Sandys. Artistic Associates added since that time include Joe Van Slyke (added in 2005) and Gregory Anderson (2007). On August 13, 2007, at the age of 55, Artistic Associate Joe Van Slyke died after a lengthy struggle with cancer. Remy Bumppo dedicated their 2007/08 season to his memory.
In 2006, as part of the 10th year, Remy Bumppo was named a resident theatre company at the
Tony AwardThe Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
winning
Victory Gardens TheaterVictory Gardens Theater is a theater in Chicago, Illinois dedicated to the development and production of new plays and playwrights. The theater was founded in 1974 when seven Chicago artists, Warren Casey, Cordis Heard, Roberta Maguire, Mac McGuinnes, Cecil O'Neal, June Pyskaček, and David Rasche...
. The space is now under different ownership and is now known simply as the
Greenhouse Theater CenterThe Greenhouse Theater Center is a professional, non-profit ]]theater]] located in the heart of Chicago's Lincoln Park. The Greenhouse Theater Center hosts multiple Off-Loop theater companies, including Eclipse Theatre Company, Hubris Productions, MPAACT, Organic Theatre Company, Remy Bumppo...
.
In April of 2009, founder and artistic director James Bohnen announced his retirement from the company, to be effective at the end of the 2010/11 Season.
In October of 2010, the company announced that Timothy Douglas would be the Artistic Director beginning with the 2011/2012 Season. Douglas came to Chicago from New York after a freelance directing career and teaching career that included productions ans universities nationally. He has also served as the Associate Artistic Director at Actors Theatre of Louisville from 2001 through 2004. He is a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College and Yale School of Drama.
Remy Bumppo has won numerous theater awards in its history including 30 Joseph Jefferson Award Nominations and Seven After Dark Awards.
Production history
2010/11 Season: Secret Lives, Public Lies
'The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia?' by Edward AlbeeEdward Franklin Albee III is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story , The Sandbox , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and a rewrite of the screenplay for the unsuccessful musical version of Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's . His works are considered well-crafted, often...
; 'The Importance of Being Earnest' by Oscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
; 'Night and Day' by Tom StoppardSir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
2009/10 Season: Friendships Tested
'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' by Christopher Hampton, based on the novel by Choderlos de Laclos; 'The Island' by Athol FugardAthol Fugard is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director who writes in English, best known for his political plays opposing the South African system of apartheid and for the 2005 Academy-Award winning film of his novel Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood...
; 'Heroes' by Gerald Sibleyras, translated by Tom Stoppard
2008/09 Season: The Perils of Possession
'The Voysey Inheritance' by by Harley Granville-BarkerHarley Granville-Barker was an English actor-manager, director, producer, critic and playwright....
, adapted by David MametDavid Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...
; 'The Marriage of Figaro' by Beaumarchais, adapted by Ranjit Bolt; 'thinkTank: American Ethnic' by Usman Ally, Idris Goodwin, and Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai; 'Old Times' by Harold Pinter
2007/08 Season: Life, Love & Other Inventions
Fiction by Steven DietzSteven Dietz is an American playwright whose work is largely performed regionally, i.e. outside of New York City...
; The Philadelphia Story by Philip BarryPhilip James Quinn Barry was an American playwright born in Rochester, New York.-Early life:Philip Barry was born on June 18, 1896 in Rochester, New York to James Corbett Barry and Mary Agnes Quinn Barry. James would die from appendicitis a year after Philip's birth, and his father's marble and...
; Bronte by Polly Teale; On the Verge or the Geography of Yearning by Eric Overmyer; Remy Bumppo's thinkTank; Dickens in America by James DeVita
2006/07 Season: Lost Innocence
The Best Man by Gore VidalGore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
; The Real Thing by Tom StoppardSir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
; Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
; A Child's Christmas in WalesA Child's Christmas in Wales is a prose work by the Welsh writer Dylan Thomas. Originally emerging from a piece written for radio, the poem was recorded by Thomas in 1952. The story is an anecdotal retelling of a Christmas from the view of a young child and is a romanticised version of Christmases...
by Dylan ThomasDylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
; Remy Bumppo's thinkTank
2005/06 Season: Temptation
Aren't We All by Frederick Lonsdale; TartuffeTartuffe is a comedy by Molière. It is one of his most famous plays.-History:Molière wrote Tartuffe in 1664...
by MolièreJean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
; Power by Nick Dear
2004/05 Season: Chaos Theory... and Other Family Gatherings
A Delicate Balance by Edward AlbeeEdward Franklin Albee III is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story , The Sandbox , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and a rewrite of the screenplay for the unsuccessful musical version of Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's . His works are considered well-crafted, often...
; Arcadia by Tom Stoppard; Humble BoyHumble Boy is a 2001 English play by Charlotte Jones. The play was presented in association with Matthew Byam Shaw and Anna Mackmin, and was first performed on the Cottesloe stage of the Royal National Theatre on August 9, 2001. [1]-Background:...
by Charlotte Jones
2003/04 Season: Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw; Some Americans Abroad by Richard Nelson; Hidden Laughter by Simon Grey
2002/03 Season: The Secret Rapture by David HareSir David Hare is an English playwright and theatre and film director.-Early life:Hare was born in St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings, East Sussex, the son of Agnes and Clifford Hare, a sailor. He was educated at Lancing, an independent school in West Sussex, and at Jesus College, Cambridge...
; Holiday by Philip Barry; Money by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
2001/02 Season: No Man's Land by Harold PinterHarold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
; Top Girls by Caryl ChurchillCaryl Churchill is an English dramatist known for her use of non-naturalistic techniques and feminist themes, the abuses of power, and sexual politics. She is acknowledged as a major playwright in the English language and a leading female writer...
2000/01 Season: Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw; Hapgood by Tom Stoppard
1999: Road to Mecca by Athol Fugard
1998: Waiting for Godot by Samuel BeckettSamuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
; Rockabye by Samuel Beckett; Heartbreak House by George Bernard Shaw
1996: Night and Day by Tom Stoppard; The Seagull by Anton Chekhov
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