DePaul University's theater school to be honored with Jeff Special Award
The Theatre School at DePaul University, which launched the careers of Joe Mantegna, Karl Malden, Gillian Anderson, John C. Reilly and many other actors — is set to receive a special Jeff Award on Monday.
The school, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, is being honored with the 2025 Joseph Jefferson Special Award at the 51st Non-Equity Awards at the Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph.
“Now, in its centennial year, there is no better time to recognize The Theatre School’s immeasurable impact on Chicago theater",” John Glover, chair of the Jeff Awards, said in a statement. “For a century, it has trained the artists who make Chicago theater what it is: bold, collaborative, immediate, and alive.”
DePaul's theater school started out in 1925 as the Goodman School of Drama, named after Kenneth Sawyer Goodman, a Chicago-born playwright who dreamed of creating a theater combining a repertory company and a dramatic arts school. Goodman died at age 35 during the influenza epidemic of 1918 before his dream could be realized. But Thomas Woods Stevens, a friend and collaborator of Goodman's, would later work with the Goodman family to set up theater school and company. The school is currently located at 2350 N. Racine Ave.
"We are so honored to receive this recognition from the Jeff Committee. It is amazing to be recognized for the contributions our faculty, staff, current students, and alumni have made to the industry over the past 100 years! We are proud to be a long-standing member of the theatre and theatre education communities in Chicago and look forward to another 100 years of serving Chicagoland and the nation," Martine Kei Green-Rogers, dean of The Theatre School, said in a statement.
The Jeff Awards, which have been handed out since 1968, celebrate outstanding achievement in both Equity and Non-Equity theater in Chicago. This year, the non-equity awards spotlight 138 theater artists in theater production among shows from 29 companies.