Avery Willis Hoffman, Chicago's Court Theatre's new artistic director, says partnerships key

Avery Willis Hoffman, the new artistic director of Court Theatre in Hyde Park, says partnerships will be a key focus of her role in an era when the American theater industry faces many challenges — including the drastic reduction of federal funding.

Hoffman comes to Court from Brown University, where she was artistic director of the Brown Arts Institute.

Hoffman will be the third artistic director in Court’s history. She’s succeeding Charles Newell, who stepped down last summer after 30 years. Before Newell, Court was led by founding artistic director Nicholas Rudall.

“Court has had an incredible 70-year history and two really impactful artistic directors who've shaped the institution, shaped its relationship with the South Side," Hoffman said. "It feels like a real inflection point as Court heads towards the 75th anniversary of its history.”

In a shift from her predecessor, Hoffman said she doesn’t plan to direct any plays in the near future.

“My career has really been built around being more of what I would call ‘a creative doula,’” she said. “Someone who works very closely with artists to incubate, create, evolve a particular concept or set of themes into a work. O, take a traditional text and interpret it, research it and do that dramaturgical work. I'm really excited to shape the next generation of directors, as opposed to directing myself, and that's certainly been a choice.”

Hoffman said she will be involved in every show. But she sees herself supporting the artists and actors and diving into partnerships with designers and creatives. Some of these partnerships have already started. While Hoffman has not spent much time in Chicago herself, she has worked with Chicago artists, including Theaster Gates and Nick Cave, in her former role as program director at the Park Avenue Armory in New York.

For Hoffman, the current arts funding crisis, exacerbated by the end of COVID-19 relief dollars and cuts to the National Endowment of the Arts, is nothing new.

“My brother is a banker,” she said, “and he was having a hard time around the financial crisis of 2008. I remember talking to him and saying, ‘You know, this is how we feel in the theater every day.’”

Hoffman said theater has always been under pressure, audiences are often under pressure, and she’s hopeful the industry will find a way to push through.

“I firmly believe that the theater, as an entity, as a community, is really resilient and really innovative. Often at these really challenging times, artists are the ones who help us think differently about the world.”

Hoffman said collaborations between institutions will be more important than competition in the days ahead. She said Court’s partnership with the University of Chicago is an example of institutions working for the greater good and that he is hopeful about being able to leverage more partnerships.

“The theater is a place to escape,” she said. “To tackle some of these bigger issues, to find solidarity with fellow humans. It's certainly a really challenging time, especially coming out of COVID. But I am cautiously optimistic that, as a collaborative community, we're going to get through this and come out on the other side stronger institutions.”