Your personal relationship to the Blues family enables our mission. Committed to our Ensemble since 1985, American Blues Theater produces stories about working people and partners with social and service organizations.
Last year alone, your attendance, donations, and in-kind contributions helped ABT produce two critically-acclaimed plays and three staged-readings:
We were named Chicago Tribune’s hottest ticket (twice), New City’s “Top 5 Shows to See,” recommended by the Chicago Reader, Windy City Times, Time-Out Chicago, Examiner, Red-Eye’s “5 Shows to See,” “Crain’s Top Ten,” and Goldstar’s Roar of the Crowd (twice). The Sun-Times declared, “American Blues gets its groove back.” Theatre World Internet Magazine said, “American Blues Theater is back and even better than before.”
We received three Joseph Jefferson Award nominations for Tobacco Road (Midsize play: Production, Scenic Design—Founder Jim Leaming, Costume Design—Artistic Affiliate Sarah Ross and Kristin DeiTos.)
We raised awareness for Greater Chicago Food Depository, donated 17 boxes of food to local pantries, sponsored a cleft palate surgery through Smile Train, and created a historic partnership with Illinois Farm Bureau.
We celebrate our 25th Anniversary season because of your generous support throughout the years. We began our season with an artistic residency at the University of Chicago to develop Ripped: the Living Newspaper Project. Next up, our production of It’s a Wonderful Life: Live at the Biograph! will be featured in Chicago’s McDonald’s Thanksgiving Parade. Our full production runs Nov. 26 – Dec. 31 at the Richard Christiansen Theater at Victory Gardens. This Spring, we’ll present the Chicago premiere of the dark comedy Rantoul and Die by “Two and a Half Men” and “The Big Bang Theory” Executive Producer Mark Roberts. Finally, we’re launching our “Pink Previews” initiative, donating proceeds from all our preview performances to the Lynn Sage Foundation.
We humbly ask you to please continue your support of the Blues family. Your donation goes directly toward the art on stage. As of 2010, ABT Ensemble and Artistic Affiliates have individually received over 100 Joseph Jefferson Awards, Citations, and nominations, 19 After Dark Awards, an Academy Award nomination, Golden Globe Award, Emmy Awards and nominations, Writers’ Guild Awards, 6 Black Theatre Alliance Awards and nominations, and multiple Regional theater awards from NY, Los Angeles, DC, and Florida. ABT is the second-oldest Equity Ensemble in Chicago. Our 23-member Ensemble has over 354 combined years of collaboration on stage.
Thank you for being true blue!