1925: The Goodman Theatre is founded. Timber magnate William O. Goodman and his wife donate $250,000 to the Art Institute to establish a theater and school in the name of their son, Kenneth Sawyer Goodman, a Chicago playwright who died in 1918 during the influenza pandemic. A theater is built at the back of the Art Institute with an entrance at 200 S. Columbus Drive.

1969: The Goodman becomes a professional company under artistic director John Reich.

1975: David Mamet’s seminal “American Buffalo” premieres at the Goodman. Two years later, it’s on Broadway and Mamet is famous.

1978: The Goodman School of Drama becomes the Theatre School of DePaul University.

1979: First production of “A Christmas Carol,” starring William Norris as Ebenezer Scrooge. The stage adaptation of Charles Dickens’ tale becomes an annual Chicago holiday tradition. Larry Yando famously plays the miser from 2007 to 2023.

Larry Yando, Penelope Walker and Susaan Jamshidi in “A Christmas Carol,” directed by Henry Wishcamper at Goodman Theatre in 2019. (Liz Lauren)

1985: Robert Falls is hired as artistic director at age 31.

1987: Falls directs Bertolt Brecht’s “Galileo” with Brian Dennehy and Frank Galati — both of whom would have long associations with the Goodman.

1992: The Goodman wins the Regional Theatre Tony Award.

1998: Dennehy stars as Willy Loman in a production of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” directed by Falls. The production, arguably the most successful in the theater’s history, transfers to Broadway, winning 1999 Tony Awards for best revival of a play, best actor for Dennehy, best featured actress for Elizabeth Franz (as Linda Loman), and best direction by Falls.

1999: Premiere of Rebecca Gilman’s “Spinning into Butter,” one of several Gilman works that the Goodman will premiere.

2000: The Goodman Theatre moves into its new home at 170 N. Dearborn St. in the Loop, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Mayor Richard Daley, playwright August Wilson and Goodman Theatre officials. The $46 million theater complex was built after a 12-year campaign led by executive director Roche Schulfer. The first show in the new space is Wilson’s “King Hedley II.”

2002: Falls directs Dennehy in a towering production of Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey into Night.” And the Goodman makes a rare foray into opera with Mary Zimmerman and Arnold Weinstein’s production of “Galileo Galilei.”

Yvette Ganier (from left), Paul Butler, Kenny Leon and Peter Jay Fernandez in the Goodman Theatre’s world premiere production of August Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean” in 2003. (Michael Brosilow)

2003: Wilson premieres “Gem of the Ocean,” the second-to-last play of his Century Cycle.

2004: Falls and Arthur Miller stage the world premiere of Miller’s final play, “Finishing the Picture.”

2006: A searing Falls production of Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” conceiving Lear as a brutal dictator and starring Stacy Keach.

2009: O’Neill’s “Desire Under the Elms,” starring Carla Gugino and Dennehy, is another ambitious Goodman show that moves to Broadway.

2012: Dennehy and Lane lead an ensemble cast in Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh.” The production, perhaps the greatest-ever collection of Chicago actors, goes on to a 2015 engagement with the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.

Salvatore Inzerillo as Rocky Pioggi (from left), Brian Dennehy as Larry Slade, Nathan Lane as Theodore Hickman, Lee Wilkof as Hugo Kalmar and Stephen Ouimette as Harry Hope in “The Iceman Cometh,” directed by Robert Falls at Goodman Theatre in 2012. (Liz Lauren)

2021: Falls announces his resignation after 35 years as artistic director. His farewell play is an April 2023 production of Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.”

2022: Susan V. Booth is hired as the Goodman’s new artistic director, returning to Chicago from the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta.

2024: Roche Schulfer, the theater’s longtime executive director, retires. He is replaced by John Collins, a longtime Goodman employee.

2026: The Goodman plans an ambitious, off-site production of David Byrne’s “Theater of the Mind,” an interactive experience inspired by neuroscience.

Matt DeCaro, Janet Ulrich Brooks, Kate Fry, Alejandra Escalante and Kareem Bandealy in Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” at the Goodman Theatre. (Liz Lauren)

 

 

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/20/timeline-goodman-theatre/