Congratulations to the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department alumni whose theatres have received $150,000 grants from the Bayless Family Foundation’s “Stepping Stone” program. According to a report in Block Club Chicago, the foundation, established by celebrity chef Rick Bayless, has announced it will give a total of $300,000 to two small non-Equity theatres on Chicago’s North Side — Jackalope Theatre in the Edgewater/Andersonville Theatre District and Lifeline Theatre in Rogers Park.

As previously reported in this blog, Jackalope was founded by alumni and former students of the Columbia College Theatre Department as a senior project in a theatre management techniques course, in which the students wrote a five-year plan for a fictional theatre company. After leaving Columbia, the four founders — alumni Kaiser Zaki Ahmed ’08 and AJ Ware ’09, both graduates of the Theatre Department’s Theatre Directing program, and former students Andrew Burden Swanson and Gus Menary — took Jackalope to professional status. The company made its professional debut in August 2008 with the world premiere of Last Exodus of American Men, written by Swanson and co-directed by Ahmed and Menary. Presently, Menary serves as Jackalope’s artistic director, with Ahmed as associate artistic director. Jackalope’s history was recounted in “The Birth of a Jackalope,” an article in the Fall/Winter 2017 edition of Demo, the alumni magazine of Columbia College Chicago.

As previously reported in this blog, Lifeline’s artistic director is Columbia College alum Ilesa Duncan ’99. Its managing director is former Columbia College Theatre Department student Allison Cain, who is quoted by Block Club Chicago as calling the Bayless grant “a game changer.”

Each theatre will receive $150,000 over three years. Both companies have plans to increase administrative staff as they seek to grow. “Our foundation continues to shine a spotlight on the city’s vibrant, thrilling and daring theater scene,” said Bayless in a statement. “We hope our grants help these companies thrive now and in the future.”