Congratulations to the alumni and faculty of the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department and Columbia College Chicago Music Department who won 2022 Joseph Jefferson Awards, Chicago’s top theatre award. The Equity “Jeff Awards,” which honor excellence in Chicago’s Equity theatre during the 2021-2022 theatre season, were presented by the Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee on Monday, October 17, at the first live Equity Jeff Awards ceremony since 2019, held this year at Drury Lane Theatre in the Chicago suburb of Oakbrook Terrace. This year’s winners included:

Columbia College Theatre Department alum Tyla Abercrumbie ’98 won the Jeff Award for New Work for her play Relentless, presented in its world premiere by TimeLine Theatre.

Columbia College Music Department alum Jeffrey Levin ’10, a graduate of the Columbia College Music Department‘s BA Program in Music with a Composition Concentration, won the Jeff Award for Sound Design–Midsize for The Moors at A Red Orchid Theatre.

Theatre Department faculty member David Fiorello won a Jeff Award for Music Direction for Porchlight Music Theatre’s Blues in the Night.

In addition, former Columbia College Theatre Department student Bethany Thomas won the Jeff Award for Solo Performance for Northlight Theatre’s Songs for Nobodies; former Theatre Department student and staff accompanist Kory Danielson won a Jeff Award for Music Direction for Paramount Theatre’s Kinky Boots; Kenny Ingram, a former teacher of Musical Theatre Dance in the Columbia College Theatre Department’s Musical Theatre Program, won the Jeff Award for Director–Revue–Large for Porchlight Music Theatre’s Blues in the Night; and former Theatre Department faculty member Kirsten Fitzgerald won the Jeff Award for Director–Play–Midsize for The Moors at A Red Orchid Theatre.

In addition, a special Lifetime Achievement Jeff Award was presented to Chicago director Chuck Smith, a former longtime Columbia College Theatre Department faculty member and, for 20 years, facilitator of the Theatre Department’s annual Theodore Ward Prize for African American Playwriting. Under Smith’s leadership, the annual competition produced two anthologies, Seven Black Plays: The Theodore Ward Prize for African American Playwriting (Northwestern University Press, 2004) and Best Black Plays: The Theodore Ward Prize for African American Playwriting (Northwestern University Press, 2007).

In addition to the individual winners listed above, Columbia College alumni and faculty participated in several of the award-winning productions, including Paramount Theatre’s Kinky Boots (Production–Musical–Large), Porchlight Music Theatre’s Blues in the Night (Production–Revue–Large), Teatro Vista’s Somewhere Over the Border (Production–Musical or Revue–Midsize), and A Red Orchid Theatre’s The Moors (Production–Play–Midsize).

The event was directed by Paramount Theatre artistic director Jim Corti, a former Musical Theatre Dance instructor in the Columbia College Theatre Department’s Musical Theatre Program.

Congratulations to all!