Congratulations to the alumni and faculty of the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department and Columbia College Chicago Music Department who have been nominated for 2023 Joseph Jefferson Awards, Chicago’s top theatre award. The Equity “Jeff Awards” honor excellence in Chicago’s Equity theatre during the 2022-2023 theatre season. The list of this year’s Equity Jeff Award nominees, announced August 15 by the Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee, includes alumni, former students, and current and former faculty from Columbia College Chicago’s Theatre and Music departments in the areas of performance, writing, design, and musical composition and direction. The individual nominees include:

Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department alumnus Marvin Quijada ’05, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Acting and the author and star of Teatro Vista‘s world premiere The Dream King at the Chopin Theatre.

Quijada, who was recently featured in a profile in American Theatre magazine, is a triple nominee in the categories of Performer in a Principal Role/Play, New Work, and Original Music in a Play.

Columbia College Theatre Department faculty member Mikhail Fiksel and Columbia College alum Jeffrey Levin ’10, a graduate of the Music Department‘s BA Program in Music with a Composition Concentration, who were nominated in two categories – Sound Design/Large and Original Music in a Play – for their collaborative sound and music design for Drury Lane Theatre’s production of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express.

Columbia College alum Conchita Avitia ’18, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Theatre Design, nominated in the category of Lighting Design/Midsize for Teatro Vista’s The Dream King.

Former Columbia College Theatre Department student and staff accompanist Kory Danielson and former Columbia College Music Department student Robert Reddrick were both nominated in the category of Music Direction. Each received two nominations – Danielson for the Paramount Theatre’s productions of Fun Home and The Sound of Music, and Reddrick for Blue Heaven and Reasons: A Tribute to Earth Wind and Fire at the Black Ensemble Theatre.

Former Music Department faculty member Orbert Davis, nominated for Original Music in a Play for Measure for Measure at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre.

Former Theatre Department faculty member Mike Tutaj, nominated for Projection Design for Andy Warhol in Iran at Northlight Theatre.

Paramount Theatre artistic director Jim Corti, a former Musical Theatre Dance instructor in the Columbia College Theatre Department’s Musical Theatre Program, nominated for Director/Musical/Large for Paramount’s Fun Home.

In addition, the nominees in the category of Ensemble/Musical or Revue included the ensemble cast of Shattered Globe Theatre’s U.S. premiere of London Road at Theatre Wit. The show’s ensemble included Columbia College alums Eilish Morse-O’Rourke ’22 and Joselle Reyes ’21, both graduates of the Theatre Department’s BFA Program in Musical Theatre Performance, and Theatre Department students Alani Gross-Roberts, Kendal Wilson, RileyGrace Abbott, and Sean Sturdivant.

The 2023 Jeff Awards for Equity Theatre ceremony will be held Monday, October 2, 2023 at Drury Lane Theatre in the Chicago suburb of Oakbrook. For more information, click here.

Congratulations to all the nominees!