Anthony LeBlanc
Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department faculty member Anthony LeBlanc has been named Interim Executive Producer of The Second City, the nation’s premier comedy theatre and training center. LeBlanc succeeds the theatre’s longtime CEO and Executive Producer Andrew Alexander, who announced on June 5, 2020, that he is stepping down, fully removing himself from overseeing The Second City’s operations and policies, and divesting from the company as it stands. To read The Second City’s announcement of these changes, click here.
Founded in Chicago in 1959, The Second City is the Columbia College Theatre Department’s partner institution in the department’s groundbreaking BA Program in Comedy Writing and Performance.
“While The Second City has sometimes made strides in the diversity of talent performing on our stages, we have grossly fallen short when it comes to supporting that talent–and diversity at Second City as a whole,” says LeBlanc. “We must face the reality of our failings as an organization and hear the voices of our BIPOC performers, alumni, staff, students, and audience. We need to do better . . . because our community deserves better. I, along with the rest of the leadership of The Second City, are committed to making fundamental and long-lasting changes to our company and the many communities we touch. I look forward to being a part of those changes and helping Second City catch up to the present, and, in turn, move towards a better future.”
Most recently, LeBlanc has served as an artistic director for The Second City, as well as an acting coach for Nickelodeon and part-time faculty member at Columbia College Chicago. LeBlanc is a Second City alum who wrote and performed in two original mainstage revues at the company’s Chicago home base. He has been a teacher and resident director for the company, directing several resident stage and theatrical productions in Chicago and Washington, D.C., including Soul Brother, Where Art Thou? for The Second City e.t.c. and Nothing to Lose (But Our Chains) at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C.
