At a defining moment for Steppenwolf and American theatre—a moment of both extraordinary challenges and opportunities—we're leading with our trademark creativity, courage, and ingenuity.
Nearly 50 years ago, a group of young Chicagoland actors redefined American theatre.
With astonishing boldness and an unwavering commitment to the ensemble ethos, they lit a spark that reinvigorated one of humanity’s oldest art forms and helped define Chicago as a legendary theatre city.
From our first performance in a suburban basement to today’s nationally acclaimed productions at our three-theater campus in the heart of Lincoln Park, our unapologetically honest and visceral performances bring people together to explore the vast complexity of what it means to be human.
Driven by our passion for live theatre, we’ve nurtured generations of actors, writers, directors, producers, technicians, designers, and more—artists of exceptional caliber who have made indelible contributions to our city and the American storytelling canon.
Today, as we look ahead to our 50th anniversary in 2026, we find ourselves at another defining moment—for Steppenwolf and the American theatre landscape that we’ve helped build.
What we do today will determine not only whether the art form we love survives and thrives, but how it is sustained and renewed for the next 50 years.
With a new campaign to bridge us into the future, we are confronting this moment with the courage and creativity that defines Steppenwolf as an iconic Chicago institution and a singular theatre company.
Confronting the Crisis in American Theatre
A nexus of unprecedented challenges is rocking the performing arts world to its core: aging audiences and changes in attendance trends that are upending traditional revenue models; a long overdue reckoning with systemic racism and lack of diverse representation; the COVID-19 pandemic darkening stages and changing audience habits; competition with an ever-expanding media and entertainment landscape; and historic inflation creating skyrocketing production costs. The data is stark: A recent Theatre Communications Group Survey found that a staggering 62% of responding theatres are budgeting for a deficit in Fiscal Year 2023.
Across the country, pillars of our craft are struggling under the weight of these challenges, and some of the brightest lights in American theatre are dimming before our eyes.
Despite our deep roots in Chicago, the brilliance of our ensemble, and the strength of our leadership, Steppenwolf has not been immune to this disruption. Performing arts organizations are amongst those hit hardest by the pandemic and its effects, and the arc of recovery has not been as fast as anticipated. Audiences fell out of the theater-going habit during the pandemic and have not returned in full force, and the federal relief funds that have helped sustain us in recent years are expiring, creating urgent funding gaps.
We’re weathering this storm, but we’re not coming through it unscathed. We’ve had to limit the scale of our shows and the length of our seasons, curbing our creative ambitions. Our capacity to serve our city with teen engagement and local artist support is strained. Most recently, we’ve had to reduce our budget for next year, further impacting our programming and our staff.
As challenging as this moment is, we remain undaunted. From our founders who learned to be multi-hyphenate artists, to our ensemble members now who excel in multiple disciplines, to our artistic directors who are both artists and entrepreneurs—Steppenwolf’s entrepreneurial spirit and bold creativity are what this moment needs. With visionary new leadership from Artistic Directors Audrey Francis and Glenn Davis and Executive Director Brooke Flanagan, we're taking on this moment with the boldness and creativity that has always defined Steppenwolf.
We’re staging original works that appeal to broader audiences while still foregrounding our signature artistry and performances that bring people together to think, laugh, cry, and feel—such as our recent hits King James, Choir Boy, and Another Marriage, which recently closed an extended run. The results are promising: In the 2022/23 season, 17% of ticket buyers were new to Steppenwolf, and we’re eagerly working to build on this success in the upcoming season. And, we continue to lead as one of the most exciting and vibrant theatre voices nationally and internationally, with several original Steppenwolf productions traveling to New York City, Los Angeles, London, and Galway in recent years.
In addition to growing our audiences and the new philanthropic fundraising campaign, we’re also innovating to diversify revenue. We’re developing a corporate education training program that will bring our proven ensemble principles to organizations beyond the performing arts, and we’re exploring expanded possibilities for activating our spaces with other revenue-generating initiatives.
These efforts will right-size our finances for our new operating reality and equip us with the resources needed to stabilize, sustain, and plan for the future with confidence. The collective impacts will be felt from script to stage and beyond—bigger and bolder stories that resonate with longtime and new audiences alike, an even greater launchpad for new works and new artists, and another fifty years of legendary Chicago theatre.
Building on Excellence Campaign
In the recent Building on Excellence Campaign, our community came together to build the extraordinary Lefkofsky Arts and Education Center: a new home for the greatest theatre ensemble in the country and a thriving center for culture in Chicago. Together, we transformed our physical spaces into a love letter to our craft and to our city, creating an urban theatre campus that inspires thrilling new possibilities for our ensemble’s creative prowess, offers more space for teen education, supports independent artists, and cultivates vibrant community connections beyond the stage for audiences and artists.
Bald Sisters: "This world-premiere production is also a classic Chicago-style show, featuring fiercely committed acting in an intimate environment in...Steppenwolf’s new in-the-round Ensemble Theater." — Chicago Sun Times
Bald Sisters: "This world-premiere production is also a classic Chicago-style show, featuring fiercely committed acting in an intimate environment in...Steppenwolf’s new in-the-round Ensemble Theater." — Chicago Sun Times
The Ensemble Theater: A state-of-the-art, fully accessible 400-seat in-the-round theatre, with no seat more than twenty feet from the stage. One of only a handful of in-the-round theatres in the United States, the Ensemble Theater creates abundant possibilities and an exciting new aperture for our art, rich with new creative and storytelling horizons.
The Ensemble Theater: A state-of-the-art, fully accessible 400-seat in-the-round theatre, with no seat more than twenty feet from the stage. One of only a handful of in-the-round theatres in the United States, the Ensemble Theater creates abundant possibilities and an exciting new aperture for our art, rich with new creative and storytelling horizons.
Another Marriage: Upending the typical romantic comedy to explore the liabilities of falling in and out of love and utilizing the Ensemble Theater's in-the-round aperture to intensify the performance's intimacy, Another Marriage extended its run and helped Steppenwolf reach new audiences.
Another Marriage: Upending the typical romantic comedy to explore the liabilities of falling in and out of love and utilizing the Ensemble Theater's in-the-round aperture to intensify the performance's intimacy, Another Marriage extended its run and helped Steppenwolf reach new audiences.
Downstairs Theater upgrades: In our mainstage proscenium theater, we improved the audience experience through updated and enhanced acoustics, production technology upgrades, and enhanced safety features.
Downstairs Theater upgrades: In our mainstage proscenium theater, we improved the audience experience through updated and enhanced acoustics, production technology upgrades, and enhanced safety features.
Expanded and enhanced production and rehearsal spaces: We renovated rehearsal rooms and added an onsite costume workshop to give all our artists the space they need to collaboratively bring a production to life.
Expanded and enhanced production and rehearsal spaces: We renovated rehearsal rooms and added an onsite costume workshop to give all our artists the space they need to collaboratively bring a production to life.
The 1700 Theater: Home to our LookOut series, the 1700 Theatre is an 80-seat, cabaret-style performance space. Uplifting and supporting a talented, eclectic, and diverse array of local artists, the LookOut series stages approximately 150 performances annually and has hosted more than 2400 performers, generating more than $650,000 for independent emerging artists, quintessential Chicago companies, and aspiring young ensembles.
The 1700 Theater: Home to our LookOut series, the 1700 Theatre is an 80-seat, cabaret-style performance space. Uplifting and supporting a talented, eclectic, and diverse array of local artists, the LookOut series stages approximately 150 performances annually and has hosted more than 2400 performers, generating more than $650,000 for independent emerging artists, quintessential Chicago companies, and aspiring young ensembles.
The Loft: As an ensemble theatre company founded by young people, teen programming remains a core pillar of our work. With onsite programs, in-school residencies, and the Steppenwolf Young Adult series—Chicago’s only professional live theatre productions specifically for high school youth—Steppenwolf’s teen engagement programs are a renowned national model. Our first dedicated space for our education programs, the Loft includes classrooms, rehearsal and meeting spaces for educator training, and Young Adult Council events. A much-needed third space for our city’s young people, through the Loft, we aim to increase students served from 20,000 to 30,000.
The Loft: As an ensemble theatre company founded by young people, teen programming remains a core pillar of our work. With onsite programs, in-school residencies, and the Steppenwolf Young Adult series—Chicago’s only professional live theatre productions specifically for high school youth—Steppenwolf’s teen engagement programs are a renowned national model. Our first dedicated space for our education programs, the Loft includes classrooms, rehearsal and meeting spaces for educator training, and Young Adult Council events. A much-needed third space for our city’s young people, through the Loft, we aim to increase students served from 20,000 to 30,000.
“Public Square” Spaces: Front Bar Coffee & Drinks, Tap Bar, the upstairs Wine Bar, and our renovated lobbies transform the Steppenwolf campus into a public gathering space for our community, where the ephemeral experiences in our theatres live on in the vibrant conversations and community connections they catalyze.
“Public Square” Spaces: Front Bar Coffee & Drinks, Tap Bar, the upstairs Wine Bar, and our renovated lobbies transform the Steppenwolf campus into a public gathering space for our community, where the ephemeral experiences in our theatres live on in the vibrant conversations and community connections they catalyze.
The Steppenwolf 50th Anniversary Campaign
Now is the time for us to create the future we want for Steppenwolf, Chicago, and American theatre. With our 50th anniversary campaign, we will invest $34 million in two key strategies:
BRIDGE FUND: $10 MILLION
The Bridge Fund will support immediate operating needs. It will provide the critical resources we need to continue staging exciting and appealing productions, sustain our community programming, and retain staff—empowering us to better weather this moment and build the bridge we need to get to the other side.
FUTURE FUND: $24 MILLION
The Future Fund will catalyze the financial model we need for tomorrow. It will build a more sustainable financial foundation by relieving debt service from our annual budget, freeing up an average of $1 million per year for productions, teen programming, and other forward-looking investments in our art form, our audiences, and our city.
With a more sustainable revenue model and stronger financial foundation, we will:
- Unleash the creativity of our ensemble by providing them with more resources to pursue their creative ambitions and tell the high-octane, emotionally resonant stories that define Steppenwolf and our enduring leadership as one of the most distinctive voices in the American theatre canon.
- Expand our audience and grow our community by expanding our storytelling repertoire to reach broader audiences, support more emerging artists, advance our craft, and continue cultivating a theatre community that is as diverse and vibrant as our city.
- Reach more young people through expanded teen programs that use the power of live theatre to enrich the lives of Chicago’s young people, help them find and strengthen their voice, encourage civic engagement, and promote lifelong learning—while also cultivating future generations of theatre artists and enthusiasts.
- Increase our support of independent artists, including grassroots theatre troupes and itinerant companies, further cultivating Chicago’s cultural ecosystem and elevating diverse voices.
Our Time to Choose Theatre
This campaign—and this moment—are about more than just difficult financial realities: they’re about the survival of American theatre and the future of our city as an international cultural destination. This is an urgent moment that calls on all of us to make a choice: to either rise to the challenge to renew and sustain live theatre or let it continue to struggle and potentially wither.
This campaign is an invitation to choose theatre as vital to the world we want to live in. It’s a call to action to seize this moment of crisis as an opportunity to celebrate theatre’s invaluable and essential place in our city, our society, and our spirits.
It’s an opportunity to choose to be together, in person, to share in the empathetic explorations that catalyze conversations, bridge divides, and make our communities stronger.
It’s an invitation to choose Steppenwolf and the dazzling alchemy of our ensemble, our electrifying performances and creative risk-taking, and our unique ability to shed light on the never-ending facets of humanity. It’s a chance to once again define Chicago as a vibrant theatre city and affirm the performing arts as a foundational pillar of what makes Chicago one of the greatest cities in the world.
This campaign is an invitation to take charge of our future, help sustain and renew live theatre, and make the next 50 years of Steppenwolf Theatre Company as groundbreaking, bold, and vibrant as our first 50.
As a valued member of the Steppenwolf community, we invite your feedback on these preliminary campaign plans. Your perspective will help us chart the best path forward for success.
Thank you for your time and candid insights.
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