Remy Bumppo Theatre Company is an award-winning theater in Chicago known for literary-minded productions from playwrights such as George Bernard Shaw and Tom Stoppard. Their mission is "to delight and engage audiences with the emotional and ethical complexities of society through the provocative power of great theatrical language."[1] Timothy Douglas serves as the company's Artistic Director.
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Remy Bumppo was founded in 1996 by Artistic Director Emeritus James Bohnen, Carol Loewenstern, and John Stoddard as Remy Bumppo LLC. The company was named after 2 of the founders' pets – Bohnen's dog Natty Bumppo (named after the James Fenimore Cooper character) and Loewenstern's cat Remy (named after Remy Martin cognac). In their first year, the company produced 2 plays, Night and Day by Tom Stoppard and The Seagull by Anton Chekhov.
On June 20, 2001, Remy Bumppo incorporated as a not-for-profit company under the name Remy Bumppo Theatre Company. At that time, they added five Artistic Associates: Annabel Armour, David Darlow, Shawn Douglass, Linda Gillum, and Nick Sandys. Artistic Associates added since that time include Joe Van Slyke (added in 2005) and Gregory Anderson (2007). On August 13, 2007, at the age of 55, Artistic Associate Joe Van Slyke died after a lengthy struggle with cancer. Remy Bumppo dedicated their 2007/08 season to his memory.
In 2006, as part of the 10th year, Remy Bumppo was named a resident theatre company at the Tony Award winning Victory Gardens Theater. The space is now under different ownership and is now known simply as the Greenhouse Theater Center.
In April 2009, founder and artistic director James Bohnen announced his retirement from the company, to be effective at the end of the 2010/11 Season.
In October 2010, the company announced that Timothy Douglas would be the Artistic Director beginning with the 2011/2012 Season. Douglas came to Chicago from New York after a freelance directing career and teaching career that included productions ans universities nationally. He has also served as the Associate Artistic Director at Actors Theatre of Louisville from 2001 through 2004. He is a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College and Yale School of Drama.
Remy Bumppo has won numerous theater awards in its history including 30 Joseph Jefferson Award Nominations and Seven After Dark Awards.
2010/11 Season: Secret Lives, Public Lies
'The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia?' by Edward Albee; 'The Importance of Being Earnest' by Oscar Wilde; 'Night and Day' by Tom Stoppard
2009/10 Season: Friendships Tested
'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' by Christopher Hampton, based on the novel by Choderlos de Laclos; 'The Island' by Athol Fugard; 'Heroes' by Gerald Sibleyras, translated by Tom Stoppard
2008/09 Season: The Perils of Possession
'The Voysey Inheritance' by by Harley Granville-Barker, adapted by David Mamet; 'The Marriage of Figaro' by Beaumarchais, adapted by Ranjit Bolt; 'thinkTank: American Ethnic' by Usman Ally, Idris Goodwin, and Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai; 'Old Times' by Harold Pinter
2007/08 Season: Life, Love & Other Inventions
Fiction by Steven Dietz; The Philadelphia Story by Philip Barry; Bronte by Polly Teale; On the Verge or the Geography of Yearning by Eric Overmyer; Remy Bumppo's thinkTank; Dickens in America by James DeVita
2006/07 Season: Lost Innocence
The Best Man by Gore Vidal; The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard; Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw; A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas; Remy Bumppo's thinkTank
2005/06 Season: Temptation
Aren't We All by Frederick Lonsdale; Tartuffe by Molière; Power by Nick Dear
2004/05 Season: Chaos Theory... and Other Family Gatherings
A Delicate Balance by Edward Albee; Arcadia by Tom Stoppard; Humble Boy by Charlotte Jones
2003/04 Season: Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw; Some Americans Abroad by Richard Nelson; Hidden Laughter by Simon Grey
2002/03 Season: The Secret Rapture by David Hare; Holiday by Philip Barry; Money by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
2001/02 Season: No Man's Land by Harold Pinter; Top Girls by Caryl Churchill
2000/01 Season: Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw; Hapgood by Tom Stoppard
1999: Road to Mecca by Athol Fugard
1998: Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett; Rockabye by Samuel Beckett; Heartbreak House by George Bernard Shaw
1996: Night and Day by Tom Stoppard; The Seagull by Anton Chekhov