Chicago Theatre District Honors Mayor Richard M. Daley This September

Throughout the month of September, Chicagoland theater-goers will celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Chicago's Theatre District by paying homage to the visionary who has brought the arts to the forefront of the Chicago community. Mayor Richard M. Daley along with his wife Maggie Daley, who has had a longstanding commitment to childhood education and the Arts, will be honored on Playbill covers for all theatrical presentations by Broadway In Chicago and Goodman Theatre, as well as having a special feature inside Footlights program of many other League of Chicago Theatres members.

This past June, Mayor Daley was honored by Broadway In Chicago, Goodman Theatre and the League of Chicago Theatres at the Cadillac Palace Theatre celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Chicago's Theatre District. Members of the theatre community including Rocco Landesman, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts; Lou Raizin, President, Broadway In Chicago; Roche Schulfer, Executive Director, Goodman Theatre; and Deb Clapp, Executive Director, League of Chicago Theatres congratulaTed Mayor Richard M. Daley on his commitment to the arts in Chicago and the revitalization of the now thriving downtown theatre district.

"It has been a great honor to be a founding anchor of Chicago's Theatre District. We have been proud to be a part of the fulfillment of the Mayor's vision. Mayor Daley's leadership has generated unprecedented economic impact for both the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois," said Broadway In Chicago President Lou Raizin. "The Mayor's creation of a Downtown Theatre District has distinguished Chicago as a leader not only in the arts, but as a champion in the area of urban development."

"We are enormously grateful to Mayor Daley for his leadership, vision and commitment to Chicago's Theatre District-and the complete transformation of downtown Chicago into a major cultural hub and educational destination over the past decade," said Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Robert Falls and Executive Director Roche Schulfer. "It took extraordinary tenacity and courage to move this vision forward at the outset; now, it's impossible to imagine Chicago without it."

"In creating the theatre district, the Mayor has created millions of new theatre goers and countless opportunities for theatre artists," adds Deb Clapp, Executive Director, League of Chicago Theatres. "By making theatre a priority in the City of Chicago, he has helped more than 250 companies thrive, and he has provided Chicagoans an unparalleled, vital and artistically vibrant community of theatre makers."

About Broadway In Chicago
Founded in 2000 and named Chicago's #1 performing arts attraction (Crain's Chicago Business), Broadway In Chicago has welcomed over 11.5 million theatre patrons since its inception and has contributed more than $5 billion in economic impact to the Chicagoland area. Broadway In Chicago was created as a joint venture between the Nederlander Organization and Live Nation, the two largest commercial theatre producers and owners/operators in the United States. The creation of Broadway In Chicago allowed the two theatre industry leaders to present a full range of entertainment, including musicals and plays, on the stages of three of the finest theatres in Chicago's Loop -- Bank of America Theatre, the Ford Center for the Performing Arts/Oriental Theatre and the Cadillac Palace Theatre. In 2007, Nederlander acquired Live Nation Theatrical's interests in Chicago changing Broadway In Chicago from a joint venture to a Nederlander Company. With the most pre-Broadway World Premieres in the country and its history of long-run hits, Broadway In Chicago continues to bring the best new, classic and completely spectacular entertainment that Broadway has to offer to the stages of the Bank of America Theatre, the Ford Center for the Performing Arts/Oriental Theatre, the Cadillac Palace Theatre, the theatrical productions at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University and, most recently, the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place which is scheduled to open this September 23, 2010.

About Goodman Theatre
Goodman Theatre, "the leading repertory theater in the nation's most important theater city" (Time), is a major cultural, educational and economic pillar in Chicago, generating nearly $300 million in economic impact over the past decade in its state-of-the-art two-theater complex on Dearborn Street. Founded in 1925 and currently under the leadership of Artistic Director Robert Falls, "Chicago's most essential director" (Chicago Tribune), and Executive Director Roche Schulfer, Chicago's oldest and largest not-for-profit resident theater has experienced unprecedented success over the past 10 years in its new facility, welcoming nearly 2 million patrons to productions and events-including 10 festivals celebrating playwrights such as David Mamet, August Wilson and Horton Foote, as well as the biennial Latino Theatre Festival-serving 30% more students through its Education and Community Engagement programs, and employing more than 3,000 artists and theater professionals. The Goodman has earned more than 90 awards for hundreds of productions, including the Pulitzer Prize for Ruined, by Lynn Nottage-one of 25 new-work Goodman commissions over a decade.

About The League of Chicago Theatres
Founded in 1979, the League is an alliance of theaters that leverages its collective strength to promote, support and advocate for Chicago's theater industry locally, nationally and internationally. Currently, the League serves a diverse membership of more than 200 theaters and theater companies, ranging from small storefront, non-union companies to major cultural centers with multi-million dollar facilities and productions.

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