Ninety Years at the Goodman

This fall the Goodman raises the curtain on its 90th anniversary season. They have an exciting lineup of plays beginning with an encore production of the critically acclaimed Smokefall.

The Goodman was officially dedicated on October 20, 1925. The Repertory Company gave a performance of three works that night all by the late Kenneth Sawyer Goodman for whom the theater is named. The program announced that the upcoming inaugural season would be "chosen from a list covering a wide range, some works of established authors; some revivals of old plays, and some new works produced for the first time." Two nights later, the American premiere of John Galsworthy's The Forest served as the theater's first public performance.

The Goodman Theatre Archive in Special Collections documents these early productions and the history of this mainstay on the Chicago theater scene. It includes among its 90 years of treasures not only programs and photographs, but also scripts by playwrights like David Mamet and the set models from Goodman's beloved version of the Dickens classic A Christmas Carol.