"Best of the Best" Lineup For 39th Annual Jeff Awards

The 39th Annual Jeff Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, October 29, 2007 at The North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, Illinois. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the Jeff Awards Committee's website.

“The 39th Annual Jeff Awards on October 29th will again be showcasing presentations from nominated productions, the best of the best,” says ceremony director Michael Weber.

Plans for the presentation include scenes or numbers from the following musical productions: Ragtime and Assassins (Porchlight Music Theatre Chicago); The All Night Strut, Shenandoah, and Into The Woods (Marriott Theatre); Forever Plaid (Drury Lane Oakbrook); Fire On The Mountain (Northlight Theatre); and Oklahoma! (American Theatre Company).

“We’re planning a gala celebration of the amazing productions and talented artists who give Chicago theatre its well-deserved national reputation,” says Equity chair Diane Hires. Overseeing the evening will be masters of ceremony Mark David Kaplan and Renee Matthews.

Play production scenes, either live or on video, will include Come Back Little Sheba (Shattered Globe Theatre), Another Part of the Forest (Writers' Theatre), Argonautika (Lookingglass Theatre Company), August: Osage County (Steppenwolf Theatre Company), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Congo Square Theatre Company), and The Best Man (Remy Bumppo Theatre Company).

The Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee previously announced 119 nominations in 30 categories for Chicago Equity theatrical productions that opened between August 1, 2006, and July 31, 2007. The Jeff Awards Committee sent judges to the opening nights of 123 Equity productions offered by 49 producing organizations. From these openings, 93 were "Jeff recommended," which made them eligible for Jeff Award nominations.