A Letter from Timothy Douglas

It is with gratitude, humbleness and divinely guided purpose with which I wholly accept the invitation to join Remy Bumppo Theatre Company as its next Artistic Director!

Founding Artistic Director James Bohnen, along with an accomplished collective of Artistic Associates, revolutionary Board of Directors, dedicated funders, an inexhaustible and creative staff, discerning subscribers and audiences, all have cultivated a culture of theatre committed to "delighting and engaging audiences with the emotional and ethical complexities of society through the provocative power of great theatrical language." Remy Bumppo has well earned its reputation of distinction by producing world-class theatre that is worthy of the Chicago Theatre’s international reputation for excellence.

My union with Remy Bumppo builds brilliantly upon the years I spent in Chicago as a young actor blossoming under the influential guidance of Dennis Zacek at Victory Gardens, who kept me busy in productions and workshops of writers the likes of Charles Smith and others, and by way of Nicholas Ruddell and Jonathan Wilson who gave me my big break down at the Court Theatre, where my ‘Mama’ Irma P. Hall put me through my paces on stage nightly. Although countless opening nights have passed since those glory days, I continue to stand tall in my gratitude for the generous mentorship shown me by Barbara Gaines in the days when Chicago Shakespeare Theatre was still in residence at Ruth Page, and by Steve Scott when The Goodman was nestled underneath the Art Institute. And I continue to treasure the extraordinary charge I was given to introduce the Linklater voice work to the Theatre School at DePaul University – an experience that would profoundly shape the accomplished teacher I would eventually become.

My return to Chicago and its theatre community feels to me a homecoming of prodigal proportions, and as I go about the task of merging the unique culmination of my cultural, professional and practical attributes with that of Remy Bumppo’s, I can already feel this to be a union with enormous possibility.

As the stage is being set for my inaugural season, my soul stands erect upon the shoulders of this company’s unshakable core of artistic excellence, and I am committed to sustaining the smart, vital, thrilling, clear, provoking, relevant, and entertaining theatre that audiences have come to rely upon with this revered company. Further, as Remy Bumppo Theatre Company enters its next chapter, we will lean even further into the events of this complicated world, and reflect its kaleidoscopic tapestry back to our audiences and community by organizing the chaos with skill, purpose, honesty and the inherent healing properties that can only occur through the transforming power of live theatre. We throw open our doors even wider, augmenting our role as an ultimate community center where passionate discourse through the craft of rhetoric and the art of storytelling stakes its claim as the final frontier toward mending, sustaining and growing a civilization of integrity and vision. It is in this spirit of inclusion, and our commitment to revealing the truth - with a capital ‘T’ - that in short order, Remy Bumppo’s moniker of ‘think theatre’ will become synonymous with ‘feel theatre’.


TIMOTHY DOUGLAS
12 October, 2010

Reach Timothy any time at tdouglas@remybumppo.org.