Jeff Awards to celebrate careers of Paula Scrofano and John Reeger

Think of them as the contemporary Chicago version of Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne, that fabled couple of mid-century American theater.

From the mid-1970s on, Paula Scrofano and John Reeger, a married couple in real life, have graced countless Chicago area stages – she primarily as a star of musical theater who often lets rip with a unique comic streak, and he a debonair leading man with a flair for the classics. On Oct. 5, as part of this year’s Jeff Awards ceremony, the Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee will honor the pair with the 2015 Equity Special Award for Career Achievement in recognition of their contributions to the Chicago theater scene over the past five decades.

In a prepared statement, the Jeffs Committee said: “Paula and John are consummate professionals who have enriched the Chicago community with signature techniques that have brought laughter, tears, chills and thrills to audiences over the years. This dynamic duo met, studied their craft together, married, raised a family, and based their entire Equity careers in Chicago. To many of their peers, they serve as an example that even in this day and age it is possible to have a successful career, a family and a life in Chicago theater.”

Paula Scrofano and John Reeger are no strangers to Jeff Awards. Scrofano has received two awards for Principal Actress and an impressive 18 nominations; Reeger has a Principal Actor award and is the playwright of the holiday favorite, “The Christmas Schooner,” which has received numerous nominations for its many productions.

During the course of their 44 years of marriage, the two actors have appeared together in 48 productions – nearly a third of the more than 150 shows in which each of them has appeared – with the vast majority of those in Chicago. As they explain it, it all began with “The Boston Strangler.”Paula and John met in a freshman class at Northwestern. He was shy, so she made the first move, which led to going to a nearby theater, where the film was not exactly romantic.“I figured if I hadn’t scared her off by taking her to ‘The Boston Strangler,’ she must be pretty cool,” says John.That was February 1, and by Valentine’s Day, according to Paula, “I knew I would never go out with anyone else again.”During their junior year, they were in rehearsal for a play directed by Frank Galati when they announced their engagement. They married that summer. After graduation in 1972, Paula and John toured with a folk group, then returned to Chicago in 1974 and both earned their Equity cards in a Happy Medium Theatre revue called “What’s a Nice Country Like You Doing in a State Like This?”

Scrofano cites some of their favorite theatrical performances as “I Do! I Do!” (they did four productions of it), “My Fair Lady,” “On the Twentieth Century,” and “James Joyce’s The Dead,” at Court Theatre.

“In Chicago, we became part of a living community of actors that supported each other,” says John. “We wanted to do our best work, earn our health insurance, and raise our children as we had been raised. We somehow got our kids through college, own our home, are still happily married and are debt free, and it’s a tribute to the Chicago theater scene of the past forty years as much as it is to us.”

The 47th Annual Jeff Awards ceremony honoring excellence in professional theatere produced within the immediate Chicago area will be held on Oct. 5th, at Drury Lane Oakbrook, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace. The ceremony, directed by Michael Weber and produced by Equity chair Merril Prager, will feature live performances from nominated musicals and revues. Emceeing the festivities will be Cheryl Lynn Bruce and E. Faye Butler.

For additional information visit http://www.jeffawards.org.