American Theater Company is closing its doors

Chicago’s American Theater Company, which was responsible for revisiting the original production of “Grease,” and staging the world premieres of Stephen Karam’s Tony Award-winning “The Humans” and Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Disgraced,” today announced it is ceasing operations after 33 years. Its final production turned out to “We’re Gonna Be Okay,” which closed on March 4.

In a written statement from ATC’s board of directors, it was made clear that loss of revenue over the past few years, following the tragic death of artistic director PJ Paparelli in a car accident in Scotland in 2015, made it impossible for operations to continue:

The theater, which has been located at 1909 W. Byron for 25 years, had been under the artistic leadership of Will Davis. Davis explained his vision, in part, for ATC, in an interview with the Chicago Reader in 2016, saying he wanted to transform the company, to make it a “home for formally experimental work.”

This is the second Chicago theater company to shut down this week. On Thursday, Quest Theatre Ensemble announced it was closing after 16 years.

“I’m very sad to hear about the closing of both these theaters,” said League of Chicago Theatres executive director Deb Clapp. “I do think they shut down for very different reasons and it’s really a coincidence that the announcements of their closings came within a day of each other. I think there has been a downturn in ticket sales and donations across the board for theaters in Chicago, large and small, and that’s especially difficult for small theaters that are vulnerable. And I think both theaters were vulnerable in recent years for very different reasons.

“Chicago has more than 200 theater companies and from time to time, for financial reasons, for artistic reasons or for personal reasons, companies do decide to close. We do not expect to see a rash of theater companies closing.”