Play Directed by Theatre Professor Receives Three Jeff Awards

A Chicago production of Cordelia Lynn’s play, Lela & Co., directed by Associate Professor of Theatre Robin Witt, has received three Joseph Jefferson (Jeff) Awards honoring non-Equity Chicago theatre. Lela & Co. was presented July 13 – September 16, 2017, at the Steep Theatre and received glowing reviews from the Chicago press. In December The Chicago Tribune named Lela & Co. as the #2 best Chicago theatre production of 2017. The production received six Jeff Award nominations and won in the categories of Best Director (Play), Best Actor (Play), and Best Production (Play). “Steep Theatre Company’s shattering production of ‘Lela & Co.,’ a haunting play about sex-trafficking and abuse, emerged triumphant at Chicago’s non-Equity Jeff Awards Monday night at the Athenaeum Theatre,” wrote The Chicago Tribune on June 11.

Witt works regularly in Chicago theatre and has directed numerous productions at the Steep Theatre, as well as the Griffin Theatre Company, the Goodman, A Red Orchid Theatre, and Steppenwolf. In 2015 and 2016 she also won Best Director (Play) Jeff Awards. Witt will be in Chicago in the 2018-19 academic year, on a reassignment of duties, where she will direct four plays, including A Doll’s House, Part 2 for Steppenwolf Theatre and A Number for Writers Theatre.