Our Mission
First Floor Theater is the Vanguard for What’s Next in Chicago Theater.
First Floor Theater aims to pave a new path for American Theater, pointing the way towards a reimagined model centering equity, radical interrogation, and unapologetic live performance that challenges the status quo in each story told.
First Floor Theater (FFT) is committed to:
Producing world, national and local premiere plays.
Amplifying underheard voices in the American theater.
Creating opportunities for the next generation of theatremakers.
Offering a ticket pricing model that creates opportunities for audiences of all socioeconomic backgrounds to attend live theater.
Operating as an antiracist institution.
First Floor Theater was founded in 2012 by eight University of Chicago alumni, with the goal of engaging our audience’s intellectual curiosity. Shortly after our inaugural season, FFT was named “Best New Theater Company” in the Chicago Reader’s Best of 2013 Reader’s Pickedition.
After that initial creative impulse, we redefined and expanded our mission to include the principles above. We brought new members into the company and onto our staff, bringing fresh perspectives and innovation. As we continued to develop our identity, we moved to focus on intensely collaborative production processes that bring challenging, daring new works to Chicago stages.
We have received several Joseph Jefferson (Jeff) Award recommendations and nominations for our productions, including peerless (Best Sound Design), American Hero (Best Scenic Design), Hooded, Or Being Black For Dummies(Best Production, Best Director, Best Ensemble, and Best Actor), Sugar In Our Wounds (Best Lighting Design and Best Sound Design), The Secretaries: A Parable(Best Ensemble and Artist Specialization), Botticelli in the Fire (Best Director, Performer in a Principal Role, Costume Design, Sound Design, a d Lighting Design),Hatefuck(Performer in a Principal Role), and PRO-AM (Ensemble, Production - Play, New Work, Director - Play). Brynne Frauenhoffer and Rebecca Willingham winning New Work and Director - Play, respectively, for their work on PRO-AM and Renee Lockett won Best Supporting Actor for her role as Aunt Mama in Sugar In Our Wounds. Jayson Lee was also recognized with the Black Theatre Alliance’s The Denzel Washington Most Promising Actor for Most Promising Actor for his work in Hooded, or Being Black For Dummies.
In addition, FFT was honored to be recognized with the 2018 Francesca Primus Prize from ATCA for our production of Leah Nanako-Winkler’s Two Mile Hollowand to have been recognized inNewcity’s Players 2019: The Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago in which our Artistic Director (Hutch Pimentel), Associate Artistic Director (Andrew Cutler), Managing Director (Amanda Fink), and Casting Director (Catherine Miller) were all featured.
In 2020, we secured underwriting to accomplish a longstanding artistic goal: create our own commissioning program. This initiative, The Blueprint Commission, made possible by Michael and Mona Heath,has produced several new plays by artists such as Ariel Zetina, Omer Abbas Salem, and Gloria Imseih Petrelli.
