Chopin Theatre Productions is a 501(c)(3) not for profit art presenter and producer at the historic Chopin Theater building in Chicago. Built in 1918, in what is now Wicker Park, the theater is located across the

Polish Triangle Polonia Triangle ( pl, Trójkąt Polonijny), also known as the Polish Triangle, is located in West Town, in what had been the historical Polish Downtown area of Chicago. A single-tiered fountain made of black iron with a bowl about nine feet in ...

. Chopin Theatre's 500+ annual theater, literary, music, film and social events are often avant-garde or international. Its mission is to promote enlightened civic discourse through a diverse range of artistic offerings.

Notable guests

Edward Auer Edward Auer (born December 7, 1941 in New York City) is an American classical pianist. In 1965, he became the first American to win a prize in the VII International Chopin Piano Competition. Due to his frequent and subsequent touring in Poland, M ...

International Chopin Piano Competition The International Chopin Piano Competition ( pl, Międzynarodowy Konkurs Pianistyczny im. Fryderyka Chopina), often referred to as the Chopin Competition, is a piano competition held in Warsaw, Poland. It was initiated in 1927 and has been held ...

pianist * Gwendolyn Brooks, Pulitzer Prize winning poet *

Peter Brötzmann Peter Brötzmann (born 6 March 1941) is a German saxophonist and clarinetist. Biography Early life Brötzmann was born in Remscheid, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He studied painting in Wuppertal and was involved with the Fluxus movement ...

, free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist *

Mircea Cărtărescu Mircea Cărtărescu (; born 1 June 1956) is a Romanian novelist, poet, short-story writer, literary critic, and essayist. Biography Born in Bucharest in 1956, he attended Cantemir Vodă National College during the early 1970s. During his sch ...

, poet *

David Cromer David Cromer (born October 17, 1964) is an American theatre director, and stage, film, and TV actor. He has received recognition for his work on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in his native Chicago. Cromer has won or been nominated for numerous a ...

, MacArthur Fellows Program/"Genius Grant", director *

John Cusack John Paul Cusack (; born June 28, 1966)(28 June 1996)Today's birthdays ''Santa Cruz Sentinel'', ("Actors John Cusack is 30") is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and political activist. He is a son of filmmaker Dick Cusack, and his ol ...

, actor and film producer * Chuck D, rapper and author *

Urszula Dudziak Urszula Bogumiła Dudziak-Urbaniak (born 22 October 1943) is a Polish jazz vocalist. She has worked with Krzysztof Komeda, Michał Urbaniak (her ex-husband), Gil Evans, Archie Shepp, and Lester Bowie. In 2007, her 1970s song "Papaya" gained wid ...

, jazz vocalist *

Stuart Dybek Stuart Dybek (born April 10, 1942) is an American writer of fiction and poetry. Biography Dybek, a second-generation Polish American, was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Chicago's Little Village and Pilsen neighborhoods in the 1950s ...

, MacArthur Fellows Program/"Genius Grant", author *

Michael Eric Dyson Michael Eric Dyson (born October 23, 1958) is an American academic, author, ordained minister, and radio host. He is a professor in the College of Arts and Science and in the Divinity School at Vanderbilt University. Described by Michael A. Fletch ...

, academic, author and radio host *

Kurt Elling Kurt Elling (born November 2, 1967) is an American jazz singer and songwriter. Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Rockford, Elling became interested in music through his father, who was Kapellmeister at a Lutheran church. He sang in cho ...

, jazz vocalist * Kahil El'Zabar, jazz multi-instrumentalist * Tony Fitzpatrick, visual artist *

Von Freeman Earle Lavon "Von" Freeman Sr. (October 3, 1923 – August 11, 2012) was an American hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist. Biography Born in Chicago, Illinois, Freeman as a young child was exposed to jazz. His father, George, a city policeman, was a ...

, jazz tenor saxophonist *

Nikki Giovanni Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni Jr. (born June 7, 1943) is an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. One of the world's most well-known African-American poets,Jane M. Barstow, Yolanda Williams Page (eds)"Nikki Giovanni" ''E ...

, award-winning poet, "living legend" *

Fareed Haque Fareed Haque is an American jazz guitarist, based in Chicago, Illinois. Education Haque was born in Chicago in 1963. His father was from Pakistan, his mother was from Chile. When he was a child, Haque traveled with his parents all over the worl ...

, fusion guitar virtuoso * Aleksander Hemon, MacArthur Fellows Program/"Genius Grant", author *

Ryszard Horowitz Ryszard Horowitz (born May 5, 1939) is a Polish-born American photographer recognized as a pioneer of special effects photography that predates digital imaging. Early life Horowitz was born in Kraków, Poland on May 5, 1939. Four months later, b ...

, photographer * Steve James, filmmaker, "Hoop Dreams" *

Malalai Joya Malalai Joya ( ps, ملالۍ جویا) (born 25 April 1978) is an activist, writer, and a politician from Afghanistan. She served as a Parliamentarian in the National Assembly of Afghanistan from 2005 until early 2007, after being dismissed f ...

, activist, writer, former Afghan politician *

Yusef Komunyakaa Yusef Komunyakaa (born James William Brown; April 29, 1941) is an American poet who teaches at New York University and is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Komunyakaa is a recipient of the 1994 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, for ''Ne ...

, Pulitzer Prize winning poet *

Greg Kot Greg Kot (born March 3, 1957) is an American music journalist and author. From 1990 until 2020, Kot was the rock music critic at the ''Chicago Tribune'', where he covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and busines ...

, filmmaker, "Hoop Dreams" *

Krzysztof Krauze Krzysztof Krauze (2 April 1953 – 24 December 2014) was a Polish film director, cinematographer and actor, best known for his thriller '' The Debt'' (1999). Marek Haltofbr>''Polish National Cinema'' Berghahn Books, 2002. Life and career Krauze ...

, film director, cinematographer *

Li-Young Lee Li-Young Lee (李立揚, pinyin: Lǐ Lìyáng) (born August 19, 1957) is an American poet. He was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, to Chinese parents. His maternal great-grandfather was Yuan Shikai, China's first Republican President, who attempted ...

, poet * Philip Levine, Pulitzer Prize poet * Haki Madhubuti, author *

Adam Makowicz Adam Makowicz (born Adam Matyszkowicz; 18 August 1940) is a Polish pianist and composer living in Toronto. He performs jazz and classical piano pieces, as well as his own compositions. Biography Adam Makowicz was born into a family of ethnic ...

, pianist and composer *

Rob Mazurek Rob Mazurek (born 1965) is an American composer, cornetist, improviser and visual artist living in Chicago, Illinois. Biography Rob Mazurek is an American electro-acoustic composer, cornetist, improviser and visual artist living in Chicago, Il ...

, cornetist and composer * Aaron McGruder, author, cartoonist, creator ''The Boondocks'' *

Dominic Miller Dominic James Miller (born 21 March 1960) is an Argentine-born guitarist. With much of his career as a sideman and guitarist for singer Sting, he has also released several solo albums. Career Miller was born in Hurlingham, Argentina to an Iris ...

, guitarist (with Sting, Phil Collins) *

Sara Paretsky Sara Paretsky (born June 8, 1947) is an American author of detective fiction, best known for her novels focused on the protagonist V. I. Warshawski. Life and career Paretsky was born in Ames, Iowa. Her father was a microbiologist and moved the ...

, author *

Ed Paschke Edward Francis Paschke (June 22, 1939 – November 25, 2004) was an American painter of Polish descent. His childhood interest in animation and cartoons, as well as his father's creativity in wood carving and construction, led him toward a caree ...

, painter *

Jeremy Piven Jeremy Samuel Piven (born July 26, 1965) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Ari Gold in the comedy series '' Entourage'', for which he won a Golden Globe Award and three consecutive Emmy Awards. He also starred in the Britis ...

, actor and film producer *

Luis J. Rodriguez Luis Javier Rodriguez (born 1954) is an American poet, novelist, journalist, critic, and columnist. He was the 2014 Los Angeles Poet Laureate. Rodriguez is recognized as a major figure in contemporary Chicano literature, identifying himself as ...

, poet *

Art Shay Art Shay (March 31, 1922 – April 28, 2018) was an American photographer and writer. Biography Born in 1922, Shay grew up in the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. ...

, photographer *

Charles Simic Dušan Simić ( sr-cyr, Душан Симић, ; born May 9, 1938), known as Charles Simic, is a Serbian American poet and former co-poetry editor of the ''Paris Review''. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1990 for ''The World Doesn' ...

, Pulitzer Prize winning poet * Marc Smith, founder

poetry slam A poetry slam is a competitive art event in which poets perform spoken word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges. While formats can vary, slams are often loud and lively, with audience participation, cheering and dramatic delivery. ...

movement *

Zadie Smith Zadie Smith FRSL (born Sadie; 25 October 1975) is an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Her debut novel, ''White Teeth'' (2000), immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards. She has been a tenured professor ...

, author of one of ''Time'' magazine's 100 best novels *

Franciszek Starowieyski Franciszek Andrzej Bobola Biberstein-Starowieyski (8 July 1930 in Bratkówka – 23 February 2009 in Warsaw) was a Polish artist. From 1949 to 1955, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków and Warsaw. He specialized in poster, drawing ...

, visual artist * Studs Terkel, Pulitzer Prize winning author *

Ken Vandermark Ken Vandermark (born September 22, 1964) is an American composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist. A fixture on the Chicago-area music scene since the 1990s, Vandermark has earned wide critical praise for his playing and his multilayered compos ...

, MacArthur Fellows Program/"Genius Grant", musician and composer *

Paul Wertico Paul Wertico (born January 5, 1953 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American drummer. He gained recognition as a member of the Pat Metheny Group from 1983 until 2001, leaving the group to spend more time with his family and to pursue other musical int ...

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

winner, drummer *

Bronisław Wildstein Bronisław Wildstein (born 11 June 1952, Olsztyn, Poland) is a former Polish dissident, a journalist, freelance author and, from 11 May 2006 to 28 February 2007, was the chief executive officer of ''Telewizja Polska'' (Polish state-owned televis ...

, journalist *

Adam Zagajewski Adam Zagajewski (21 June 1945 – 21 March 2021) was a Polish poet, novelist, translator, and essayist. He was awarded the 2004 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize Lifetime Recognition Award, the 2017 P ...

, poet *

Howard Zinn Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922January 27, 2010) was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist thinker and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a politica ...

, historian, author and activist *

Henryk Baranowski Henryk Baranowski (9 February 1943 – 27 July 2013) was a Polish theatre, opera and film director, actor, stage designer, playwright, screenwriter, and poet. He is best known for his starring role in the film '' Dekalog: One'' directed by Krzys ...

, Golden Mask award-winning theater and television director and designer

References

External links

* * * * * * {{Chicago Theatre companies in Chicago Theatres in Chicago West Side, Chicago Polish-American culture in Chicago Theatre festivals in the United States Arts centers in Illinois