Robert Falls

ROBERT FALLS is Artistic Director of Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, a position he has held since 1986 and will be stepping down from at the conclusion of this, his 35th anniversary season. Most recently, Mr. Falls directed Adam Rapp’s The Sound Inside as the inaugural production in the Goodman’s highly acclaimed summertime “Live!” series, three plays performed and streamed in real time to audiences throughout the U.S. and abroad. Prior to that, he directed the world premiere of Jim McGrath’s Pamplona, starring Stacy Keach as Ernest Hemingway, at the Goodman; remounted his Lyric Opera of Chicago production of  Don Giovanni for the Dallas Opera; remounted his world premiere production of David Cale’s We’re Only Alive for a Short Amount of Time for the Public Theater; and directed a new production of The Winter’s Tale at the Goodman. Other recent credits include the world premiere of Rogelio Martinez’s Blind Date; a new production of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, for which he also wrote the adaptation; 2666, an award-winning original adaptation of Roberto Bolaño’s epic novel co-written and co-directed with Seth Bockley; and his revival of The Iceman Cometh, starring Nathan Lane and the late Brian Dennehy, for the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Mr. Falls’ Broadway productions include Desire Under the Elms, Eric Bogosian’s Talk Radio, Conor McPherson’s Shining City and Horton Foote’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Young Man from Atlanta. His long- running Broadway production of Elton John and Tim Rice’s AIDA won four Tony Awards and has subsequently been produced around the world. Among his many Goodman productions are Arthur Miller’s Finishing the Picture, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Measure for Measure, King Lear, The Misanthrope, Pal Joey, Galileo, the American premiere of Alan Ayckbourn’s House and Garden and five plays by Rebecca Gilman (A True History of the Johnstown Flood; Luna Gale; Blue Surge; Dollhouse; and Soups, Stews, and Casseroles: 1976).

 Mr. Falls’ honors include, among others, a Tony Award (Death of a Salesman), a Drama Desk Award (Long Day’s Journey into Night), an Obie Award (subUrbia), a Helen Hayes Award (King Lear) and multiple Joseph Jefferson awards. For “outstanding contributions to theater,” Mr. Falls has been recognized with such prestigious honors as the Savva Morozov Diamond Award (Moscow Art Theatre), the O’Neill Medallion (Eugene O’Neill Society), the Distinguished Service to the Arts Award (Lawyers for the Creative Arts) and the Illinois Arts Council Governor’s Award. In 2015 he was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.

 Next season, Mr. Falls will direct the world premiere of Rebecca Gilman’s Swing State and a new production of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard for Goodman Theatre.