Chicagoan of the Year for Theater: Roche Schulfer guided the Goodman through the arts storm of the century

When artistic director Robert Falls exited the Goodman Theatre in the summer of 2022 after a whopping 35-year run, it was widely assumed that the theater’s longtime executive director and CEO, Roche Schulfer, would soon follow his friend.

For one thing, the two had been close partners for those 35 years with Schulfer an indefatigable promoter, and sometime defender, of Falls’ famously maximalist revision for the flagship theater of the Midwest. For a second thing, many longtime arts leaders (Schulfer was first hired by the Goodman in 1973) choose to depart when a new collaborator arrives — in this case the new artistic director Susan Booth. For a third, Schulfer now is 72 years old.

The current Goodman season represents his 50th year at the managerial helm.

But Schulfer did not make his exit after shepherding the Goodman through what can only be described as the worst crisis for the American regional theater since the nonprofit movement first gained momentum in the early 1960s.

In the aftermath of the prolonged pandemic closure, many of Goodman’s peer institutions across the country were plunged into financial chaos, forced to pivot after systemic changes in audience habits and a palpable disconnect between what theaters wanted to program and what audiences now were willing to pay to see. Across the nation, theater seasons were canceled or runs truncated. Emergency calls for funding were made. Staffers made sometimes involuntary exits. And in extreme cases, audience numbers fell off the cliff and doors closed.

The Goodman hardly was immune to these forces: How could it be? But under Schulfer’s watch, the theater has just completed one of the most financially and artistically successful calendar years in its long history.

“The Who’s Tommy,” the Goodman’s blockbuster summer attraction, sold virtually seat and now is moving to Broadway in the spring, potentially adding to the Goodman’s bottom line. And Pearl Cleage’s “The Nacirema Society,” a comedy about Black debutantes and their families and friends, proved massively popular, especially with Black audiences, gifting the Goodman with the kind of diverse audience for that show that few large theaters can emulate. Alongside those hits, the Goodman has offered a full slate of programming, including showcases of new works by prominent playwrights. To the outside eye, at least, the theater seemed to be unchanged by the pandemic. If anything, it now appears stronger than before.

How did this happen? Schulfer made sure that the Goodman did not stay closed for anywhere near as long as its peer nonprofit Chicago theaters. On Aug. 2, 2021, a ceremony was held on the sidewalk outside the theater, during which the Goodman’s marquee was symbolically re-illuminated as a symbol of recovery. Producing theater during 2021 was fiendishly difficult for everyone involved and many chose to sit out the challenge. Not Schulfer.

As a result, Schulfer said in a recent interview, “We never lost touch with our audiences or our donors. We were in constant conversation with them. They stayed engaged and they have come back to us.”

The Goodman made another crucial pandemic-era decision: It did not lay off any of its employees during the crisis. That meant Schulfer had to convince the theater’s board of directors not only of the wisdom of that decision but the need for them to dig deep into their own pockets to cover those costs.

But all those years at the helm meant there was a great deal of trust in the executive director. The board agreed and the gamble paid off. When many theaters had to ramp up operations again after the pandemic pause, including hiring and training new employees, the Goodman already had all of its people ready to go.

As to the programming of the last year, Schulfer says the Goodman decided that people remained willing to engage with substantial challenges and ideas but did not go to the theater to experience trauma, vicariously or otherwise. “I think we quickly recognized that this is a time for plays with hopeful messages,” he said. “People were, and are, just wiped out from all we’ve experienced.”

Schulfer is familiar, tired even, with the question of how much longer he plans to stay. “For everything, there is a season,” he said. “I just don’t know when that season will be. I have so much gratitude to so many people over such a long period of time.”

That gratitude, of course, flows two ways. Throughout its history, Chicago theater has had few such diligent and talented stewards.

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

cjones5@chicagotribune.com