Route 66 Theatre Company

"Ok, we have a theater company: what do you want to do now?" This was the question Stef Tovar, founder and Artistic Director of Route 66 Theatre Company was faced with in September of 2008. Needless to say, Route 66 has had an unlikely road to the present.

It started innocently enough. One day while working as the interim Artistic Director of American Theatre Company, Tovar received a call from a friend out in Los Angeles . Johnny Clark of the VS. Theatre Company told Tovar that if he ever got the rights to On an Average Day , John Kolvenbach's gritty, comic sibling drama, that Tovar needed to come out to LA to play one of the leads. Tovar genially agreed, but was surprised when not too much later Clark returned the call telling him to pack his bags.

The show was a smash success and they agreed it would be only fair to take the play now out to Tovar's home of Chicago and produce the play here. When ATC was unable to produce it, Tovar did what comes so naturally to Chicago theater makers and started his own company. The name for this company, the only to actively unite the theater communities of Chicago and Los Angeles, came naturally: Route 66.

The show On An Average Day was produced at Victory Gardens in the summer of 2008 to packed houses and critical acclaim (the Chicago Tribune called the show "an auspicious, hopeful debut,") and after the goodwill generated by this success, it seemed silly to do anything but keep it going. So Tovar was left with the question, "Ok, we have a theater company: what do you want to do now?"

The answer has come in a deep dedication to the community that fostered this company and the journey that inspired it. "We're not kids," Tovar insists, "I'm 38. We're not just trying to 'put on a show,' there's a lot more at stake." Of course, part of those stakes will be just living up to their name, "When people see a Route 66 road sign it evokes a kind of feeling: adventure, risk, Americana . The shows that we've done evoke a feeling of a road less traveled. They're not concept based, they're just honest: real people and their stories."

Their brief track record—three fully produced shows in just under one year—asserts their dedication to honesty. Bolstered by simple yet artful design and the excellent acting of their experienced company members Route 66 shows examine the little events and revelations that change and define American lives. From the small town superstitions of the recent The K of D in which a single actress portrays a whole town of characters, to real life memoirs in I'm Spiritual Dammit! , Jennifer Wigels' one-woman show based on her life as a broadcaster, or the searing sibling rivalry of On an Average Day —the heart of these stories is the people who tell them.

For the future, Route 66 is hopeful. The upcoming musical High Fidelity in a Chicago-style update, is planning on an "open run", meaning they'll keep performing as long as audiences keep coming. Whether this is starry-eyed optimism or the kind of calloused determination that moved so many families along the great highway will remain to be seen. Tovar smiles, "We're just trying to do one thing at a time. For once."

To learn more about Route 66 Theatre Company, check out their website or become their fan on Facebook.

Benno Nelson

You can read more of Theatre In Chicago contributor Benno Nelson's writing at The@er (http://the-at-er.blogspot.com)

Full Storefrontal

Read the other articles in Benno Nelson's "Full Storefrontal" series that focuses on small theatre companies around Chicago on the Full Storefrontal page.