Goodman Theatre Associate Producer, Steve Scott, to Receive 2012 Corona Award

Eclipse Theatre has announced the recipient of their Fourth Annual Corona Award: Steve Scott, Associate Producer of The Goodman Theatre. Eclipse's Corona Award honors an individual who has played an important role in supporting and nurturing the Chicago Theatre community as well as Eclipse Theatre.

Past Corona Award Recipients include Chicago casting director Jane Alderman, Timeline Theatre Managing Director Elizabeth K. Auman, and Steppenwolf Associate Artistic Director Erica Daniels. The Corona Award derives its name from the outer atmosphere of the sun most easily seen during a total Eclipse. The Latin root of the word means crown. The event will be hosted by Jeff Award winning actor and playwright Jon Steinhagen.

In the selection of Steve Scott as the recipient of this year's Corona Award, Artistic Director Nathaniel Swift said "For over three decades, Steve has been constantly and tirelessly active on all levels of the Chicago theatre community: instilling his love of theatre to his students, directing and advising for multitudes of theatres of all levels around the area, and producing for and contributing as an Artistic Associate at our largest and most established theatrical institution, The Goodman Theatre. He has nurtured and mentored generations of Chicago theatre artists and has paved a path for them to prosper in every discipline.Steve is truly an unsung mentor of the vibrant Chicago theatre community and long overdue for recognition on his numerous contributions to it."

The presentation of the 2012 Corona Award for Steve Scott will begin at 6:30pm with a cocktail hour followed by the award ceremony at 7:30pm on Monday, November 12th ,2012 at the Athenaeum Theatre, located at 2936 N. Southport Ave. in Chicago.

Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. Tickets can be purchased at the door or online at www.eclipsetheatre.com

Steve Scott is the associate producer of Goodman Theatre, where he has overseen more than 150 productions; he is also a member of the Goodman's Artistic Collective. His Goodman directing credits include the 2011 production of A Christmas Carol, Horton Foote's Blind Date; Rabbit Hole; Binky Rudich and the Two-Speed Clock, and No One Will Be Immune for The David Mamet Festival; Dinner With Friends; Wit; the world premiere of Tom Mula's Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol; A Midsummer Night's Dream (co-directed with Michael Maggio); and the 1989 through 1992 productions of A Christmas Carol.

Other recent directing credits include Yellow Face, The DNA Trail, and Yohen at Silk Road Theatre Project; The Mandrake at A Red Orchid Theatre; Elling, A Delicate Balance, Lettice and Lovage, and Shadowlands for Redtwist Theater; Black Pearl Sings! and Souvenir at Northlight Theatre; The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Buried Child, and Dealer's Choice at Shattered Globe Theatre; Frozen at Next Theatre Company; A Midsummer Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing at the St. Lawrence (Ontario) Shakespeare Festival; The Teapot Scandals of 1923 and Falsettos at Porchlight Music Theatre; Execution of Justice, Ah, Wilderness!, God's Country, and Judgment at Nuremberg at the Theatre Conservatory at Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts (where he is a faculty member); and a number of productions at Eclipse Theatre Company, where he is an ensemble member, including Arthur Miller's After the Fall, John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation, Rebecca Gilman's Boy Gets Girl, Keith Reddin's Big Time, Neil Simon's Plaza Suite and Lanford Wilson's The Moonshot Tapes.

He has directed for a variety of other companies, including Theatre Wit, Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, National Jewish Theatre, Theatre at the Center, Lifeline Theatre, Organic Theater Company and the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists. Mr. Scott has served on panels for Theatre Communications Group, the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, United States Artists, the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, the Chicago Council on Fine Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Pew Charitable Trust/Philadelphia Theatre Initiative.

Scott is a member of the Jeff Committee's Artist and Technical Team, a board member of Season of Concern, and an associate artist with Chicago Dramatists and Colllaboraction theater companies. He was one of six resident directors for WBEZ's series Stories on Stage, and has contributed articles to a variety of publications, including the Encyclopedia of Chicago. Mr. Scott is the recipient of five Jeff nominations, an After Dark Award and the Illinois Theatre Association's Award of Honor. As an actor, he most recently appeared in Next Theatre Company's production of Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? (Jeff Award for Outstanding Ensemble).

Jon Steinhagen is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists, a finalist for the first Noel Coward Award (2010) and winner of the Julie Harris Playwriting Award in 2009 for his comedy The Analytical Engine. His musical, The Teapot Scandals (for which he wrote book, music and lyrics) was produced by Porchlight Music Theatre and was nominated for a Jeff Award (Equity) in 2007 in the Best New Work category. He received a producer-author initiative grant from NAMT in 2005 and received an After Dark Award for Best New Work for The Teapot Scandals.

Steinhagen wrote the music and lyrics for the musicals People Like Us, Inferno Beach, Emma & Company, and The Arresting Dilemma of Mister K. He is currently working on the book, music, and lyrics for Great Lover, based on the career of silent film idol Rudolph Valentino. Mr. Steinhagen's plays include The Analytical Engine (Circle Theatre 2010), Something More Comfortable (Syracuse University, 2010), Vexations (New York Fringe, 2010), Dating Walter Dante (Raven Theatre, 2012), Aces (Signal Ensemble Theatre, 2011), Ponzi on Sunday, Blizzard '67 (Chicago Dramatists, 2012), Running with the Pack, The Preliminary Death of Calvin Demarest, and Deb and Debra.

His plays and musicals have been presented at theaters in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and at various festivals across the country. His collection of short plays, Perfectly Natural, was produced at the Midtown InterNational Theatre Festival in NYC the summer of 2009. He is currently developing Massacre of Michigan Avenue for Signal Ensemble Theatre. Mr. Steinhagen has received four Jeff Awards, five Jeff Nominations, and six After Dark Awards for musical direction, writing or acting. As an actor, he has performed leading roles in Plaza Suite, Sweet Smell of Success, 1776, Six Degrees of Separation, Hedda Gabler, The Odd Couple, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Real Inspector Hound, The Man Who Came to Dinner, and Bus Stop.

Steinhagen has been musical director/pianist of numerous ChicaGo Productions at Circle Theatre, Pegasus Players, Bohemian Theatre Ensemble, and Light Opera Works (to name a few), and is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Chicago Federation of Musicians, and PlayLab NYC, as well as an artistic associate of Porchlight Music Theatre and ensemble member of Signal Ensemble Theatre. His short fiction appears in various literary journals, most recently in > kill author and Monkeybicycle.

The presentation of the Corona Award will include guest speakers who have worked closely with Mr. Scott as a director, producer and teacher. Confirmed at this point: Deb Clapp (Executive Director, League of Chicago Theatres), B.J. Jones (Artistic Director, Northlight Theatre), Tom Mula (Playwright, Director and Actor; Artist in Residence at Columbia College), and Rebecca Gilman (Playwright; Associate Professor at Northwestern University), with more speakers to be announced. In addition to the presentation of the award, an assortment of light appetizers and cash bar will be offered during the evening, as well as a silent auction.