_{Photo Credit: Joe Mazza, Bravelux}

It is with great sadness that I must tell you that retired Professor Jonathan Wilson passed away suddenly on Sunday, June 23, 2024.  

Jonathan Wilson was Professor of Theatre at Loyola University Chicago from 1976 - 2023, where he taught courses in Acting,  Play Direction, and a fondly-recalled seminar called Black Theatre Workshop.  During his tenure at the university, he directed over 40 productions, most recently productions of Pride and Prejudice (2022), Radium Girls (2021), The Wolves (2020), Our Town (2019), as well as Violet (2018), Doubt (2017), Getting Out (2016), A Streetcar Named Desire (2012), Intimate Apparel (2009), Guys and Dolls (2008), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2006), Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (2005), The Madwoman of Chaillot (2004), and A View from the Bridge (2001). In 2008, Professor Wilson was named Loyola’s Faculty Member of the Year.

Professor Wilson was actively involved as a stage director in the professional theatre in Chicago and around the country. In Chicago, he won a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Direction of a Play in 2019 for The Recommendation at the Windy City Playhouse. Recent work included Among All This You Stand Like a Fine Brownstone (2017), Liberty City (2015), and Saviour? (2014) for the ETA Theatre Company. Among Professor Wilson's other works included The Bird Feeder Doesn't Know (2015) for the Raven Theatre, and Master Harold...and the Boys (Jeff Nominated, 2010) for the Timeline Theatre. For the Pegasus Theatre, he directed Jitney (Jeff Nominated, 2007), Pantomime (Jeff Nominated, 2006), Two Trains Running (Jeff Award/Best Director, 2005) and Fraternity (Jeff Award/Best Director, 1990). For the Steppenwolf Theatre, he directed Playland (1994) and A Raisin in the Sun (1987). At the Touchstone Theatre, he directed Desire Under the Elms (1994) and Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Jeff Nominated, 1986). At the Court Theatre, Professor Wilson directed Pantomime (1993) and The Lion and the Jewel (1990).

Outside of Chicago, Professor Wilson directed Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2005) and Seven Guitars (1997) for the Seattle Repertory Theatre. In 2007, he directed a touring production of August Wilson’s Fences for Connecticut’s Hartford Stage, The Dallas Theatre Center, and the Portland Center Stage in Oregon. At Hartford Stage, he also directed Electra (2003), Oedipus the King, subsequently taped for the New York Public Library Theatre Archives in 2001, and Dutchman (taped for the New York Public Library Theatre Archives, 2000).

Professor Wilson’s production of Dr. Endesha Holland's From the Mississippi Delta (Jeff Award/Best Ensemble) opened at Northlight Theatre in 1990 with subsequent productions at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre (1990), the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. where it received Best Out of State Production Award, and at the Hartford Stage where in 1991 it received the Connecticut’s Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Play, Best Ensemble, and Best Director, and was taped for the New York Public Library Theatre Archives. From there, it enjoyed a seven-month run Off-Broadway in 1991 at New York’s Circle in the Square Theatre. From the Mississippi Delta was voted by Time Magazine as one of its top-ten productions in the United States in the 1991-92 Theatre Season.

Professor Wilson held degrees in Theatre and Play Direction from Daemen College in Buffalo, New York, the University of Cincinnati, and Northwestern University and was a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. He was also a member of the Advisory Board of Facing History & Ourselves, a not-for-profit national organization that uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate.

Jonathan was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Nan Withers-Wilson, also a much revered instructor of theatre at Loyola and beyond. Professor Wilson’s contributions to Loyola Theatre, to generations of theatre students both here and throughout the nation, as well as to the world of American Theatre warrant tribute. He will be sorely missed.

Plans are underway for a memorial tribute to Jonathan in the Fall. If you would like to receive information when details are available, please respond HERE.

Mark E. Lococo
Chairperson, Department of Fine and Performing Arts