The Top 20 Acting Programs Making Waves in Chicago‘s Theater Scene
With over 250 lively theater companies, Chicago solidified its reputation as a theater hotbed in the 1980s. But the Windy City’s legacy as a performer’s paradise spans over a century thanks to pioneering comedy theaters like The Second City emerging in 1959.
Today, aspiring thespians flock to Chi-town for its bustling theater ecosystem where writers, directors, and actors collaboratewithin a vibrant artistic community. Getting a foot in the door often requires the right training and education.
Chicago’s acting schools equip students with the technique and resilience needed to pursue careers in highly competitive theater and comedy industries. The city provides an ecosystem where burgeoning talent can learn from gifted teachers while cutting their chops on legendary stages.
This list highlights 20 exceptional acting programs shaping Chicago’s next generation of creative talent:
| Program | Description |
|---|---|
| The Theatre School at DePaul University | One of the country‘s top 5 acclaimed acting conservatories with intense training and vast production opportunities |
| University of Chicago Theater and Performance Studies | Distinct interdisciplinary approach combining theory and practice across theater disciplines |
| The Second City Training Center | Improv and comedy training grounds where Saturday Night Live legends like Tina Fey cut their teeth |
| Victory Gardens Theater | Committed to incubating original works from emerging BIPOC artists and promoting diversity on stage |
| Goodman School of Drama | The official drama school of Chicago‘s Goodman Theatre focused on pairing classroom rigor with main stage productions |
By the Numbers: Chicago‘s Top Acting Programs
Chicago acting programs vary widely in size, cost, selectivity, and the opportunities they provide. This snapshot captures key statistical comparisons:
| Program | Avg. Incoming Class Size | % Acceptance Rate | Avg. Annual Tuition | Student Productions Per Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Theatre School at DePaul University | 35 | 22% | $46,000 | 50+ |
| University of Chicago | 50 | 8% | $63,000 | 10-15 |
| Goodman School of Drama | 55 | 15% | $38,000 | 5 Main Stage Shows |
| The Second City Training Center | 400+ | N/A – Open Enrollment | $4,200+ | 100s across venues |
| Black Ensemble Theater | 50 | Audition Only | $120+ per Course | 3-5 Main Stage Shows |
As demonstrated above, program size, selectivity, cost, and production opportunities vary greatly. Smaller intensive programs like Depaul‘s Theatre School and UC‘s Theater Department maintain highly selective acceptance rates around 8-22%, whereas comedy theaters like The Second City Training Center and pH Comedy Theater facilitate open enrollment across a breadth of adult and youth classes.
Meanwhile, sorting by cost shows a spectrum from lower-cost comedy/improv programs that may not confer university degrees to high-ticket conservatories charging over $45,000 per year for prestigious BFA or MFA acting credentials.
Production volume also shows interesting contrasts – while university programs facilitate 10-50 annual student shows, the sheer density of comedy theaters in Chicago enables some venues to run upwards of 100-200 student shows per year.
Where Actors Learn the Ropes in Chicago
So what sets Chicago‘s acting training terrain apart? There‘s the obvious – steeping in the city‘s living legacy in sketch comedy and improv via pioneering institutions like The Second City and the Annoyance Theater.
Beyond humor, Chicago acting schools empower students through a theater scene both distinct in its diversity and centralized in its density. Theater companies are clustered in a few vital city blocks rather than spread across a sprawling metro, enabling more collaborative opportunities.
The volume of working theater companies facilitates more internship, apprenticeship, and job prospects for early career actors. And companies like Black Ensemble Theater, Victory Gardens, Goodman Theatre, and many more actively develop New Work by Chicago playwrights – providing actors copious opportunities to originate dynamic new roles rather than rehash well-trod theatrical fare.
Let‘s explore a selection of the Windy City‘s top acting programs:
The Theatre School at DePaul University
- Consistently ranked top 5 in undergraduate acting schools with intense conservatory training
- 35 member incoming class size maintains 7:1 student-to-faculty ratio
- High 22% acceptance rate among the country‘s elite acting BFA programs
- $46K annual tuition accounts for ample contact hours with working theater professionals
- 6 New York showcases and 50+ annual student shows offer vital performance opportunities
- Strong pipelines to Chicago‘s theater ecosystem – including Steppenwolf Theatre Company
The Second City Training Center
- Vertical pathway from improv fundamentals to advanced comedy writing across 8+ program levels
- Nearly 400 students participate annually in immersive comedy training
- Alumni in every late night writers room & cast of SNL, plus creators of Comedy Central smash hits
- Open enrollment welcomes all skill levels rather than selective application process
- Packed show schedule across 4 venues provides regular stage time for polished material
- $4,200+ for core improv-to-sketch Programs, $120+ for singular workshops
Black Ensemble Theater Cultural Center
- Grassroots theater providing outlet for marginalized stories and nurturing Black artistic talent
- Adults can develop their talents through array of acting and performance technique courses
- Hosts 3-5 main stage shows per year featuring predominantly Black casts and artistic teams
- Provides underserved youth free theater training to expose over 15,000 Chicagoans to the arts
- Founder Jackie Taylor stewarding next generation through $30 million arts center expansion
DePaul University‘s Treasure Trove of Top Talent
While The Theatre School at DePaul University already appeared in this list‘s preamble, its pedigreed acting program warrants an even deeper dive. DePaul‘s top-tier BFA and MFA Conservatory programs train the next generation of theatrical talent within a highly selective crucible framework led by top working professionals in Chicago theater and beyond.
To quantify the exclusivity of DePaul‘s acting training: only 22% of applicants were admitted to the 2022 BFA incoming class, compared to admissions rates closer to 50 percent at peer theater schools. This selectivity allows admittance of only the most gifted young thespians to train in an intimate cohort capped at 35 students.
Within this intensive environment, acting students conduct advanced coursework in classical and contemporary techniques, receive ample individual mentorship time, and mount fully supported productions to sharpen their creative voices and fortify their stage chops before entering the professional theater ecosystem.
That ecosystem is humankind‘s most collaborative art form – and DePaul Theatre feeds talents directly into Chicago main stages such as the Goodman, Steppenwolf, Writers Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and dozens more storefront gems. Further evidencing the goodness of Goodman‘s graduate goods, DePaul Musical Theatre 2021 enjoyed a 100% job placement rate with nearly half the class clinching Broadway/National Tour gigs immediately after commencement.
For those chasing silver screen dreams, DePaul‘s Hollywood Semester furnishes facilities and faculty to sharpen on-camera acting competencies. And back home on Fullerton Avenue, the Theatre School‘s soundstages house state-of-the-art equipment enabling students to fine-tune filming techniques.
Resting on the school‘s century-spanning foundation while pushing the envelope of contemporary theatrical innovation, DePaul provides premier platforms to turn novice dreams into onstage reality. The numbers support the notion: according to June 2022 reporting in Theatre Times surveying theaters globally, DePaul University ranked 2nd in the world among acting institutions sending the most alumni to Broadway and beyond.
The Improv Olympics: Inside The Second City Training Center
As Chicago‘s undisputed epicenter of contemporary comedy, The Second City exploded from a small cabaret theater in 1959 to the most recognizable bastion of improvisational comedy on Earth. And the talent incubator ensuring the next generation of comedic legends continues The Second City legacy is its namesake Training Center.
The Theater‘s Training Center welcomes hundreds of aspiring improvisers, sketch comedians, actors, and writers annually to enroll in immersive humor training regimens – no audition required. Core programs span from Improv Foundation fundamentals providing uninitiated novices stage-ready chops in 16 weeks all the way to the writing focus of the Comedy Studies Program, fine-tuning punchline mechanics over 48 class sessions.
While open enrollment allows any brave soul seeking laughter to participate, a key ratio separates Second City‘s comedy college from chaos: most sessions maintain an 8:1 student-to-teacher ratio. This fosters an intimate cohort environment where participants polish their individual comedic voices through tailored feedback from instructors active in The Second City‘s resident stages.
And those resident stages furnish perhaps the greatest perk to the Training Center‘s curriculum – regular performance ops. Students in the advanced tracks of Comedy Writing and Writing Focused Improv showcase their completed sketches and improv formats in Second City‘s storied e.t.c. Stage and UP Comedy Club venues.
These shows provide vital stage experience and the moments that cannot be simulated in classrooms – gaining confidence peering down the barrel of a live audience to gauge which material truly resonates. Successful sketches written by Comedy Studies students have even been developed into Main Stage revues joining the 100+ show lineage once graced by legends like John Belushi and Stephen Colbert.
But the true measure of impact lies in seeing just how vast Second City‘s comedy diaspora spreads – with alums shaping writers rooms, casts, and creative leadership of virtually every modern comedy phenomenon. From Saturday Night Live to Key & Peele, The Daily Show to The Office, and cult classics like Veep and Schitt‘s Creek all shaped by Second City alums.
pH Comedy Theater: Chicago‘s Second Comedy City
In an entertainment ecosystem overflowing with acclaimed comedy theaters, it is a distinct challenge for an upstart entrant to distinguish itself as one of Chicago‘s finest funny factories for developing talent. And yet somehow, the plucky storefront known as pH Comedy Theater carved out its niche as top tier training ground for aspiring comedians since its 2013 founding through a dogged devotion to diversity and new voices.
Located on Chicago‘s North Side, the intimately-sized pH Comedy Theater only seats 65 audience members. But while the venue may seem diminutive, its talent arsenal continues expanding as the theater provides a veritable comedy lab for experimental, edgy ensembles birthing dynamic new work weekly. With recurring stand-up showcases and the theater‘s signature Cupids of Comedy improv franchise fostering romantic romps, pH packs a lot of laughter within its pint-sized premises.
At pH Comedy, open mics aren‘t reserved just for attendees to try out jokes, but function similarly for new performers to test out material in a judgment-free creative space. Instructors are working comics welcoming of all backgrounds and experience levels looking to sharpen skills without cut-throat competitiveness. And the theater embraces show concepts from anyone dedicated to putting in the rehearsal work time – resulting in exciting experimental shows merging traditional stand-up, improv, and sketch with emerging elements like audience interaction and multi-media theatricality.
While pH Comedy Theater doesn‘t house the celebrity star power of Second City, iO, or The Annoyance, its grassroots coming-up-the-ranks in Chicago‘s towering improv/sketch scene makes it no less a brilliant breeding ground for tomorrow‘s comedic luminaries.
University of Chicago: Scholarly Study to Stagecraft
The University of Chicago‘s rigorous liberal arts education model prizes intellectual curiosity, interdisciplinary exploration, and ventilation of provocative ideas. For Theater and Performance Studies concentrators, such academic guiding principles find thrilling application translating scholarly theory to tangible stage spectacle.
UCHIC‘s Theater Department offers what no comedy theater can: foundational coursework contextualizing performance art within the frameworks of historical importance, anthropological impact, literary tradition, and cutting-edge current applications. Students conduct in-depth dramaturgical analysis – while also enjoying opportunities to unleash creativity through writing, directing, production design, and performance electives.
This liberal arts launchpad enables UChicago thespians to masterfully meld academic principles with practice. Graduates have applied this unique skill set across entertainment mediums: streaming to the bright lights of Broadway, showrunning acclaimed series, and even leveraging theatrical dexterity atop elite law school stages like Harvard en route to careers arguing high-profile court cases.
For undergrads not ready to don caps and gowns, UChicago facilitates valuable training interludes at European theater festivals every summer. And stateside, the university‘s partnership with the legendary Steppenwolf Theatre Company furnishes a pipeline for students to gain professional experience off-campus while working on Steppenwolf‘s next smash production.
With UChicago Theater bridging cerebral scholarship and artistic expression, students obtain dynamite dramaturgical foundation to detonate any dreams of dramatic glory – from soap opera series-regular to cinema auteur awards contender on screens large and small.
The Next Generation of Chicago Talent
The programs highlighted in this piece merely scratch the surface of Chicago‘s exceptional acting offerings catering to all levels – from youth ensembles welcoming starry-eyed beginners to advanced scene labs sharpening grad school candidates and working film/theater vets.
Aspiring thespians flock to Chicago for its lively theater scene, culture of innovation, and strength in numbers: no matter one‘s ambitions, the city houses a pool of collaborators to uplift your work. Train beside future series showrunners at pH Comedy, tour the nation‘s biggest comedy festival with Second City Outreach, or secure an Equity card interning alongside Tony winners.
Does your acting journey lead straight to Hollywood soundstages or zig-zag to soap stardom before that glossy marquee moment? In Chicago, all routes remain wide open to deliver you from dreaming student to working artist. The only question is: which program will you call your starmaker?