Todd Leland and Jacqueline Russell

In the space of a year, artistic director Russell and cofounder Todd Leland have taken Chicago Children’s Theatre from “wouldn’t it be great if ...” to a full-fledged reality. Their inaugural production, Willie and Robert Reale’s Tony-nominated musical, A Year with Frog and Toad (based on stories by Arnold Lobel), has just opened in Goodman’s Owen Theatre. The company’s budget hit $1 million before the first lights went up. Now they need to figure out how to keep the momentum going with funders and audiences as they try to build visibility and—eventually—find a permanent downtown location to call home.

Russell, whose friends call her Jacqui, is amazed at how quickly her vision has become reality. But in looking back over her varied career, it almost seems inevitable.

The Texas native moved to New York right after high school to become an actor. Finding herself intimidated by the audition process, Russell instead studied film at New York University, and then embarked on a series of jobs. She was a travel editor with Random House. She coordinated shoots for a video production company and worked closely with many musicians. She even logged time as a coordinator of cultural affairs for the Ontario government’s ministry of culture, organizing events for Canadian artists who visited New York.

“It all kind of gave me different skill sets,” she observes. “At the production company, I was doing all the direct mail marketing and I learned a lot about marketing and advertising. At the cultural affairs job I had, I was doing special events and writing newsletters. At Random House, editing these books, I was learning how to take on enormous projects that would last for two years.”

But it wasn’t until she landed in Chicago in 1992 that Russell’s love of the performing arts and her interest in children dovetailed. Russell and her husband relocated when he got a job teaching English literature at DePaul University. Looking for something to do, Russell was delighted to find that the Old Town School of Folk Music, whose venue on Armitage was walking distance from her home, needed a children’s program director.

Russell initially worked mostly with Old Town’s kids’ classes in the Wiggleworms program. But growing bored with the administrative rote, she decided to experiment and reconnect with her theatre roots by creating a new musical theatre program there with composer Ralph Covert. “It became a huge success. We got to know all these really neat families through their children. Some of them became our best friends. Some of them became funders and supporters.”

But the most life-altering connection Russell made during her Old Town years was with Lookingglass. She brought in the company to teach in Old Town’s summer camp program and found out that they were looking for a part-time outreach and education director. Having just given birth to her daughter, Russell was eager to move into a job that would provide fresh challenges with (theoretically) shorter hours.

“Given my background in film, [Lookingglass’s] work is particularly appealing to me because they have such a visual take,” says Russell. “They needed somebody to take them to the next level. I just had a lot of contacts and I knew how to start this kind of programming.”

Russell first nudged the company to move into office and classroom space at the Athenaeum (where they still maintain offices). By 1999, with the success of Metamorphoses at the old Ivanhoe Theatre and the show’s subsequent tour to regional theatres around the country, the city had started making overtures to Lookingglass about moving into the old Water Tower pumping station on Michigan Avenue.

“First the city was going to pay for the build-out. Then it wasn’t going to pay for it. I think once we found out that the city wasn’t going to pay for the build-out, we didn’t really think it was going to happen. And then I took over [as managing director] and David Schwimmer called me and said ‘This really has to happen and I’ll do whatever it takes to make this happen.’”

What it took was flying Schwimmer in for countless face-to-face meetings with corporations, foundations, and what Russell describes as “A-list funding candidates,” with a heavy emphasis on new board development, instead of relying on the company’s highest-profile (and richest) ensemble member to foot the bills.

“[Schwimmer] decided really early on that it wouldn’t help the company if he wrote big checks. Because that would mean it was his company and not the city’s company, and it wouldn’t be something the community would embrace. It would just be a vanity project for him.” The company raised $8 million for their new theatre, with the build-out finally costing around $5.5 million.

But no sooner had Lookingglass put down their roots than Russell got itchy feet once again. This time, it was her daughter, Shiri, who helped her concoct her next move. Lookingglass’s production of Joy Gregory and Gunnar Madsen’s The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World made a huge impression on the then-first grader. “There’s this really great monologue one character does about the plague. We’re driving home from the first preview [which a flat tire prevented Russell from seeing] and she says ‘What’s this thing, the plague? We’ve got to talk about this.’ It was so weird. She just really latched onto this monologue where this girl is basically having a nervous breakdown. She had to see that play once a week. She was there every Sunday.” Russell notes that her daughter and her friends even got up and performed an a capella number from the show at the closing party. “She was sobbing because she didn’t want the show to end.”

That a rather grim family drama would lead to a new children’s theatre may seem ironic, but Russell says that experience made her “more and more interested in the type of programming that would excite my daughter and her friends. And I found out that any time I would talk to somebody about that, they would get excited, too.”

One of those early converts was Leland, who was then the board chair for Lookingglass (a role he now occupies with Chicago Children’s Theatre). A managing director for Goldman Sachs and a father himself, Leland found Russell’s vision of a company wholly dedicated to family programming irresistible, and decided to come on board. From the outset, the goal was to build a company along the lines of high-profile professional organizations like Minneapolis Children’s Theatre Company.

“We wanted to do this at a level that was more commensurate with more substantial productions, if you will,” explains Leland. “The goal was not to start out with a storefront theatre and hope to grow over a 15-year-period into full-scale production. We wanted to do full-scale productions from day one. Number two was to make sure we engaged people who were at the top of their fields, whether it was directors like Henry Godinez [director of Frog and Toad] or set designers like Geoff Curley.”

Leland is quick to praise Russell’s innate ability to get things done. “She’s an extraordinarily engaging personality. She captivates people and draws them in. That is perhaps her greatest quality. She is very passionate and convincing about what this is and what this can be.”

For Russell, the key to her vision lies in Chicago Children’s Theatre being an audience-driven project. “I think a lot of companies start with a group of artists who want to express their own personal voice. This is different. In a way, this speaks more to my background not as an artist, but as a programmer.”

The company is focused on giving established artists like Tina Landau and Sean Graney (both of whom serve on the artistic council) opportunities to expand their creative visions within the context of family programming. Russell acknowledges that, for many artists and companies, children’s theatre, while “lucrative and often very heavily supported, is also a bit of a stepchild. Doing kids’ shows is considered a lesser thing. The Jeff committee doesn’t review children’s theatre. If you’re an Equity company, what does that tell you?”

There are undeniably several local companies with a strong record of producing work for families and children, from Chicago Shakespeare’s “Short Shakespeare!” summer programs to Emerald City and Lifeline. Says Russell, “I don’t think we’re competition. I think what we’re doing is an addition to the community. My daughter sees all those companies. All of us just add to the love of theatregoing.” She is also quick to single out Illinois Theatre Center’s 2004 production of A Year With Frog and Toad (the regional premiere) as “really lovely. We were already planning on doing it when I saw their show, and it only encouraged me more. This show is so strong, you can do it anywhere.”

Accessibility is a major concern for Leland and Russell, and they are committed to producing almost exclusively in downtown venues. Itinerant for the time being, they are in discussions with Goodman, Steppenwolf, and the Harris Theatre for Dance and Music for future productions. They would also like to offer a subscription series, but Russell points out that the nature of children’s programming makes that a tougher proposition. “If you have a four-year-old and two of the shows are geared for kids eight and up, why would you get a subscription? That’s a big challenge.”

Making theatre affordable even in downtown locations is another big challenge. Fortunately, several funders, most notably the Target Foundation, have stepped forward. Target is underwriting a two-for-one Sunday matinee series for Frog and Toad, and other funders are providing scholarships to make school field trips more accessible for financially strapped districts. Ever mindful of her roots in educational outreach, Russell is also making sure that other educational and cultural institutions are wired into what Chicago Children’s Theatre is doing. For A Year With Frog and Toad, the company is partnering with the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum for an interactive lobby exhibit at the Goodman on amphibians, as well as teacher workshops at the museum that focus on the real lives of frogs and toads (what they’re doing when they’re not singing and dancing, that is).

Says Leland, “Those types of programs will be at the core of every production we do. What we’re doing is simply beyond stage productions. Starting at the level we’re starting at, we’re not at all at a loss for people providing us views on what we need to be doing. We’re appreciative of that, because it validates how important this is.” Both Leland and Russell heap praise on Peter Brosius, the artistic director for Minneapolis Children’s Theatre, for his mentorship and encouragement.

Russell isn’t leaving her old Lookingglass cohorts out of her new endeavor, and Leland continues to serve on the Lookingglass board in addition to his new duties with Chicago Children’s Theatre. Lookingglass ensemble member Andy White serves on the artistic council for Chicago Children’s, and Russell is particularly eager to bring in circus artist and longtime Lookingglass associate Tony Hernandez  for a future project. “I just want to keep bringing in really cool people and say ‘Here’s the audience. Now do your stuff.’”

Leland has no doubt that the company will achieve many of its future goals, thanks in part to its leadership. “You hear Jacqui and you believe in what she believes. She has a big vision, and she can execute that vision.”