Chicago's Goodman Theatre celebrating 100 years of stage excellence and innovation

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The world-acclaimed Goodman Theatre is celebrating a century of stage excellence and innovation.

It remains a crown jewel of Chicago's artistic community, and it's right around the corner from the ABC7 Chicago studio.

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Storytellers talked about raising the curtain on entertainment, enrichment and wonder in the spotlight.

It's been 100 years of performance and ovations, jubilation, furor and fantasy in the footlights.

The joyful noise and divinity of drama first on a stage neighboring the Art Institute is now a dazzling luminary in the galaxy of the Loop theater district.

Chicago's Harry Lennix is a Goodman stalwart, both on stage and molding productions.

The Goodman has a special awareness of diversity and inclusion.

"There's a community agreement we have, where respect and representation is going to be reflective of the society which we intend to interpret dramatically," Lennix said. "It makes it a kind of refuge or a sanctuary."

Susan Booth joined the Goodman in the 90s, developing new plays. She's now artistic director.

The Goodman has endured as a legacy theater when so many other places have fallen by the wayside.

"I remember learning right away, if there was such a thing as a Goodman style, it was that we treated new plays with the reverence you usually accord a classic. And we treated classics as if they'd never been done before and they needed to live compellingly in this moment," Booth said. "That attention to the moment a play lands in, that I think is the Goodman's secret sauce."

Chuck Smith has been a creative force at the Goodman for over three decades.

He's played a key role in bringing August Wilson's powerful stories to the stage.

"Our African American participation and the audiences coming to see shows has grown tremendously, and I think I have something to do with that. And I'm very proud of that," Smith said.

Robert Falls has been galvanizing the audacious pursuits as the visionary artistic director for over 35 years.

"I watched the theater grow into an important, if not the best theater companies in America, certainly the best city for theater," Falls said. "To really be able to make work and watch other people make exciting work is what it's all about. And I've been very proud to be an enormous part of it just in years alone."