Piven Theatre Workshop

Biography

In 1972, Byrne and Joyce Piven founded the Piven Theatre Workshop (PTW) in Evanston, Illinois. The organization has been celebrated as one of the major training centers for theatre in the United States. The Pivens, along with Mike Nichols, Elaine May, and Paul Sills, were founding members of the Playwright’s Theatre, the group that spawned The Second City, a Chicago-based improvisational comedy group. After the group disbanded in the early 1960s, the Pivens spent 13 years in New York City, acting and taking drama classes with the renowned teachers of the Stanislavsky method, Uta Hagen and Mira Rostova. Upon their return to the Chicago area in 1967, Byrne and Joyce joined Paul Sills, Sheldon Patinkin, Bernie Sahlins, and Joyce Sloane in forming the Second City Repertory Company. The Pivens, with two young children, soon founded “The Theatre Workshop.” Beginning as a school for youth and adult theatre classes, the eventually rebranded Piven Theatre Workshop soon began producing professional performances. The Piven Theatre Workshop expanded to encompass a three-tiered program: their training center, which serves around 1,000 students per year; their Equity theatre house; and their community outreach and scholarship programs. Byrne and Joyce were honored as 1996 Artists of the Year by The Chicago Tribune, and have received the Evanston Arts Council Youth and Education Award, the Evanston Mayor’s Award for the Arts, the University of Chicago’s Glorious Gargoyle Award for lifetime achievement in theatre, the Chicago Drama League’s Crystal Award, and a Joseph Jefferson Lifetime Achievement Award. Notable alumni of the Piven Theatre Workshop include John, Joan, and Ann Cusack, Jeremy and Shira Piven, Lili Taylor, and Sarah Ruhl.

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