Alumni

Commencement 2006

Honorands > Robert A. Falls

Robert A. Falls, artistic director of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, will deliver the Commencement address at Lake Forest College’s 128th Commencement on Saturday, May 13, 2006. His address to the Class of 2006 is titled “An appetite for living.” Mr. Falls will receive the degree Doctor of Fine Arts honoris causa.

Robert Falls has served as the artistic director of Chicago’s Goodman Theatre since 1986 and has directed numerous award-winning productions. Under his leadership, the Goodman Theatre was named by Time magazine in May of 2003 as "the number one regional theater in the U.S.”  His Broadway production of Long Day’s Journey Into Night received three 2003 Tony Awards, including Best Revival, and in 1999 he was honored with four Tony Awards, including Best Director and Best Revival, for his production of Death of a Salesman. The recipient of numerous Joseph Jefferson Awards during his career as one of Chicago's preeminent theatre artists, Mr. Falls also accepted the 1992 Special Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre on behalf of the Goodman Theatre.  His production of Horton Foote's Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Young Man from Atlanta, was nominated for three 1997 Tony Awards, including Best Play. 

His opera credits include productions for Chicago’s Lyric Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, the Houston Grand Opera and the Grand Théâtre de Genève. The 2006/2007 season will mark Mr. Fall’s 20th anniversary as artistic director at the Goodman Theatre and in celebration he will direct a new production of Shakespeare’s King Lear, as well as the world-premiere of Richard Nelson’s Frank’s Home,about the life and work of Frank Lloyd Wright.