Theater

Creative Director/Resident Set Design - The Second City (Chicago, Toronto, Hollywood)

Resident Designer / Producing Director / Stage Director - Circle Theatre

Managing Artistic Director / CenterLight Sign & Voice Theatre 

Resident Designer / Technical Director / Lecture - North Park University

Sr. Graphic Designer - The Chicago Symphony Orchestra

2022, Joseph Jefferson Committee Nomination for Outstanding Scenic Design of a Play for CLUE, Mercury Theatre

2017 and 2015, In-House Design Merit Awards from HOW Design Magazine for poster designs promoting the 103rd and 104th mainstage revues at The Second City.

2009, Joseph Jefferson Award for Outstanding Scenic Design - Enchanted April, Circle Theatre

2004, Joseph Jefferson Award for Outstanding Scenic Design - Steel Magnolias, Circle Theatre

2003, Joseph Jefferson Award for Outstanding Production - Musical for The Secret Garden, Circle Theatre

2003, Joseph Jefferson Committee Nomination for Outstanding Direction of a Musical for The Secret Garden, Circle Theatre

"CLUE" Mercury Theatre Chicago

As befits the genre, Bob Knuth's set design involves many doors, secret passages, and falling objects that are the physical embodiment of farce.  Knuth's set also makes the most of Mercury's intimate stage with immensely clever set transformations and surprises.

--Rachel Weinberg, BroadwayWorld.com

"Jane Eyre," Circle Theatre

Perhaps more than any other set designer working in the Chicago area, Knuth has solved the aesthetic problems inherent in the prosaic, end-on storefront where audience members sit in narrow rows and stare over the backs of heads at a rectangular stage without much depth or height. Normally, that's as constraining as trying to build a postmodern dwelling on a single Chicago lot. But as Knuth proves again in his very bold, striking, and endlessly inventive production of "Jane Eyre" (the talented fellow directs as well as designs), it does not have to be that way.
--Chris Jones, Chief Theater Critic for The Chicago Tribune wrote about Knuth's body of work in Chicago storefront theaters

"She Loves Me," Circle Theatre

Bob Knuth directs and designs to perfection: a storefront facade opens to reveal a jewel-box perfumery, then Amalia's dainty bedroom. The performances are as exquisite as the set.
-- Lawrence Bommer, Chicago Reader

"Design For Living," Circle Theatre

With a title like "Design for Living," you can't skimp on the decor, and Bob Knuth's sets are masterpieces of champagne taste created on a beer budget -- everything from a wood-paneled Art Deco flat to a sleek Manhattan penthouse. 

-- Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times

"America; It's Complicated," Kennedy Center, Washington DC

Supporting the troupe is a stellar crew... Bob Knuth's scenic design was simple, effective, and delightful; the lights forming the main set piece were fun and helped set the perfect tone.
-- Rachael Goldberg, BroadwayWorld.com