Rachel E. Kraft served as executive director of Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre Company from 2005 to 2017. The theater company is honoring the Northbrook and Highland Park native with a Lookingglass Civic Engagement Award at its March 24 benefit, “Under the Seas: Reflecting on 30 Years.”
Q: What is your favorite memory as executive director of Lookingglass?
A: In 2011, Lookingglass was acknowledged with a Regional Tony Award. A large group of board, staff, artists and donors traveled to New York to receive the honor. As a family, we were celebrating that this small ensemble theater, that makes primarily new work, was recognized nationally.
Q: What does it mean to you to be honored by Lookingglass?
A: To be honest, it makes me super uncomfortable. I’ve been in the trenches with Lookingglass for so long that I feel like one of the soldiers. When the artists and board came to me and asked if they could honor me after I announced that I was leaving, I was overwhelmed. It’s incredibly meaningful to me that a group of artists, board and staff felt I made some contribution that they wanted to recognize.
Q: What have you been doing since leaving Lookingglass?
A: I made a very conscious decision, after 30 years of working in the arts, that I was going to take a personal 18-month intermission and spend more time with my husband and my family. During that period, I’ll be open to what comes next.
Q: Do you have children?
A: I have a stepchild through my late husband Michael Maggio, who I worked with at the Goodman Theatre. And I have three stepchildren through my husband Doug Brown, who I met while I was at Lookingglass. We both served on a national theater board, the Theatre Communications Group. He was representing Steppenwolf and I was representing Lookingglass.
Q: Were you involved in theater when you were growing up?
A: My biggest claim to fame was that I was an usher for Steppenwolf when they were still in a church basement. I went to a Jewish parochial school, Solomon Schechter, and Steppenwolf ensemble members were our bus drivers. I had Terry Kinney and John Malkovich.
Q: What book are you currently reading?
A: I received a lot of books when I began my personal intermission. I haven’t figured out what I’m going to read yet.
Q: What was your favorite vacation?
A: On my 50th birthday, my husband and I went on a Baltic cruise and I got to visit a number of countries I’ve never been in before. What was really meaningful for me was being able to visit some synagogues in Russia.
Q: What do you do to unwind?
A: I love to listen to music and I see a lot of theater. We have subscriptions all over the city.
Q: Do you have a favorite saying?
A: Everybody teases me about this. When anybody at work or in my family gets overwhelmed, I remind them that anything you do is more than you would have done if you had done nothing at all.
