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Pegasus began as a touring troupe dedicated to performing original writings by students at the City Colleges of Chicago, including Truman Community College, where Crewdson taught drama. In 1979, the company moved into the 90-seat auditorium of the Edgewater Presbyterian Church (now home to City Lit Theater), and in 1984 relocated to Truman’s sprawling, 250-seat O’Rourke Performing Arts Center. Pegasus’s growth over the past 30 years is a testament to Crewdson’s artistic vision, fund-raising skills, single-minded determination, and dedication to community-based theater. The non-Equity company–which has won 77 Jefferson Citations, more than any other Chicago theater–has groomed hundreds of young actors, directors, and writers. Its track record includes pioneering revivals of lesser-known Sondheim musicals like Anyone Can Whistle and The Frogs (performed in the Truman swimming pool), as well as the 1999 U.S. premiere of Sondheim’s 1955 debut effort, Saturday Night (directed by Gary Griffin, who went on to direct The Color Purple on Broadway). It’s produced large-scale ensemble dramas such as Edgar Lee Masters’s Spoon River Anthology and director Warner Crocker’s brilliantly acted Chicago premiere of Robert Schenkkan’s Pulitzer-winning The Kentucky Cycle, and it’s carried on collaborations with artists ranging from Broadway writer-director George Furth to members of the Chicago fringe like Jellyeye Drum Theater, Theater Oobleck’s Jeff Dorchen, and Live Bait’s Sharon Evans.
Pegasus is also known for the community outreach programs Crewdson has set in place over the years. The most noted of these is the annual Young Playwrights Festival, which develops and produces scripts by teenage writers from Chicago-area schools. The first YPF, held in 1987, drew 130 entries, from which four winning scripts were selected for performance; next January’s festival has attracted more than 800 submissions. Crewdson also established the ARTS (Artists in Residence with Teachers in Schools) Program, which is supervised by actor-playwright Philip Dawkins. The program works with the Chicago Public Schools to facilitate classroom partnerships between artists and teachers. “We work with classes all across the curriculum, not just the arts,” says Levy. “For example, in an earth sciences class we brought in a choreographer, who used dance to teach kids how the tectonic plates move.”
