Paul C. Edwards (1950-2025)
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Professor, playwright and director Paul C. Edwards shuffled off this mortal coil on Wednesday, October 15, 2025. As well as being a long-tenured professor at Northwestern University, Paul adapted and/or directed 17 professional productions in Chicago, for which he frequently created the sound designs. He won the Jeff Award for New Work/Adaptation for Roadworks’ 1993 production of END OF THE ROAD (he also was nominated for Direction) and a Jeff Citation for Roadwork’s 1996 production of WAS (for which he also received the After Dark Award for best New Work/Adaptation). In later years, he collaborated extensively with City Lit Theater Company, directing, adapting, and sound designing productions of THE BODY SNATCHERS, THE SUNDIAL, and THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, among many others. In 2013, he won another Jeff Citation for New Adaptation for PEYTON PLACE (City Lit) and was nominated for the same award for his adaptation of A STUDY IN SCARLET (Promethean Theater) — he directed both productions..
Throughout the 1980’s, Paul staged ambitious adaptations for Northwestern’s Summer Fiction festival, including DOMBEY & SON, VANITY FAIR, and MADAME BOVARY, the last of which he later directed (in reduced form) for the Alchemy Theater in New York City. In all, Paul directed 46 campus productions in 40 years, most of which were original adaptations of narrative fiction. He also published numerous scholarly essays. As a teacher, Paul received four Northwestern Faculty Recognition Awards; five Faculty Honor Roll Awards from the Northwestern Student Government Association; the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Northwestern Alumni Association in 2001; and the Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence Award from Northwestern for the years 2007 to 2010. Additional awards included the Leslie Irene Coger Award for Distinguished Performance in 1997 and the Lilla Heston Award for Distinguished Research in 2001 (for his publications in NCA journals and others, such as Theatre Annual and Shakespeare Quarterly). Paul was born in Washington, DC and raised in Bethesda, Maryland. After high school, he obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in interpretation from Northwestern University. After a brief stint as an actor in DC, he returned to school and received his Ph.D. in the performance of literature from the University of Texas at Austin. In 1979, he accepted an Associate Professorship in what became known as the Performance Studies Department at Northwestern, where he remained on the faculty until his retirement with emeritus status in 2019. Paul is survived by his brother William M. Edwards III (Linda), five nieces and nephews, and nine great nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his wife Maggie Doyle and his parents William and Velma Edwards. Per Brian Pastor — “Paul Edwards was not just a man. He was a thundering lion of mythic proportions, with a wild mane of white hair, a booming voice, and a laugh that was absolutely unmistakable…He leaves behind an undeniable legacy, both on campus, and in the Chicago theatre community…And all who remember that laugh will carry him with us wherever we go. He left behind no children, but we are all his heirs.” |