Scott Vehill (1956-2025)
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Scott Vehill, co-founder and longtime artistic director of Chicago’s Prop Thtr, passed away on June 5. Prop was founded by Scott and his Columbia College classmate Stefan Brün in 1981. Their first production was Bertolt Brecht’s PUNTILA AND MATTI, HIS HIRED MAN (directed by Brün, with Vehill playing Puntila), which opened at a former strip club on North Lincoln. In its early days, the company also presented a series called Momentary Purgatory, providing a home for performance artists away from the theatrical mainstream.
Scott wanted Prop’s productions to push the boundaries, like the 1986 staging of BIKER MACBETH and the 1988 staging of Scott’s adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ novel THE LAST WORDS OF DUTCH SCHULTZ. Scott collaborated often with Paul Peditto, both at Igloo Theatre and at Chicago’s bygone Live Bait Theater, where in 1991, the duo staged BUK, a drama inspired by the life and work of poet Charles Bukowski. Prop’s hard-hitting, commercially successful and critically acclaimed 1994 stage adaptation of Nelson Algren’s NEVER COME MORNING garnered nine Jeff Citations — still a record for a non-Equity production. Scott directed several Prop productions, including REAGAN: DEMENTIA IN ABSENTIA — AN UNAUTHORIZED TRIBUTE, 1,001 AFTERNOONS IN CHICAGO, and NOW DIG THIS…THE TERRY SOUTHERN SHOW. In 2006, he oversaw the staging of Prop’s biggest hit ever, HIZZONER, a critical and popular success about Mayor Richard J. Daley. Although his title was artistic director, Scott was a jack-of-all-trades, directing performances, co-authoring plays and, as Tribune theater critic Chris Jones wrote in 2000, finding ways “to pay utility bills, keep the doors open at a variety of rented spaces and produce … forms of esoteric theater in dark garages with the minimum of financial resources.” In the late 1990s, Scott helped found the National New Play Network, a consortium of theaters from around the country committed to showcasing new work. Prop became the Chicago hub of the network, whose rolling world premiere program simultaneously brings new productions to partner theaters across the U.S. Born in Detroit, Scott grew up in the Southwest Side’s Marquette Park neighborhood and later in north suburban Wildwood. After graduating from Warren Township High School in Gurnee, Scott attended downstate Monmouth College before transferring to Columbia College in Chicago. Scott’s background included performing in everything from Renaissance fairs to Greek drama festivals. More than a decade ago, Parkinson’s disease caused Scott to pull back from Prop. For the past two years, about 20 or so friends gathered monthly at the Vehill’s home to bring the homebound Scott art in the form of songs, readings and even visual artwork, in what were affectionately called ‘Scotty Salons.’ “Kristen (Scott’s wife) told me that the therapeutic benefit lasted for several days afterward,” said Keith Fort, who chairs Prop’s board and organized the salons. “That’s the healing power of art.” Scott is survived by his wife of 30 years Kristen Kunz Vehill; his sisters Julie “Gigi” Paddock, Trisha Peck and Jaime Freiler; and brother Raoul. Per Scott — “Celebrate the small victories. Rejoice in the fact that you are able to produce, because 99 percent of the people who want to do it never take that chance.” With thanks to the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Reader. |