TONY ADLER (1954-2025)
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Long-time theatre critic and co-founder of the Actors Gymnasium, Tony Adler, passed away on November 11 at the age of 71. Tony worked at the Chicago Reader for 38 years (over two separate periods), writing weekly reviews and articles, as well as being the paper’s theatre section assignment editor and arts editor for a time. In addition, he wrote for the Chicago Tribune, Chicago magazine and other publications, as well as authored the sections about theater and improvisational theater for The Encyclopedia of Chicago.
Tony was known as a champion of the unknown, helping to give notice to several upstart theatre companies,including Theater Oobleck, Lookingglass and TheatreY (where he joined the board in 2002). When he heard that the Lookingglass ensemble was dreaming of a place where actors could train in a wide range of physical performance styles, Tony realized that Evanston’s Noyes Cultural Arts Center would have space available, then worked with Carlyle Coash, Larry DiStasi and Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi to found the Actors Gymnasium in 1995. Born and raised in Evanston, Tony was one of Maury and Nettie Adler’s three children.He attend ed Evanston Township High School and majored in English at Carnegie Mellon University. After working a series of jobs in retail and restaurants, he was hired into Chicago’s artist-in-residence program, teaching poetry workshops at senior centers and various locations around the city. Tony’s continuing love of poetry was immortalized beginning in 1983 with his annual “Whitmanstide” celebration—a gathering of friends reading Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” while sharing food and drink. Tony met his future wife, artist and graphic designer Beth Herman, in 1982, and they were married two years later. He is survived by Beth; their two sons, Max (Celia Morelli) Adler and Emmett (Sara Golden) Adler; grandchildren Axel, August and Leo Adler; his brother, David Adler, and his brother-in-law David (Jessica) Herman.He is preceded in death by his parents and sister Sally Brogan. Per Lookingglass founding member Andrew White—“I found Tony to be an extraordinarily curious and interested observer; rather than just giving his opinion, he always seemed to be really trying to understand what the artists were attempting and intending. He was a nuanced thinker, with a deep and expansive knowledge of theater and literature, and a helluva good writer. I always felt like he was pulling for the folks onstage, he wanted them to succeed wildly, was always hoping they’d hit their mark—and even if we sometimes missed, he was rooting for us anyway.” With thanks to the Chicago Reader. |