Tony!

GT12 has held season tix to Chicago Shakespeare Theater for the last seven or eight years. In fact Saturday is the last show of this season for us.

Today we read this:

The Chicago Shakespeare Theater is the recipient of the 2008 Tony Award for excellence in regional theater, it was announced Tuesday morning in New York.

Chicago Shakespeare is the fourth Chicago theater to win the regional-theater Tony. And it does so in the midst of a season of unprecedented acclaim for the Chicago theater in New York. Also on Tuesday, the Broadway production of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's "August: Osage County" won a slew of Tony nominations.

Steppenwolf Theatre itself won the so-called regional Tony in 1985. The Goodman Theatre won in 1992. And Victory Gardens Theater won in 2001. But no other American city has won four regional-theater Tonys, an honor restricted to those outside New York.

The award is the cap on an extraordinary rise to national prominence by a theater that has always prized its off-Loop roots—and putting both the Chicago actor and local audiences front and center. Throughout its history, Chicago Shakespeare has emphasized accessibility, clarity and storytelling. "I don't think Shakespeare set out to teach us anything," artistic director Barbara Gaines said in a 2002 Tribune interview. "He just wanted to tell a great story."