Geoff Button

Directing - Acting - Teaching

Geoff served for years as the Casting Director and on the Artistic Council for the beloved Chicago theater company The Hypocrites. He directed their productions of Adding Machine: A Musical (Jeff Nomination - Best Production of a Musical, TimeOut Chicago Theater Award Nominations - Best Production of a Musical, Best Director),  Into the Woods, Coriolanus, Desire Under the Elms, True West (Non-Equity Jeff Nominations - Best Play, Best Director), and his own original adaptation of Chekhov's Three Sisters.

He also was the Associate Artistic Director of the acclaimed Writers Theatre in Glencoe, IL, which was dubbed by Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal "America's finest regional theatre". That position encompassed all of the Casting Director responsibilities for the theatre, but he also played an integral role in every Writers' production, from season selection through opening night, as well as serving as lead artistic producer on at least one production a year. Producing credits at Writers included Caryl Churchill's A NUMBER, Stephen Sondheim's INTO THE WOODS, and 2021’s all-virtual WORDPLAY GALA. During the pandemic, he also produced and directed WT’s audio series, Something Wicked: Stories for Halloween.

Geoff received his B.A. from Western Michigan University in Theater Performance and his M.F.A. in Theater Directing from Northwestern University, where he directed Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, The Who's Tommy and Spring Awakening. Around Chicago he directed at Mary Arrchie (Harold Pinter's The Homecoming), Strawdog (State of the Union), Depaul University (I Am Bradley Manning by Sarah Gubbins), North Park University (Urinetown), Lake Forest College (H.M.S. Pinafore) and the Side Project (Sean Graney's Sugarward). He also directed the rolling world premiere of Zak Berkman’s The Harassment of Iris Malloy at The Detroit Public Theater.

Also an actor, he appeared at several theaters in Chicago, including in The Hypocrites' productions of Sophocles: Seven Sicknesses, Woyzeck, Mud, Balm in Gilead, and Equus (Non-Equity Jeff - Best Actor). He won the Broadway World Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as Orestes in Graney's epic 12-hour retelling of every surviving Greek tragedy, All Our Tragic, which also won the Jeff Awards for both Best Ensemble and Best Play. 

As a teacher, he worked as both an adjunct and full-time lecturer in Northwestern's Music Theater Certificate Program, as a Core Acting Teacher for The National High School Institute (AKA: Cherubs), and on the theater and music theatre faculties for The Chicago Academy for the Arts.