Photo: Suzanne Plunkett
Biography
John Hildreth was born in Madison, Wisconsin and received a B.A. in chemistry from the University of Chicago. While at the University of Chicago, he was a founding member of the ground-breaking improv group, Cardiff Giant Theater, which created original scripted plays and musicals through improvisation, including LBJFKKK, Love Me, and After Taste. Mr. Hildreth is an alumnus of The Second City, and performed at Second City, Northwest in such revues as Casino Evil, and at Second City, e.t.c. in such revues as Whitewater for Chocolate. He was also a resident director at Second City, Detroit for three years, where he directed five consecutive comedy revues, including Generation X-Files. Since 1999, Mr. Hildreth has been an artistic ensemble member of the Lifeline Theatre in Chicago, where his stage adaptations of Around the World in Eighty Days and Johnny Tremain received Non-Equity Joseph Jefferson Awards for Best New Adaptation. He has also recently directed in Chicago at Lifeline, the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, Live Bait Theater, Emerald City Theatre, Theatre on the Lake, iO (formerly the Improv Olympic), Donny's Skybox Studio, The Athenaeum, and Columbia College, and recently appeared at Piven Theatre, Theatre on the Lake, Live Bait Theater, Northlight Theatre, and Lifeline. Mr. Hildreth lives in Chicago with his wife, Kate, and teaches in the theater department at Columbia College and the Conservatory at The Second City.
