Are Chicago’s theater awards broken? The Jeffs face growing backlash

A week after audible “boos” rained down in a ceremony honoring some of Chicago’s top storefront theater companies, the Joseph Jefferson Awards — known conversationally as “The Jeffs” and akin to the local Tonys — are facing backlash.

Several theaters said on social media and in interviews over the weekend that they are stepping away from “the Jeffs,” established in 1968 to reward excellence in Chicago’s vibrant theater scene. And at least one Jeffs committee member has publicly resigned.

Today, the Jeff Awards are split into two annual award ceremonies: the Non Equity Jeffs honor Chicago storefront theater companies, and the Equity Jeffs honor larger regional theaters, with performers in the actors’ union. The Jeff Awards is staffed by an all-volunteer organization that consists of judges attending performances and making recommendations for ‘Jeff Recommended’ shows and award considerations.

In a statement signed by members of the Jeff committee on Sunday, the group pledged to review its current judging and voting practices and incorporate what it learns from “outreach” in the larger community. A new subcommittee tasked with the review will report findings by July 1.

“The Jeff Awards exist for one reason: to spotlight the artists and creatives who make Chicago the most vibrant theater city in the world,” the statement read. “When the community we serve is hurting, we feel a profound responsibility to listen, to reflect, and to evolve.”

The controversy erupted last week following the 52nd annual Non Equity Jeff Award ceremony. The committee of judges honored Invictus Theatre’s artistic director Charles Askenaizer as “best director.” Askenaizer is currently under investigation by the theater company’s board after recent allegations of abuse surfaced on social media from actors.

Askenaizer was not immediately available for comment, a spokesperson said. But in a statement, Invictus Theatre’s board said it has hired a third-party to examine allegations and will “cooperate fully with the investigation.” The statement continued: “We recognize that some in our community feel frustrated that we have not responded publicly on social media to these allegations. This type of situation is new to us, and we are doing our best to navigate it thoughtfully and with respect to all parties involved. Our goal is not speed, but ensuring the matter is addressed appropriately and with care.”

Theoretically, winning a Jeff Award can boost a theater's profile. It can lead to further employment opportunities for individual artists and these awards are often used in promotional materials for companies.

But the issues many storefront companies and artists have with the Jeffs didn’t begin, or end, with the 2026 honors, some theater artists who protested the group said in interviews.

The looming questions, then, underneath all of the recent blowback: Are the Jeff Awards broken? And, after over a half-century in operation, what purpose do these awards serve today?

Siblings Xavier M. Custodio and Yajaira Custodio are co-founders of Vision Latino Theatre Company. They announced last week on Instagram they are stepping away from the Jeff Awards.

Xavier said his company’s decision to cut ties with the local awards institution started in October of 2025.

“We had just finished doing a play [“Las Borinqueñas”] about the birth control trials that happened in Puerto Rico, and my sister was sitting next to one of the Jeffs committee members who was sleeping right when the show started,” he said.

Yajaira said the sleeping committee member wasn’t the first incident. Committee members were rude in past shows, “asking about runtime, and saying, ‘Oh, that's a little too long,’ and just being rude in general,” she said.

They also questioned the cultural competency of the judges. Xavier asked the committee via email how they evaluate shows. The response, he said, was that, “it’s all technical.”

“It's a very Eurocentric way of looking at theater,” he said. “So a lot of theaters of color go through a lot of this where we don't get recommended, or we don't get nominated or win, if it's not fitting they’re Eurocentric vision of what theater should be.”

When the Custodios reached out to the committee to complain, the committee reportedly refused to send another judge, instead opting to “do better in the future,” Xavier said.

WBEZ/Sun-Times asked the Jeff Awards committee for information regarding age, race, and gender demographics of Jeff judges and voters for this story. The committee did not send a response by publication time.

Some storefront theater administrators said they are questioning what they get from Jeff recommendations. Tony Lawry, founding artistic director of Theatre Above Law, another company that has recently decided to cut ties with the Jeffs, said his company did an evaluation of its four Jeff recommended shows.

“For those four productions that were Jeff recommended, literally less than five tickets were sold due to the recommendation,” he said. “We always ask when people buy tickets online, ‘How did you hear about the show?’ So I went back and looked at those question tag results and basically one ticket per production responded that it was sold because we were Jeff recommended. That's not worth it.”

Lawry said Jeff Award judges also fell asleep in productions staged by his theater company.

“We've had Jeff judges that probably shouldn't be allowed to be Jeff judges, because they can't stay awake through a whole show,” he said. “And we don't do shows that are longer than 90 minutes.”

After the flurry of social media comments last week, the Jeffs committee said in its statement that the group acknowledged its most recent misstep in awarding an artist under investigation.

“We realize that our initial silence felt out of step with the urgency of these concerns and for this we apologize; our intent is always to support this community, never to diminish the importance of safety or well-being," the committee said.

This silence is the primary reason David Price, a former opening night judge for the committee, decided to step down.

“However well-intentioned a decision may be to step back and remain silent, and however one may wish that that silence is interpreted as neutrality, the reality is that silence is never interpreted by most people as neutrality,” Price said. “There's no neutrality on this issue. You're either working to make things better, or, by your lack of being part of the process, you're allowing things to remain the same or get worse.”

For some theaters, the Jeff committee’s response may be too little too late.

“They claim they care about the community, but they obviously don't,” Lawry said.