Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
The Sarah Siddons Society bestowed its 2021 Leading Man Award upon local theater luminary Dominic Missimi.
The society funds scholarships to promising theater arts students at top Chicago-area universities, including the Theater Department at Columbia College, Theatre School at DePaul University, Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and Northwestern University School of Communications.
Missimi is professor emeritus at Northwestern University. Founder and former director of the university’s nationally recognized Music Theatre Program, he recently retired as executive director of the American Music Theatre Project, which he founded. He has also served as director of the famed WAA-MU student variety show at Northwestern for 17 years.
In his 32 years at the university, Missimi has directed more than 100 plays, musicals and operas. He has also staged 35 musicals for the Marriott Theatre at Lincolnshire, where his productions have received multiple Joseph Jefferson nominations and awards.
He has worked for opera companies and regional theaters throughout the United States and has directed for all of Chicago’s major musical theaters.
Currently, Missimi serves as artistic director for the Sarah Siddons Society, for which he has produced several musical revues and arranged gala awards celebrations in honor of Sarah Siddons Award recipients Barbara Cook, Audra McDonald, Jessie Mueller and Brian D’Arcy James.
He is married to award-winning costume designer Nancy Missimi and is the proud father of Emmy and Angela.
