Jackie Taylor, executive artistic director of the 31-year-old Black Ensemble Theater (BET), will receive a special award at the 39th Annual Jeff Awards ceremony on Mon., Oct. 29.
Taylor founded BET in 1976 with a $1,200 loan and free legal work from Lawyers for the Creative Arts and has built it into a $1.6 million cultural organization that has earned national recognition. Taylor has also been involved in writing, directing, choreographing or managing over 100 musicals and plays. She has previously received a Jeff Award for Director of a Revue for her 1996 production of Great Women in Gospel, which represents one of BET’s 28 Jeff nods.
The 39th Annual Jeff Awards ceremony will be held at The North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie, Skokie, at 7:30 p.m. Advance purchase tickets, which include the ceremony and the pre-show buffet, are $65 ($50 for members of Actors’ Equity Association, United Scenic Artists, Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and the Dramatists Guild of America). See www.jeffawards.org.