Talk to the actors that she’s worked with, and they’ll tell you that renowned artist, director, and educator Lili-Anne Brown has an innate ability to see through to their core and nurture their trust in their own artistic instincts.
A native of Chicago’s south side, Brown graduated from Northwestern University before beginning her expansive career in arts and entertainment. As she phrases it, “long ago in another life,” she spent five years working as a talent agent and taking on casting director roles, all while pursuing her acting career. Though her acting resume includes several highly lauded stage productions, television credits, extensive work with The Second City, and successful solo shows Brown & Blue and Same Fool Twice, the now five-time Jeff Award winner has found her groove in the director’s chair.
In addition to her Jeff Awards, Brown has gone on to win two Helen Hayes Awards, a pair of BTA Awards, and an African American Arts Alliance Award for excellence in directing. Her miles-long director’s resume includes shows such as Fela! (Olney Theatre Center), Cullud Wattah (Victory Gardens Theatre) and other titles, including her recent powerful production of The Color Purple (Goodman Theatre), Dreamgirls (McCarter Theater and Goodspeed Musicals), Pearl Cleage‘s The Nacirema Society (Goodman Theatre), Two Trains Running (The Acting Company), and the world premiere of Kristiana Colon‘s Tilikum (Sideshow Theatre).
Up now for the in-demand director is the Chicago premiere of Jonathan Spector‘s hilarious 2025 Tony Award-winning satirical play, Eureka Day, currently running at Broadway In Chicago’s Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place.
N’DIGO recently caught up with the accomplished artist and director to learn about her journey in storytelling and how a last-minute education decision set her off onto a path she could never imagine.
N’DIGO: In your own words, who is Lili-Anne Brown?
Lili-Anne Brown: I am someone who truly wants to leave every place that I walk into better than I found it.
What are three words those closest to you would use to describe you?
Compassionate. Passionate. Visionary.
How did you find your way into the world of theatre?
There is a summer program at Northwestern University called the National High School Institute (nicknamed “Cherubs“) for students between their junior and senior years of high school. They sent me a brochure, and I was desperate to be away from home for the summer.
My parents and I agreed I would be an Engineering Cherub because I was a math and science nerd. But I didn’t want to do homework over the summer!! So unbeknownst to my parents, I erased engineering and checked off Theatre because I thought “they don’t do any work, they just play.” How very wrong I was! That summer, I found my tribe. It was the first community I was ever in where I didn’t feel “different” or “weird.” I never looked back.
Please tell us about your current show, Eureka Day?
It’s a hilarious look at these modern times of comfort politics and the truth being debatable. The story takes place at the very, very progressive Eureka Day School in Berkeley, California. The school operates in such a way that every decision is made by consensus. Then an outbreak of the mumps takes over the school, and all bets are off. Things go downhill quickly! Now, parents and board members are battling over ideology, and a community that was built on open-mindedness descends into chaos.
How does your experience as an accomplished actor inform your work when in the director’s chair?
In almost every way. My dissatisfaction with many of the rooms I was in as a young actor was what led me to directing in the first place. I work really hard to create a room that equips actors with everything they need to do their job. That means making a space where they can be truly vulnerable, make discoveries, and make mistakes.
Who inspires you artistically?
All my colleagues in the Chicago Theatre community, truly! I’m inspired by the people I get to work with—often times while I’m working with an actor, I get ideas for other things I’d like to do with them. And my fellow directors, there are so many whose work motivates me to keep learning and growing.
What’s something people would be surprised to know about you?
I’d like to think they’d be surprised that I’m chronically, hopelessly single.
What’s the best piece of advice you have been given?
Measure twice, cut once.
What’s the best piece of advice that you can give?
Nothing great comes without sacrifice. What are you willing to sacrifice?
Favorite quote or affirmation?
“To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.” – James Baldwin
What’s next for Lili-Anne Brown?
Next on my plate is The Wild Party at New York City Center’s Encores! Then the new play Fremont Ave by Reggie White at South Coast Rep, and chef Carla Hall‘s new one-woman show at Olney Theatre. All that by June! Then I get to come home and enjoy Summertime Chi.
For more information on Lili-Anne Brown, please visit her at www.lilbrownchicago.com.
Catch the Chicago premiere production of TimeLine Theatre’s Eureka Day at Broadway In Chicago’s Broadway Playhouse, currently running at Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago. For more information, please visit. www.timelinetheatre.com/events/eureka-day/
