![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/All-Quiet-Red-Tape-Theatre-Chicago.jpg\")
<\/a>This battle scene is from the 2019 production of \u201cAll Quiet on the Western Front\u201d at the Red Tape Theatre in Chicago.<\/p><\/div>\u201cThis is the first time a production that began in this department has ever gone on to a professional version and several professional awards,\u201d said Dr. Edmund Lingan, professor and chair of UToledo\u2019s Department of Theatre and Film. \u201cWe are extremely proud of Matt Foss and his team.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAll Quiet on the Western Front\u201d won for Best Production of a Play and for Best Ensemble \u2014two of the top awards in Chicago theater each year. Two UToledo alumni, Austin Rambo (Theatre 2019) and Bianca Caniglia (Environmental Science and Women\u2019s Studies 2018), were part of the Chicago production\u2019s ensemble cast. <\/p>\n
The production also was won awards for Best Choreography (Leah Urzendowski) and Sound Design (Dan Poppen). <\/p>\n
Sakowski received the award for Best Lighting Design of the year, and Foss the prize for Best New Work.<\/p>\n
Foss adapted Erich Maria Remarque\u2019s historic novel \u201cAll Quiet on the Western Front\u201d for the stage, and it premiered at The University of Toledo with a student cast in fall 2018 in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, the war in which the novel is set. <\/p>\n
The professional premiere of the play featured a unique collaboration between The University of Toledo co-producing the production with Red Tape Theatre and the Greenhouse Theatre Center \u2014 two professional companies in Chicago. UToledo\u2019s support resulted in an extension of classroom learning in a professional setting, with Sakowski and a number of former students also participating in the project. The opening of the production culminated in a showcase event highlighting the UToledo College of Arts and Letters\u2019 commitment to the arts, student experiences and innovation.<\/p>\n
In 2019, the play received the Kennedy Center\u2019s David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award, recognizing the year\u2019s outstanding new work premiered at a college or university.<\/p>\n