Three decades of soul, story, and rhythm.
Robert Reddrick is a masterful music director, arranger, and drummer — and one of the most respected musical voices in Chicago theater. As Resident Musical Director of the Black Ensemble Theater, he leads the ensemble that gives the company its unmistakable live sound, drumming and directing through soul revues, biographical musicals, and world premieres alike.
A former student of the Music Department at Columbia College Chicago, Robert built his craft the way the best musicians do: in the room, on the bandstand, learning to serve the song. Over the years he has been trusted with musical direction and drumming at Steppenwolf Theatre, Porchlight Music Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Victory Gardens Theater, the University of Illinois, Free Street Theater, and more.
First, the drummer.
Before he was anyone's music director, Robert was — and has never stopped being — a drummer. It is the thing everything else is built on. He plays with the kind of feel you cannot teach: a deep, unhurried pocket that lets a singer lean back into a phrase and a horn section snap in around him. Nothing is rushed. Nothing is wasted. The groove simply arrives and stays.
He is a rare kind of bandleader, too, because he leads from the kit — no baton, no podium, just the pulse. The band takes its breath from him. When a number lifts, it lifts because he decided it would. Put a soul groove, a gospel shuffle, a slow blues drag, a funk break, or a full Broadway chart in front of him and the vocabulary is already there; three decades on Chicago bandstands will do that to a player.
That drumming is the engine under all of it — the reason singers trust him, the reason his arrangements land, and the reason an audience feels a show in the chest before they can explain why. Away from the theater he keeps the chops sharp with his own band, The R2Project.
His work has been recognized repeatedly by Chicago's theater community — a seven-time recipient of the Black Theater Alliance Award and a seven-time Jeff Award nominee for musical direction. He has been honored among Porchlight Music Theatre's celebrated "Scene Changers."
And the engineer.
There is a second craft behind the first. At the Black Ensemble Theater, Robert doesn't only lead the music — he records, edits, mixes, masters, and archives it, overseeing all of the company's music and audio materials and working hand in hand with writers, directors, and sound designers. He composes, transcribes, and programs, and when a score calls for sounds no pit can hold, he builds them.
It is an unusual combination: the person setting the tempo is also the person who knows exactly how it will sound in the room, on the recording, and in the archive years from now.
He also remains devoted to teaching — sharing what he knows with young musicians and students who are just discovering the discipline and the joy of playing.
His path also carries a rare distinction. Robert has built a distinguished career in a field where Black musical leadership has long been underrepresented — and for decades he has helped shape full theatrical productions at the highest professional level, season after season.
What the Black Ensemble Theater is.
To understand what it means to be this company's Music Director, it helps to know the company.
The Black Ensemble Theater is one of the most prominent African American theater companies in the nation — and one of the very few with a permanent home of its own. Its 50,000-square-foot Cultural Center on Chicago's North Side houses a 299-seat mainstage and a studio theater, draws roughly 50,000 patrons a year, and has been named among the top 25 major theaters in the United States by the Encyclopædia Britannica Almanac. In 2026 the company is celebrating its 50th Anniversary Season.
Its specialty is the story of Black music. Over five decades the company has staged musical biographies and revues honoring Jackie Wilson, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Billie Holiday, Dionne Warwick, Teddy Pendergrass, Otis Redding, Muddy Waters, and the Stax Records songbook. The Jackie Wilson Story toured nationally and played a four-week run at Harlem's legendary Apollo Theater.
That music doesn't come from a recording. It comes from a live band — and Robert is the man who leads it.
To eradicate racism and its damaging effects on our society through the utilization of theater arts.— The Black Ensemble Theater's mission, since 1976
Jackie Taylor built it from nothing.
Jackie Taylor grew up in Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing projects and became an actress — appearing in the 1975 film Cooley High, which NPR later called a classic of Black cinema. Frustrated by the exploitative, stereotyped roles Hollywood offered her, she came home and decided to build the stage she wanted to stand on.
She founded the Black Ensemble Theater in 1976 in the basement of a community center. She has since produced more than 100 productions, and raised $20 million to build the company its permanent home, which opened in 2011.
Taylor has received a lifetime achievement award from the League of Chicago Theaters and Actors' Equity's Rosetta LeNoire Award. Illinois named a day in her honor, Chicago Magazine named her Chicagoan of the Year, and a stretch of Beacon Street carries her name. She remains the company's founder and CEO.
She wanted a stage that told the truth about who we are — so she built one, and it is still standing fifty years later.— Robert leads the band on that stage today
Robert Reddrick is Music Director for the company's productions, leading the live band that gives its shows their sound — including all three productions of the 50th Anniversary Season.
The philosophy
Serve the song
Great musical direction isn't about showing off — it's about lifting the story, the singer, and the moment. Every arrangement earns its place.
Lead from the kit
As a drummer-director, Robert leads with the pulse. The band breathes together, and the whole production locks into the groove.
Pass it on
Skills and stories are meant to be handed down. Robert teaches so the work outlives any one player and keeps finding new hands.
One artist, many rooms.
Music Director · Drummer · Arranger · Bandleader · Educator · Clinician · Brand Collaborator. Whether it's a full-book musical, a soul revue, a Shakespeare production, a school clinic, or a recording session, Robert brings the same standard: professional, prepared, and deeply musical.