Clockwise Theatre was born in 2008 when Co-Artistic Directors Less Boyd and Madelyn Sergel began exploring opening a not-for-profit professional theatre company in Lake County. With a shared passion for new and contemporary theatre, as well as a strong working relationship, they wanted to build a professional home to produce innovative, exciting theatre.

Sergel and Boyd, both long-time residents of Lake County, realized that while there are community theatres, professional production houses, and some not-for-profit companies which focus on previously-produced fare in the area, there exists no home for new and current plays, programming which reaches out to the rich cultural communities, including Latino, African American, Asian and Indian.

They spent the next ten months seeking performance space in different communities in Lake County. After seeing buildings in different suburbs, Waukegan, a diverse community with a rich history in the arts on the Lake Michigan shoreline halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee, was clearly the best fit.

Plans were put on hold during the 2008 economic downturn (or as some would say, “CRASH”) placed a speed bump in the road. Yet the vision remained. Regrouping in 2009, Less and Madelyn began building the Clockwise Board, meeting with city officials, joined the Waukegan Arts Collective and Mosaic Arts Project, and added Rebecca Adler to the company as Managing Director.

The Clockwise company and board are now in full court press mode, building a strong business infrastructure, recruiting talent and support, and searching for a permanent home in downtown Waukegan.