Ford’s Theatre

President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination—in 1865, during a performance of Our American Cousin—shuttered this house for a century, but crusading producer Frankie Hewitt helped bring its stage back to life in the late 1960s. For decades, much of what Ford’s offered was easy-to-swallow fare, but now and again producers surprise theatergoers with an edgy imported offering. Since Hewitt’s death in 2003, Alley Theatre veteran Paul Tetreault has steered the house gingerly in the direction of more substantial fare—including an admirable production of August Wilson’s devastating Jitney and (to reopen the house in 2009 after a major renovation) an ambitious Lincoln commission called The Heavens Are Hung in Black.