Artistic Director
Linda Fortunato has spent more than 20 seasons at Peninsula Players Theatre as a director, choreographer, actor, and business manager. Fortunato was previously the artistic director of Theatre at the Center in Munster, Indiana where her credits include directing White Christmas, Cabaret, The Pajama Game, Big River, The Tin Woman, Steel Magnolias, and a dozen others as director, choreographer or actor. Linda been nominated for six Joseph Jefferson Awards for her work as a choreographer and director. She received both the Equity and Non-Equity Jeff Award for Outstanding Choreography in the 2013-2014 season, garnering Theatre at the Center their first award for her Choreography of 42nd Street.
Fortunato’s other directing and choreography credits include work at BoHo Theatre, Marriott Theatre, Drury Lane Theatre, Timeline Theatre, Writers Theatre, American Players Theatre, New Tuners, Riverfront Theatre, The Lamb’s Theatre-NY, and dozens of productions at Chicago-area High Schools and Colleges. Her performance credits include roles at Marriott Theatre, Drury Lane Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Drury Lane Evergreen Park, Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, Fulton Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, American Eagle, and Candlelight Playhouse.
Fortunato has taught in the Theatre Departments at Columbia College Chicago and Loyola University Chicago. She graduated from Millikin University with a BFA in Theatre and a minor in Dance. Linda is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SDC) and Actors Equity Association (AEA). She lives in Evanston, IL with her son and husband, actor Sean Fortunato.
2025 Roles: Director of Barefoot in the Park
2024 Roles: Director of The Angel Next Door
2023 Roles: Director of A Rock Sails By; Director/Choreographer of Dames at Sea
2022 Roles: Director for The Rainmaker
2021 Roles: Sally Talley in Talley’s Folly
2019 Roles: Director/Choreographer of Ghost the Musical
2018 Roles: Director of Living on Love
2015 Roles: Amy Summerfield in A Real Lulu; Director of Lend Me A Tenor
2014 Roles: Director of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None
2013 Roles: Director of Once A Ponzi Time; Celeste 2/Elaine in Sunday In The Park With George
2012 Roles: Director of The Nerd; Choreographer of Chicago
2011 Roles: Cecily Cardew in The Importance Of Being Earnest; Director of The Fox on the Fairway
2010 Roles: Choreographer of A Little Night Music; Dance Consultant and Trudi Floote in Comic Potential; Girl in dress shop in Comic Potential
2009 Roles: Choreographer of A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine; Susy Hendrix in Wait Until Dark
2007 Roles: Choreographer for Little Shop of Horrors
2006 Roles: Brooke/Vicki in Noises Off; Choreographer for Cabaret
2004 Roles: Sophia Zubritsky in Fools; Choreographer for Into the Woods
2002 Roles: Charlie in Dames at Sea; Nikki Crandall in Musical Comedy Murders of 1940
1999 Roles: Edith in Blithe Spirit and Sister in It Runs in the Family (and Business Manager)
1998 Roles: Business Manager
1997 Roles: Eileen in Moon Over Buffalo, Hot Box Girl in Guys and Dolls, The Woman in The Woman in Black
1996 Roles: Elaine in Crazy for You