American Theater Company (ATC) was founded in July of 1985 as American Blues Theatre when playwright Rick Cleveland, director William Payne, actor Ed Blatchford, and designer Jim Leaming founded a theater dedicated to exploring, nurturing, and developing theater that addressed and affected the real working-class people of Chicago. From 1986 to 1993, American Blues Theatre produced such critically acclaimed productions as Eugene O'Neill's The Hairy Ape; Rick Cleveland's Bad Moon; and Monsters and Monsters II, collections of commissioned monologues by Chicago playwrights including Doug Post, Dwight Okita, David Mamet, and Paula Killen.