City Lit was founded in 1979 and incorporated in 1980 by Arnold Aprill, David Dillon, and Lorell Wyatt. At the time it was the only theatre in the nation devoted to stage adaptations of literary material. Over 31 seasons, City Lit has explored fiction, non-fiction, biography, essays, and drama in performance while presenting a wide array of voices from classic writers such as Henry James, Edith Wharton, Oliver Goldsmith, Mark Twain, Colette, and P.G. Wodehouse to such contemporary writers as Alice Walker, W.P. Kinsella, Douglas Post, Raymond Carver, Edward Albee and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.

As an Illinois not for profit corporation and a 501(c)3 federal tax-exempt organization, it keeps its ticket prices below the actual cost of producing plays and depends on the support of those who share its belief in the beauty and power of the spoken word.