Previews start November 14 in the Richard Christiansen Theater at Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago. Press opening is Sunday, November 17 at 2 p.m. Performances run through December 15: Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 4 p.m. Exception: No show Thursday, November 28 (Thanksgiving). There is an added 4 p.m. matinee on Saturday, November 30.
Tickets, $20-$40, go on sale Tuesday, August 27. Discounts are available for students, seniors and groups. For tickets and information, visit www.victorygardens.org or call (773) 871-3000.
Waiting for Godot is Irish writer Samuel Beckett’s “tragicomedy in two acts” in which two men, Vladimir and Estragon, meet near a tree to wait for the arrival of the mysterious Godot, who continually sends word that he will appear but never does. They discuss their miseries, debate their lots in life, question why they were put on earth, and even consider hanging themselves. They also encounter three characters, Lucky, Pozzo and a messenger boy, who engage in absurd, enlightening conversations about the human condition as they wait…and wait…and wait for Godot.
Published in 1952 in French as “En attendant Godot” and first produced in Paris in 1953, Waiting for Godot was a true innovation in drama and the Theatre of the Absurd’s first theatrical success. The English-language version premiered in London in 1955. In a poll conducted by the British Royal National Theatre in 1990, it was voted the "most significant English language play of the 20th century."
Michael Saad (left, in stripes, both rows) plays Estragon and Larry Russo (glasses and cravat) is Pozzo in Dennis Začek's new production of Waiting for Godot. Photo by Charles Osgood.
Behind-the-scenes of Waiting for Godot
Dennis Začek (director) is one of the seminal figures of Chicago’s live theater scene, respected nationally as a director, actor, producer and advocate for new plays, diversity and inclusion. Začek was Artistic Director at Victory Gardens Theater from 1977 to 2011, and he directed more than 250 plays during his 34 years at the artistic helm.
Flash back to 1971, when Začek was an early career theater professor at Loyola University. He staged a winter production of Waiting for Godot that proved memorable to all who it saw it, including playwright David Ives, a Northwestern student at the time. Decades later, in 2015, Začek walked up to congratulate Ives on opening night of his play School of Lives at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, and Ives replied, “I thought your production of Waiting for Godot was brilliant.”
Začek adds, “When I first directed Godot, over 40 years ago at Loyola, it was in the infancy of the Chicago off-Loop theater movement. Chicago theater has grown extremely powerful and significant since 1971, and I’ve directed over 250 shows. But when re-reading Beckett’s text, I find Beckett every bit as interesting as I did before. I felt this was a world I was familiar with in my 30s, and I still feel connected to it today.”
Michael Saad (right) as Estragon and John Ostrander (left) as Vladimir in Dennis Začek's 1971 production of Waiting for Godot. Ostrander went on to write "Suicide Squad," the DC comic series the movie is based on. Saad went on to a successful career as well, and is returning nearly 50 years later to work with Začek again and reprise his role of Estragon in Začek’s 2019 staging of Waiting for Godot. Photo courtesy Michael Saad and Ron Nicholas.
Začek began working with Victory Gardens Theater in 1974, was named Artistic Director in 1977, and stepped down in 2011 after 34 years at the helm. While there, Začek directed more than 250 productions, established a playwrights ensemble of 14 diverse members, accepted the company’s 2001 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, helped launch the IGNITION new play festival, and fostered an international reputation for Victory Gardens as one of the most important playwriting theaters in the U.S.
Under Začek’s leadership, these and other accolades propelled Victory Gardens to renovate and relocate to the historic Biograph Theater in 2006. Začek’s directing highlights at the Victory Gardens Biograph included its inaugural production, Denmark by Charles Smith, and the smash hit Chicago premiere of David Harrower’s Blackbird starring William Petersen. His many memorable productions at Victory Gardens’ former home at 2257 N. Lincoln Avenue included the world premiere of Jeffrey Sweet's Class Dismissed; James Sherman's Relatively Close; the Midwest premiere of A Park in Our House by Nilo Cruz; Symmetry by David Field; The Family Gold by Annie Reiner; Affluenza! by James Sherman; Unspoken Prayers by Claudia Allen; and The Action Against Sol Schumann and Flyovers by Jeffrey Sweet. Additional projects include Marisha Chamberlain’s Scheherazade (National Winner of the FDG/CBS competition), John Olive's Clara's Play (production and direction award, Academy of Theater Artists and Friends), and James Sherman's Mr. 80% (direction award, Academy of Theater Artists and Friends).
Začek directed Arthur Cantor's production of James Sherman's Beau Jest at the Lambs Theater in New York, where it holds the record as the longest-running show in the history of the theater. Other New York credits include Lonnie Carter's The Sovereign State of Boogedy Boogedy, presented by Woody King's New Federal Theater, and Charles Smith's Jelly Belly, produced by the New Federal Theater.
Awards include Actors' Equity Association's (AEA) Spirit of Diversity Award, given to institutions that "have made non-traditional casting a way of life," the 2004 Artistic Leadership Award from the League of Chicago Theatres and the 2005 Jeff Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chicago Equity Theatre. Začek and Marcelle McVay, his wife and former Victory Gardens Managing Director, received the 1999 Rosetta Lenoire Award from Actors' Equity and the 1998 Sidney R. Yates Arts Advocacy Award from the Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation. In 2005 he was included in Utne Magazine's list of "Artists Who Will Shake the World."
Dennis Začek, flanked by (left) Victory Gardens Managing Director Marcelle McVay and (right) Associate Artistic Director Sandy Shinner, accepting the 2001 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre on behalf of Victory Gardens at Radio City Music Hall.
Since leaving Victory Gardens, Začek directed Boeing Boeing at Drury Lane Theatre (2013), The Testament of Mary at Victory Gardens and The Passion of Emma Goldman at Stage 773 (2014), The Ben Hecht Show starring frequent collaborator James Sherman for Grippo Productions at Piven Theatre and L.A.’s Zephyr Theatre (2016), and a revival of Sherman’s The God of Isaac, also for Grippo Stage Company at Piven (2017). He has also staged numerous productions at Fringe Theater Key West including Heisenberg, Blackbird, The Apple Falls, Orson’s Shadow and A Delicate Balance.
Začek received his B.A. at DePaul University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. at Northwestern University. He is the co-author of “Victory Gardens Theater Presents Seven New Plays from the Playwrights Ensemble” with Sandy Shinner, Victory Gardens’ former associate artistic director (Northwestern University Press, 2006). He is the author of his memoir “The Začek Tapes,” as interviewed by Mary Filice (WhizBang LLC/Absolutely Amazing eBooks, 2016). He resides in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood with his wife Marcelle McVey and son, Zach, remains Artistic Director Emeritus at Victory Gardens Theater and is a Professor Emeritus of Loyola University.
Samuel Beckett (playwright, 1906-1989) was an Irish novelist, playwright, short story writer, theater director, poet and literary translator. A resident of Paris for most of his adult life, he wrote in both English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human existence, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humor. He wrote his first novel, “Dream of Fair to Middling Women,” in 1932 and published a collection of stories, “More Pricks Than Kicks,” in 1934. His next novel, “Murphy,” was followed by his celebrated novel trilogy (“Molloy,” “Malone Dies,” “The Unnamable”). In 1947, he wrote his first play, Eleutheria, which he would not allow to be published during his lifetime. In 1948, he wrote Waiting for Godot. Its production in Paris at the Théâtre de Babylone in January 1953, by the director and actor Roger Blin (with whom Beckett would develop a lifelong friendship), brought Beckett his first real public success both in and outside of France. In the 1950s and 1960s, Beckett’s playwriting continued with a series of masterpieces, includingEndgame, Krapp’s Last Tape and Happy Days. He was involved in various productions of his plays across Europe and in the United States, wrote his first radio plays and continued to write innovative fiction, becoming increasingly minimalist in his later career. In 1969 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. His last major work, the prose fiction “Stirrings Still,” was written in 1986. That same year, he was diagnosed with emphysema. His deteriorating health prevented him from writing, and he died on December 22, 1989.
Joe Foust (Vladimir) has acted at Goodman, Steppenwolf, Wisdom Bridge, Remy Bumppo, Next, Theater Wit, Court, Chicago Shakespeare, First Folio, American Blues, Cleveland Playhouse, Syracuse Stage, New Victory on Broadway, Maltz Jupiter, Milwaukee Shakespeare theaters and is a founding member of Defiant Theater, where credits include directing and co-writing Action Movie: The Play and Ubu Raw. He recently wrapped his 19th season with Peninsula Players where his credits include directing The Hollow, Dial M for Murder, Wait Until Dark, Noises Offand Deathtrap, writing Once a Ponzi Time, as well as acting in more than 30 shows including The 39 Steps, Making God Laugh and God of Carnage. Other credits include “Parks and Recreation” (NBC), “Normal” (HBO), “Early Edition” (CBS), “Chicago Fire” (NBC) and “Proven Innocent” (FOX).
Nima Rakhshanifar (Lucky) is an Iranian-American actor, singer, dancer and musician from the Silicon Valley. They studied acting at Pacific Conservatory Theatre in Santa Maria, CA. Since then they have been an Emerging Professional Resident at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, performing in Ayad Akhtar's Junk and understudying and performing Humayun in Guards at the Taj.
Larry Russo (left) plays Pozzo and Nima Rakhshanifar plays Lucky in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, directed by Dennis Zacek, November 14-December 15, 2019 in the Richard Christiansen Theater at Victory Gardens.
Larry Russo (Pozzo) was cast by Dennis Začek as Joey, the boxer, in Harold Pinter's The Homecoming at Victory Gardens in 1978. Russo also performed in Začek’s productions of David Storey’s Home in 1980 and Your Move in 1982, both at Victory Gardens, Prague Spring at Goodman Stage II, and in severalChicago Stories productions.
Michael Saad (Estragon) is pleased to be working with his mentor again Dennis Zacek. Zacek directed Mike, as Mick, in the legendary production ofThe Caretaker with Frank Galati and William J. Norris. (It was the first time in the history of the Jefferson awards every aspect of the show was nominated with 8 nominations.) He was a member of the Organic Theater Company that created such shows as The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, Bloody Bess, Cops and Bleacher Bums for which he is a co-author. Received four Joseph Jefferson nominations, winning two. He has an Emmy for the WTTW production ofBleacher Bums and has guest starred in over 40 TV shows and movies (Seinfeld, 24, JAG, Las Vegas). He played Joel Cairo in the Grammy nominated audio dramatization of the Maltese Falcon with Michael Madsen, Sandra Oh and Edward Herrmann. He wrote and produced the independent feature The Sand Angels. He acted in and executive produced the feature Darkslide which will be released by Summer Hill Entertainment. He plays Socrates in the feature filmTom of Your Life, which will be released next year. He is working on a screenplay, a musical performance piece and a book about the Organic Theater when it was under the auspices of Stuart Gordon.
Michael Saad (reclining) as Estragon and John Ostrander as Vladimir in Dennis Začek's 1971 production of Waiting for Godot.
Michael Saad returns nearly 50 years later in the role of Estragon in Dennis Začek 2019 staging of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.
The Waiting for Godot production team includes Patrick Kerwin (scenic and lighting design), Isaac Pineda (costumes) and Tina Jach (stage manager).Casting for the role of the boy is TBA at press time.
About Victory Gardens Theater
Under the leadership of Artistic Director Chay Yew and Executive Director Erica Daniels, Victory Gardens is dedicated to artistic excellence while creating a vital, contemporary American Theater that is accessible and relevant to all people through productions of challenging new plays and musicals. Victory Gardens Theater is committed to the development, production and support of new plays that has been the mission of the theater since its founding, set forth by Dennis Začek, Marcelle McVay, and the original founders of Victory Gardens Theater.
Since its founding in 1974, the company has produced more world premieres than any other Chicago theater, a commitment recognized nationally when Victory Gardens received the 2001 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Located in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, Victory Gardens Biograph Theater includes the Začek-McVay Theater, a state-of-the-art 259-seat mainstage and the 109-seat studio theater on the second floor, named the Richard Christiansen Theater.