The first priority for the search committee will be to evaluate and engage an equity-trained external search firm to aid in the process, hopefully by no later than September. The committee will begin interviewing candidates shortly thereafter, and finalists will participate in an online public event before the new AD is named. All members of the community will be invited to meet and ask questions of the candidates at this event.
E. Patrick Johnson, Victory Gardens Board Member and co-chair of the search committee, comments, “We are so fortunate to have a wonderfully diverse group of artists, playwrights, directors, staff, board members and community stakeholders on the search committee. The committee’s work has begun in earnest and it expects to move to the next stage of vetting search firms to conduct a national search for the next artistic director in the next few weeks.”
The search committee includes: E. Patrick Johnson, co-chair, Dean of the School of Communication and Annenberg Professor of Performance Studies and African American Studies at Northwestern University and Victory Gardens Board Member; Sidney Lee, co-chair, Vice President & General Counsel, Golden Country Oriental Foods and Victory Gardens Board Vice President; Fred Bates, (Retired) Corporate Counsel, ITW – Illinois Tool Works Inc. and Victory Gardens Board Member; Raveen Rao, Partner, Guidehouse LLC and Victory Gardens Board Member; Kate Tillotson, Consultant, Artistic Fundraising Group and Victory Gardens Board Vice President; Lili-Anne Brown, acclaimed director, actor, and educator and Victory Gardens Resident Director; Gloria Bond Clunie, award-winning playwright, educator, and director and Victory Gardens Playwrights Ensemble Alumna; Roxanna Conner, Victory Gardens Acting Managing Director; Henry Godinez, Professor in the Department of Theatre at Northwestern University and Resident Artistic Associate at Goodman Theatre; Coya Paz, Artistic Director of Free Street Theater and Associate Professor in The Theatre School at DePaul University; and Andrew Sparks, Community Programs Director at Latinos Progresando, a Victory Gardens Neighborhood Arts Collective-Chicago (NACC) partner.
Victory Gardens will continue to share updates as the search committee proceeds and welcomes any suggestions during the process, which you can submit at: https://victorygardens.org/artistic-director-search-feedback-form/.
About Victory Gardens Theater
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, which 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.
Victory Gardens Theater is a leader in developing and producing new theater work and cultivating an inclusive Chicago theater community. Victory Gardens’ core strengths are nurturing and producing dynamic and inspiring new plays, reflecting the diversity of our city’s and nation’s culture through engaging diverse communities, and, in partnership with Chicago Public Schools, bringing art and culture to our city’s active student population.
Since its founding in 1974, the theater 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.
For more information about Victory Gardens, visit www.victorygardens.org. Follow us on Facebook at Facebook.com/victorygardens, Twitter @VictoryGardens, and Instagram @victorygardenstheater.
Victory Gardens Theater receives major funding from the Joyce Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The REAM Foundation, Shubert Foundation, Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation, Wallace Foundation.
Additional major funding comes from the Burstein Trust, Crown Family Philanthropies, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, Polk Bros. Foundation.
Major funders also include: Allstate, Alphawood Foundation, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (with Year of Chicago Theatre funding from BMO Harris Bank and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation), Edgerton Foundation, Exelon, Ralla Klepak Trust for the Performing Arts, The Harvey L. Miller Supporting Foundation, David Rockefeller Fund, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg CharitableTrust, The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
Additional funding this season Robert and Isabelle Bass Foundation Inc., Charles H. and Bertha L. Boothroyd Foundation, Capital Group Private Client Services, Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, Coffman Law Offices, ComEd, Conagra Brands Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Golden Country Oriental Foods, Goldman Sachs, John R. Halligan Foundation, Illinois Humanities Council (with support from the MacArthur Foundation’s Safety + Justice Challenge), ITW, MacArthur International Connections Fund, MAP Fund, Mayer Brown LLP, The Robert R. McCormick Foundation, McKinsey Company, The McVay Foundation, Metropolitan Capital Bank and Trust, National Endowment for the Arts, Northern Trust Charitable Trust, Roberta Olshansky Charitable Fund, Origin Ventures, Pauls Foundation, PNC Financial Services Group, The Poetry Foundation, Prince Charitable Trusts, Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation, Pritzker Traubert Foundation, Charles and M.R. Shapiro Foundation, Wrightwood Neighbors Foundation, William H. Weiss Foundation, with special funding from the Arts for Illinois Relief Fund, a partnership between the City of Chicago, the State of Illinois, the broader philanthropic community, and the residents of Illinois..
In-kind support is provided by: Italian Village Restaurants, Southwest Airlines, Suite Home Chicago, and Whole Foods Market.
Capital improvement support from Landmarks Illinois, Barbara and Thomas Donnelley Preservation Fund, the Performing Arts Venue Fund at the League of Chicago Theaters, with funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Service Club of Chicago; and Capacity Building support by Compass-Chicago.