Facing years of budget deficits, uneven ticket sales, and other financial challenges, the leaders of Victory Gardens Theater of Chicago announced on Monday that they will produce only three shows during the 2013-14 season - instead of the usual five - while trying to generate more revenue by renting out the space to several of the city’s renowned storefront theaters.
Chay Yew, now in his second year as artistic director of the nonprofit Victory Gardens, long one of the most admired theaters in Chicago, said in an interview on Tuesday that he hoped to return to five productions during the 2014-15 season, its 40th anniversary. He and board members have been meeting regularly to discuss ways to improve finances, he said, and they believe their new resident theater program for storefront troupes will bring in rental income and attract foundation support and pehaps more audience members.
“As a result of sound financial strategy, we are immediately taking concrete steps to be fiscally responsible and to stabilize without compromising on our mission,†Mr. Yew said. To that end, he said he would try to bring in theater companies that share Victory Gardens’ focus on producing new plays by a diverse group of writers.
“It is our hope that this resident theater program will make our Victory Gardens space Chicago’s new cultural performing arts center where local audiences can experience the best of diverse theater under one roof,†he said. He intends to line up three to four companies by late spring; those troupes will receive a “large discount†on theater rental rates, as well as administrative and artistic support.
The Victory Gardens 2013-14 season will include a revival of Ariel Dorfman’s play “Death and the Maiden†starring Sandra Oh (“Grey’s Anatomyâ€) and two new works - “Appropriate†by Branden Jacobs-Jenkin! s and “The Gospel of Lovingkindness†by Marcus Gardley, one of the new members of the theater’s Playwrights Ensemble.
Mr. Yew, himself a playwright and director, has ruffled feathers during his time at Victory Gardens in part by sidelining several longtime members of the Playwrights Ensemble and granting them “alumni†status. Two of the best-known of those former ensemble members, Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz and Tony Award winner John Logan, have since been named to a new artistic advisory board that Mr. Yew also announced this week; other members of that board include the playwrights Eve Ensler, David Henry Hwang, Tony Kushner, David Lindsay-Abaire, and Suzan-Lori Parks.
