The Board of Directors has appointed Erica Daniels, the theater’s Executive Director since 2017, as its Executive Artistic Director. Roxanna Conner has been promoted to The Ralla Klepak Director of Education and Human Resources. Ms. Klepak was a noted Chicago lawyer who championed LGBTQ rights and often used her drama training from Northwestern University to argue cases in court. The Ralla Klepak Trust for the Performing Arts has granted Victory Gardens and other performing arts organizations generous grants designed to promote the inclusion of people with all different kinds of abilities across age, socioeconomic and religious backgrounds in performing arts educational programs.
Miller continues, “First, we can’t say enough about the value Erica Daniels has brought to the theater since her arrival three years ago. Erica’s leadership at Victory Gardens, coupled with her career-long artistic experience and her understanding of art and needs of the theater, its staff and artists, made it clear that the future of Victory Gardens would be in the best hands with Erica as Executive Artistic Director. Likewise, Roxanna has grown our education and community programs, as well as leading our work in HR and in diversity and inclusion. Victory Gardens is in a new level of growth, inclusion and stability and we look forward to starting the nationwide search for candidates to fill the critical Associate Artistic Director and General Manager roles.”
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About Erica Daniels, Victory Gardens newly appointed Executive Artistic Director and Roxanna Conner, the Ralla Klepak Director of Education and Human Resources
Erica Daniels, a cornerstone of the Chicago theater community and a fierce champion of new plays and artists, has been the Executive Director at Victory Gardens since January 2017. Erica was the Associate Artistic Director at Steppenwolf Theatre Company where she was a collaborator for the company’s artistic endeavors with Artistic Director Martha Lavey. She joined Steppenwolf in 2001 as Casting Director and Director of the School at Steppenwolf. Erica did the original casting for Manhattan Theatre Club’s Broadway production of Airline Highway, and the Broadway production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. She also cast the original production of August, Osage County (also for Broadway, The National Theatre of London and Sydney Theatre Company) and the Broadway production of Superior Donuts. Prior to that, Erica worked as an agent for Geddes, Arlene Wilson and Shirley Hamilton, and spent a year as The Theatre Department Coordinator at William Morris in New York. Working under George Lane, she worked with such writers as John Patrick Shanley, Richard Greenberg, and Edward Albee and directors such as Michael Mayer, Robert Falls and Daniel Sullivan. Before joining Victory Gardens, Erica was President of Second City Theatricals where she shepherded the remount of The Art of Falling with Hubbard Street Dance Company, as well as Black Side of the Moon with Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Second City’s collaboration with Slate on Unelectable You The Second City’s Completely Unbiased Political Revue, and The Second City’s Guide to America at The Kennedy Center. Erica began her career as a casting assistant at Jane Brody Casting. She has freelanced with various Chicago companies, including Lookingglass, Collaboraction, and About Face. Erica cast the independent film Imperfections for Coin Op productions. Erica is the former Board Chair of Rivendell Theatre Ensemble and is serving her second term on the board of the League of Chicago Theatres. She was featured in the 2011 Chicago Tribune series, 'Remarkable Women,' won both a 2012 Eclipse Theater Corona Award for nurturing the Chicago Theater Community and a 2012 Actors Equity Award for Excellence in Diversity. In 2018 and 2019 she was featured in New City's “The Fifty People who really perform for Chicago.” Daniels has been on adjunct faculty at Ball State University, Northwestern University and UIC, among others. She holds a degree in Performance Studies from Northwestern University.
Roxanna Conner has had a successful tenure at Victory Gardens. Under her leadership, the theater’s education programs have grown by adding new partner schools and increasing the number of student matinee performances. Roxanna has also helped foster inclusiveness. For instance, in the past year, Victory Gardens was the first theater to have members of the Deaf community participate in the annual August Wilson Monologue Competition, with one of these students advancing to the city finals in March. Roxanna leads the Neighborhood Arts Collective Chicago, a Victory Gardens’ community engagement initiative, and also manages the organization’s Internship Program, which serves 25 to 30 students each year. In 2019, her position expanded when she became HR liaison for the entire staff, working directly with Erica Daniels, Chay Yew, and the Board of Directors to address HR issues within the organization.
Roxanna Conner joined Victory Gardens as the Director of Education in June 2018. In her 22 years in arts education, she has worked as a teaching artist, arts administrator, director, and producer. Her career began as an actor-educator for CLIMB Theatre (Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota), using theater to explore social issues such as violence prevention and environmental conservation while touring to schools across five states in the upper Midwest. Following a year of touring, she was promoted to Teaching Company Director and was responsible for managing an ensemble of actor-educators; creating curriculum; and evaluating programs for Kindergarten through 12th grade students in urban, rural, and suburban schools. As Audience Education Director at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (University of Illinois Urbana Champaign), she programmed and coordinated student matinees for 10,000 students in downstate Illinois. She also created the Saturday family enrichment series Art4Kids and co-chaired Jazz Reach, a year-long community engagement initiative. Roxanna has worked in the Education Department of Chicago Shakespeare Theater twice, spending a total of nine years with the organization as the Education Programs Coordinator and Team Shakespeare Manager. She played a pivotal role in the implementation of the teache-student ensemble CPS Shakespeare! and the Chicago Shakespeare Slam. She rebuilt the Education Department at Congo Square Theatre, by developing a curriculum for American Literature classes using theater strategies to help Southside high school students improve their reading skills. Roxanna received a BA in Speech Communications and Theatre Arts from Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA. She’s the mother of two children and wife to Chicago actor, Ron Conner.