Victory Gardens Theater announces Your World Off Stage, an online conversation series with artists from the upcoming 2020/2021 season and members of the VG Playwrights Ensemble. These online lunchtime conversations take place on select Wednesdays and Fridays, May 15–August 7, 2020. Get the inside scoop on where our shows are at in the development process, learn about the inspiration for each of these plays, and ask your questions.
The free conversations will take place over Zoom, and advanced sign up is required. To browse conversation offerings or to register, visit https://victorygardens.org/event/your-world-off-stage-conversation-series/.
Your World Off Stage Conversation Series Lineup:
Wardell Julius Clark on Exit Strategy
Friday, May 15, 2020
1:00-2:00 p.m.
Curated by Kat Zukaitis, Literary Manager and Public Programs Coordinator at Victory Gardens
Kat Zukaitis talks with Wardell Julius Clark, Exit Strategy director and Chicago artist, on what he’s looking forward to while bringing part of Ike Holter’s acclaimed Rightlynd Saga to the stage.
Playwright John Logan and incoming VG Executive Artistic Director Erica Daniels
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
1:00-2:00 p.m.
Erica Daniels sits down with John Logan, VG Playwright Ensemble Alumni and Tony Award-winning playwright and screenwriter, for a discussion of arts in the time of COVID-19. Logan’s plays include Never the Sinner, Riverview, Red, and Hauptmann. His film and television work includes Any Given Sunday, RKO 281, Gladiator, The Aviator, Star Trek: Nemesis, The Time Machine, The Last Samurai, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Rango, Skyfall, Spectre, and Penny Dreadful.
Will Arbery and Jonathan Berry on Heroes of the Fourth Turning
Friday, May 29, 2020
1:00-2:00 p.m.
Curated by Kat Zukaitis, Literary Manager & Public Programs Coordinator at Victory Gardens
Playwright Will Arbery and Director Jonathan Berry share early plans for their Chicago premiere.
Playwrights Luis Alfaro, Philip Dawkins, Samuel D. Hunter and Naomi Iizuka and Emeritus VG Artistic Director Chay Yew
Friday, June 5, 2020
2:00-3:00 p.m.
Emeritus Artistic Director Chay Yew hosts a roundtable discussion with members of the Victory Gardens Playwrights Ensemble, on their work, where they find inspiration, and more. Come with your questions!
Ali Viterbi and Devon de Mayo on In Every Generation
Friday, June 12, 2020
1:00-2:00 p.m.
Curated by Erica Daniels, Executive Artistic Director at Victory Gardens
What are the unique challenges and opportunities in creating a world premiere production for the stage? Hear from Playwright Ali Viterbi and Director Devon de Mayo on how they’re preparing to create a world from scratch in just 4 weeks.
Additional conversations to be announced at a later date.
Subscriptions
Subscriptions for Victory Gardens’ 2020/2021 season start at $105 and are on sale now at www.victorygardens.org, or call the Victory Gardens Box Office at 773.871.3000. Victory Gardens Theater is located at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, in the heart of Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.
About Victory Gardens Theater
Under the leadership of Executive Artistic 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, 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 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.
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 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, Time Warner Foundation, Inc., 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.
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.