An American Center for New Plays
Recipient of the Regional Theater Tony Award

An Historical Look Back: 30 Years at Victory Gardens Theater

Since 1974, Victory Gardens Theater has remained true to a challenging mission - developing and producing new plays, most of them world premieres, with an emphasis on Chicago writers and its own 12-member Playwrights Ensemble.

 

During the 2004 - 2005 season, Victory Gardens elebrated its 30th anniversary - with the singular distinction of being home to more world premiere mainstage productions that any other Chicago theater. The following charts Victory Gardens' growth from its early days, to its current position as one of the most distinguished non-profit theaters in Chicago and the nation:

1974

 

  • Chicago artists Warren Casey, Cordis Heard, Roberta Maguire, Mac McGuinnes, Cecil O'Neal, June Pyskacek and David Rasche put up $1,000 each to start an Off-Loop theater. Stuart Gordon adds a light board. Victory Gardens is born, a non-profit theater dedicated to the promotion and development of Chicago theater talent: actors, directors, designers and playwrights.
  • Victory Gardens' first production, The Velvet Rose by Stacy Myatt, opens October 9 to lukewarm reviews on the top floor of the Northside Auditorium Building, 3730 N. Clark Street, current home of the Cabaret Metro nightclub.
  • Marcelle McVay is hired as Victory Gardens' first employee. McVay is now Managing Director at Victory Gardens Theater.
  • Victory Gardens bounces back with its second production, The Magnolia Club by Jeff Berkson, John Karraker and David Karraker. The country-western musical, produced in association with commercial producers, becomes a hit.

1975

  • Dennis Zacek directs Pinter's The Caretaker with Frank Galati, Michael Saad and William J. Norris. The production wins eight Jeff nominations. Zacek, a Chicago-born graduate of Northwestern and then associate professor of theater at Loyola, is asked to join the theater's board of directors. He simultaneously appears on stage in Frank Shiras' StrangleMe. (Zacek and McVay, who met as students at Northwestern University, had been married since 1972).
  • The Victory Gardens Training Center is founded. The first classes are offered in conjunction with St. Nicholas Theater Company. David Mamet teaches classes in scene study. Today, Chicago's top theater professionals train over 500 students annually at the Victory Gardens Training Center - novices exploring theater as a hobby or career, to professionals looking to enhance their skills.

1977

  • A community-based board of directors headed by Allen M. Turner assumes management responsibilities for Victory Gardens from the founding artistic board.  Zacek is appointed artistic director, a position he has held ever since.

 

1978

  •  During Zacek's first year as artistic director, VGT commits to presenting a racially-integrated season with the Chicago debut of Lonnie Elder III's Ceremonies in Dark Old Men.  The mission is evolving into a focus on development and production of new plays, with a special emphasis on Chicago playwrights.
  • Zacek casts a relative unknown - William L. Petersen - in the title role of William J. Norris' Dillinger.  Petersen, an alumnus of the Victory Gardens Training Center, earns his Equity card, goes on to be one of the top talents of Chicago's Off-Loop theater scene, becomes a national star in the motion picture To Live and Die in L.A., and today stars in CSI, the #1 rated CBS drama.

1979

  • Sandy Shinner joins the staff as audience development director. She is later promoted to associate artistic director, and has since directed more than 50 plays at VGT.

  • Victory Gardens presents the Chicago premiere of Porch, the first of ten Jeffrey Sweet plays produced by VGT thus far, and begins a 25-year association between theater and playwright. Sweet receives royalties for the first time. Porch is remounted later that year, and has since been staged by over 100 theaters.

  • The Latino Chicago Theatre Company, Chicago's first professional Latino theater ensemble, is founded by Victory Gardens, funded by a special grant from CBS. Beginning with a Latino Chicago production, the High School Touring Program continues through 1995.

1981

  • Victory Gardens premieres Steve Carter's Dame Lorraine starring his friend Esther Rolle, the first national star to appear on the Victory Gardens stage. Carter becomes the theater's first playwright-in-residence.

  • Victory Gardens’ reputation for creative fundraisers is born with its first Casting Auction. Supporters raise $8,393 bidding on all the parts in an all-amateur, one-night-only production of Tobacco Road. Now in its 22nd year, the Casting Auction raises tens of thousands for Victory Gardens each year, and Artistic Director Dennis Zacek still directs the amateur musical production each year.

  • Ties by Jeffrey Sweet and starring the legendary Jack Wallace (a frequent actor in Mamet’s films and plays), Sonja Lanzener, Roger Mueller, Rita Kreger and Rob Knepper premieres on North Clark Street, is successfully transferred to the Body Politic Theatre for an extension, and is filmed for public television by WTTW-TV.

  • Victory Gardens moves to its current location at 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., occupying the first floor facilities, with Body Politic Theatre residing upstairs. The Joseph Jefferson committee presents managing directors Marcelle McVay and Sharon Phillips with a special "creative collaboration" award two years later.

1983

  • Popular actor Shelley Berman appears at Victory Gardens in Jeffrey Sweet's drama The Value of Names, which transfers in a commercial production to the Apollo Theater.

1984

  • Zacek directs the world premiere of Marisha Chamberlain's Scheherazade starring Aidan Quinn and Barbara Gaines. The production earns Victory Gardens its first national honor, the FDG/CBS New Play Award.

1985

  • James Sherman's first play The God of Isaac premieres. The Chicago Sun-Times calls him "the Neil Simon of Lincoln Ave." He becomes a resident playwright a year later.

  • Lonnie Carter's The Sovereign State of Boogedy Boogedy becomes a world premiere hit in the Victory Gardens studio, moves to the Chicago Theater Company, and is remounted at New York's New Federal Theater in 1989.

1987

  • Victory Gardens and Body Politic inaugurate Play Expo, a cooperative project managed by Sandy Shinner, designed to give greater visibility and production opportunities to Chicago playwrights. Play Expo introduces the work of Claudia Allen, John Logan and Charles Smith to Victory Gardens’ audience.

1989

  • Victory Gardens premieres Jelly Belly, Charles Smith's tale of an inner-city drug dealer. Two years later, Victory Gardens co-produces Jelly Belly with New York's New Federal Theatre. Smith is subsequently inducted into the prestigious New Dramatists.

  • Playwright Claudia Allen makes her Victory Gardens mainstage debut with The Long Awaited. Two years later, Allen's Still Waters premieres at Victory Gardens. Both shows, directed by Sandy Shinner, win Jeff Awards for Best New Work.

  • The James Sherman/Dennis Zacek collaboration Beau Jest becomes a smash hit, and to date, the theater's biggest box office success ever. It transfers to the Halsted Theatre Center, and its New York premiere becomes the Lamb's Theater's longest-running production (1991-93). Countless productions of Beau Jest, including in Canada, Mexico, South Africa, England, Venezuela, Australia, Turkey, and Germany, continue to bring Sherman and Victory Gardens international acclaim.

1990

  • Steve Carter's Pecong debuts at Victory Gardens, winning a Jeff Award for Best New Work. It goes on to open the 1993-94 season at San Francisco's ACT, and has since been presented in the U.S., Jamaica and London.

  • After the birth of her and Dennis' son Zachary, McVay assumes the position of development director. John Walker, a veteran of Chicago’s commercial theater arena and an associate of Cullen, Henaghan and Platt, joins VGT as managing director.

1991

  • Victory Gardens stages its first Chicago Stories benefit. Three top Chicago personalities -- Father Andrew Greeley, novelist Sara Paretsky, and architect Stanley Tigerman -- write 10-minute plays, which are presented as the centerpiece of the theater's gala benefit. Other popular Chicagoans, including Mike Royko, Roger Ebert, Phil Jackson, Carol Moseley-Braun, George Wendt, Jesse Jackson and Ted Allen, have since penned plays for Victory Gardens. Theaters in Seattle and San Francisco have replicated the "Chicago Stories" concept to raise funds in their own markets.

1992

  • Victory Gardens' long-running play Hauptmann by John Logan transfers to the prestigious Cherry Lane Playhouse in New York City.

1993

  • Freefall by Charles Smith, starring TV star Malcolm Jamal-Warner, premieres at Victory Gardens, and is subsequently produced at New York's Theater Row Theater.

1994

  • Michael Margaret Pat and Kate by singer/songwriter Michael Smith and director Peter Glazer premieres at VGT, has an extended run and moves to Marin County Playhouse.

1995

  • Victory Gardens and the Goodman Theatre create the Scott McPherson Award, a $5,000 playwriting commission to honor the memory of the author of Marvin's Room, who died of AIDS in 1992. Marvin's Room, one of the treasures of Chicago theater, had its first staged reading at Victory Gardens.

  • Body Politic Theatre ceases operations, and Victory Gardens purchases their share of the facility. The 20,000-square foot Victory Gardens complex now includes a first floor lobby and box office, an 195-seat mainstage, and a 60-seat studio theater. The second floor includes offices, a lobby, an 195-seat mainstage theater, and a 60-seat studio theater. A restaurant/bar rents remaining first floor space to offset expenses.

  • Victory Gardens assumes leadership from Remains Theatre of The Access Project, an innovative program that uses technology to make theater more accessible for persons with disabilities. Due to the Access Project, Victory Gardens is now Chicago's number one presenter of barrier-free live theater.

  • John Logan's Never the Sinner, a drama about the Leopold and Loeb murder case, is a major hit. It also garners Dennis Zacek a 1996 Academy of Theatre Artists and Friends Award for his portrayal of Clarence Darrow. Meanwhile, Logan’s aspirations as a screenwriter are becoming realized with several high-profile film credits, including most recently The Last Samurai, Gladiator, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, the Howard Hughes biography The Aviator, Abraham Lincoln for Steven Spielberg, and a sequel to Gladiator.

  • Jest A Second!, James Sherman's follow-up to Beau Jest, opens in May, and is extended through September. Numerous productions are licensed, including a 1995 production in Montreal, the theater's first international export, and a subsequent production in 1997 at New York's National Jewish Theater.

1996

  • Victory Gardens completes a $250,000 renovation of its four-theater complex, resulting in a first-floor lobby redesign, a face lift for the facade, and a new Victory Gardens marquee. The downstairs mainstage is named the “Samuel A. Burstein Stage” in memory of a board member whose generous bequest supported the renovation and created an endowment for scholarship and artist support. The renovation includes installation of a new elevator to the second floor, making all four theaters at Victory Gardens wheelchair accessible.

  • Victory Gardens opens its 23rd season with Kristine Thatcher's acclaimed drama Emma's Child, marking the veteran Chicago actor's hometown debut as a playwright.

  • Victory Gardens’ Drama in the Schools program begins serving Chicago public high schools. The program, based on a CAPE (Chicago Arts Partnership in Education) model, is designed to help students achieve mandated learning goals in drama/theater while fulfilling their academic goals. Today, the program reaches over 2,000 students annually in over 20 different Chicago area high schools and middle schools.

1997

  • John Walker resigns to take a position in the L.A. film industry. Marcelle McVay returns to VGT as managing director.

  • The Illinois Arts Alliance honors Dennis Zacek with the Sidney R. Yates Arts Advocacy Award.

  • The Illinois Arts Council, as part of the 1997 Governor's Awards, honors Charles Smith and jazz trumpeter Malachi Thompson for VGT’s The Sutherland.

  • The Victory Gardens Playwrights Ensemble is formed, a coming together of a diverse group of writers under the roof of one producing organization, virtually unheard of in resident theater in the U.S. Founding members include Claudia Allen, Dean Corrin, Lonnie Carter, Steve Carter, Gloria Bond Clunie, John Logan, Nicholas Patricca, Douglas Post, James Sherman, Charles Smith, Jeffrey Sweet and Kristine Thatcher.

1998

  • William Petersen is named Associate Artist at Victory Gardens. He returns to star in the premiere of Jeffrey Sweet's Flyovers. It becomes a smash hit, and following the regular run, Gary Cole steps into Petersen’s role for the summer extension.

1999

  • Actors' Equity Association honors Victory Gardens, Zacek, and McVay with the Rosetta LeNoire Award, a national award given annually to a theater or producer that has made artistic contributions to the “universality of the human experience in the American theater.” The award spotlights VGT’s leadership in multi-ethnic casting.

  • Tony Award-winning stage legend Julie Harris makes her VGT debut, starring with Chicago favorite Mike Nussbaum in the world premiere of Claudia Allen’s Winter.

  • Victory Gardens’ 25th season opens with Jeffrey Sweet’s Bluff starring Jon Cryer. The theater produces a record-breaking season of world premieres by ensemble playwrights: James Sherman's Door to Door; Charles Smith's Knock Me a Kiss; Kristine Thatcher's Voice of Good Hope; and Claudia Allen’s Cahoots starring Sharon Gless.

2000

  • Victory Gardens extends its critically acclaimed world premiere musical Hello Dali: From the Sublime to the Surreal by singer-songwriters Michael Smith and Jamie O’Reilly.

  • Andrea J. Dymond joins Victory Gardens as executive assistant to the managing and artistic directors. By 2002, she is named the new TCG Artistic Fellow at Victory Gardens, and has since directed two VGT mainstage productions - Pearl Cleage’s Bourbon at the Border (2003) and Charles Smith’s Free Man of Color (2004).

2001

  • Javon Johnson's African American drama Hambone and Jeffrey Sweet's The Action Against Sol Schumann both play to critical acclaim, and surpass box office projections.

  • Robert Alpaugh, former Executive Director of the Joffrey Ballet, joins the executive staff of Victory Gardens as Director of Institutional Advancement. Alpaugh is responsible for fundraising, expanding commercial development of VGT productions, and planning and management of Victory Gardens’ facilities enhancement plans.

  • Victory Gardens receives the 2001 Tony Award for Regional Theatre on June 3, 2001 at New York's Radio City Music Hall, for "displaying a continuous level of artistic achievement contributing to the growth of theater nationally." Julie Harris kicks off the press conference stating “Victory Gardens stands for everything I believe in, especially bringing new plays to audiences.” More than 500 Victory Gardens supporters and subscribers join a post-Tony Award celebration at the Chicago Cultural Center weeks later, hosted by Bill Kurtis.

  • Immoral Imperatives, a dramatic comedy by Jeffrey Sweet, with a cast featuring VGT Artistic Director Dennis Zacek and ensemble playwright Kristine Thatcher, opens the 2001/02 season. Subscriptions top 5,000 for the first time in VGT history.

2002

  • Film and theater star Irma P. Hall turns in a memorable performance in Victory Gardens’ midwest premiere of S.M. Shephard Massat's Waiting To Be Invited.

  • Dennis Zacek is named to Utne Reader’s first international list of “40 Artists Who Will Shake The World.” “In an age of gimmicky megaproductions of yesterday’s hits, Zacek keeps his minuscule Midwestern stage lively with the best work of new voices.”

  • VGT launches 2002/03 with Ann Noble’s Ariadne’s Thread. Subscriptions top 5,000 for the second year in a row. Other season highlights include Lonnie Carter’s Concerto Chicago and Taylor Miller of All My Children in Claudia Allen’s Unspoken Prayers. Joel Drake Johnson’s The End of The Tour, ends the season on a high note, joining Ariadne’s Thread in earning a Jeff nomination for Best New Work. Both Noble’s and Allen’s works were finalists for the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn competition.

2003

  • Victory Gardens selects Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz, a little-known play about Cuban-American cigar factory workers in 1929 Florida, to launch its 2003/04 season. Weeks later, Anna in the Tropics is the surprise winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Suddenly, Anna in the Tropics is the must-see production of Chicago theater, enjoys a critically acclaimed sold-out run at Victory Gardens, and VGT transfers its production to the Goodman Theatre for a successful one-month extension downtown.

  • Victory Gardens subscriptions top 5,000 for the third year in a row. The theater concludes the calendar year with Stuart Flack’s provocative new drama Homeland Security, named to several year-end “best of” lists, and James Sherman’s hit comedy AFFLUENZA! Both productions surpass financial goals.

2004

  • Victory Gardens premieres Charles Smith’s Free Man of Color, a historical drama commissioned by Ohio University about former student John Newton Templeton, one of the first freed slaves to graduate from a U.S. university. Free Man plays to critical acclaim, and travels for added performances at Governors State and Ohio universities.

  • Victory Gardens premieres Trying by Canadian turned-Naperville playwright Joanna Glass, directed by Sandy Shinner. Tony-award winner Fritz Weaver originates the role of Francis Biddle, attorney General under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, opposite Chicago favorite Kati Brazda. Based on the author’s own experience as Biddle’s personal secretary in his final year of life, Trying becomes a major hit, and earns special attention for its commercial prospects in Variety magazine.

  • Broadway’s Loy Arcenas directs VGT’s 2003/04 season finale, Lonnie Carter’s The Romance of Magno Rubio. Already a smash hit in New York and California, and winner of an Obie Award Citation, Carter channels his spoken jazz riffs and verbal gymnastics in this rhyme-driven stage adaptation of Filipino author Carlos Bulosan’s story of a lovestruck migrant worker in 1930’s California.

  • Victory Gardens announces five world premieres for its 2004/05, 30th anniversary season: The Family Gold, by Annie Reiner, starring Harold Gould; Claudia Allen's Hanging Fire; Gloria Bond Clunie's Shoes; Jeffrey Sweet’s Berlin '45, featuring Tandy Cronyn and Roderick Peeples; and Symmetry by David C. Field, tentatively starring John Mahoney; with John Belluso’s Pyretown as its 2004/05 Second Stage production.

July 20, 2004

  • Victory Gardens embarks on a new era, announcing it has purchased the Biograph Theatre, a historical landmark two blocks north of VGT’s current home. Director of Institutional Advancement Robert Alpaugh announces Victory Gardens has raised over $6.5 million in gifts and pledges toward its Expanding Horizons goal, for the purchase and renovation of the former Biograph movie house into a $9 million, state-of-the-art facility for live theater.

  • Slated to debut in fall 2005, Victory Gardens at the Biograph will become the theater’s beautiful new home for its Mainstage presentations. In addition to its two new stages at the Biograph, Victory Gardens will continue to own and manage its current location at 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., renting its three theaters to emerging Chicago theater companies, as an expanded venue for Training Center classes, with a Playwright’s Lounge and additional office space.