Victory Gardens Biograph Theater

Having moved in recent years to one of the city’s most coveted venues, the sumptuously renovated Biograph Theater, this company is Chicago’s highest-profile generator of new plays. With an ensemble of 12 resident playwrights, Victory Gardens’ unflagging commitment to new work earned the theater 2001’s regional Tony. The company's taken steps in recent years to diversify its programming; the inaugural Ignition festival of new work by young writers of color led to Victory Gardens' world premiere (in a coproduction with Teatro Vista) of Kristoffer Diaz's Pulitzer finalist, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity. Founding artistic director Dennis Zacek is stepping down in 2011 after 34 years at the helm; after a nationwide search, playwright and director Chay Yew was named as Zacek's replacement.