Expanding Horizons: The Capital Campaign for VGT at the Historic Biograph

Expanding Horizons: Creating An American Center for New Plays, a $11,350,000 capital campaign to open the historic Biograph Theater as a new, state-of-the-art mainstage for Victory Gardens.

With a two-building, five-theater campus; a mainstage at the iconic Biograph Theater; and a location in the heart of Lincoln Park, one of Chicago’s most vibrant neighborhoods, Victory Gardens Theater is reaching a diverse and growing audience with theater so close, it touches you.

Since its beginnings in 1974, Victory Gardens has evolved into an umbrella organization, offering diverse programs that address an overarching mission to develop new plays. Whether by virtue of mainstage plays reaching over 40,000 audience members; the Training Center's classes that serve over 800 Chicagoans; the Oracle Scholarship Subscription Series’ free productions for over 1,000 Chicago Public School students; or the Greenhouse Project’s mentoring of itinerant professional theater companies, VGT is bursting at the seams!

Thankfully, through the five-year Expanding Horizons Capital Campaign to create “An American Center for New Plays”—a campaign that has raised $10,700,000 and counting—Victory Gardens Theater was able to purchase the Biograph Theater at 2433 North Lincoln Avenue in 2002. The interior of the landmark building was redesigned by renowned architect Daniel P. Coffey, with theatrical design by noted firm Schuler and Shook. Pepper Construction was the general contractor, renovating the historic space as a new, state-of-the-art home for Victory Gardens’ Playwrights Ensemble, and other theater artists, to expand the possibilities of their work.

The new mainstage opened to the public in October 2006 with the world premiere of Denmark by Playwrights Ensemble Member Charles Smith; this production was sponsored by the Sara Lee Foundation. And the 2006-2007 Inaugural Season, sponsored in part by The Chicago Community Trust, features all world-premiere work, including four plays by members of the Playwrights Ensemble. Whether longtime subscribers, or young students seeing a theatrical production for the very first time, people will be able to come together at the Biograph and experience theater that advances the art of playwriting while dealing with contemporary concerns and issues.

Victory Gardens’ new mainstage at the Biograph received extraordinary support from the community. The State of Illinois and the City of Chicago—along with Alderman, Vi Daley, and all of VGT’s elected officials—provided strong leadership. Chicago’s philanthropic community made significant investments in the project; donors include the Polk Bros. Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Prince Charitable Trusts, Exelon, MidAmerica Bank, USG Corporation, Illinois Tool Works, and LaSalle Bank. Victory Gardens Theater’s Board of Directors stepped forward with nearly $2 million, and Victory Gardens’ subscribers and friends—truly the backbone of any theater organization—provided yet another $2 million, spurred on by a generous challenge grant from the Kresge Foundation.

Meanwhile, Victory Gardens is maintaining its home of 25 years at 2257 North Lincoln Avenue; this space has been named the Victory Gardens Theater Greenhouse. The Greenhouse will continue to feature the work of Victory Gardens, including a production of My Children, My Africa in spring 2007. And the space will also serve as a resident home for five itinerant theater companies that represent the excellence and diversity of Chicago theater: About Face, Eclipse, M’PAACT, Shattered Globe, and Remy Bumppo.

The success of maintaining and expanding as an ambitious, two-building campus still depends on generous support from community members like you. Naming opportunities in the Biograph space (such as seats, which you can name permanently for a gift of just $3,000!)—as well as ongoing initiatives to enhance Victory Gardens Theater’s work—remain vital ways to support the cultural and educational impact Victory Gardens has for so many people. With the community’s continued support, Victory Gardens will continue to deliver on its mission to develop new work of the highest artistic caliber and spread the vitality of theater to diverse audiences.

If you are interested in learning more about different ways that you may become involved with Victory Gardens Theater, please contact Michael C. Cleavenger, Director of Institutional Advancement, at 773.549.5788 or mcleavenger@victorygardens.org