Matt Martin News

Sideshow Theatre Company announced its 2022 season featuring the world premiere of Artistic Associate Brynne Frauenhoffer’s brash, incisive comedy Pro-Am, directed by Artistic Director Regina Victor, and a staged reading of Preston Choi's sci-fi post-apocalyptic dramedy Drive-In at the End of the World, directed by Artistic Associate Marti Lyons.

Victory Gardens Artistic Director Ken-Matt Martin ushers in a new age for the company with a play that trods familiar territory.

Chicago Theatre Week (#CTW22), an annual celebration of the rich tradition of theatre-going in Chicago during which visitors and residents can access value-priced tickets, returns for its 10th year and will take place February 17-27, 2022. 

Victory Gardens Theater presents the Ignite Chicago reading of exercise your demons: a play on the trauma of a gay male body written by Gage Tarlton and directed by Ryan Dobrin, with movement direction by Breon Arzell. exercise your demons: a play on the trauma of a gay male body will be presented on Saturday, February 19 at 3pm at Hardware Strength and Conditioning, 1834 W. Balmoral Ave, Chicago.

Victory Gardens Theater opens its 2021/22 Mainstage Season with Queen of the Night, written by travis tate and directed by Victory Gardens Artistic Director Ken-Matt Martin. 

Victory Gardens Theater presents two Ignite Chicago readings in December 2021. Tokens of Promise, by Ada A. and directed by Sydney Chatman, on Saturday, December 4, 2021 at 3pm in partnership with ABJ Community Services/ABJ Arts, located at Trinity Episcopal Church, 125 E. 26th St, Chicago,  and The Bottoming Process, by Nicholas Pilapil and directed by Hutch Pimentel, on Friday, December 10, 2021 at 7pm, in the Richard Christiansen Theater at Victory Gardens, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave in Chicago.   

Victory Gardens Theater opens its 2021/22 Mainstage Season with Queen of the Night, written by travis tate and directed by Victory Gardens Artistic Director Ken-Matt Martin. Queen of the Night runs January 29 – March 13, 2022 at Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue. 

The Chicago Inclusion Project together with Victory Gardens Theater have announced a new season-long collaboration.

Victory Gardens Theater presents the Ignite Chicago reading of Mexodus, written by and featuring Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson, and directed by David Mendizábal. 

The season will feature three mainstage productions: Queen of the Night by travis tate, the World Premiere of In Every Generation by Ali Viterbi, and the Regional Premiere of cullud wattah by Erika Dickerson-Despenza.

Victory Gardens Theater announces their 2021/2022 Season, which will be presented in-person at the Biograph Theater in Lincoln Park.

Pyramid Theatre Company's production of 'The Gospel at Colonus' has been delayed to next year due to COVID-19.

Victory Gardens Theater will hold a series of Town Halls to introduce Ken-Matt to the VG community and share news about Victory Gardens’ future. The first event, “Ask Me Anything with Ken-Matt Martin” will be held on Zoom on August 2, 2021, from 6:00-7:15pm Central.

Victory Gardens Theater will welcome Marisa Carr, Keelay Gipson, Isaac Gómez and Stacey Rose as the new members of the Victory Gardens Playwrights Ensemble. The Ensemble will be members for a three-year term, through 2024.

National New Play Network will host its second fully virtual Annual Conference this Friday June 11 and Saturday June 12. The event - free and open to the public - is hosted on the Hopin event platform.

Victory Gardens Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director Ken-Matt Martin and Acting Managing Director Roxanna Conner, joins with Victory Gardens Resident Director Jess McLeod and the Chicago-based Blu Rhythm Collective to present a series of events this spring on The Redline Project, continuing Victory Gardens' Online Public Program Series.

One thing is certain: the performing arts will be a changed industry as we come out of the other side of the pandemic. From changes in business model, to new budget priorities to deal with potential shortfalls, to a deeper understanding of the ways the industry has failed in DEI efforts in the past, there will be few, if any, institutions that come back as the same institution they were before. That isn't a guarantee that this change is going to be all for the positive, and no matter what, there will continue to be growing pains as groups across the industry grapple with the way things were, the way they want things to be, and the way things are. This week, we have stories of the new generation of leaders coming to the fore in the midst of this upheaval, stories of cities starting to get their performing arts industries open again, and a look at how the industry has shifted over the past year, and where it can go from here.

Over the past year, more than 150,000 people consumed Goodman's 12 online streaming productions, beginning with Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play directed by Lili-Anne Brown.

Goodman Theatre announces the cast for the FREE live reading of its third Future Labs' play, Tokens of Promise by Ada A. directed by Sydney Chatman. In addition, Christina Anderson's How To Catch Creation, directed by Niegel Smith, launches the Encore series—four plays from the theater's “video vault” curated by the Goodman's Artistic team.

Victory Gardens Theater has announced Ken-Matt Martin as the next Artistic Director in the company's 46-year history, following a nationwide search that began last fall in partnership with Arts Consulting Group.