Victory Gardens (2013) (B)

In March 2013, Chay Yew had been the Artistic Director of Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago for almost two full seasons. Yew assumed the position Dennis Zacek, founding Artistic Director of 35 years, had left in the spring of 2011. Founding Managing Director Marcelle McVay, who was also Zacek’s wife, had departed before him in 2009. Local bias made Yew, born in Singapore and most recently arrived from New York, a media target. Called “an outsider” by the New York Times and regarded similarly by the Chicago Tribune, Yew knew that the loyalty of the Chicago theater community would be a challenge: It was high school all over again. It’s recess and the cheerleaders are all sitting at their table, but I’m not invited to join them. I’m gonna sit at my own table and see how many people I can get to join me. During his first two years, there had been additional leadership and staff transitions, organizational restructuring, retirement of the theater’s 14-member Playwrights Ensemble, and sele