O'Brien Takes Helm at Metropolis

BY Carrie L. Kaufman

Matt O'Brien

Metropolis Performing Arts Center in Arlington Heights has ended its four month long search for a new leader. The producing and presenting company hired Matt O’Brien as their executive director/producer.

O’Brien’s career in Chicago Theatre started in the late ’80s when the Columbia College graduate became a company member of Mary Arrchie Theatre. O’Brien and other company members (among them, critic and PerformInk writer Kerry Reid) then left to form Splinter Group, an off-Loop theatre that held an annual Beckett festival. O’Brien then turned the Buckets O’ Beckett Fest into a major annual event, before orienting his entire theatre towards Beckett and other Irish writers, changing the name Splinter Group to The Irish Rep in 2000.

In 2005, O’Brien left Irish Rep to form the GreatWorks Theatre, a for-profit touring educational company. Before accepting the Metropolis job, O’Brien sold GreatWorks to actress Lisa Krosnicki.

“I wanted to make sure GreatWorks kept going because we had a lot of contracts out there,” he said.

O’Brien takes over the job at Metropolis Dec. 1 and he says his main agenda is to set long-term artistic goals with the board and 14 staff people. Other that that, he wants the theatre to continue doing what it’s doing.

“I’m not going into a company where there are a lot of issues that have to be dealt with,” O’Brien said. “When you take over a successful company, the challenge is finding new challenges.”

Metropolis has a budget of $2.5 million. While they only have about 2200 subscribers, over 75,000 people came through their doors last year, many associated with the very popular performing arts school.

“You look at the number of people who are interacting with Metropolis on a daily basis, it’s really an astounding thing,” O’Brien said.