7-18-08
Lots of Management Changes
Appointments and Disappointments
What is it Dorothy says at the end of The Wizard of Oz? “If you can’t find it in your own backyard, it probably wasn’t worth looking for at all,” or some such. After a nationwide search for a new managing director, Evanston’s Next Theatre Company has appointed Off-Loop Theatre veteran Kevin Heckman, who has spent seven years as managing director and then producing artistic director of Wrigleyville’s Stage Left Theatre. Both companies are about the same age (Next 28, Stage Left 27) and the announcement by Next described Stage Left as “Chicago’s like-minded storefront venue,” a reference to the mission of both troupes to produce socially and politically engaged theatre. A 1992 grad of Wesleyan University, Heckman holds degrees in theatre and mathematics. He’s a multiple Jeff Award nominee who has designed and/or directed numerous productions, and is a longtime contributing writer to PerformInk and former editor of “The Book: An Actor’s Guide to Chicago.” Heckman assumes his new post with the start of the new season, after which Next will focus on choosing an artistic director to succeed Jason Loewith, who has announced his departure at the end of the 2008-2009 season.
Brian LaDuca is the new general manager of Bailiwick Repertory. As an artistic intern at Bailiwick last summer, LaDuca initiated Bailiwick’s resident theatre programs with Hell In A Handbag Productions, Time of Your Life Players, and the comedy group Johnny’s Regret, among others. LaDuca is an Off-Loop Theatre veteran, having founded C’est La Vie Drama in 2000 and served as producing artistic director for the company’s five-year life. A native Chicagoan, LaDuca is a 2000 BFA graduate of the University of Illinois. In 2006 he returned to school, earning a directing MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and serving in several management capacities at the Nebraska Repertory Theatre. In addition to his Bailiwick responsibilities, LaDuca will be assistant director to David H. Bell for the August production of The Boys From Syracuse at the Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace Theatre.
In another management appointment, 13 year old Collaboraction named Martin Kamenski to the position of managing director. With an extensive background in theatre management and finance, Kamenski has served Collaboraction as part-time business manager since 2006. He’s a 2005 graduate of Marquette University with a theatre BA and an accounting Masters degree. Presently, Kamenski is general manager at Victory Gardens Theater but will vacate the post when a successor has been found. He also operates a private accounting practice with a specialization in the entertainment industry, and serves on the boards of the Global Alliance of Artists and the Matter Dance Company. Anthony Moseley continues as executive artistic director of Collaboraction, a theatre-based collective company.
In a fourth appointment at the top, the Arts & Business Council (A&BC) of Chicago has named Peter Kuntz as its new executive director, effective July 28. He succeeds Joan Gunzberg, who retired last spring after 19 years. Kuntz most recently was managing director of programs and production at the Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF), having held several CHF posts over seven years, among them acting president following the 2006 leadership transition year. Kuntz also has extensive private-sector experience in advertising and brand management, having held positions with DDB Needham Worldwide, Tatham-Laird & Kudner Advertising and several other ad agencies. He has an MS in advertising and a BS in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He is on the board of TimeLine Theatre Company and has participated in Business of Arts and Culture, a national executive education program from National Arts Strategies.
In other appointments, Barrel of Monkeys (BOM) has hired company member Elizabeth Levy as program director starting Aug. 1. Levy has worked as Steppenwolf’s education coordinator for the last three years and has been a BOM ensemble member since 2004. As program director Levy will oversee the quality of BOM’s educational programs and act as liaison to school administrators and prospective park district partners. She’ll be responsible for curricular review and development, and will serve as one of three lead teaching artists/performers in both public and school shows. Previously a volunteer teacher, Levy is a University of Chicago graduate with a BA in English Language and Literature. Her acting credits include Steppenwolf, The House, Collaboraction, and Dog and Pony theatre companies, as well as BOM.
Speaking of The House, that growing company has welcomed Debbie Baer, Cliff Chamberlain, Lee Keenan, Chad Kenward, Kat McDonnell, and Joey Steakley as new company members, bringing the troupe total to 34 members skilled in a variety of technical and artistic disciplines. Costume designer Baer currently is represented by Funk It Up About Nothin’ at Chicago Shakes; actor Chamberlain is playing a goon in Superior Donuts; Keenan is an instructor in lighting design at Loyola University and is resident lighting designer for the Silk Road Theatre Project; Kenward joins The House production management team; McDonnell is a Strawdog company member and is acting this summer with Steppenwolf (First Look) and Seanachai; Steakley is an actor with credits at side project, Hell In A Handbag and Pavement Group. All six have worked extensively with The House prior to being named company members.
Final Bow
The community was shocked by the unexpected June 28 death of veteran writer Patti McKenny, 57, of a heart attack in her apartment. A playwright, lyricist, voice-over performer, corporate communications pro and director, she was a tireless proponent of the arts in Chicago. McKenny was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1951, where she was a co-founder of Summer Youth Theatre Company before earning a Northwestern University BA and MA in Oral Interpretation (this was before Performance Studies emerged). A few of her major works—which have been produced around the country—are 90 North (written with her longtime collaborator Doug Frew and composer Daniel Sticco), Becoming George (with Frew and composer Linda Eisenstein), Lady Lovelace’s Objection (with Frew) and Towertown. Also, for several years McKenny was a regular contributor to Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion. McKenny was afounding member of Chicago Musical Theatre Works (CMTW), a driving force in Chicago Women in Publishing, a member of the Dramatists’ Guild and a founding partner in the 1970s of Studiomedia Recording Studio in Evanston. She is survived by a brother and sister-in-law, two nieces, a nephew and a large extended family of friends across the country. This writer knew McKenny not well, but for a long time (30 years) and never found her less than engaged, engaging, witty, hard-working and devoted to her projects and community. Details of a memorial tribute are pending.
Friends of actor and playwright Maureen Gallagher Bringley quietly are mourning with her on the death of her son, Thomas Tyler Bringley, June 22 in Brooklyn, New York. He was just 26 and died of cancer only six days before he was to be best man at the marriage of his younger brother, Patrick, and just months after completing his PhD in Mathematics at New York University. In addition to his blood family, he is survived by his wife, Krista, and new sister-in-law Tara. A scholarship at NYU has been established in his name. Donations may be sent to NYU, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Attn: Cheryl Sylivant, 251 Mercer St., New York, NY, 10012, mentioning the Thomas Tyler Bringley Scholarship. Thomas was buried where he grew up, in Homewood, IL.
Finally, ALS (Lou Gerhig’s Disease) claimed playwright, actor, carpenter and filmmaker Ben Byer on July 3. He was 37, and had been diagnosed with ALS in 2002. His response was to pour his talent and energy into making a documentary film that chronicled his battle with ALS, and those of others fighting the disease. The result, Indestructible, features scores of real people filmed on four continents. A party to celebrate the Chicago premiere of the film proceeded as planned on July 17th, hosted by Byer’s sister Rebeccah Rush, and became a celebration of his life and work. The indie feature-length film already had been a hit on the festival circuit, winning several awards, and opening in a commercial theatre run just last May in L.A., San Francisco and Madison, WI. Byer was assisted on the film by Rush and by Roko Belic, whose 1999 documentary Genghis Blues was nominated for an Academy Award. In 2003 Byer and Rush founded the ALS Film Fund in an effort to create artwork that encouraged positive change for ALS sufferers around the world. Raised in the Chicago area, Byer studied journalism at Indiana University and film theory at the University of Paris, later serving as a translator at the Cannes Film Festival before making the leap to Hollywood and a series of B-movie producing jobs. Byer is best known in Chicago for his work as actor and sometimes-playwright at the Steppenwolf, Organic, Trap Door and the European Repertory Company theatres. In addition to Rush, survivors include Byer’s wife, Josephine Christopher; his son John Anthony; his parents, two brothers and another sister. Byer was buried July 8 at Shalom Memorial Park in Arlington Heights, IL.