Anthony Guerrero, executive director of Hubris Production; Jacob Christopher Green and Patricia Savieo (from left) of Hubris Productions. Image courtesy of Hubris Productions._________
More literary heroes have died as a result of hubris—defined in Webster's dictionary as 'wanton arrogance arising from excessive pride or passion'—than of consumption, suicide and malicious mischief combined. So a theater company adopting that epithet as its name, along with its exhortative motto, 'We think you should like what we like', can certainly be presumed to exhibit a willingness—no, make that an eagerness—to take risks.
'We were in a bookstore one day,' recalled Anthony Guerrero, executive director of Hubris Productions, and one of its three co-founders, 'when we overheard somebody using this word—loudly, repeatedly and erroneously—having, we were sure, consulted his word-a-day calendar before leaving the house. But don't you have to be possessed of some arrogance to get up on a stage and proclaim, 'look at ME!'?'
'Fellow actors warned us in the beginning that we were inviting critics to pan us,' chuckled artistic director and co-founder Jacob Christopher Green, 'but my own experience has been very positive. People read my business card, take a second look, then look at ME and start laughing. So they really do 'like what we like'.'
This audacity has brought them nothing but reward so far: Barely two years in operation, Hubris Productions might have struggled along with many small off-loop companies roaming from storefront to storefront, but for the bold impulse that led them to apply for quarters in the newly constructed Center On Halsted, said to be one of the largest—if not the largest—gay community facilities in the United States. When About Face Theatre, the logical candidate for residency in the Center's Hoover-Leppen playhouse, hesitated over questions of limited seating capacity, Hubris swooped in with plans for a three-play season encompassing material to appeal to gay and non-gay audiences alike. Their production of Terrence McNally's Love! Valour! Compassion! inaugurated the new space, which they now share with the sketch comedy troupe GayCo.
With a company history that includes such disparate fare as the same-sex romantic romp Jeffrey and the hostage drama Two Rooms, both Guerrero and Green deny any pressure to do only overtly gay-themed plays.
'I think one of the reasons that the Center On Halsted invited us into partnership was that we strive to appeal to a wide range of audiences,' Green surmised. 'We are not an exclusively gay theater company, restricting ourselves to a specific dramatic genre. Our next play, Alan Ball's Five Women Wearing The Same Dress, is about a group of bridesmaids—one of them a lesbian—hiding in a bedroom to get away from the reception. But right across the street from our theater, on the northeast corner of Halsted and Waveland, is the Kit Kat Lounge, a favorite spot for bachelorette parties. We look forward to bringing people to the Center who might not come there otherwise.'
Guerrero concurred: 'I think our company is a perfect fit for the neighborhood. We are currently working with the Horizons Youth Programs, offering workshops in acting and in technical areas that we hope will translate to life skills. But we want to expand our outreach programs to the broader community and so does the Center. We understand what it is to be young and gay and to deal with those issues.'
From its inception, Hubris has committed itself to social activism, with a share of every show's proceeds donated to a designated charity. Their recent production of Love! Valour! Compassion! presented $300 in combined ticket sales and audience contributions to the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. A portion of the proceeds from the upcoming production of Five Women Wearing The Same Dress will go, appropriately, to Dress For Success, an advocacy group providing employment training and interview clothes to low-income women re-entering the workforce.
What part, if any, have their own gay identities played in the growth of Hubris Productions?
'I am a very proud and out gay man,' declared Guerrero, 'but I think that my drive as an artist, and as a businessman, affect my choices in regards to Hubris more than my being gay.' 'You know, our third co-founder [ Communications Coordinator Patricia Savieo, out of town and thus, unavailable for this interview ] isn't gay,' Green reminded me, 'although she does say 'every girl should have a gay best friend.' Being gay is only one ingredient in the development of Hubris Productions. We are all in our late 20s or early 30s and, more than anything, I think that our rapid growth is due to our having started our company after we all had enough experience to know what does, or does not, work for us. Also, we are old enough not to be intimidated about asking for what we want and need. I have to applaud people who start their companies right out of college—at that point in my life, I didn't have the focus to see it through.'
Both Guerrero and Green are grateful for the luck that brought them to their residence in the Hoover-Leppen facility at the Center, as well as optimistic regarding the potential offered their artistic endeavors and its wider impact on the gay scene citywide and nationwide. 'As a company, we wanted to give something back to the community.'
