When David Zak resigned his post as artistic director of Bailiwick Repertory Theatre in 2009, it seemed that the company would fade and disappear.
After all, Bailiwick no longer had a permanent theater after jumping ship from its longtime Belmont Avenue home to become an itinerant company again. And since Zak's name was synonymous with the LGBT-friendly theater for most of its existence, many thought it couldn't weather on without him.
Luckily for Chicago theater audiences, others have picked up where Zak left off.
Theater Wit moved into the former Bailiwick warehouse space and completely gutted and renovated it into a new three-theater venue.
And a revamped and renamed Bailiwick Chicago under a new collective leadership led by general manager Kate Garassino and executive director Kevin Mayes recently scored two summer hits. Bailiwick Chicago's take on Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida was a critical and audience hit at American Theater Company, as is Joe DiPietro's Fucking Men. ( The latter is set to close this weekend after several extensions at Stage 773. )
"Kate Garassino has done a great job with Bailiwick Chicago and I'm really thrilled that that's going on," Zak said.
Though he no longer is in charge of Bailiwick, Zak has found ways of keeping busy theatrically. Zak has been teaching at Roosevelt University, and he's also created the non-profit Pride Films and Plays as a way of "helping develop literature—great plays and great screenplays."
In what Zak describes as our current Facebook world, it's easier to reach out to talented people in all sort of different groups ranging from Hollywood to different theater communities. Which is why Pride Films and Plays has launched initiatives like the recently launched "Great Gay Screenplay Contest" and the soon-to-debut "Great Gay Play Contest" to tell stories specific to the LGBT community and to hopefully cross over to mainstream American culture at large.
"You know, fresh takes on [ LGBT-related ] material that you could show your church group or show your family in Alabama or let people know across the country that these are just stories about love or religion or the military," Zak said. "There are so many stories that we feel still need to be told."
Zak also plans a "Women's Work" contest for women penning screenplays, teleplays, plays and other performance art work for 2011.
In addition to the writing contests, Pride Films and Plays has also been staging one-night only readings of important LGBT plays. The first series focused on five famous gay plays from each decade of the second half of the late 20th century.
"It's really given a lot of us a chance to go back and really reexamine some of the great scripts and to introduce a lot to our [ younger ] audiences," Zak said. "Sometimes people have said to us at the talkback 'I had no idea what I was in for' since there's no sets, there's no costumes—just music stands and actors. But it's really a great way to get swept away by the story."
The latest play reading series is dedicated to the works of out playwright Terrence McNally, and begins 7 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 29, with the premiere of his 2006 drama Some Men at Stage 773. Some Men follows a group of gay men through the latter-half of the 20th century.
Although McNally himself isn't coming out to attend any of the readings, Zak says he's talked with the famed playwright who is excited at this opportunity for Chicago audiences to get a 35-year retrospective of his work in the theater.
Zak is also excited by the directing and performing talent that is to be featured in the series. For example, Goodman Theatre regular Steve Scott is set to direct the reading of McNally's 1989 opera queen drama The Lisbon Traviata at 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 12, at Mary's Attic. Then there's stage and TV actress Alexandra Billings, who is set to play the outrageous diva role of Googie Gomez in McNally's 1975 bathhouse farce The Ritz at 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 24, at Stage 773.
Zak has also arranged for a series of "celebrity hosts" for each reading, ranging from cabaret star Honey West to Hell in a Handbag Productions' David Cerda to introduce the works. Other plays in the series include the 1995 drama Love! Valour! Compassion!, the 1994 drama Lips Together, Teeth Apart and the controversial 1998 drama Corpus Christi.
Also in the cards for Zak's future is his London directing debut with Martin Casella's 2010 comedy The Irish Curse. It's about a support group for men coping with their emotions toward their miniscule members, and it's intriguingly to be staged at the tiny London fringe theater known as Above the Bush.
Since Zak helped Casella develop the play at the Bailiwick, he eager to be working with Casella again in a higher-profile venue.
"It's going to be fun," Zak said. "I'm excited and really nervous."
For more information on Pride Films and Plays' writing contests and play reading series titled "The Great Plays of Terrence McNally," visit pridefilmsandplays.com .
Please send theater news and other related tidbits to scottishplayscott@yahoo.com and Andrew@windycitymediagroup.com .
