Artistic Director Jacob Harvey To Depart Greenhouse Theater Center
he Greenhouse Theater Center (GTC) announced today Artistic Director Jacob Harvey will depart the Lincoln Park institution at the end of June 2018.
Harvey joined GTC in January 2016, charged with transforming the longtime rental facility into a full-time producing organization. In 2016-17, he curated and produced the Solo Celebration! Series, a festival featuring 16 new plays and events by and for solo artists from all over the Chicago theater community and the world. In 2017-18, Harvey programmed GTC’s first full subscription season, featuring three full productions including the hit Machinal, a remount of the award-winning solo show Rose and the current Chicago premiere of Birds of a Feather. During his tenure, Harvey launched several playwriting programs: the Trellis Residency Initiative, a professional development program for playwrights and devisers under 30 and The MC-10, a mid-career playwrights group focused on artistic activism. He also implemented the Solo Performance Lab, providing local artists the space and support to develop and perform new solo works. Additionally, Harvey cultivated educational partnerships with Chicago-area high schools and colleges to mentor the next generation of theater artists and audiences. Finally, Harvey focused on building bridges between GTC and community organizations, forging partnerships with local chapters of Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, HRC, The Illinois Holocaust Museum, the Broadway Youth Center Communities in Schools of Chicago and Mujeres Latinas en Accion, among others.
Comments Greenhouse Theatre Center’s Executive Director William Spatz, “We are extremely grateful to Jacob for his many contributions to GTC’s core mission of growing Chicago theatre. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors. Moving forward, the Greenhouse will focus on partnering with local companies and artists on co-productions and providing much-needed space for the city’s many itinerant theatre companies.”
About Jacob Harvey
Jacob Harvey began his tenure as Artistic Director of Chicago’s Greenhouse Theater Center (GTC), by launching the organization’s producing arm with the Solo Celebration!, a series of 16 solo plays and events over eight months. The series included world premieres by Chicago playwrights Brett Neveu, Philip Dawkins and Isaac Gomez. Jacob contributed to the series as a director, helming the Chicago premiere of Circumference of a Squirrel, as well as I Do Today, a co-production with Other Theatre Company. The series received five Jeff Award nominations and a Best Solo Performance win for Rose starring Linda Reiter. During GTC’s 2017-18 season, Jacob directed of the hit production Machinal, which received 4 (out of 4) stars from Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune and was named one of the Top 10 Productions of 2017. He also directed the Chicago premiere of Birds of a Feather and was named one of Newcity’s “Players 2017.” A freelance director, teaching artist and producer, Harvey has taught in Chicago for American Theater Company’s Bridge Program and North Central College. He was awarded the Bret C. Harte Director/Producer Fellowship for Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s 2013/14 Season; served as Associate Producer and Interim Director of Programming for the Drama Desk Award Winning New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) and served as the Co-Artistic Director of the Ovation Award-Nominated Mechanicals Theatre Group in Los Angeles. He is also a Producer for Your Theatrics International, a New York-based full service entertainment production company, specializing in the production of theatrical events around the world. With a fervent passion for developing new musicals he was the Co-Producer of Ladyhawks (NYMF 2013 Best of Fest under the title Volleygirls) and the Associate Producer of Ryan Scott Oliver’s 35MM: A Musical Exhibition. Other regional directing credits include, Sweet Charity (Pfeiffer Hall), Mr. Marmalade (The Theatricians), The Shape of Things (Silver Bell Productions), the world premiere of the new musical The Many Selves of Mia Scott (Carrie Hamilton Theater) and Assistant Director of the world premier of Marcus Gardley’s The House The Will Not Stand (Berkeley Repertory Theatre). He is also the creator of the upcoming musical web series The Cycle, currently in development. Jacob attended the BFA program at Marymount Manhattan College and is a graduate of The Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.
About the Greenhouse Theater Center
The Greenhouse Theater Center is a producing theater company, performance venue and theatre bookstore located at 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. GTC’s mission is first and foremost to grow local theatre.
The Greenhouse Theater began its producing life in 2014 with the smash hit Churchill, followed by 2016’s much-lauded Solo Celebration!, an eight month, 16 event series highlighting the breadth and depth of the solo play form. In 2017-18, the Greenhouse presented its first full subscription season, with a mix of multi-character and solo plays.
As a performance venue, the Greenhouse complex offers two newly remodeled 190-seat main stage spaces, two 60-seat studio theaters, two high-capacity lobbies and an in-house rehearsal room. GTC strives to cultivate a fertile environment for local artists, from individual renters to its resident companies, and to develop and produce their work. In 2016, the Greenhouse announced a new residency program, which offers a reduced rate to local storefront companies while giving the Greenhouse a stake in the resident’s success. The Greehouses houses Chicago’s only dedicated used theatre bookstore, located on the second floor the complex.
With new ideas always incubating, the Greenhouse is flourishing. Come grow with us!