Annual Chicago Stories Benefit May 9th At The Four Seasons

Comedian Jeff Garlin, author Stuart Dybek and community leader Allen Turner are this year's celebrity playwrights for Victory Gardens Theater's Chicago Stories gala, Friday, May 9, 2008, 6pm at the Four Seasons Hotel, 120 E. Delaware in Chicago.

With its annual one-night-only presentation of three 10-minute, celeb-authored plays, Chicago Stories is always the city's most dramatic spring gala, plus a wonderful reflection of Victory Gardens' dedication to the playwright. As many as 500 VIPs and supporters are expected to cheer on Victory Gardens' first-time playwrights on their opening - and closing -night. Tickets are $300. Tables of 10 start at $3,000. For reservations, call Kate Oczkowski, Victory Gardens Director of Events and Individual Giving, (773) 549-5788 ext. 2140

Victory Gardens Artistic Director Dennis Zacek will direct all three short plays, which star professional actors from Victory Gardens' stages. In addition to a night of celebrity theater, guests at  Chicago Stories will enjoy pre-show cocktails and appetizers, an extravagant silent and live auction and raffle, and a delicious gourmet meal in the Four Seasons' Grand Ballroom. Proceeds will help underwrite costs of producing world premieres, providing education programs for Chicago Public Schools, offering assistive devices and services to the disabled community, and making theater available to underserved audiences.

Jeff Garlin no doubt will give a comedic edge to his Chicago Stories debut play. He co-stars in and executive produces the award-winning HBO series 'Curb Your Enthusiasm.' Garlin spent three seasons on NBC's 'Mad About You' and has appeared in such films and TV series as 'Full Frontal', 'Daddy Day Care', 'Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me', 'Everybody Loves Raymond' and 'Late Night with Conan O'Brien'. A Chicago native and alumnus of The Second City, he has toured the country as a stand-up comedian and has written and starred in three critically acclaimed solo shows.

No stranger to writing, Stuart Dybek will put pen to paper for Victory Gardens for a live, condensed version of his popular, gritty 'Chicago tales'. Stuart Dybek is the author of three books of fiction; "I Sailed With Magellan" (adapted and staged by Victory Gardens last season to critical acclaim), "The Coast of Chicago" (2004 "One Book, One Chicago" selection), and "Childhood and Other Neighborhoods"-plus two collections of poetry, and numerous anthologized short stories. A recipient of a 2007 MacArthur "Genius" Grant, Dybek is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at Northwestern University, and a member of the permanent faculty for Western Michigan University's Prague Summer Program.

Chicago philanthropist Allen Turner is writing his first play to support Victory Gardens at Chicago Stories. Turner is Board Chairman of Columbia College of Chicago and also heads the Newberry Library's D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian Studies. An accomplished musician and composer, Turner was founding Board Chair of Victory Gardens Theater. He served as Chairman of the Board of the Goodman Theatre, MCA, and National Jewish Theater, as well as McCall's magazine. He is also a member of the Pritzker Organization, and was formerly Chairman of Hyatt International Corporation's Executive Committee.

Last year's Chicago Stories gala featured plays written by CBS channel 2 entertainment reporter and film critic and Chicago Sun-Times columnist Bill Zwecker, retired  Chicago Tribune chief theater critic Richard Christiansen, and the husband/wife duo Lisa Madigan, Illinois Attorney General, and Pat Byrnes, cartoonist for The New Yorker. The event was a smash, attracted nearly 500 people, and raised a record $226,000 for Victory Gardens.

By lending their time and talent to support the theater's new play mission, Victory Gardens' 2008 Chicago Stories playwrights are joining this elite list of Chicagoans, including:

Actors Gary Cole, David Eigenberg, Aaron Freeman. Richard Kind, John Mahoney, William L. Petersen, Aidan Quinn and George Wendt, Architect Stanley Tigerman, Auctioneer Leslie S. Hindman, Authors Sara Paretsky and Sugar Rautbord, Businessman James S. Kemper, Jr.,  Chicago Bulls coach Phil Jackson, Chicago Sun-Times editor Nigel Wade, Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, Chicago Tribune columnists Mike Royko and Bob Green, Judge Susan Getzendanner, Orchestra leader Stanley Paul, Philanthropist Susan Pritzker, Physicist Leon Lederman, Politicians Carol Moseley-Braun, Judy Baar Topinka and Jesse White, Radio personalities Roy Leonard, Kathy O'Malley and Scott Simon, Real estate magnate Samuel Zell, Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., Sports journalists Dan Jiggetts, Rick Telander and Tim Weigel, Sports marketing consultant Stedman Graham, TV news anchors Bill Kurtis, Jay Levine, Mary Ann Childers, Harry Porterfield and Warner Saunders, TV personalities Ted Allen and Alpana Singh, University of Chicago scholar Martha Nussbaum, U.S. Attorneys James R. Burns and Scott R. Lassar.

Co-Chairs of Chicago Stories are VGT board members Sylvia Margolies of Winnetka and Richard Skolly of Chicago. USG is the Celebrity Play Sponsor. Illinois Tool Works is the Cocktail Hour Sponsor. Don Sebastiani & Sons is the Exclusive Wine Sponsor. The Premiere Sweets Sponsor is Swirlz Cupcakes.

About Victory Gardens Theater

All Chicago Stories proceeds benefit Victory Gardens Theater, now in its second season in its new home, a state-of-the-art 299-seat mainstage inside Chicago's newly-renovated Biograph Theater. In addition to its new Biograph mainstage, Victory Gardens continues to operate its venue at 2257 N. Lincoln Avenue - now called the Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theater - a home for resident companies, rental productions, administrative offices, the Victory Gardens Training Center, and the occasional VGT production.

One of Chicago's most respected Off Loop theaters, Victory Gardens Theater is Chicago's #1 presenter of new plays, and the recipient of the 2001 Tony Award for Regional Theatre for "displaying a continuous level of artistic achievement contributing to the growth of theater nationally." Victory Gardens is designated an Established Regional Arts Institution by the Illinois Arts Council (IAC), and is partially supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, a CityArts Program IV Grant from the City of  Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.  For complete information, visit victorygardens.org.

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