Edward Torres and Archana Vaidya Appointed Interim Leaders of Chicago Theatre Company

Victory Gardens Theater is attempting to reestablish its presence in the Chicago theater scene under the leadership of interim artistic director Edward Torres and interim executive director Archana Vaidya. The company is seeking to move past a period of significant instability to once again become a fully active producing theater.

The company’s home, the Biograph Theater in Lincoln Park, has remained largely dormant since September 2022. That dormancy followed years of high-profile disputes between the board of directors, the administration, and the ensemble, which resulted in the firing of the remaining bare-bones staff in September 2022.

New Leadership and Artistic Vision

The effort to reinvigorate the theater is led by Torres and Vaidya, who now comprise the company’s two-person staff. Edward Torres, a Chicago native and co-founder of Teatro Vista, was hired as interim artistic director in December 2025. Torres has a history with Victory Gardens dating back to the late 1970s, when the theater toured its Equity Latino ensemble to his high school on the city’s Southeast Side.

Archana Vaidya joined the staff in the summer of 2025 and was appointed interim executive director in March 2026. Vaidya brings a professional background in nonprofit and environmental consulting and has previous experience with South Asian theater groups in the Chicago area.

Under this new leadership, Victory Gardens has adopted a reimagined artistic vision summarized by the tagline New work. Boldly. The theater has defined its current mission as serving as a sanctuary for fearless artistic exchange, producing new work that ignites the imagination and challenges the mind.

Initial Programming and Community Impact

The theater has begun a series of baby steps, according to Vaidya, to return to active production. These initial efforts have included a writers’ workshop and a showcase of new works produced in collaboration with New Musical Chicago.

One of the first major events under the new direction was a staged reading of An Ocean Away, a documentary play written by Belarusian playwright Andrei Kureichik. The production, which featured a cast of Chicago theater veterans, explored the effects of war on Ukrainians and diaspora communities.

The staged reading served both an artistic and philanthropic purpose, raising funds for two aid organizations: the Selfreliance Association and the Protez Foundation, both of which support Ukrainian immigrants and survivors.

Institutional Context and Future Outlook

Victory Gardens has historically been recognized as a premier incubator for bold, contemporary theater, a reputation cemented by the 2001 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. To support its growth, the company purchased the historic Biograph Theater in 2004 and reopened it in 2006.

The facility features a 299-seat mainstage and a 109-seat studio space known as the Richard Christiansen Theater. This infrastructure has previously allowed the company to serve as a cornerstone of the Lincoln Park neighborhood.

While the theater has focused on workshops and readings in the first half of 2026, Torres and Vaidya have indicated that full productions may return as soon as the fall of 2026.