Metropolis hires a new director
The Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights has hired a veteran of Chicago's Second City as its next executive director.
Joe Keefe, who also has written and produced for a number of theatrical and television productions, will take the helm at Metropolis on Jan. 1, officials announced Thursday night.
Keefe was founder and executive producer of Second City Communications, the production arm of The Second City Theaters, between 1983 and 2001, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He's also an accomplished ghostwriter, having produced five published books in two years, and writer of three books of his own, according to his website.
Keefe also has served as an adjunct professor at Columbia College and Northeastern Illinois University, and was a Glencoe village trustee between 2005 and 2010.
A committee of Metropolis board members had been looking for a new director following the departure of Charlie Beck in May.
At the time, then-board President Joe Lynn said Beck brought a serious business stability to the organization during his 2½-year tenure, but the board wanted to look for someone with a particular vision for the overall organization - the theater, the school, and the marketing and fundraising.
Current acting board President Tom O'Rourke couldn't be reached for comment Thursday night, but said in October the executive director would be "the face of the organization and charged with focusing on quality productions and learning opportunities that are directly connected to the organization's current and future supporters - to the village itself."
Neil Scheufler, Metropolis' former special events manager, has been serving as the acting executive director since May.
Metropolis officials told village officials in October that without $450,000, the theater would have to close its doors. The village board voted 7-2 to provide that subsidy, which allows the theater to pay off debts and stay open through April 2015.
Village officials said at the time that a new executive director would be important to determining the theater's future.