Chicago theater veteran to head to Metropolis

Matt O'Brien is no stranger to the Chicago theater scene. Many theater fans will remember him as the founder and director of the Irish Repertory Theater of Chicago. In its heyday, that company brought us such illustrious productions as Eugene O'Neill's "Long Days Journey into Night," starring Steppenwolf ensemble member, and Frazier regular, John Mahoney.

Those who follow Chicago's off-Loop movement remember O'Brien from his years as one of the founders of the late, great Splinter Group, an edgy but smart theater located in a storefront in the then-sketchy section of Division just east of Damen. It was O'Brien who brought us the Buckets O' Beckett Festival, a more or less annual festival celebrating Beckett's shorter, meaner, less-well-known, but, some think, better plays.

Now O'Brien has a new gig. He's the new executive director and producer at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights.

How did this pure product of Chicago's theater scene manage to land this gig? Usually when theater companies look for new executive directors, they conduct a nationwide search and then hire those who have made names for themselves and gotten some national press.

That's what Court Theatre did all those many years ago when they hired Charles Newell. And, more recently, that is what the folks at the American Theatre Company did when they hired away their current artistic director, PJ Paparelli, from a theater in Alaska.

So how did a guy living in Libertyville, with a wife and a mortgage, two kids, a dog, and three cats, end up at the Metropolis?

"Well," O'Brien says, clearing his throat, preparing for a response that is part story, part informative answer, "I saw that the Metropolis was looking for an artistic director last summer. They were actually looking for an artistic director and a producer, but I only applied for the artistic director position. And the more we talked during the interview the more I liked the position and the more we both thought it would be good for me to do both jobs, both artistic director and producer, since I was both artistic director and I had experience producing."

And it is true, O'Brien has packed more into his first 20 years of working in theater than many fit into a lifetime.

Before Splinter Group, O'Brien worked with the very edgy Mary-Arrchie Theater (still in existence).

"We helped build their current space," O'Brien says. "And then there were artistic differences. Some of us decided to create our own group. It was actually Rich Cotovsky (who founded and still runs Mary-Arrchie) who called us the Splinter Group."

And after he left the "Irish Rep" in 2005, O'Brien founded GreatWorks Theater, a company that toured shows to schools, "everywhere from downstate Illinois to southern Wisconsin."

O'Brien sold this theater for what he calls "a nice profit" when he took the job at the Metropolis.

So why give up a successful business to step into the helm of a not-for-profit theater like Metropolis.

"The thing with Metropolis," O'Brien says, "and this sounds really hokey, but I knew I would love being here. And I do, even if I have been here from 7 o'clock in the morning from 11 at night, I still love the job. You see, this is a not-for-profit that acts like a for-profit theater, and I love that."

Metropolis's current season is already set. Their wellreceived production of "Deathtrap" is currently running. But O'Brien is busy working with is staff, setting the new schedule.

"The season for next year is selected," O'Brien says. "But I can't tell you what it is. We are in the final moments of negotiating for rights. I can tell you that we will have one classy production of a classic Broadway musical, and one contemporary quirky musical, and one surprise show. We will announce it all March 4."