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Pegasus Theatre Chicago director seeks to engage audiences of all ages

Chicago’s theaters have produced many a famous face. Behind the scenes, though, are the directors who are not necessarily household names. The group includes Ilesa Duncan, artistic director of Pegasus Theatre Chicago.

“Ilesa is one of the most underrated people in Chicago theater because she passes up cookie-cutter projects that don’t have substance and chooses socially responsible projects,” said actor/writer David Barr III of Chicago, who has worked with Duncan since the 1990s.

Part of her mission includes a new focus on socially relevant productions at Pegasus and her commitment to engaging young people in theater. Since 2012, Duncan has been artistic director of the Young Playwrights Festival, a playwriting instruction and competition program for Chicago teens that is celebrating its 28th year. She is also education director at Chicago Dramatists, an organization that nurtures playwrights and helps develop new plays.

“There’s a plethora of studies that say the arts are vital in education,” Duncan said. “They help the kids understand humanity. We need STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics), not STEM.”

After growing up “all over,” Duncan earned a degree from Columbia College Chicago, with a major in film and minor in directing. She put down roots in Chicago, where she juggled freelance stage directing gigs. She joined Pegasus in 2005, and became artistic director in 2012. Duncan’s honors include a directing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group and a Jeff Award for directing. She lives in Chicago’s Douglas neighborhood. Following is a transcript of our conversation.

Q: What pointed you to a career in the theater?

A: I grew up in a working-class family. So if I talked about a career in the arts, they’d tell me, “Baby, you have to have something to fall back on.” But I got a creative gene from my dad, who painted. After studying directing in college, I knew that was my passion. I’m fortunate, I know, to make a living in the arts. My grandmother lived long enough to see me do it.

Q: Acting was not for you?

A: I did some acting, but by the time I got to college, I knew I wasn’t as extroverted as I needed to be in order to be a successful actor. I’m too contemplative.

Actors are the visible people in theater, but it really is a collaborative process with a whole team of people. Bringing them together and negotiating is what I’m good at.

Q: Pegasus is undergoing a rebranding. What will change?

A: We have a new mission, which is to produce bold and imaginative theater and champion new, authentic voices. The “voices” include directors, designers, actors, playwrights and others on the team. We kept the word “Pegasus” — a mythical winged horse — because we want to make epic stories soar.

Our previous mission was broader. Now we’re focusing on telling the tough stories. The play we’re working on now, “Ghost Gardens,” exemplifies this because it’s about social injustice, but with positive changes. It portrays a community that’s struggling with the aftermath of toxic runoff while celebrating the impending birth of a child. The first performance is April 23.

Q: Tell me about the Young Playwrights Festival.

A: It is a year-round program for Chicago kids grades 7-12. Professional playwrights help them develop their one-act plays, then judges choose three to four winners. They’re performed in January. They’re professional productions with professional actors.

Q: What do you get out of doing this?

A: Working with this group, I’ve fallen in love with developing new work with writers, be they high schoolers or professionals.

Q: February is Black History Month. What would you like people to know about African-Americans’ contributions to Chicago theater?

A: Chicago has an abundance of talent from the African-American community, at the larger and smaller theaters. Just among playwrights alone, look at the work by Nambi Kelley, Lydia R. Diamond and Marsha Estell.

Q: Who is your role model?

A: The late Ellen Stewart, founder of the La MaMa Experimental Theater Club in New York. I admire her tenacity and eccentricities. Theater is still a boys’ club, so she accomplished a lot as a woman and as a black woman.

Q: What is your advice to younger women just starting out in theater?

A: If you can’t get a large theater to hire you, look at the smaller ones. Get yourself in the door with an internship, even if it’s unpaid. Every theater is like a little family. Convince them you should be part of their family.

Q: You’re obviously an advocate of arts for young people. How can adults engage them?

A: If there isn’t a budget to hire teachers for the arts, there are plenty of outside organizations like Playwrights that can and do work with the schools.

Q: What’s on your to-do list?

A: Create a multimedia theater/gallery; all I need is a patron! Get a master’s degree in writing. Finish two books I’m writing. Travel to the Caribbean and Africa. But I’m so busy now, I’d be happy to just find the time to do my laundry.

Q: What are your guilty pleasures?

A: Making shortbread cookies. Reading blogs I come across while researching new topics. Double-dipped, chocolate-covered peanuts. Hitchcock movies.

Q: What books are on your nightstand?

A: Mostly there’s always a stack of plays I need to read.

Q: Tell us what your staff does not know about you.

A: To them, I always have my nose to the grindstone. (Laughs.) But really, I’m silly. My friends know that. And, you can gauge the gloomy factor of Chicago’s weather by my hair color. Today, it’s cold, so it’s burgundy. In June, maybe a bright red.

Q: How do you find inspiration?

A: I give myself quiet time. I disconnect from my phone and computer and sit in the empty theater by myself. My days are bustling and hectic, so this helps me reflect and think about what’s ahead.

The Young Playwrights Festival production continues Jan. 30-31 at Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Ave. For information, go to pegasustheatrechicago.org.