Gus Menary is a producer and theatre director located in Chicago, Illinois.
He served as the Artistic Director at Book-It Repertory Theatre in Seattle, Washington from January, 2020 to January, 2023. While there, he oversaw the pivoting to Audioplay productions during the COVID shutdown and produced world-premiere audio adaptations of authors such as Octavia E. Butler, N.K. Jemisin, and Jamyang Norbu. As part of Book-It’s return to the stage he produced world-premiere adaptations of Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger of Ackroyd, and other national and regional premieres. Onstage, he directed Julian Glover’s adaptation of Beowulf and David Greig’s adaptation of Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris.
He served as the Artistic Director of Jackalope Theatre from July, 2015 to January, 2020. Under his leadership, Jackalope produced 15 professional shows, 75 individual events, and hosted 200+ guest companies over the course of 5 seasons. He produced world-premiere plays by playwrights such as Ike Holter (Prowess and The Light Fantastic), Lloyd Suh (Franklinland) and Idris Goodwin (The Raid), among others. He expanded artistic programming by initiating the GroundWorks Series, the CircleUp! Reading Series, and The Jackalope Playwright’s Lab to foster new play development. He has advanced new partnerships and collaborations with Theatre Without Borders, Chicago Arts Access, the Chicago Inclusion Project, NoPassport, and the Chicago Parks District, among others. He was named one of the Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago by Newcity Magazine in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.
He is a founding member of The Roustabouts as well as The Inconvenience, where he served as Director of Music and Theatre Programming. He has worked with many Chicago theatre companies including Steppenwolf Theatre, A Red Orchid Theatre, American Theatre Company, Mary Arrchie Theatre Company, First Floor Theatre, and Strawdog Theatre Company.