Since surviving an attempt by the board in 2000 to place a new executive over himself and his wife, then-managing director Marcelle McVay, and to try to force a move into the Royal George , Zacek and Victory Gardens have enjoyed a decade of triumphs. The company was recognized with a regional theatre Tony Award in  2001 and moved northward up the street from its old space on Lincoln Avenue into the refurbished 299-seat Biograph in 2006. Earlier this year, the company unveiled the 109-seat upstairs studio space at the Biograph, the Richard Christiansen Theater. (The downstairs theatre is, fittingly enough, the Zacek/McVay Theater.)

In terms of programming, this past year has also been a high-water mark. Zacek’s staging last summer of David Harrower’s Blackbird, starring William Petersen and Mattie Hawkinson, smashed box-office records.

“I didn’t know we could fit that many people into the theatre” says Zacek.

Additionally, the inaugural season of the Ignition Festival, an initiative geared toward supporting younger playwrights of color, ended up with both shows, Michael Golamco’s Year Zero and Kristoffer Diaz’s The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (the latter presented in association with Teatro Vista in its Victory Gardens run) getting New York productions. Diaz’s play was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in drama. Finally, long-time playwrights’ ensemble member John Logan picked up a Tony last month for his play about painter Mark Rothko, Red.

“It’s tough, but I’m pushing myself away from the card table while I’ve still got money in front of me,” says Zacek. But he’s not hiding his cards on who he thinks should succeed him. Sandy Shinner, Victory Gardens ’ associate artistic director, who has been with the company for more than 30 years, is Zacek’s first and only choice as to who should be the next artistic director.

Zacek, who turns 70 in November, says, “The big thing for me, when people asked, ‘Would you stay another five years,’ is that the only thing I want is for Sandy to get [the job], and if I waited another five years, she’d need it like a hole in the head. I’m doing whatever I can do legally to get the job for her.” A search committee hasn’t been formed yet, though Zacek makes it clear that he thinks he should be a part of it.

But Zacek’s enthusiasm for Shinner doesn’t mean a national search won’t happen. Board president Jeffrey Rappin says, “He is of course bullish on Sandy, and she is a strong candidate. But there is so much talent out there—not that Sandy isn’t talented—that we just feel that there will be a line out the door of people who want to be the artistic director, and we owe it to the theatre to see those people. But Sandy is right on top of that list.” Rappin says that, in addition to a search committee, the board will be hiring an arts management search firm to assist their efforts.

The 2000 leadership battle (which Zacek and McVay won, in part with help from the press, including Christiansen, who questioned the wisdom of taking primary control of Victory Gardens away from its founders), wasn’t the only dust-up Zacek has had with his board. He lost a battle in spring 2008 to prevent the sale of Victory Gardens ’ old digs—what is now the Greenhouse Theater —to William and Wendy Spatz. Wendy Spatz was a board member at the time. In the wake of that sale, McVay stepped down as executive director and was replaced by Jan Kallish in February of 2009. Some of the proceeds from the Greenhouse deal did allow Victory Gardens to finish all the remodeling on the Biograph space, particularly the Christiansen studio space.

“You win some and you lose some,” says Zacek. “I know what it’s like to win, and I know what it’s like to lose.”

In addition to Shinner, Zacek feels great loyalty to the 14-member playwrights’ ensemble, first established in 1996.

“I’ve been assured by a number of key people on the board that the mission will remain intact, and that the ensemble will also remain,” he says. “What they say and what happens are two different things. Regardless of what happens, there will be a need for the ensemble to step up their game, which I think is a good thing. The ice will be thinner, and they will be on fragile turf. So far as I know, they all plan to continue with the ensemble as of now.”

Rappin says, “It’s premature to say anything, and it depends on the new artistic director. But we have a mission and that’s new plays. Certainly the playwrights’ ensemble has provided that over the years. I don’t think there’s an inclination to say ‘new artistic director, new mission.’ It’s more, ‘You’re the new person here, so how do you see yourself working with the existing mission?’ I don’t think the board wants to see the mission thrown aside.”

As for hiring locally, Zacek thinks that, if the person who takes over the reins from him isn’t Shinner, there should at least be strong consideration given to local candidates. “If indeed—and this is a Jesuitical argument—Chicago is one of the most exciting and vital theatre cities in the world, why would you go outside Chicago? I’m sure the line would form around the block for Chicagoans who want this job.”

Though Zacek will be departing from day-to-day obligations as artistic director, he will assume the title of artistic director emeritus and continue to direct—and possibly act—at Victory Gardens . He will be directing the first show in the company’s 2010-11 season, Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo, which combines Albee’s early classic one-act, The Zoo Story, with a 2001 prequel, Homelife. Peter Strauss, Zacek’s old pal from Northwestern University, was originally announced in the cast, but he has bowed out—the show now features longtime Victory Gardens associate Tom Amandes, along with Marc Grapey and Annabel Armour.

Asked if there has been one point in his long career with Victory Gardens that stood out as his greatest triumph, Zaceks says “I’m sure it was when we received the regional Tony. They’re not kidding—that year changes everything. The press looks at you a little differently, the funders look at you differently, you can get through when you make a call to an agent. It’s not that you’ve changed, but you’ve been given that imprimatur from New York that makes a difference.”

But the Chicago-born Zacek isn’t looking to move on to greener pastures outside of town. “If something happens and I got a great commercial opportunity in New York or London, sure. But I don’t need to direct in the regional theatre. I’m not walking away from Victory Gardens . I’ve got my buckboard and couple of good horses.”

In other Victory Gardens news, the company announced the final selection in its 2010-11 season. Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation, which won accolades in its off-Broadway run last year, will go up next February under Dexter Bullard’s direction. Baker’s Body Awareness just completed a run with Profiles Theatre .