(Above) Fireworks on the Chicago River toward the end of The Great Chicago Fire Festival’s Grand Spectacle on October 4, 2014. Photo by Pawinski Photography. Click on image to view larger version.

20-Jan-15 – The theater company behind The Great Chicago Fire Festival is looking for an executive director to lead them past the technical issues of 2014.

The executive director would not replace anyone at Redmoon. He or she would initially report to Jim Lasko, who has been executive artistic director since 1992.

An executive director, believes the company, would help with the business of making art. Fundraising, marketing, financial management, developing new business, recruiting new trustees, and putting a new 57,000 square foot facility in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood to work.

“He or she will be an entrepreneur who can seize on the inherent opportunity of the company’s new space and increase the company’s funding base through self-generated income,” reads a position profile on the company’s website.

Redmoon is open about the technical glitch of its “Grand Spectacle” on the Chicago River on October 4, 2014. With about 30,000 people watching, an electrical problem failed to fully ignite all three structures on floating platforms, each representing Chicago’s architecture prior to The Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

“The inaugural Fire Festival had an unfortunate technical failure that undermined its overall impact,” says the profile. “While Chicago’s Mayor and Cultural Commissioner backed the event for a second year, the press attention and assessment of Redmoon was negative.”

It was not all bad, however. “As a result of the new opportunities presented by the Fire Festival and the venue, Redmoon doubled in budget size from 2013 to 2014.”

Applicants have until January 31. Redmoon says they hope to make a decision in late February.