Dad's Garage announces new season amid uncertain future

• Linnea Frye
• Dad's Garage artistic director Kevin Gillese (left) with Dan Triandiflou in 'The Revengeance'

It's been a turbulent year for Atlanta theater, featuring the unexpected closure of Theatre in the Square in March and PushPush Theater's recent decision to close its New Street performing space in Decatur. Now Dad's Garage Theatre faces the potential loss of its longtime playhouse in Inman Park. The company is taking a business-as-usual approach to the role, looking for potential alternate venues while announcing its 2012-2013 season, which features 44 Plays for 44 Presidents. I sent artistic director Kevin Gillese an email request for an update, and his reply is worth quoting in detail:

As of today, the entirety of 280 Elizabeth St. is under contract with South City Partners/JPX Works. They're looking to turn the property into a mixed-use space and hope to close the deal as early as December of this year, which means the possibility of them breaking ground as early as April of 2013. While there are still a few approvals needed from the city, our Inman Park neighbors have recently voted for the project and there seems to be a high likelihood that everything will continue to move forward.

So what does this mean for us? Well, it could mean a few different things. It could mean finding a permanent new home, finding a temporary space until we can move back into our shiny new home on the same property, or it could mean that nothing changes and we stay in our current building for years to come (it's happened before - twice in the last 6 years).