Steppenwolf Theatre Company Blog – Chicago Theater, World-Class Ensemble

This past May 22nd, The League of Chicago Theatres held their annual benefit. Among the individuals who were recognized for outstanding contributions to Chicago theatre was our very own Artistic Director, Martha Lavey. Fellow ensemble member, Amy Morton, was on hand to present the award for Artistic Leadership to Martha. Ensemble member Frank Galati contributed the following comments for the printed program. With typical Galatian eloquence, Frank expresses the high esteem in which Martha is held and it is with great pride that we re-print his comments here.

“Simply put, Martha Lavey is one of the most protean, eloquent and visionary leaders in the American theatre. She is a brilliant actress, remaining engaged in the perfecting of her craft, even as she triumphs in the role of Artistic Director, leading Steppenwolf to greater heights and deeper values. In the ten years of her administration, she has, most of all, given Steppenwolf a voice. Colleagues, audiences and critics have been moved and inspired by her eloquent prologues to the plays she chooses to produce, and the generosity and intellectual suavity with which she conducts discussions that form epilogues to those plays. Martha sees nearly every show on Chicago’s many stages and she participates enthusiastically in the national discourse, where her views are deeply regarded. Above all, Martha is a spiritual leader who demonstrates by example what it is to lead a good life with a true purpose.”

We begin the final weekend of performances for Love-Lies-Bleeding at Steppenwolf today. Tech rehearsals at the Kennedy Center start on June the 15th, and we open the show in the Terrace Theatre at the Kennedy Center on Sunday, June the 18th. We will do eight shows the following week, closing on Sunday June the 25th. I’ll be very interested to see if audiences in Washington respond to the show differently in any way from our Steppenwolf Chicago audiences.

Over the years, we have taken a number of shows to other cities, nationally and internationally. The venues have ranged from the large commercial houses on Broadway; to large, subsidized theaters like the National Theatre and the Barbican Theatre in London; to international festivals in Ireland and Australia; to the smaller houses of off-Broadway; to other regional theaters in the United States like the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, or most recently, the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut. (more…)

Fresh from directing Love Song for our subscription season, ensemble member Austin Pendleton is acting in The Sunset Limited in the Garage. We asked him to reflect on that challenge.

I just want to talk about Cormac McCarthy, and my personal history with his work. Everybody who knows his writing seems to want to talk about their personal history with his work. He’s that kind of writer.

I was sent to coach an actor once who was up for a big role in one of my plays for his audition. Garret Dillahunt is his name. He’s acted at Steppenwolf, and in fact all over the place, in New York theatre in television and movies. At this time I didn’t know him, but I came to like him instantly when he agreed with me there was no point in doing a coaching session (he got the part) and that maybe it would be more fun if we talked about books. At which point he gave his copy of Suttree, by Cormac Mccarthy. When we were in rehearsal he gave me Blood Meridien. (more…)

We opened Love-Lies-Bleeding last Sunday night, May the 7th, so we’ve just finished our first week of our regular run. It’s great to be playing for audiences and to engage in post-show conversations about the play. This is a play that provokes rich conversations – deeply felt, philosophically complex conversation. I have been enlightened about aspects of the play by comments from our audience. As much as I have been engaged with the play, the insights of people receiving the play for the first time in performance can show me connections that have eluded me.

I find this delightful. One obvious fact of this dynamic is that an audience sees the play in a way that I cannot, being in it. You see the entire trajectory of the play, you watch connections between characters (and add those up) in a way that I cannot. You see the entire impact of the show’s design – the play of light, the geometry of the stage picture, the orchestration of sound, light and movement. For heaven’s sake: you see what I look like (in my costume, in my body language and movement) in a way that I cannot. And you see that for each of the actors (in a way that I cannot, and in a way that they cannot). So while I may know the text of the play more intimately than you, having lived with it for longer, you know the total theater of the show better than I, because you are sitting in the cat bird’s seat. (more…)

One of the pleasures of moderating post-show discussions with our audiences, as I did this week after a performance of Love Song, is the way in which our audience’s aptitude for engaging in insightful conversation about the play provokes new ideas – even when it is my job to be deeply familiar with the work already.

One member of this discussion was deeply struck by the brother/sister relationship between Joan (Molly Regan) and Beane (Ian Barford), seeing each of them as the savior for the other. Yet another suggested that Joan’s husband Harry (Fran Guinan) was the real hero of the story, pointing out how it is his efforts, first to help Beane and then Joan, that really propel the action of the play. This caused a third to chime in that Molly (Marianne Mayberry), and the power of imagination she represents, was the true catalyst from whom sacrifice is demanded for the betterment of the others.

The conversation was a useful reminder of the way in which any work of art, regardless of authorial intent, is always viewed through a variety of lenses – the choices made by the writer, the decisions made by actors, directors and designers in the production process, and the subjective point-of-view of any given audience member. The act of interpretation demands the collusion, and sometimes collision, of all of these. Each of these three audience members seemed to find their own reading of the play satisfying, but also appeared to gain something from hearing other perspectives. Despite spending much of my day in solitary contemplation of the merits of a given play, it made me think that genuine, full interpretation of any work is a wonderfully collaborative experience.