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

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.

Further to this dynamic, you bring into the room your own experiences related to the ones being explored in the play. I have talked to a woman who worked in hospice care and has seen many people negotiate the end of life. Some participants to the post-show conversation have faced the question of a family member at the end of life. Everyone who sees the play brings a unique understanding of family, of parenting (being parented, possibly parenting). All of these experiences inform their viewing of the play. I am moved by the candor and emotional honesty that our audience brings to the conversation. I recommend that you join us for the play and that you stay for the post-show conversation. I promise that you will leave the theater confirmed in the power of theater to issue you both personal insight and a sense of community – a deep feeling for our shared humanity.

This entry was posted by Martha Lavey on Monday, May 15th, 2006 at 11:54 am and is filed under Love-Lies-Bleeding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.