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

Tonight we kick off our First Look Rep, with a reading of Mia McCullough’s play Spare Change. The play was commissioned by Steppenwolf, and was given a rehearsed reading as part of last year’s Rep. This year, it will be developed, rehearsed, and presented in full production. Tonight will be an opportunity for the director, dramaturg and playwright to hear the work out loud collectively, before beginning their intensive work on it.

One always feels some trepidation at the start of a process. Fortunately, tonight we are working with a writer whom we’ve produced before, and a director who already has some familiarity with the play. (Lisa Portes, who will be working with Mia on the script this year, directed the reading last summer). Nevertheless, the members of First Look 101 will be present, and it is an unusual moment for work to begin so publicly and in so exposed a fashion. I’m heartened by our experience last year, which suggested that rather than being a distraction, the presence of observers actually helped to intensify and focus the work of the artists; much as in the way a final dress rehearsal before an empty theater differs from the special charge on a first preview.

The purpose of a reading like this is to allow the collaborators to truly and simply hear the play. One is not influenced (or unduly aided) by staging or theatrical design elements. The focus is on the play’s own language, and on its structure. I’m looking forward to what tonight’s experience will reveal about the play.

Awhile back, Steppenwolf as an organization underwent the introspective exercise of defining our core values — those things, in the words of Theater Communications Group Director Ben Cameron, that one will “go to the mat for every single time”. We came up with three: ensemble, innovation, and citizenship.

Normally this kind of inward thinking remains internal to the organization. But today is David New’s turn to post on the blog, and he is not available to do it. Why? Because he is currently engaged in his civic responsibility, sitting, as summoned, on a jury in the Cook County Court system. So in his absence and honor, I started thinking about citizenship, and what it means to be a good citizen:

To be thoughtful about the challenges others face. To behave honorably, responsibly, and fairly, even when no one is watching. To communicate honestly and openly. To think and act for the good of others, not just our own. To provoke and be provoked, but civilly and in hope of genuine discourse.

Sometimes, as in Last of the Boys or the upcoming The Unmentionables, the connection between the behavior on-stage and in our civic lives is overt, and at others, it is more subtle and inferred. But we strive to meet our daily challenge to create theater that supports good citizenship, and to act as a good institutional citizen within our community. I hope some of you have found it a worthy aspiration.

We just finished our first weekend of previews. We’ll rehearse again on Wednesday and Thursday with previews beginning again Thursday evening. We may have a rehearsal call on Friday as well. We open on Sunday, May the 7th.

Don saw the show for the first time on Saturday night. It’s always nerve-wracking to perform with the playwright in the audience. One wants to get the words right. (So of course, I flubbed a couple of lines that I never muffed previously.) When Don returned for Sunday’s show, I was less burdened by the force of his presence. If the pressure of the playwright’s presence is heavy on the actors, it is more so for the director. Amy was admittedly nervous about Don seeing the show. Don is an incredibly gracious person but my goodness, he’s Don DeLillo, honored American writer. And because he is a novelist more prominently than he is a playwright, he is accustomed to being the sole author of his work. A play requires the interpretive community of the director, the actors, and the production staff. He releases the play into our hands – will our work please him? (more…)