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

Always a little strange having Mom and Dad in the audience. I warned them in advance that some less-than-wholesome things happen on stage, and it is in no way a reflection on their parenting (They liked the play).

You know that sappy Hallmark-moment thing that parents say: having kids allowed them to experience the world again for the first time because, suddenly, everything is brand new to this little person who has never pet a dog, or run through the sprinklers on a hot summer day, or learned the hard way that Cheerios go only so far up the nasal cavity before the inaugural trip to the emergency room. The Butcher of Baraboo became a whole new experience for me sitting next to somebody who doesn’t know what’s coming next. I wish that I could induce a state of temporary amnesia on myself so I can know what it would be like to experience a play I wrote for the first time. But I can’t. So that vicarious experience of a first audience is the next best thing. I personally like to be a part of a first audience for stuff. I may not be seeing the most polished, assured production so early in the run, but I get to be a part of something a little more wild and uncharted. (more…)

Our First Look Rep began public performances this weekend, including a marathon day on Sunday in which all three plays were presented successively. At the same time, in Minneapolis, the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas was holding its annual conference. Steppenwolf Trustee and First Look Council Chair Beth Davis presented on a panel there, addressing relationships between Trustees and the artistic process of theaters. In preparation, Beth asked if I had any thoughts about First Look her audience might find useful. I’ve observed it is most difficult to describe, even to fellow practitioners, the way First Look differs from simply rehearsing and producing a new play, so I did my best to supply Beth with a concrete example:

Spare Change was scheduled for its tech day on Tuesday. In response to some notes following a run-through of the show on the Saturday before tech, the creative team cut two entire scenes from the play. On Sunday, the play was run without those two scenes. Having watched that run, playwright Mia McCullough decided to add a new section to the beginning of a scene that follows one that had been cut. In so doing, she added an entirely new character. Fortunately, this would be played by an actor already playing multiple roles, so we did not need to hire a new actor, although we would have, if necessary. Mia made these changes on Monday, the day off for actors. On Tuesday, we teched the play, but skipped the transition into, and pages of, the new material. At the end of the tech day, the actors read the new pages for the first time. The next day (Wednesday), back in the rehearsal room (another play in the Rep was teching in the theater) director Lisa Portes staged the new pages, the costumer fit the new costume, and then we teched in the new section on Friday, prior to the first public performance that night.

While such goings-on happen at times with any new play, wholesale changes and this degree of fluidity so late in the process is unusual. Providing an environment in which this kind of experimentation can be supported is precisely the purpose of First Look.

I’ve had the pleasure of conducting a number of the post-show conversations for The Unmentionables and I must say, I find it a very rich experience. I am impressed (once again) by how smart the Steppenwolf audience is. The play is challenging—it requires interpretation in the sense that it offers a kind of allegory: the playwright is asking that the circumstances of the play be read in a wider context. Our audience makes the leap into that interpretive space with real vigor and insight. It’s always interesting to feel the shifts in emphasis that happen in any given audience.

Last Saturday, one member of the audience seized on the character of Dave, the young man who identifies himself as a Christian. This audience member was candid to say that he, himself, is a Christian and he didn’t find Dave to be conducting himself in a Christian manner. He said, “Why are people with religious identity made the targets of a lampooning?” Several other members of the audience pointed out that the critique was not exclusive to Dave—that the behavior of all of the characters is put under review—that each of them is operating out of a form of hypocrisy or a lack of honest self-reflection. (more…)

Let’s have a moment of silence for Mug #1, an irreplaceable 1992 Barcelona Olympics mug. It was given a few solid thwacks on a kitchen chair, and upon the third such thwack, it decided that it did not want to be in my play anymore. I’ll eulogize it by saying it went to coffee-mug heaven in a glorious spray of ceramic shrapnel. Mug #2, an ugly golf mug, died in the line of duty after being dropped one too many times in a climactic moment. Many thanks to the tireless props masters for their patience.

Today is our day of tech rehearsal, which means Dexter and the designers play with lights and sound and the actors play for the first time in the Garage Theatre space. Lots of other stuff goes on, but I’m pretty much done with my work on the script for the First Look production. I gave the last few itty-bitty line cuts yesterday, and we’ll see how it all pulls together. There haven’t been too many major textual changes the past week. The bulk of the fussing this week was about finding and adjusting the tone of the play in the performance. Okay - TONE - one of those literary topics that resulted in a couple C grade essays in high school. The world of Baraboo is slightly skewed, and some of the humor comes from underplayed or inappropriate reactions to extreme situations, flippant cruelty, and flagrant squirrel abuse. That isn’t to say it’s wall-to-wall yuks. There are also quieter, menacing waters to navigate. Finding the right playing of this material is a challenge. (more…)

When John Ringling, of Ringling Brothers fame, left his hometown and Circus headquarters in Baraboo, Wisconsin, he referred to the townsfolk as “hick Barabooians.” But when I visited Baraboo last February to check out the town, I found the people there friendly and helpful, and when the town bum spotted me taking a picture of the historic Al Ringling Theatre on the town square, he was thrilled to point out Al Ringling’s redbrick house before asking me for change.

There’s not much scenery along I-90 into Wisconsin. It’s vague and vast and forgettable, the same way I describe my English major in college. The exit for Baraboo/Portage has one of the sharpest, fastest highway exits I’ve ever experienced, and after nearly flipping my car into a drainage ditch, I ended up on a country road toward the promised land, if, by promised land, I mean Baraboo. I drove past houses, decrepit and serene, I drove past farms and grain silos, I drove past Pigtail Road, and I wondered who lived up there. Pippi Longstocking? Wendy the fast food huckster? Yo mama? (if, by Yo Mama, I mean your mother, if she wore pigtails). (more…)