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

The Pillowman has now officially kicked off our 31st season, a season in which we will mount 5 subscription-series shows, 2 Steppenwolf for Young Adults plays (including Lydia Diamond’s adaptation of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, now in performances), an additional “stand-alone” production in the Garage, our annual First Look Repertory of New Work, and host two productions from three local theatre companies as part of our Visiting Companies Initiative. And with this gigantic effort just underway, what is our Artistic Office up to? Planning the 2007-08 season, naturally.

This past Thursday, our Artistic Department met for the first time to discuss potential shows for our next season. A typical season is a mix of new and extant plays, some brought to our attention by members of our ensemble, and vice versa. As I’ve previously mentioned, we get roughly 500 new plays sent to us each year; the majority come from literary agents and playwrights with whom we have a pre-existing relationship. Others are “called in” on the basis of ten-page samples sent to us by unrepresented writers. Still more prospects arise from plays we’ve commissioned from local and nationally-known writers.

These beginning stages find us batting around a lot of suggestions – ‘What do you guys think of [X]?’ – which, if there is sufficient initial interest, we will distribute amongst ourselves to read. Once we have a list of contenders and have made inquiries as to the availability of performance rights, the next step is to begin exploring the level of interest from our ensemble. Most of the time, choosing a season involves a fair bit of matchmaking; we’ll do a “table read” of a play about which we’re excited, and invite several ensemble members to participate or observe. If the table read generates an equal level of passion from the ensemble, that play’s chances gain momentum.

Ideally, the whole process culminates in our announcing the new subscription season in the early stages of the following calendar year.

This entry was posted by Gabriel Greene on Friday, October 6th, 2006 at 4:32 pm and is filed under The Pillowman, The Bluest Eye. 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.