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

As long-time producer of the Traffic series, I’ve been asked how programming is determined and my answer is it’s a combination of collective ideas, gut feelings, big wishes and dumb luck. In the case of the just completed Traffic Jam, I knew one thing: that the last song of the last show would be “Get Here” written by Brenda Russell and performed by the one and only Oleta Adams. It is an iconic song that my best friend turned me on to 16 years ago and it has stuck with me ever since.

When I was able to get Oleta Adams to agree to appear at the Traffic Jam (and I knew she would sing her most popular song last), the rest of the programming came from discussions with artistic director Martha Lavey (Sandra Bernhard), our staff (Dar Williams), my music world relationships (Maude Maggart, John Pizzarelli,) and a little luck (Jon Brion). Mix it up with some jazz (Bill Frisell), some folk (The Ditty Bops, Howard Fishman), some old friends (Kahil El’Zabar), some on stage conversations (Grant Achatz and Michael Ruhlman; Koko Taylor and Timuel Black) and Chicago Public Radio’s Stories on Stage, and we had ourselves an eclectic a festival of music, storytelling and conversations.

Images from the three weeks….

…associate producer Cat Tries casually chatting in the green room with Dido, who came to support her friend Jon Brion; the audience leaning forward for almost two hours discovering the magnificent voice of Maude Maggart; John Pizzarelli hamming it up with the hip crowd; Jon Brion daring our lighting genius JR Lederle to bring on the light show; racing Dar Williams back to her hotel 20 minutes before curtain to retrieve her forgotten show clothes (we made it); watching the world-class jazz musicians fill our stage with their friend Kahil El’Zabar; being in the path of the chaotic and remarkable tornado that is Sandra Bernhard; the expression on Steppenwolf apprentice Josh Wolff’s face when I told him he would be Sandra’s personal assistant for the day (he loved every minute of it); being amazed by the huge line of “foodie fans” for the book signing of culinary author Michael Ruhlman; the elation of members of The Ditty Bops audience when invited to dance on stage with them; the fervor of Oleta Adams’ intense and joyful performance; and lastly, having each and every performer tip their hat to the brilliant sound work of sound engineers Martha Wegener and Gregor Mortis.

Every night, a standing ovation from our audiences for these remarkable performers, each and every one loving their night in the theater.

Only at Steppenwolf. Thanks for the ride.

This entry was posted by Tim Evans on Thursday, March 15th, 2007 at 8:31 am and is filed under General. 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.