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

Psst. Hey. Hey, you. Theatre geek. Yes, you. I know you’re a theatre geek, or you wouldn’t be reading the blog on the Steppenwolf website. If you’re a hockey geek, you’d be looking at another website. I’ve got a little inside poop, something we “theatre ah-tists” aren’t supposed to share. And if you’re a fellow theatre ah-tist, stop reading this now; go read BJ Jones’s blog at the Northlight website today, cause this isn’t for you. This is for YOU, theatre geek.

Here’s the poop: actors aren’t always thinking about the play WHILE WE’RE PERFORMING IT. Sometimes we’re thinking about laundry. Sometimes we’re thinking about a hot dog. Sometimes we’re thinking about Sophia Loren. And sometimes we’re thinking about Sophia Loren eating a hot dog while she does her laundry. (more…)

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. (more…)

Talkbacks are such an odd thing, eh? I remember my own time in high school, and being asked to share my opinion on anything in front of a sea of my peers was such a harrowing experience. And I’ve always been proud of my opinions. I don’t know why we always felt that keeping silent, shoe-gazing and playing at disinterest was cool – hiding who we truly are or what we truly feel because we fear so much turning the herd against us. I’m just as guilty of it as anyone else, so please don’t read this as an attack. It starts in high school, though it isn’t confined to this period in our lives. I’ve taken part in talkbacks filled with people from college through retirement, both as an artist and audience member, and heard the same uncomfortable silence when asked “Well, what did you think?” Is it just that we fear being “wrong?” Though what is “wrong” in a theatrical process and experience where so much is subjective? They’re our opinions and feelings on what we just saw and took part in, so how can they be wrong? (more…)

Betrayal is painful. It hurts when someone you love is lying to you. But, sometimes confronting the “truth” proves too complicated and even more dangerous than lying. So…LET THE GAMES BEGIN !!! It’s interesting to me to hear what story people believe to be true. There are many lies told in this play and it’s fascinating to hear the variety of interpretations of “the truth”. In Pinter’s marvelously subjective puzzle, the audience gets to put the pieces together by catching a glimpse of the end of the story at the beginning of the play. This provides a kind of template of the story for them to fill in as the play moves forward - backward in time.

There is a great deal of stillness in the acting of this material. It’s essentially people sitting or standing and talking to each other. For me, one of the remarkable aspects of this is what you find in your partner’s EYES. How often we catch each other’s eyes in an arrested moment of truth and then cower away behind our manipulations and needs. (more…)

Bill Frisell

Howard Fishman

Sandra Bernhard

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