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

There are two prominent, passionate complaints from playwrights: they want their work produced, not just developed, and once produced want a second or third production rather than just one. Steppenwolf’s First Look Repertory of New Work is designed to directly address those two concerns. First Look provides a model for developing plays that combines the process-orientation of a workshop with the result-orientation of actual rehearsal for production. And it provides a national platform for the plays, in the interest of gaining attention for the writers and future productions of their work.

The program has been strikingly successful thus far. In its first two years, First Look has provided developmental opportunities to twelve new plays. Seven of those have been or will soon be receiving productions at other theaters. To highlight a few: Jason Wells’ play Men of Tortuga received an acclaimed production at the Asolo Theater in Florida, Marisa Wegrzyn’s The Butcher of Baraboo will open Off-Broadway at Second Stage this spring. Kate Fodor’s 100 Saints You Should Know will be Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in the fall.

As readers familiar with this page know, a final unusual element of First Look is our First Look 101. Through FL101 we offer behind-the-scenes access to audiences. Our “101-ers” attend readings of the plays, the first day of rehearsal, an open rehearsal day, technical rehearsals, and see the plays in production. 101-ers gain insight into the challenges and rewards of developing new work as it actually occurs.

We are delighted to announce the plays and creative teams for this year’s First Look Rep. The Rep this year features a couple of firsts of its own – our first foray into putting an adapted work through the process (When the Messenger is Hot), and our first repeat with a writer who’s been through First Look before (Joel Drake Johnson).

When The Messenger is Hot
Adapted by Laura Eason from the stories of Elizabeth Crane
Directed by Jessica Thebus
Dramaturg – Heidi Coleman

Tranquillity Woods
By Joel Drake Johnson
Directed by Sandy Shinner
Dramaturg – Gabriel Greene

Gary
By Melinda Lopez
Directed by Jonathan Berry
Dramaturg – Sarah Gubbins

Set Design – Marcus Stephens
Lighting Design – J.R. Lederlee
Costume Design – Deborah Baer
Sound Design – Gregor Mortis

I hope you’ll join us for what is sure to be an exciting summer.

This entry was posted by Edward Sobel on Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at 9:27 am and is filed under First Look Rep (07). 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.