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

A slight disclaimer to start: I’m a proud, stubborn Midwesterner who knows there is no better place to create theatre than Chicago. That said, I LOVE – ABSOLUTELY LOVE – traveling with our shows. New York runs represent some of the giddiest work highs I’ve experienced outside of our friendly confines.True West with John and Gary, which put us on the national radar, and whose acclaim filled our Chicago theatre for the first time; Balm in Gilead at Circle Rep and Minetta Lane, one of the most heavenly ensemble experiences in our history; The Grapes of Wrath, with the twin genius of John Steinbeck and Frank Galati…

And now Tracy’s August.

The abundance of things to relish about this move to Broadway staggers me. The rarity of new American plays moving ‘intact’ without the commercial insurance of movie stars; a gorgeous, symbolic culmination of Steppenwolf’s devotion to new plays being our own Tracy’s beautiful, homegrown, deeply truthful, ensemble-loving expression of family; looking across a dinner table on stage and being knocked out that I’ve known, loved and worked with most of the cast for decades; watching Anna Shapiro, who I’ve known since she was a kid, bring forth possibly her most personal work in an already astounding career…the ‘deeply lucky’ list goes on.

Anyhow, I’ll give a holler when we get to NY. I can’t wait to get back into this amazing play, but right this minute I’m still trying to tie down a NY apartment my wife and girls will like!

This entry was posted by Jeff Perry on Thursday, October 11th, 2007 at 3:20 pm and is filed under August: Osage County. 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.