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

We just finished our first rehearsal, where did a couple of read-throughs of the play. I always have those jitters the night before the first read, the first rehearsal. So many questions and thoughts and such that it just keeps me up (I think I got about 4 hours of sleep last night). But it’s also about the excitement of beginning something new, with some people you’ve worked with before, as well as those who you’ve always admired and only now have the pleasure of working with.

It’s kind of freeing to work with a new play, a new script. Carter’s Way was first performed two or three years ago at Kansas City Rep. But Eric has taken the script and reworked so much of the plot that it feels new. He actually said today that he feels like this is a brand new show, with new words, new personalities, new everything. Which makes it very exciting to create this together. When I worked on The Pain and the Itch a couple of years ago, I had a blast creating and learning and growing the new story together as a cast. I look forward to us all working with that same sense of discovery and organic energy that this play needs and deserves. (more…)

Director Hallie Gordon and Genevieve VenJohnson work on a monologue from Harriet Jacobs. See more photos of rehearsal.

The giddy highs of opening night and crazy-good reviews had us floating for a couple weeks before reality set back in…In the world of challenges we’ve been fighting cast colds, flu, throat infections, stomach flus for 2 or 3 weeks…and many of us felt the first long run repetition “wall,” which I guess I would describe as a mental/emotional resistance to successfully pretending that you don’t know the story you are telling—because of course one of the fundamental tasks for us actors is to trick our brains and hearts into nightly innocence as to what will ensue…So, for a bit there, many or most of us were hanging on by our fingernails physically, emotionally and mentally to try and survive–much less fulfill–this beautiful play 8 times a week…BUT, I think for the most part we are all feeling better on all fronts and having fun again…thank god! (more…)

One of the joys of live theater is that anything can happen. Each night is a little different – based on a magical confluence of events, personalities and moods. David Sedaris is an artist who courts chaos with a free wheeling, no-holds-barred, question and answer session after each show. There is something brave – and sweet – about one man (small enough to shop in the ladies section, at sister Amy’s prompting) taking on any and all questions. And somehow, night after night, it works. Sure, you get some predictable questions (”How’s your brother Rooster?” “Do you ever have writer’s block?”) And during his 8-show run I learned the answers: Rooster was recently the only one at the ballet wearing a T-shirt and shorts, and David has a special approach for occasional bouts of writer’s block. However, one man’s question stood out: “So we know who Oprah (the rarely seen but omnipresent Goddess of Chicago) has endorsed. What about you?” David paused a bit and basically replied that if the election were held now, Obama would get his vote. He remarked that “this president has proven that experience is not an issue,” adding “the Democrats have an embarrassment of riches,” unlike past elections when the nominees were “blocks of wood.” With every interaction on stage, and later as he signed books, David Sedaris proved that he is not only the funniest man in America but also accessible, and genuinely interested in others. (more…)

It’s late at night, the evening after my first rehearsal. I’ve already gone to bed, but can’t sleep because I am excited, a little agitated, and full of thoughts about the play. I’m now back on the couch, Oprah’s talking about The Container Store, and I have an idea for a scene that may fix a clunky piece of expositional monologue that’s been bothering me for some time. I’ve spent lots of time thinking about Harriet Jacobs, this amazing woman, with this amazing life… To quote the beautiful, talented Nambi E. Kelly, “it is humbling,” telling this story. I want it to mean as much to my audiences as it does to me. I want my actors to feel safe as they embark on a journey that is at times emotionally harrowing, intensely spiritual, and oh so personal. I want to have earned the right to tell this story.

This, the beginning, is always the most exciting and most scary part of any process. (more…)