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

Usually, the first day of a show for me is a long overwhelming dream that I just try not to wake up from. It involves Equity meeting business, meeting the folks you’ll be working with on stage as well as the designers, then meeting just about everyone else who works in the building, and then you read the play, maybe a couple times. It’s pretty amazing to see all the people who make this machine run all in one place for a change, also it makes my head hurt. I hate not remembering names.

Anyway, the first day of Superior Donuts was quite different. We all quickly signed contracts to get them out of our way so we could be with each other in the atmosphere of this new brilliant work by Tracy. Tina is always a breath of fresh, exuberant energy. Also present was the already awesome stage management team: Laura, Lauren, and Becky, and two from the creative team: Rob, from sound and Ed Sobel our Dramaturg (does a lot for us). What was also great was the early presence of four of the understudies. John F. Gray was reading for the two characters he plays, but Rich Cotovsky, Curtis Jackson, and Alzan Pelesic were also present to meet everyone, hear the play, and get started working like everyone else, which speaks to the excitement surrounding this play.

Something always happens for me at the first reading of a play. It’s not a profound understanding of my character or the play (I wish it were that easy) that clicks in. I continue to see something come alive in the actors around me. I continue to be astounded by the courage these people have to strip and dirty themselves for all to see, and tell a story. There is a recognition of what is taking place. There is magic, or spirit that says, “C’mon, it’s all good. You’re among friends, let’s get started.” That spirit lives in the generosity and selfless nature of those actors in that room. Maybe it’s because I’ve been working on a lot of Tina Landau plays that I’ve been around such talent accompanied by incredible openness, but it certainly inspires you to lift the play into the air with the other actors.

It’s always hard. It’s the hardest thing in the world. No matter how close I think I am to a character, the fact remains that my experience is not the character’s experience. They may overlap in places, but if I want to truthfully play someone who grew up in Uptown Chicago and used to run bets at the race track, I still need to explore what it means to live their past and how that effects my physicality, mentality, emotions, voice, dialect and pattern of speech. I mean…it’s hard. This is what we do. I can’t wait.

This entry was posted by Jon Michael Hill on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 2:05 pm and is filed under Superior Donuts. 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.