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

Hello everyone! The unpredictable spring weather brought colds and the flu to our production of Dead Man’s Cell Phone. A bunch of us have been sneezing and sniffling, and yours truly got so sick that I missed 5 performances. While sick, I suffered through a performance and got another bloody nose while on stage. Thank goodness I happened to have a tissue in my purse. I’m curious to know if anyone in the audience noticed. Thank goodness for Cora who took over the rest of the week on short notice. I am so grateful to her, and of course to the rest of the cast for their patience and forgiveness. It is pretty exciting when an understudy goes on, but it is also harder work for everyone, because anything can happen. I wish that I could have snuck out of my sick bed, put on a big hat and sunglasses and watched the show. I heard from a number of sources that Cora was wonderful.

My first shows back were on Mother’s Day. The matinee show had a smaller crowd, but it was full of sweet laughers. The Sunday night show was full of college students who arrived from Wisconsin (?) on a bus. They were lively and wonderful. It is a pleasure to HEAR the audience each night. One person I did not see or hear (because she was elsewhere) was my own mother. Happy belated Mother’s Day, Mom! (more…)

The Tony Award nominations were announced today, and I’m happy to say that Steppenwolf’s production of August: Osage County was well-represented, garnering nominations in the following categories:

• Best Play (Tracy Letts)
• Best Direction of a Play (Anna Shapiro)
• Best Performance by a Leading Actress (Deanna Dunagan and Amy Morton)
• Best Performance by a Featured Actress (Rondi Reed)
• Best Scenic Design of a Play (Todd Rosenthal)
• Best Lighting Design of a Play (Ann G. Wrightson)

I was thrilled when the awards were announced this morning. Like perhaps many people in the American theater, I’ve got a starry-eyed little teen-aged drama geek hidden away inside of me. I’ve covered her up over the years with layer upon layer of theatrical sophistication, but deep down she’s still there, practicing her Tony Award acceptance speech in the mirror. For that girl, the fact that I’ll see my theater and people I know at the televised Tony Awards Ceremony represents the pinnacle of achievement. (more…)

Every year, SKETCHBOOK is reborn. For this year’s reincarnation, we have introduced the SUBMIT program. SUBMIT is geared to allow our community of artists, audience, patrons and volunteers to contribute their stories, thoughts, and ideas to the experience of the festival. We figured that this was already happening in regards to choosing the plays, directors and actors, so why not just open it up, all the way. To be more specific, this year we received over 400 submissions of short world premiere plays (of under 7 minutes in length), 100 director applicants and 600 actors in building our 14 world premiere short plays. In our eyes, each audience member is also “submitting” their most precious asset, their time, to SKETCHBOOK. Without it (our audiences time), there would be no SKETCHBOOK. So, why not open a portal for everyone to share what’s in their minds and find a way to integrate it into the experience…. And SUBMIT was born.

We started by coming up with 13 core queries about life.
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Since the beginning of the Young Adult Council we have wanted to put together a play writing workshop and on May 10th from 11 to 3, it will come to pass. Aaron Carter, no not the singer, will be our leading playwright for the day. He is an awesome guy who I’ve been able to work with before and I’m really happy that he agreed to lead the workshop. The council had wanted to put one together, a workshop, for the longest time because writing, at least for the joy of writing, has kind of faded to the background of most teens. Plus, it not only builds on writing skills but on confidence. Sharing your written work is almost as difficult as getting on stage and reciting someone else’s.

It doesn’t seem difficult to do, trying to organize a workshop, but arranging space, marketing and contacting writers is a mite tougher then we had originally thought. No worries though, because we have had a lot of help from the Steppenwolf staff, like Ed Sobel, who gave us names and e-mails of writers. We drafted proposal after proposal, corrected them, and then began on flyers. Soon, after most of the council had run out of ink in their pens, we had it. This is the Council’s first public workshop and it is bound to be good. I actually can’t wait for it, I’m so excited.

I find my deepest satisfaction as Associate Artistic Director at Steppenwolf in being able to sit in the theatre with our audiences at the end of the evening for post-show discussions. It is fortifying to follow the process of play selection, during which we choose plays for their resonance with how we live today, through rehearsal and performance, and ultimately get the chance to engage our audience in conversation about the ideas and themes of the play as they touch their own lives. Carter’s Way, though set in 1935, provided fertile ground for conversation for how we live our lives today. We knew when we chose to banner our season under the question, “What does it mean to be an American?” that race would be part of that conversation. And it was. Audiences acknowledged that progress has been made in the areas of the acceptance of interracial relationships and the abolishment of segregation - in both its formal and unspoken forms - but also acknowledged that race is still, distressingly, very much a part of our dialogue as Americans. People frequently referenced the rhetoric of the current presidential campaign as evidence. (more…)