Your Moment
Posted by Martha Lavey on 6/30/2008While we were in New York for the Tonys, revelling in the wonderful success of our August artists, the folks back home were in tech rehearsals for Tracy’s new play, Superior Donuts. Knowing that our work in new play development was on-going and that our Chicago audiences would be the first to see Tracy’s next play was a deeply gratifying experience. (Knowing, too, that our Chicago friends were gathered in our Steppenwolf home, watching the Tonys on a big screen, was a thrill). We had the added pleasure of being in New York with our pals from Chicago Shakespeare, winners of this year’s Tony for Best Regional Theatre.
This is your moment, Chicago. The theater that you have at your fingertips–all across our town–is being celebrated on a national platform. As Anna said in her acceptance speech for the Tony award for Best Director, “the people in Chicago don’t need a Tony to go to the theater. They go to the theater.” All of us making theater for our Chicago audiences are very fortunate indeed. You are discerning, adventuresome folk. You make it possible for all of us to work at our highest level of inventiveness and skill. In turn, we’re able to offer you work that is world-class.
August’s success on Broadway is a rare thing. It’s a wonderful thrill for Steppenwolf, for our artists, and for our audiences. Winning awards is fun. But it’s not the focus of our work. The focus of our work is the conversation we are privileged to have with you. It’s an on-going conversation–one that continues, this season with Dead Man’s Cell Phone; with Superior Donuts; with our three plays on the First Look Repertory of New Work, Perfect Mendacity, Fair Use, and Pursued by Happiness.
Keep coming to the theater. Keep telling us what you think. Keep demanding that we do our best work for you, our first, most reliable audience. And thank you for being the people we are privileged to have as conversation partners.