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

Austin Pendleton once told me a story about Ethel Merman. Just prior to curtain of opening night a young cast member, his own jitters showing, asked, “Gosh, Miss Merman…are ya nervous?” To which came the reply, “What have I got to be nervous about? I got my lines memorized.”

At the core of this anecdote is the little acknowledged fact that for actors, showing up on time with your lines memorized is a huge percentage of the job. Mind you, there’s still plenty of character analysis and necessary wool gathering to do, but managing the two aforementioned tasks will earn you 80 cents on the dollar come payday.

Now some of you may know that I am one of what are now considered the “Senior Members” of the ensemble. I have actually been present several occasions when the term was used. It’s usually used in front of Board members and donors when I’m being introduced along with Jon Hill. But before your eyes begin to glaze over in anticipation of an “aging actor” essay, let me quickly point out that I really do not “have trouble” memorizing lines. Not at all. When I apply myself to the task, spend the requisite hours pouring over the text, repeating, repeating, repeating…well then it’s a snap. (more…)

Coming into the room we were all there early. Some mix up on the rehearsal tape calling us for 10 when rehearsal didn’t start until 10:30. No worries, time to meet and greet anew. Anthony Fleming III, who is playing my gentleman caller, and I made great use of the time. We went downstairs to put my new Illinois license plates on my car. I thought it was kind of poetic: New license plates on the first day of rehearsal, a new sort of homecoming. New home coming. New home at the Wolf.

I’ve worked here a few times, this is my third show. I even wrote a play for the New Plays Lab when Michele Volansky was the literary manager here. But for whatever reason, this time coming into the rehearsal hall feels strangely new and yet familiar, comfortable. It’s like coming home, but the hero/ine is somehow changed. I’ve changed, grown, since the last time I was here. (more…)

In the October issue of Fast Company, a monthly journal of business and innovation, there is an article by Gregory Berns called “Rewiring the Creative Mind.” In it, the author discusses what neuroscience has revealed about how to come up with new ideas. What scientists have discovered is that perception and imagination activate the same neural circuitry. The difference is that visual perception is modified by experience–we become efficient at processing visual information by repeated exposure. So–we see what we expect to see. Imagination is activated by “rewiring the mind”–providing “any circumstance in which the brain has a hard time predicting what will happen next.”

Kafka on the Shore is a superb example of an imagination-activator. The journey of the play does not conform to an expected narrative trajectory–the logic of the story is dream logic. It is an associative, subterranean logic. Haruki Murakami, the author of Kafka on the Shore, in describing his writing process cites the example of the Sheep Man in his novel A Wild Sheep Chase. He says: (more…)

“Skillfully layered”

“Volcanic”

“Terrific”

“Bawdy, full-throated”

These are reviews that most productions would kill to get. All have been used to describe Kurt Ehrmann’s portrayal of J.J. Peachum in our Threepenny Opera. And they are dead-on.

He has also managed to be called a “blustery autocrat” and an “amoral moralist” in strictly complimentary tones, which is quite a feat. I think the one review I might disagree with called him a “dysfunctional parent”. Kurt has managed to make Peachum’s raw, nasty edges deeply understandable. This is a man in desperate circumstances clawing and slashing to keep his family alive. I might call him “terrifyingly functional”.

And now he is leaving. (more…)

Earlier today, this 32 foot by 48 foot photo from August: Osage County, taken from the wings by ensemble member Ian Barford, was installed on the outside of Steppenwolf’s main building.