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

The cast comes spilling out of the dressing room curtain dressed as whores, beggars, gangsters, freaks. Our eyes are blacked-out like zombies. We hoot and clap. John Taflan announces the show by reading from a big floppy cardboard sign. We gather around kidney-shaped wooden tables populated by members of the theater-going public. Girls with almost non-existent short-shorts stand ass-to-face next to seated audience members who smile or furrow their brows accordingly. Ready or not, here we are.

Tim Splain strides confidently to the piano in the center of the room as we all applaud him. He sits down and pushes the hair back from his face. The lights dim. Spotlight on the piano. Tim launches into the extremely demanding Threepenny Opera overture, “Ballad of Mack the Knife.” Singer Alex Balestrieri stands a few feet away riding the waves from the piano, microphone in hand, ready for his turn. I stand there and watch Tim’s hands dance over the keys…sometimes tapping, sometimes pounding them like they have done him wrong, sometimes downright possessed like Bruce Campbell in Evil Dead 2. I watch him play and look around the room at the cast and audience sharing this moment.

I feel privileged.

I am.

We all are.

On paper, this sentiment would not make sense. We are doing this for almost no money. For months we have sacrificed countless hours of our free time and our weekends. We have missed some of the best precious weeks of Chicago summer cooped up in dark sweaty rooms. We have missed parties, baseball games, music festivals, barbecues. We have temporarily orphaned our loved ones.

So why do I feel privileged? What do we get in return? We get Tim’s out-of-his-mind piano, Alex’s master balladeering and Kurt Ehrmann’s volcanic rage. We get Sara Sevigny in her crazy wig, swigging liquor and eviscerating the tropes of love. Jennifer Coombs’ sparkplug Polly sitting down at the piano for an unexpectedly delicate, heartbreaking solo. Joey Stakely’s “Constable Skittles” riffing on sex workers, forgetfulness, I Love Lucy, urine and anything else that will make us break onstage.

We get Matt Holzfeind as Crook-Fingered Jake. And Matt Holzfeind as Gold Man. And Matt Holzfeind as Matt Holzfeind. John Taflan’s sexist-joke-of-the-night and John Taflan as Michael Crawford (and nineteen other characters). Vanessa Greenway channeling her past life as a German cabaret chanteuse in “Solomon’s Song” and Caroline Fourmy in her Dalmatian costume. Erik Schroeder flailing around after getting maced in the eyes. Lise “Kat” Evans belting out songs and belting me in the face.

We get Kristina Johnson’s rollerskating messenger on crack. Michael Pacas dancing in handcuffs. Mike Ooi knocking off Kurt/Michael’s hat. Alice Wedoff as “Dot” the sleepy whore and “Bi-Curious Ned”, daring to crack the glass ceiling of Macheath’s all-male gang. Heather Tyler dancing up a storm, or telling the audience, “This scene might get a little steamy.” We get cool-as-hell Brian DesGranges and quietly hilarious Crystal Schauf keeping us in line, or joining us in stepping out of it. And of course, we get Robert McLean, Chief of Po-lice with his robe, his chocolates, his stuffed tiger and his tenuous but unyielding hold on dignity.

We get all this in exchange. And we get you, the audience. And you get us.

It has been our privilege to share it all with you.

We hope you feel the same.

This entry was posted by Greg Hardigan on Sunday, October 12th, 2008 at 8:56 am and is filed under The Threepenny Opera. 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.