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Announcing the 2009-2010 SYA Season

Posted by Hallie Gordon on 3/10/2009

As Steppenwolf examines “the power of belief,” the theme for our upcoming 2009-2010 subscription season, I am struck by how connected that theme is with our Steppenwolf for Young Adults 2009-2010 season. We open with a new adaptation of The House on Mango Street by celebrated Chicago author Sandra Cisneros. This new adaptation is being done by Chicago’s very own Tanya Saracho. I admire Tanya for her vibrant use of language and her bold and frank storytelling, but even more so as a person — Tanya is inspiring. Her energy and sense of self is contagious. The House on Mango Street is not only a coming of age story about a girl, Esperanzo, growing up in a Latino section of Chicago, but it’s also about wanting to find a place in this world.

Our second production, A Separate Peace by John Knowles adapted by Nancy Gilsenan, will conclude our season. This quintessential coming of age story about friendship, jealousy, war, love and hate is simply and eloquently told in this adaptation for the stage. The back drop is WWII, but the real battle takes place in the lives and friendship of Finny and Gene and the struggle each of them faces as they discover the truth about themselves.

I find myself these days looking back at my youth in utter amazement — how innocent I was to the goings on of the world. I think about what was the defining moment, the moment I crossed over into the world of “knowing,” the hardship, beauty, joy, love sorrow, heartbreak, regret. When was it exactly? These two stories take the characters back to these defining moments and ask them to look at it with grown-up eyes. I invite you to do the same.

This entry was posted by Hallie Gordon on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 at 9:20 am and is filed under The House on Mango Street, A Separate Peace. 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.

3 Responses to “Announcing the 2009-2010 SYA Season”

  1. Kenneth Hunter Says:
    March 10th, 2009 at 1:29 pm

    Kudos to Ms. Gordon and her team on the 2009/10 SYA selections. The House on Mango Street and Separate Peace are works with tremendous resonance for the young people with whom I work. As a high school teacher and principal, the selection of classroom materials is of pre-eminent importance. The choice of works of literature that have such ‘audience cathexis’ is tremendous. I am sure that students and teachers in classrooms all over the Chicagoland area will be alive with amazing discussion, authentic dialogue and meaningful conversation.

  2. Hallie Gordon Says:
    March 11th, 2009 at 9:46 am

    Thanks Mr. Hunter, I am also excited by the possibilites of discussion amongst students and teachers and other communities. I think we are at a very special time in history one that is both challenging and hopeful, one that is telling us to
    reconnect with our neighborhoods and communties to look within ourselves and to others, I do hope Mango Street and A Separate Peace can be an impetus for this kind of disscusion and more.

  3. emilio g. robles Says:
    March 13th, 2009 at 6:15 pm

    wow! two texts that take me right back to sophomore and junior year in high school. MANGO, i picked up on my own, and SEPARATE PEACE was passed on to me by a friend. (as a matter of fact i think i recall doing a rather formulaic book report on it.)

    i can hardly wait.

    first however, we probably should get this little “mice and men” thing under our belts?

    hee-hee!

    BRING IT ON!

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