Inside The Blank, Shifting Castle
Posted by Robert Belushi on 4/20/2009
The first Steppenwolf show I saw was A Clockwork Orange. I was living on Howe Street a few blocks away and reading the book at the time so I though it might be cool to saunter over and check it out. I think I was 13 or 14. I will never forget it. Apart from everything that an amazing piece of theater can bring to your life, I remember that I just suddenly felt opened up. And every time I walked by the building after that I felt like I was passing some blank shifting castle. Like maybe there was some amazing expression going on in there, or maybe just some real life torture. I always wondered if Kenny Freeman had to undergo a literal ludovico technique.
I grew up going to The Second City, but this was different, obviously, but not to me then. The stage to me then meant bent wood chairs, the smell of stale kegs, cigarettes and laughter. People changed on stage but the changes seemed finite. Now it was seemed limitless. I think I saw Death and the Maiden next. Then The Song of Jacob Zulu. I’m not sure. However, every time I left, with my buddy Jake Berlin, we’d talk for a long time. I think he’s a playwright now. Steppenwolf probably had something to do with it. It did with me.
I came to Chicago to be closer to the theater. When I was at the School at Steppenwolf, my adulation developed. Now I’m onstage here. I don’t mean to be gushy, but the only thing I could think of to write about is how happy I am to be here. Bob Breuler was in that first show I saw. He was a teacher at my School. And now I have to dig deeper so I don’t break character when I look at him in a scene.
Of Mice and Men is a beautiful story to me and watching Michael and the rest of the cast work continues to be an inspiration and lesson on what it means to be inside the castle. Only now, as Curly, I get to be the torturer.