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

As you know, for the past three years, we have been choosing a theme for our season and using the theme to guide our selection of plays. Further, the theme has served as a guide to the conversations we generate about the work - in our post-show discussions, in our newsmagazine, on our blog.

The impulse to thematize our work really began in our 30th anniversary season. Because it was an anniversary, we wanted there to be a cohesiveness to the statement we were making for the programming. We struggled with whether we wanted the season to speak to our history or to forge new ground. Fairly quickly, we decided that the history of Steppenwolf has always been about the impulse to make it new - whether that meant a new work or a refreshment of an extant play. Given the work we have dedicated to the development of new plays, we felt that our 30th anniversary should be framed as a season of new work. (more…)

Here we go–the launch of our 2008-2009 season. The start of a new season is always a thrilling moment for the theater. It’s such a lot of fun to finally start talking to our audience about the plays and artists that we’ve been thinking about and planning with for a year. (We’re in the midst of our planning process for 2009-2010 right now). And then comes the moment when our directors and actors show up for the first day of rehearsal and the dream gains body and voice. And then comes the moment when YOU show up and theater begins.

We began with the negotiation of a theme for the season. As you know, this past season, 2007-2008, was bannered under the question of “What does it mean to be an American?” We felt the urgency of this question as we, as a nation, embarked on the Presidential election process. By positioning our season within this context, wonderful conversations about the plays ensued with our audiences–conversations about ideas that reached beyond the theater and into our lives. (more…)

I’m playing with Freeman Coffey in The Sunset Limited again now, in New York. We did it this spring and early summer in the Garage at Steppenwolf. Then I came back to New York and within a couple of weeks Martha (Lavey) called me and asked if I’d want to do it in New York. I assumed she meant with Freeman; I also assumed she meant with our same director, Sheldon Patinkin. And of course she did. Which was great because I would have been loathe to do it without them. I would have loved to the play again certainly — it’s one of the most exciting plays I’ve worked on in many years — but it’s a two-character play, and it moves along through the chemistry that happens between these two men, and when you feel the kind of chemistry I felt with Freeman from our very first rehearsal, one evening back in April, you can never assume that will happen with anybody else. And Sheldon understands exactly how to direct this play. He understands actors; he also knows how to conduct this play, as if it were a piece of music, which in a way it is. And the play is so rich that when you approach it again it’s good to be able to climb up on top of the pile of work you’ve already done on it, and keep building from there. (more…)

This past Friday night Steppenwolf’s production of The Bluest Eye opened at the Duke Theatre in New York City. This opening followed closely on the heels of another opening – that of Steppenwolf’s production of The Sunset Limited at the 59 East 59th Street Theatre. It’s an exciting time - having these two intimate productions representing Steppenwolf in the Big Apple. Autumn in New York - Times Square – and the beautifully realized production of Toni Morrison’s powerful and haunting story. It was an exciting night for all.

I attended the New York opening of our production of The Sunset Limited at the 59E59 Theatre this past Sunday with our Executive Director, David Hawkanson, and our publicist, Will Nedved. Written by Cormac McCarthy, Sunset, you’ll remember, played in the Steppenwolf Garage Theatre this past summer and it moved to 59E59th with its creative team intact: director Sheldon Patinkin; the actors, Austin Pendleton and Freeman Coffey, and the design team of Scott Neale, Tatjana Radisic, Martha Wegener, and Keith Parham.

59E59th is a complex of three theaters. located, naturally enough, at 59 East 59th Street in Manhattan. The Sunset Limited plays in the 99-seat theater of the complex through November 19th. I’m happy to report that the play has been well received and that the theater is a very fit setting for the production–an intimate, focused space for a play that turns on an engagement with a complex text and the intricate, layered performances of the actors. (more…)