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

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…)

There’s a lot going on at the theater these days. We have our production of The Pillowman continuing in the Downstairs Theatre through November the 12th, and Upstairs, our production of The Bluest Eye plays to student audiences on week day matinees and for general audiences on the weekends. The Bluest Eye then moves to the Duke Theatre in New York for three-week run. This is the first time that we have taken a Steppenwolf for Young Adults production to New York.

We began rehearsals today for Cormac McCarthy’s The Sunset Limited for its run at the 59E59th Theatre in New York. The Sunset Limited will run in New York from October the 24th through November the 19th with its original cast of Austin Pendleton and Freeman Coffey, and its director, Sheldon Patinkin. So for a couple of weeks, Steppenwolf will have two productions running in New York. (more…)

I’ll be traveling this week to see a preview of Bruce Norris‘ The Pain and The Itch at Playwrights Horizons in New York. Steppenwolf premiered this play in our 04-05 season, and as she did with the premiere, our ensemble member Anna Shapiro is directing this production.

In addition, Steppenwolf has recently announced that two of our own productions will be transferring to New York this fall – both The Bluest Eye and Sunset Limited will have limited runs there.

The history of our company is in part benchmarked by these moments – dating as far back as the transfer of True West — a singular event that helped Steppenwolf first come to national attention — through Balm in Gilead (my own first experience with a Steppenwolf production as an adolescent) and the Tony Winners The Grapes of Wrath and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

All of this, coupled with my own roots in that part of the country, made me wonder about Chicago’s relationship to New York. Leaving sports rivalries aside (my lowly Knicks have not been much of a factor recently), do we, despite the remarkable theater on offer in Chicago, still think of ourselves as a “second city?” Is it possible to truly “make it”, (if that is one’s goal) without referencing or moving work to New York? And what about the converse: does success in New York bring an imprimatur that is valued here?