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

When conceptualizing the environment for this year’s Sketchbook Festival in the Merle Reskin Garage Theatre, we started with the ideas of intimacy and immersion. Last year we had opened up the playing area to include everywhere, and it made for a unique, spatially liberal experience. There was no separation between the space of the performer and the audience member, and we felt it worked well; but we are always pushing for change and evolution at Sketchbook, and this year is no different.

We thought if we could focus the energy of the garage into a single area it would really give the audience a powerful experience. With a capacity of only 102, we figured if we set up the space in the round, the audience could sit in 3 rows, and that would make sure it was intimate. So, then we focused on immersion. We started with the concept of an octagonal playing space with audience on risers on 4 sides (like a square), inside a circular curtain or screen that would also serve as a rear projection video screen. We did the math and found there was enough room in the garage for the throw distance necessary to link the 4 video projections together into a 360 Degree video. (more…)

Opening night signals the passing of the torch from director to actors. Of course, most directors return once or twice during the run to see how a production has evolved and to take notes. This is an insurance measure just in case actors’ performances have drastically strayed from their original direction.

Last Friday I attended Program A to watch Downstairs, Upstairs the piece I directed for Sketchbook. I hadn’t attended since opening weekend so I was poised with pen and paper, but to my delight, I didn’t jot down one note.

Both of my actors (John Carter Brown and John Zinn), had grown tremendously. Their individual performances had become more nuanced, and as a duo they were completely in sync. It was an important reminder to me that sometimes directing means stepping away and allowing your actors the freedom to grow on their own.

I first met Wendy MacLeod in the spring of 2003. I was Assistant Directing the world premiere of Things Being What They Are at the Seattle Repertory Theatre and she came out from Ohio for a week to watch rehearsals, give notes and do rewrites. I was in charge of making and distributing all of the script changes and I took my job very seriously – this was the woman who wrote The House of Yes after all! And The Water Children and Schoolgirl Figure and Apocalyptic Butterflies and her newest piece at the time, Juvenilia. Before the first day of rehearsal I read as many of her plays as I could get my hands on. I was determined to possess an intimate understanding of her voice and style. I would be an expert on the MacLeod canon!

Now I’m not sure how many of you blog readers are familiar with the duties of an AD, but they can range anywhere from fetching coffee for the Director, to rehearsing scenes with actors. And besides assisting Wendy when she was in town, this particular gig tended to lean more toward coffee-fetching responsibilities than anything else. Needless to say, my self-titled expertise was rarely called upon. (more…)

Collaboraction’s Sketchbook is currently being produced in the Garage Theatre as part of the Steppenwolf Visiting Company Initiative. We asked Anthony Moseley, Collaboraction’s Executive Artistic Director, to share his thoughts about the production on the Steppenwolf blog.

You (reading this entry on the Steppenwolf web site) are in the “blogosphere”. You use the internet to get current news, research your entertainment options, check on your plane’s departure status, pay bills on-line, and tell people “what’s up” through various portals (instant message, email, blog, etc.). You are changing the way the world does business and corporate America is scrambling to do business the way you like it, on your terms. Congratulations. That must feel great.

We at Collaboraction, have been building the ultimate theatre and art experience for you for 7 years now, and we are really glad you are ready for us. It is called Sketchbook and we are running through July 1st in Steppenwolf’s Garage Theatre. Sketchbook is a festival of 16 world premiere short plays (from over 500 global submissions), visual art and music and it is built for the kind of audience member that is leaning forward into the future looking for stories, symbols and sounds of our times. Each performance we present 8 short plays with a different musical guest each night in an environment in which the audience is free to move about and choose their viewing perspective for each play (of course, we have some fixed chairs for the more traditional audience member, we haven’t forgotten about you, are you on the Blog?). (more…)