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

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…)

While participating in the student post-show discussions for The Bluest Eye, I had one student who responded to the scene in which Frieda and Claudia’s family take Pecola in, the student had his own memory of his family taking in people who had been “put out.” Another response from an adult in the audience who had a vivid memory of a girl at her grade school who was a “Pecola” type, and how she wished she had befriended her. Those were just a couple of example of how this play has touched people. Do any of you have any comments, memories, or personal experiences in response to the play?

The Pillowman has now officially kicked off our 31st season, a season in which we will mount 5 subscription-series shows, 2 Steppenwolf for Young Adults plays (including Lydia Diamond’s adaptation of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, now in performances), an additional “stand-alone” production in the Garage, our annual First Look Repertory of New Work, and host two productions from three local theatre companies as part of our Visiting Companies Initiative. And with this gigantic effort just underway, what is our Artistic Office up to? Planning the 2007-08 season, naturally.

This past Thursday, our Artistic Department met for the first time to discuss potential shows for our next season. A typical season is a mix of new and extant plays, some brought to our attention by members of our ensemble, and vice versa. As I’ve previously mentioned, we get roughly 500 new plays sent to us each year; the majority come from literary agents and playwrights with whom we have a pre-existing relationship. Others are “called in” on the basis of ten-page samples sent to us by unrepresented writers. Still more prospects arise from plays we’ve commissioned from local and nationally-known writers. (more…)