Chicago and New York
Posted by Edward Sobel on 9/05/2006
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?