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

Today the first thing Tina told me in the morning was how she was not ready to allow the Nazis to enter our world. I have had the same feelings as we have been approaching the end of the play. It is very strange to introduce any new characters to this world that we’ve been living in for the past two weeks, let alone these particular ones. We keep reminding ourselves that it is only a play after all, but we are still to have a full day of rehearsals without crying. I’ve never worked on something this emotional before and I don’t think I’ve ever gotten so attached to a character in such a deep and emotional way. I also finished the book that Tina gave me that chronicles pretty much Otto’s whole life and I feel even closer to him. What a complicated man and his dignity and humanity are just overwhelming. (more…)

I keep thinking back to the day when I got the phone call telling me that I was called back for Anne in Steppenwolf Theatre’s production of The Diary of Anne Frank. I keep recalling the afternoon of the call back, sitting in the passenger seat of my mom’s station wagon, a handful of bobby pins, pinning and re-pinning my hair. I remember the butterflies in my stomach as we pulled into the Steppenwolf parking lot. These particular butterflies and I have a friendly relationship. They weren’t nervous butterflies, the kind that flap and writhe violently in your stomach. These were the gentle, friendly butterflies, cheerfully reminding me that I really had nothing to lose. I could hear them squealing with delight, “Oh my gosh, in a matter of seconds you will be INSIDE STEPPENWOLF, meeting TINA LANDAU! You get to read with a REAL STEPPENWOLF READER! For the next five minutes you get to share what you love with people who love it just as much as you do!” I owe a lot to those butterflies.

Now that the rehearsal process has begun and this experience that was once a distant fantasy is a part of my reality, it’s strange for me to think back to that time. (more…)

Well, finally, back to Anne Frank. I’ve been in NYC opening a play at the Vineyard Theater, called Mary Rose by J.M. Barrie. As happens to me on a production, I became completely immersed in that particular world but, now that it is up and running, am back to Anne Frank, ready to fully dive in as I gear up to start rehearsals next week.

I left off here, a couple months ago, just as we made a big shift in our design approach to the production. It was a scary and exhilarating move, and one I’m thrilled we made when and as we did - let me explain:

Richard Hoover (the set designer) and I had done a design that was a fairly realistic replica of the Annex, as best we could fit it in the Steppenwolf theater and reveal its rooms to our audience. My mandate from the get-go was to observe and recreate the Annex in as much detail as possible. We quickly discovered, however, that we could not choose a single wall to “open up” without other, primary playing spaces (rooms) being blocked to the audience. (more…)

It’s been two months since my trip to Amsterdam. So much has happened on the show: we have cast it, and the design has radically shifted (along with my overall approach to the material. I’ll write about this in the next blog.)

As I’ve been home and moved on with other projects, Anne has stayed with me. Haunted me, somewhat – and in the best possible way. Not the play so much, but her. Her words – and the spirit expressed through her words. I see her face, from the photographs, often, as I’m just sitting around or my mind wanders for an instant.

When we did auditions for the production in Chicago, I kept her photo out on the table while we were looking at potential Annes, and did the same with the other “characters” as folk came in to audition for those roles. Not because I was in any way trying to cast people who literally look just like them – but because I believe there’s some way in which I want their spirits evoked, and also hope their spirits look down on us, bless us. (more…)