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

You’re on the Steppenwolf mainstage. You’re on the Steppenwolf mainstage. ANNE- YOU’RE ON THE STEPPENWOLF MAINSTAGE!!! This is the thought that has been running through my mind on repeat ever since I started rehearsals for Carter’s Way.

Right now I am writing this blog in my dressing room. Across the way Ora is doing her hair and I can hear K. Todd’s mischievous laugh down the hall. Calvin, Curtis and Michael are having a dance off to some James Brown song and I can still hear James whistling his saxophone solo even with his door closed. It’s the night of the 5th preview and I am hopeful, scared, excited and tickled pink. We just got notes from Eric (who is by far one of the most patient, generous, and collaborative directors I have ever worked with) and he just gave me the most helpful note of my entire process: “Anne, remember Eunice’s sense of humor and joy-she is hopeful that life is and can be beautiful. This is a woman who lives from one moment to the next, she lives life spontaneously.” With that one note I finally start to understand where Eunice is coming from-what she’s fighting for, and how much courage she actually possesses. I see the potential of where I can take her story and I am truly thankful. (more…)

MARILYN (played by ensemble member Ora Jones):
Come on over at suppertime
Come on over just me and you
I got potatoes and big tomatoes
You bring the meat and then we’ll barbecue…

Uncover more moments from Carter’s Way.

We just finished our first rehearsal, where did a couple of read-throughs of the play. I always have those jitters the night before the first read, the first rehearsal. So many questions and thoughts and such that it just keeps me up (I think I got about 4 hours of sleep last night). But it’s also about the excitement of beginning something new, with some people you’ve worked with before, as well as those who you’ve always admired and only now have the pleasure of working with.

It’s kind of freeing to work with a new play, a new script. Carter’s Way was first performed two or three years ago at Kansas City Rep. But Eric has taken the script and reworked so much of the plot that it feels new. He actually said today that he feels like this is a brand new show, with new words, new personalities, new everything. Which makes it very exciting to create this together. When I worked on The Pain and the Itch a couple of years ago, I had a blast creating and learning and growing the new story together as a cast. I look forward to us all working with that same sense of discovery and organic energy that this play needs and deserves. (more…)

This is a wonderfully exciting moment for all of us at Steppenwolf–the time when we announce our new season. We have been reading and discussing plays for months now in preparation for just this moment. Those of us in the artistic office have been framing the issues of the season and balancing the interaction of the plays in creating a lively and vigorous conversation on those themes. We have been in discussion with our ensemble artists, assembling the directors and actors for the productions. We use the forum of our blog to announce those plays and artists first to you, our dedicated patrons. You have the inside scoop.

When we began shaping our thoughts about 2007-2008, we were galvanized by the knowledge that we are in the midst of an important presidential election. Change is in the air. Issues of American identity, questions about what constitutes American citizenship and responsibility are being vigorously discussed and debated. We felt it was crucial for Steppenwolf’s season to participate in this discussion. We look to the 2007-2008 season as one that foregrounds the American voice. Five playwrights: one, an elder statesman of the American theater who spent his artistic life interrogating the question of citizenship; two, ensemble members who make vivid and specific the articulation of the personal with the political; two, new voices in the American theater who are gaining prominence as important chroniclers of how we live now. (more…)