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

Audience members line up outside Steppenwolf for the chance to purchase last-minute tickets to Superior Donuts.

As First Look Rep enters its third and final week, there is no question the festival has been a success. All three new plays have been met with genuine enthusiasm from audience members, and from a marketing standpoint the shows have sold amazingly well. But despite these successes, the Rep’s ultimate goal has not yet been reached. Yes, it’s nice to put up three pieces of quality developmental theatre, but the Steppenwolf Garage is not meant to be the final destination for these new plays. The hope is that other theatres will become interested in the projects and produce the newly minted scripts elsewhere - giving the plays life after First Look.

One way we nudge this process along is by hosting Professionals Weekend, a three-day event during which professionals from all over the country are given the opportunity to see what First Look is all about. In addition to learning about the play development process and mingling with one another, the hope is that some of these professionals might go back to their home theatres and exclaim (with reckless abandon), “Let’s put on one of these shows in our next season!” Or at least, that’s the idea. (more…)

Steppenwolf’s production of Sarah Ruhl’s Dead Man’s Cell Phone closed last week after an 18-week run in the Upstairs Theatre. That is a longer run than usual for a production in Chicago and it is interesting to note what is rewarding and what is challenging in sustaining an extended run.

Over the course of the run Polly Noonan, who played the central character of Jean, talked about constantly discovering the play. Polly had been in a previous production of the play at Wooly Mammoth in Washington DC, so her ongoing discovery of the play is even more striking. Yet, right up to the last week of performances, she spoke of learning new things about the play through the playing of it. (more…)

Opening this show has been a monumental moment in my life and career. Imagine my excitement as I watched August: Osage County on its opening night on Broadway, knowing I was next in line to tackle a play written by the same genius man. Imagine my terror. At this point I had not performed on the Steppenwolf stage as an ensemble member, and I already knew that the eyes of the theater world would be closely watching to see what Tracy would come up with next–not to mention subscribers who had been coming to the theater for years who must have been curious to see this new kid that the ensemble had embraced as their own. Just imagine my relief when I learned that Tina Landau, whom I had already worked on two previous shows with and had grown into myself as a young actor with, had been pulled on board! Then, if you will, imagine the honor I felt when I learned that Michael McKean, whom I had seen in the acclaimed The Homecoming on Broadway not too long ago and was staggered by, had joined the project.

I won’t ask you to imagine anything else, but I will tell you that I felt small and still do. This experience can be described as nothing other than humbling for me. To be in the presence of the caliber of actors I’m working with, the astounding insight of Tracy and Tina’s unmatched craftsmanship I was not only trying to do justice to the play and the brilliant character but also trying to absorb the years of experience in the room. (more…)

Truth be told, tech rehearsals get a pretty bad rap. They are known for their epic length, their mind numbing stop-and-start rhythm and their all-around tedium. But in reality, it’s usually just actors who trade these disparaging remarks about the infamous tech rehearsal. The play’s design team on the other hand, probably finds the experience to be somewhat of a coming out party. The carefully crafted lighting, sound, costumes and set are all unveiled in one fell swoop, and all these elements must then wrestle with each other (and the actors) until the rocky tech smoothes out into a fluid piece of theatre. The day can feel a little like Goldilocks and Three Bears: this lighting is too bright, this lighting is too dark, but this lighting is juuuuuussst right. The truth is, tech is not for the actors at all, it’s for the designers: to nail sound cues, tweak transitions, locate missing props and set the lighting just so. And complain as they might, no actor would dare forfeit these wearisome tech hours. Long as they are, it’s the technical elements that ultimately round out the world of the play, allowing the audience to lose themselves in a theatrical, yet believable world.

Tech for First Look is a whirlwind process: the cast, crew and design team arrive in the Garage Theatre at 11am and don’t leave until 9pm in the evening. The idea is to tech the whole show in that concentrated time frame – an arduous task for even the most experienced stage mangers. (more…)