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

I was minding my own business.. in fact, life was very calm, considering I was standing at the corner of 46th and Broadway, Times Square….then my cell phone rang.

And so after a couple days of re-organizing, 4 rehearsals, and 1 technical run-through - I was onstage, playing Serge in Art.

That kind of experience teaches you a couple things about how to get errands finished tout de suite in your personal life, and how to look for the meat and bones of your character in a play, pronto. And believe me, there was no time for my usual self-conscious rehearsal ruminations like:

“…Hmm. Wouldn’t it be interesting if I tried this or that…”

or

“…What’s the guy’s educational background?…”

or

“…I wonder if my characters likes cheese.”… or whatever.

(more…)

Last weekend we had a bit of a reality check up here in our little Art community — one of the crew members asked me when the half-way point of our long run was. Positive we were already beyond it, I started counting up the weeks. I was wrong — the end of this week will mark our midway point. That’s hard for me to absorb, given how much has already happened during the run of Art. We are currently rehearsing Ian Barford, or “Marc the Third” as I’m affectionately referring to him. Technically, since an understudy has also performed that role once, Ian will actually be the fourth actor to take the stage as Marc in this production (and the third to perform it consistently). We are also on our third Yvan (if, again, we include an understudy who has performed) and our second Serge. That’s a lot for the half-way point. (more…)

I saw our production of Art this past weekend with our new Yvan, Joe Dempsey. Joe replaces K. Todd Freeman, who has stepped out, as planned, to continue his rehearsals for The Tempest. John Procaccino played Serge, as he has thus far, with Fran Guinan playing Marc. On Tuesday, our cast changes again: Joe will continue as Yvan; John switches roles to play Marc; and Randall Newsome (whom you saw as Nicky in our production of The Seafarer) comes in to play Serge. During the course of the run, the cast will change again: John will leave the show, Ian Barford will come in for him as Marc, and Randall and Joe will continue in their roles as Serge and Yvan respectively.

Seeing the play with different actors in the roles is really interesting and a lot of fun. All of these guys are terrific actors and all of their performances are shaped by our director, Rick Snyder, so that the thrust of the production remains true. But the nuances that they bring to each role, based on their own personalities and how their imaginations occupy the characters, are highly expressive of the way in which plays are living things. What I love about the fact that our production is moving and re- adjusting as it passes through the hands of these actors is that those shifts and changes are part of the message of the play. Friendships change–we become different people over the course of our relationships–and the play expresses some of the discomforts and revelations that obtain from those changes. Can we maintain a friendship when we are compelled to recognize change in ourselves or the other? (more…)

Talk about your yin and yang.

I’ve just spent 3 months rehearsing Eugene O’Neill’s 6 hour epic Strange Interlude, a Neo-Futurists production for Goodman’s O’Neill Festival. We rehearsed for 2.5 months in a freezing cold theatre for 3 performances. And now I have to step into Art at the ‘Wolf and run it for 3 months. I started working on lines by my lonesome about a month ago, knocking off a few pages every day and trying to see the show about once a week. I wasn’t sure I had the brain space but it’s looking like I do…I think.

It’s an interesting challenge/dilemma to step into a role midway thru a run. Normally, as a group working on a play, you put the car together, push it out of the garage, watch it sputter to a halt, work on it some more and hopefully, eventually get it up to speed. In this scenario, the car is running in top form at 70 mph, you see it coming towards you on the horizon and somehow you have to hop on as it races by. (more…)

The first line spoken in Art is, “My friend Serge has bought a painting. It’s a canvas about five feet by four: white. The background is white and if you screw up your eyes you can make out some fine, white, diagonal lines.”

The final line of the play is, “My friend Serge, who is one of my oldest friends, has bought a painting. It’s a canvas about five feet by four. It represents a man who moves across a space, then disappears.”

But who is the man who disappears? (more…)