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

Wait! There’s more. We just opened The Tempest and I can’t wait to hear your responses to the production. As you know, it is the first Shakespeare play we have presented on our subscription series (we did a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream years ago for our student series). I look forward to hearing your interpretations of the play and the production.

Here we are in April and we still have five more Steppenwolf productions yet to open on our season, as well as two productions by visiting companies. Our final subscription series play, Up by Bridget Carpenter, directed by ensemble member Anna Shapiro, begins rehearsal in May and plays through the summer; our Steppenwolf for Young Adults production of Of Mice and Men opens at the end of April; our First Look Repertory of New Work premieres three new plays (Sex with Strangers by Laura Eason, Honest by ensemble member Eric Simonson, and Ski Dubai by Laura Jacqmin) in July. Our visiting companies are Rivendell with The Walls and 500 Clown and the Elephant Deal in our Upstairs Theatre.

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Each summer for the last four years we have undergone an experiment, or really series of experiments, in an attempt to answer some questions facing our field. Is it possible to provide a nurturing environment for new work? Is it possible to have a writer-driven process within a large institutional theater? Is it possible to create a system that offers the intensity and goal- orientation of rehearsals with the process-orientation of play development? Is it possible to allow non-practitioners access to what we actually do; to make an environment in which they are supportive, educated, enthusiastic participants and not disruptive intruders into a previously private sanctuary. Is it possible to communicate effectively the ways in which what we are doing is an experiment and needs to be treated with a clear eye and special care?

We call this series of experiments the First Look Repertory of New Work, and First Look 101.

Each year three playwrights, three directors, three dramaturgs, four designers, some fifteen actors, a half dozen stage managers, and many others offer their talents to us and to each other in service of these questions, and of their own art. (more…)