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

The summer I spent doing The School at Steppenwolf in 2001 was my first time in Chicago. For the first two weeks of it I was waking up early every morning with great excitement and anticipation but would have to force myself back to sleep because it wasn’t time to go yet. I hadn’t felt that for anything since I was playing little league baseball.

Soon after I would move to Chicago to work with The Gift, whose members included some of the folks who I had gone through the school with. So, it seems only fitting to be led through the Of Mice and Men experience by Michael (Thornton) because it was at The School at Steppenwolf that we first met. (more…)

The first Steppenwolf show I saw was A Clockwork Orange. I was living on Howe Street a few blocks away and reading the book at the time so I though it might be cool to saunter over and check it out. I think I was 13 or 14. I will never forget it. Apart from everything that an amazing piece of theater can bring to your life, I remember that I just suddenly felt opened up. And every time I walked by the building after that I felt like I was passing some blank shifting castle. Like maybe there was some amazing expression going on in there, or maybe just some real life torture. I always wondered if Kenny Freeman had to undergo a literal ludovico technique.

I grew up going to The Second City, but this was different, obviously, but not to me then. The stage to me then meant bent wood chairs, the smell of stale kegs, cigarettes and laughter. People changed on stage but the changes seemed finite. Now it was seemed limitless. I think I saw Death and the Maiden next. Then The Song of Jacob Zulu. I’m not sure. However, every time I left, with my buddy Jake Berlin, we’d talk for a long time. I think he’s a playwright now. Steppenwolf probably had something to do with it. It did with me. (more…)

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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I have never encountered a book so slight in size which consistently provides a seemingly bottomless well of conversation, implications, virtue, ethics, poetry, tragedy, humour, frustration, and reward than John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.  This “simple little thing”[1] is anything but. I wish I had months with this cast to talk and Viewpoint our way through this territory whose story takes place in Soledad but whose themes (loneliness, identity, objective versus subjective morality, age & utility, longing, love, lust, disability, sexuality, capitalism) take us to deep inside the human heart, mind, and imagination.

Soledad, in Spanish, means solitude or loneliness, and this process—which began with my week-long seclusion in southern Wisconsin with the script and books on Steinbeck—has felt exquisitely lonely.  I spend mornings re-reading the script and thinking about Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, benthamian & Millian utilitarianism, and Kantian ‘oughts’[2], my afternoons rehearsing, and evenings exploring more Steinbeck and potential music for the production, judiciously interspersed with the occasional Lifetime movie[3] or Playstation 3 game[4]. (more…)

What an exciting way to start the school year - with a protest! It’s funny, I have lived in Chicago for over fifteen years and I don’t remember a school year starting without some kind of controversy. Because I work with Chicago Public Schools and I have two children in the public school system, I know something about the disparity in funding throughout the Chicagoland area. We paid $250.00 for school supplies that go to the kids’ classrooms and $120 in registration fees at our public school. Not everyone can afford this, so whether you agree or not about children missing the first couple days of school to protest, you have to admit, it did bring much needed attention to the challenges of funding education.

Lindsey Barlag, our new Education Associate, was at New Trier High School interviewing students and parents during the symbolized registration at the school. Here is what she had to say about it:

“The atmosphere at New Trier High School was electric with a sea of 2,000 orange shirts - students, parents and community leaders - filing out of buses. I came to observe, participate and listen. I wasn’t sure what to expect of the day, and I left inspired and moved. A group of New Trier parents stood posed, waving signs of welcome and clapping as the buses pulled up. School officials were ready with water and registration tables. Shouting from the buses, I heard calls of “We love you New Trier.” After over 1,000 students were symbolically registered at New Trier, a rally was held at a local nature preserve. Lunch was served to everyone, and the crowds cheered as Reverends, politicians and community members spoke for the need for change. The protest led by Reverend Meeks was organized, empowering and a testament to community strength. However one might feel personally about the school boycott, it is clear that there is a lack of equality in funding that translates directly to the quality of education our students receive across Illinois. Being at the protest first hand, I felt the call to action. It was a demonstration that was well thought out with care and succeeded in bringing attention to this important issue.” (more…)