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

(Polly is the Director of Artistic Development at Steppenwolf)

Recently I got obsessed with Dexter, that cable show about a serial killer who kills bad guys. After watching four seasons in about two weeks (I said obsessed), I found myself stressed out, worrying about Dexter, would he get away with it? I was rooting for him. Good storytelling will often put us in surprising emotional and intellectual states. I find it even more powerful when this happens in theater, when we imagine ourselves in places we’ve never been or identify with outsiders completely unlike us. In theater, I like to think of those emotions as almost tactile: we feel them because we’re in such close proximity to the living, breathing actor.

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(Seth is co-director and co-deviser with Devon de Mayo on The Twins Would Like To Say, part of the Visiting Company Initiative Garage Rep)

In the above photo, Brandon is manipulating a puppet on an overhead projector as Kasey looks on, laughing, and Millie diligently watches the screen. It is a literally “behind-the-scenes” look at Dog & Pony’s The Twins Would Like To Say, which I co-directed and co-wrote with Devon de Mayo, and which opened on Sunday.

Kasey prepares the next puppet to enter the frame, while Brandon aligns his body to carefully lift a cutout heart, as Millie gets ready for a transition to blackout which she accomplishes with two pieces of cardboard.

It’s a dance of paper and light, made with hands and eyes in rigorous synchronicity.

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(Rodrick plays Shango and Shua in The Brother/Sister Plays)

I remember meeting Tarell in NY three years ago, before I had ever heard of The Brother/Sister Plays. We met through one of my closest friends and hung out in NY until five in the morning. We had the best time, exchanged numbers, and committed to keeping in touch. When I got the script for In the Red and Brown Water two weeks later, I had no idea that the man I had met was the playwright. I read the script and I cried. I told my mom before the audition, “I have to do this play! It’s a part of how I was raised. It’s a part of who I am.” Both Tarell and I are from Florida; I’m from Polk County, FL, where it’s just as country and swampy as San Pére. I had no idea that the script I was so in love with was by this tall, beautiful black brother who I had hung out with two weeks prior until I stepped into the audition room. I cannot even express to you the peace and joy that came over my spirit when I saw him in the room, not to mention that auditioning for Tina Landau was a treat in and of itself. Three months later, I was in Atlanta at the Alliance Theatre with Tina and Tarell, working on In the Red and Brown Water.

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I am looking forward to starting rehearsal on March 2nd for Endgame with Frank Galati directing. Frank is a hugely important influence in my life and, now, a dear friend. Some of my most singular experiences in the theater as an actor have been with Frank. When I was a graduate student in the Performance Studies department at Northwestern where Frank was a professor, he cast me in an adaptation he had created of Gertrude Stein’s novel, Ida. It was a wonderful experience. Frank has some kind of uncanny affinity for Stein’s voice and, since that production of Ida, he has adapted Stein’s work for the theater several times, to marvelous effect: She Always Said Pablo at the Goodman Theatre and Loving Repeating, first at Northwestern and then with About Face Theatre at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

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(Joy is the Literary Manager at Steppenwolf)

SPOILER ALERT: this post is intended for readers who have already seen The Brothers Size and Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet and may spoil some surprises within the show. If you are able to attend The Brothers Size and Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet, we ask that you read this post after you’ve seen the production.

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