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

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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I have this little book called Always We Begin Again: The Benedictine Way of Living by John McQuiston. Frank Galati gave me a copy of it years ago and I have since given it to many friends and family members. It’s McQuiston’s contemporary adaptation of the sixth century Benedict of Nursia’s directions for a monastic life. McQuiston found great wisdom in the simplicity of Benedict’s instruction and wanted to make the document available to the contemporary reader, engaged, as he is, in the world as a non -monastic. In a chapter entitled “Right Relationship,” McQuiston writes, “We all have our own perception of, and relationship to some God. We may not use the name “God.” We may think in terms of Reality, Nature, The First Cause, The Behavior of the World, The Other, The All, The Ground of Being, The Force of Evolution, The Life of Spirit, or Things As They Really Are. Each of us creates an image of the supreme mystery in which we find ourselves, and we are always in relationship with it.”

When we were thinking about our 2009-2010 season, we began with the idea that we wanted to pursue the idea of Faith. Perhaps when we began our reading, we thought we would be pursuing the more conventional manifestations of religious faith but what evolved was an idea of Faith that was more in compliance with what McQuiston describes as our relationship to an image of “the supreme mystery in which we find ourselves.” We realized that we were pursuing belief, and the leaps of faith we make in owning our authenticity, our story of the world. (more…)

Steppenwolf dedicates its 2009-2010 season to the power of belief and how it illuminates what’s authentic in our lives. We bring you five plays that are, variously: playful, sly, strange, tender. They examine domestic intimacy, they question historical accuracy, they puzzle existential reach. They all ask us to look at what happens when we take a leap of faith and choose to believe.

We begin with ensemble member Eric Simonson’s new work, Fake. The play takes the Piltdown controversy as the starting point for its inquiry into authenticity. “Piltdown Man” is the name given to the purported archeological artifact that provided the missing link in the evolutionary chain between ape and homo sapiens. Along the way, the play traces the question of fidelity and the specter of religious belief in the negotiation of truth. Ensemble members Kate Arrington, Fran Guinan and Alan Wilder anchor our cast.

Ensemble member Amy Morton directs our second play, David Mamet’s American Buffalo. Amy has a long history with Mamet’s work, including having directed our very successful production of Glengarry Glen Ross. Mr. Mamet is regarded for his terse style and ability to introduce humor and menace in surprising, revealing ways. American Buffalo is the quintessence of the Mamet style. Ensemble members Fran Guinan and Tracy Letts play the roles of Donny and Teach. (more…)