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

(Tanya Saracho, the adapter of The House on Mango Street, has been tweeting throughout the development and production of the play. If you’re on Twitter you can follow @tanyasaracho and @steppenwolfthtr)

4:31 PM 5/27: Mango Street in the house!

6:23 AM 6/13: Ok, so I got up to write, determined and focused. That lasted about a minute before I crawled back to the fold of the sheets. Snooze.

5:35 AM 6/30: -wakeupandfinishRafaela! WAKEupandWRITErafaela! WakeyourassupTanyaSeleneandfreakingrewriteRAFAELA! GET UP AND WRITE!

2:04 PM 7/02: had an awesome Mango workshop this week! The music is sick. SICK! And the script is getting there. But don’t worry, it will get there!

(more…)

(Whitney is the Program Specialist for Steppenwolf for Young Adults)

About a year ago, I asked the members of our Steppenwolf Young Adult Council a difficult question: How can we get more teenagers to come to the theatre?

It’s no secret that high school students aren’t lining up around the block to see plays - most would rather drop $20 on a movie, popcorn and soda than attend a theatre production for $15 (the ticket price to our teen MaTEENée Series).

The Council has tossed around their theories on this problem for months: maybe teens think the theatre is too formal a place to spend a Saturday night? Maybe they think it’s too expensive? Maybe it’s simply a marketing issue, and teenagers don’t know about all the affordable theatre opportunities available in this town? Whatever the hang up, the Young Adult Council was determined to find a solution - or at least get off to the right start.

(more…)

(Christina plays Marin and Rachel in The House on Mango Street)

I think The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is about dreams. What it means to dream big, dream beyond your limitations, beyond your current situations. That’s something I’ve always related to. When I first read the book as a teenager, I remember identifying with Esperanza’s curiosity and tenacity and imagination. I, like Esperanza, always dreamed of growing up and making it “big” (whatever that means) and moving far way from where I grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And I, like Esperanza, have grown up to become fiercely proud of where I come from, no matter where the future has taken me.

(more…)

Hello Steppenwolf blog-readers! I’m Safiya Nygaard, a member of the Steppenwolf Young Adult Council. The Young Adult Council is Steppenwolf’s after-school program for high school students who are passionate about the arts, and want to learn about the inner workings of professional theatre.

This past Saturday, a few hours before our big Night on Mango Street event, four of us Council members attended the matinee performance of The House on Mango Street. The Young Adult Council has been involved heavily with the show – we’ve met with Tanya Saracho (Mango Street’s adaptor) multiple times and had opportunity to read almost all the drafts of the script. We also listened to the first recordings of the music (off Tanya’s pink iPhone), observed both the audition process and the summer workshop and also a few hours of The House on Mango Street rehearsal. The culmination of our involvement came on Saturday – when we actually got to pull all of our knowledge of The House on Mango Street together and lead a post-show discussion.

(more…)

Hello out there. This is Karin Freed, reporting to you from the Steppenwolf for Young Adults department. We’re steeped in work over here as we prepare for the opening of The House on Mango Street. Last week, we spent several days devising exercises and games with our teaching artists to use during our in-school residencies.

What’s an in-school residency, you ask? Well, it’s a 3-part event whereby teaching artists go into school classes before they see The House on Mango Street, and prepare the students for what they are about to experience at the theatre. Teaching artists get the students up on their feet exploring the themes and issues of the play through performance-based activities. These activities may entail forming tableaus, improvising scenes, engaging in debates, writing and performing monologues, or making music.

(more…)