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

Jocelyn Prince is Artistic Associate at The Public Theater and the Co-Founding Artistic Director of The New Black Fest. Jocelyn concludes her First Look Professionals’ weekend coverage by sharing some special moments throughout the weekend.

On Saturday afternoon, after a reading of 4,000 MILES by Amy Herzog, I had lunch with an eclectic group of folks–a film editor, a literary manager, a playwright, and an arts journalist. We talked about our experiences abroad with European audiences, some of the most outlandish profane things we have seen onstage, and the differences and similarities between working as an editor in film and working as a dramaturg in theater.  Storytelling was at the heart of our conversation as well as the role of audiences.  What are the expectations of audiences when they come to the theater?  In London, folks buy programs, in the U.S., they generally won’t.  What are these cultural differences based on?  Why are British audiences seemingly less conservative about what they watch onstage?

After lunch, I went window shopping in the Old Town neighborhood with playwright Laura Marks. A native Chicagoan, I have fond memories of this area of the city. Laura, who lived in Chicago for five years, also said that it was great to be back. She appreciated the 3-day rehearsal schedule for her First Look play, BETHANY, because it allowed her time to really get to know the actors and spend some quality time in the city.

The next morning there was a question posed to the speakers taking part in Sunday’s National Panel discussion: “Is the New Play Process Always Playwright Driven?” was such a fruitful topic to hear discussed by a diverse group of theater artists, from a diverse range of institutions. I was struck by the various perspectives of the new play development process and I thought about my own work as a dramaturg and administrator. This is an important discussion that I hope will continue among industry folks at the national level. (A live-tweeted summary of the panel discussion is available here.-Ed.)
Steppenwolf’s season theme- Our Public/Private Self- resonated throughout the weekend for the 3 readings, 3 workshop productions, and 1 main stage show that I had the pleasure to see over the course of the weekend. Characters in all the plays grappled with stalled dreams, their tenuous relationships with their communities, and the security of their way of life in 21st century society. This theme felt sort of meta-theatrical to me, as I tweeted, uploaded photos, and blogged about my own experiences at the festival. Social media has blurred the lines between the public and private.  Our technological age has affected the country’s art and politics in small and large ways. This is a paradigm shift certainly worth exploring in our theaters.

The final, radio-ready version: it might have strings, it might have a drum track, it might have AutoTune, it might have the little bit of rasp on the vocals sanded down or the slight sound of the guitarist’s sleeve against the guitar airbrushed out.  What it loses in energy, it gains in being a definitive version of the song.  It’s finished, it’s polished; it’s ready to be a workhorse and join the soundtrack of our lives.  It can be Owen Bradley’s arrangements and recording of Patsy Cline’s “Crazy,” with the Jordainnaires singing backup and some strings, every hair in place, and work wonderfully.

But the demo version, along with its sibling—the “recorded-live on-air version”—has its equally important place as well.

First Look weekend has included both music-stand readings (see yesterday’s post) and three workshop productions.  The productions have basic sets and lights, and the pieces are fully rehearsed, with actors on their feet and off-book.  They land halfway between a script-in-hand reading and a full production.  A professionally produced demo, as it were.

As with readings, these productions could seem halfway-there, neither fish nor fowl, except that, like the demo versions of songs, they highlight the essentials underneath any good production: a strong script, thoughtful direction, and talented, appropriate actors.

Whether it’s the rural Missouri police station of The North Plan or the Chicago living room of The Etiquette of Vigilance, the lights come up on the actors and the work is in their hands: play the scene; play the opposing needs of the characters in the room; play the text.  The lights come up and it’s up to them.

Does the living room need to look more like a full living room (or a TV or film soundstage)?  Not if the actors are doing their work, and not if the scene is working.  Does the play need more lighting cues or more complex sound design?  Not if the actors are doing their work, and not if the scene is working.

What better way to test a new script?

Tune up the instruments, turn on the microphone, gather a crowd, and go.

Christopher Shea is a freelance critic at Time Out Chicago. He will be reporting from First Look Rep all weekend long at this blog and at the First Look Twitter feed.

This morning, Amy Herzog’s 4,000 MILES had a reading in the Upstairs Theatre. The play follows Leo, an outdoorsy twenty-something who, while grappling with the death of his best friend, temporarily moves in with his grandmother in New York.  After the show, those milling around had much to say about their own aging family members: A couple of people pointed out how chillingly Herzog captured the rapid diminution of language capabilities in the elderly. I also heard from one administrator that an audience member she spoke to called the play both timeless in its portrait of intergenerational relationship, and timely.

The idea that 4,000 MILES is timely struck me, since the play makes few if any overt political or pop cultural references. But a conversation I had later in the day got me to thinking about the uniquely 21st century brand of do-it-yourself-itness featured in the show: Leo bikes across the United States before the play begins, and his girlfriend is planning a research trip to Mumbai. The two are intimate, but a large part of their self-understanding is focused around these monastic journeys to far-flung locales: Without these experiences, it seems, the characters wouldn’t consider themselves quite “fully realized.” We can contrast this with Leo’s grandmother, whose only mentions of her youth have to do with her two marriages.

The theme of untethered, youthful adventure also pervades THE OLD MASTERS. There, we see Ben—a former painter who has settled down with his wife, and is expecting a child—looking back fondly on his transient twenties, when his creative mind took precedence over bill-paying and grocery shopping.

Both of these plays, then, in some way grapple with the increasingly varied, unfettered-by-marriage lives of twenty-somethings—and (in THE OLD MASTERS in particular) how those lives eventually clash or cohere with the requirements of family life.

At dinner, I suggested to some folks that this recurring theme might signal a cultural moment, captured firsthand by First Look. They countered that drama about the burdens of marriage goes at least back to the Greeks. But, I pointed out, the idea that we should dedicate much of adult life to singledom and solo adventure never got so significant in Ancient Greece that the New York Times Magazine dedicated a feature to it.Does anyone else feel that the puzzles that emerge from periods of youthful self-discovery provide some of the crucial drama in these First Look plays? Have you noticed the theme in plays outside of First Look? Or does another theme from the First Look works stick with you more?

Jocelyn Prince is Artistic Associate at The Public Theater and the Co-Founding Artistic Director of The New Black Fest. 

There are so many opportunities to talk about new plays at First Look Rep. One of the great things about First Look Professionals’ Weekend, is that the Professionals’ Weekend activities are woven into the everyday life of Steppenwolf Theatre Company. At this weekend’s new play readings and workshop productions, the audiences are generally dominated by Literary Managers, Dramaturgs, Artistic Directors, and Producers from across the country.  However, it’s a different story in the theater’s downstairs space. Theater professionals get a sense of Steppenwolf’s own unique audience base when attending DETROIT, the fully produced play now running in the Downstairs Theatre  Last night, I experienced both audiences back-to-back as I listened to two very different post show discussions. After the workshop presentation of ETIQUETTE OF VIGILANCE by Robert O’Hara, the audience focused on process in their comments and questions; the expressed what  resonated with them and what worked and didn’t work for them in the script. These comments acknowledged the context of a work still in development, reflecting the audience’s familiarity with the new play world. In the discussion down the street after DETROIT, however, audience members, led by Steppenwolf Literary Manager Joy Meads, talked about how play’s themes relate to their everyday lives and personal histories. Perhaps the difference in content was due to the fact that DETROIT was a fully produced world premiere and is therefore considered to be a “finished’ product, or perhaps the fact that DETROIT played to a more general audience–Steppenwolf’s subscriber base.  I’ve spoken with industry folks here about what types of discussion formats are most helpful to Playwrights vs. Litearary Managers and Directors vs Artistic Directors, etc.  I’m pondering–do the goals of these formats sometime conflict, or is any discussion about a new play helpful to everyone?  When is a play “finished” and how does that affect our dialogue about the script?

Of course, another central place to talk about plays here at First Look is at the local bar and grill, at which Steppenwolf hosted two super fun receptions yesterday. Folks chat by the coat check, or on their way to get a drink at the bar.  I’ve overheard questions like “What’s in your season next year?” “How do you think your audience will react to that new play?” “What are your plans to communicate and engage your audience with the challenging issues that new play addresses?” “What about emotional responses in talkbacks?” “How was that new play received in LA vs. NYC vs. Chicago?” The dialogue continues…

Eric Ziegenhagen is a theatre artist, a musician, and a man about town. He will be reporting from First Look Rep all weekend long at this blog and at our First Look Twitter feed.

A reading of a new play does not offer much to the eye.  One pretty much looks like another.  A group of actors sit in a line or semi-circle, a script perched on a music stand in front of each one, on the set of whatever show is currently running in the hosting theater.  (In yesterday’s case, the new play was Sarah Gubbins’s The Kid Thing and the set was To Kill A Mockingbird.)

Some of the most moving, compelling theater I’ve ever seen has been at actors-behind-music-stand readings (like The Kid Thing) or staged readings (in which the play is staged simply without scenery and the actors perform with scripts in hand).  It’s almost impossible to capture on film how this could be.  Reading performances are undesigned, unstaged, and unfinished, so it’s easy to see them as a necessity instead of an event in themselves, as a rough draft of something that will later be a “real” show.

What happens when a reading works—when the script is right, when the actors are well-chosen for the role—is theater at its rawest.  Not in the low-budget sense, or in the crude-and-incomplete sense, but in the sashimi sense.  How could a play be at its best without a full staging?  What’s the point of going to a theater (or a restaurant), if not to see something prepared?  How could a raw piece of fish be better than a piece of fish that has had a bunch of stuff done to it by professional chefs and sous-chefs and spice merchants?

Well, of course, it can be, if that piece of sashimi or that script doesn’t need a lot of fuss—and any good script can benefit from fuss but can also shine in raw form.  Mamet once (or many times) said that any good play works as a radio play, that the actors and the words alone can bring any good play to life.  The rest—the full production, the sets and lights, the stage business, the physical acting of a scene, the fulfillment of the playwrights’ scenic suggestions—can fulfill and highlight and make the best use of a play, but in the end the actors and the words—like quality raw materials—are where the essential quality of a show begins and ends.

Seeing actors perform in their simplest and most focused way—while absolutely still focused on their character’s role in the scene and responding to each other, their characters’ dilemmas and objectives, the same things they do in a “real” performance—and, simply enough, hearing a play without distraction (tasting the piece of fish without the distracting of added flavors and preparation) can, when chance and talent make a music-stand reading extraordinary, be theater as its holiest and most profound.

Have you been to an extraordinary reading—a script and actors in the raw?  If so, or if you have another point of view, please share a story or comment below.