Kiosk.net

The Steppenwolf Theatre Company is founded on the backbone of a set of long-term ensemble members who acheive the ability to risk more and play more in this community-oriented environment. Newer works and classics receive equal attention in the company’s repertoire, the emphasis being placed on the plays that fit and intrigue the company, rather than on a certain genre of work. In a theatrical arrangment based upon the artists—the actors, directors, and writers who make up Steppenwolf’s ensemble—the freedom within familiarity also causes audiences to receive more challenging productions and performances. In addition to boasting the longest-running and perhaps most famous theatre ensemble in the United States, Steppenwolf’s commitment to collaboration extends to guest artists, partner organizations, and the surrounding community.

The Company itself was founded by Terry Kinney, Jeff Pauley, and Gary Sinese, who became friends in high school and college; their first production together was done in 1974, while still in school, and their decision to start a professional resident ensemble theatre company came to fruition two years later with the establishment of the Steppenwolf. Over three decades later, their unanimously-accomplished thirty-five Company members include actors such as Joan Allen, John Malkovitch, Laurie Metcalf, and Gary Cole. The Steppenwolf has won four Tony Awards, amongst many others, including a National Medal of Arts in 1998.

The Steppenwolf Theatre comprises three versatile performances spaces. The largest, the Downstairs Theatre, is a 515-seat venue for both world premieres and invigorating interpretations of classic and contemporary works. The Upstairs Theatre, at 299 seats, provides a more intimate venue for ‘mainstage’ works while still maintaining the layout of a proscenium theatre, while the smaller Garage Theatre operates under a blackbox design for the work of emerging artists.

The Steppenwolf opens its 2006-2007 season with Martin McDonagh’s chilling and darkly hilarious The Pillowman. The story of a writer brought in for police investigation in an unnamed totalitarian state shocked and captivated audiences in London and New York, and now finds voice through the direction of company member Amy Morton. Ensemble members Tracy Letts, Yasen Peyankov and Jim True-Frost appear in this production, running from September 14th through November 12th.

Sonia Flew is another recent award-winning play travelling to Chicago via the Steppenwolf, having received its world premiere at the Huntington Theatre in Boston in 2004. This warm-hearted play explores the notions of family and home through the life of Sonia, a Cuban immigrant, alternating between her present-day life with her Jewish husband and two children in Minneapolis, and her childhood memories of Cuba. Running throughout the holiday season from November 30, 2006, to January 4, 2007, the cast includes ensemble member Alan Wilder, and is directed by Jessica Thebus.

The Steppenwolf joins other theatres across the country in recognizing this year’s Nobel-Prize winner, Harold Pinter, with the inclusion of his most human, intimate play, Betrayal, in their season. Betrayal is a contemporary masterpiece and classic of modern theatre, weaving a web of space and time between a husband and wife, and his best friend/her lover. Ensemble members Tracy Letts and Amy Morton are directed by ensemble member Rick Snyder; the production runs in the Upstairs Theatre from January 25 through May 27.

Ensemble member Tina Landau directs The Diary of Anne Frank, performing from April 5 to June 10. The book read the world over, and the story of the thirteen-year-old Jewish girl forced into hiding with the German occupation of Holland during WWII, receive new life in Wendy Kesselman’s adaptation of the original stage version. Ensemble members Rober Breuler, Francis Guinan, Mariann Mayberry, Yasen Peyankov and Alan Wilder are included in the cast.

August: Osage Company showcases the Steppenwolf’s commitment to producing its ensemble members’ work as playwrights as well as actors and directors. Ensemble member Tracy Letts’ deeply moving, deeply funny play was written specifically for the Steppenwolf Company; his Steppenwolf colleagues Francis Guinan, Mariann Mayberry, Amy Morton, Sally Murphy, Jeff Perry and Rick Snyder appear in this tale of an Oklahoma family in search of their missing patriarch. Ensemble member Anna D. Shapiro heads the production, running from June 28 to August 26.

The New York Theatre Workshop was founded in 1979 as a forum for new playwrights and directors to ‘workshop’ innovative new productions. Since then, the Workshop has expanded and flourished to contain two programs–one, which produces mainstage shows with an aim towards providing excellent productions consistently oriented towards an audience’s benefit, and the second, the workshop procedure, whose goal is to expand and develop a new piece of work.

The mainstage shows are more often than not world premieres, but classics of American and World Theatre, such as A Streetcar Named Desire and Hedda Gabler also have their place within the repertoire. NYTW has gained fame for workshop productions which have moved to Broadway, such as RENT and Dirty Blonde. The Theatre is also responsible for definitive early productions of internationally-recognized contemporary works, such as Caryl Churchill’s A Number, Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul, The Beard of Avon, by Amy Freed, and Flesh and Blood, adapted from Michael Cunningham’s novel by Peter Gaitens, among countless others.

James Nicola, who has been the Artistic Director since 1988, is largely responsible for the expansion of the mainstage program, with equal commendations for keeping the workshop priorities strong. An average of 80 readings of new works take place at the NYTW each year. Located in the East Village, the NYTW’s 188-seat theatre and its adjoining rehearsal studio provide the perfect intimate environment for its commitment to collaboration and exploration.

NYTW’s 2006-2007 season opens with ¡El Conquistador!, a work conceived, created and performed by Thaddeus Phillips, and brought to NYTW for its New York premiere. The piece merges film, theatre, history and Telenova as it follows Polonia, a peasant who leaves his war-wracked village with hopes of becoming a soap opera star, and ends up as a doorman for the New World Building, whose wild residents are played by some of Latin America’s most famous TV stars, appearing in the production via videophone. The play was created in collaboration with Colombia’s leading TV actor and director, Victor Mallarino, and Tatiana Mallarino, and the production is directed by Tatiana Mallarino.

Kaos, conceived and directed by Martha Clarke, retells four Luigi Pirandello stories that appeared in the Taviana Brothers’ 1984 film Kaos, using dance, live music, images, and text by Frank Pugliese and Giovanni Papotto. The vignettes take place in turn-of-the-century Sicily, depicting common folk thrown into mystical circumstances against the backdrop of poverty and a violent political climate. This world premiere appears at NYTW in November.

In January, the world premiere of All That I Will Ever Be takes the stage, the first new play in over a dozen years to come from Alan Ball, famous for writing the Emmy-Award winning HBO series Six Feet Under and the Academy-Award winning American Beauty. Jo Bonney directs this story of two young men in Los Angeles, a restless native and a Middle Eastern immigrant, examining cultural imperialism and the need for ‘home.’

The season closes with 24 Hours Are Not a Day in April. NYTW is the home for the American premiere of this work, written and directed by René Pollesch, one of Germany’s theatre stars. This playwright and director has gained renown for breaking all the classic rules of dramaturgy to create exciting and original work. 24 Hours Are Not a Day examines the impact that globalization has on our public and private lives, a fitting story to be coming from one of Europe’s most innovative artists in his American debut.