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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.

Originally founded by Joseph Papp as the Shakespeare Workshop, the Public Theater now celebrates 50 years of vibrant, diverse theater meant to echo the spirit of New York itself. The past 50 years leading up to its 2006-2007 season have established it as one of the nation’s foremost cultural centers and an embodiment of the spectrum of contemporary American theater. Now under the guidance of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Mara Manus, the Public upholds its commitment to unifying divergent traditions and giving attention to new voices, and it has been richly rewarded by public support. Over 250,000 people attend Public Theater-related events and productions each year, and the Theater has received 40 Tony Awards, 135 Obies, 38 Drama Desk Awards, 18 Lucille Lortel Awards, 4 Pulitzer Prizes, and has carried 49 shows to Broadway.

The former Astor Library on Lafayette Street serves as the Public’s headquarters, while its famous Shakespeare in the Park takes place each summer at the Delacourte Theater. Its newest performance space, Joe’s Pub, provides an intimate venue for new work and solo performances. The Public also hosts a summer professional training program named the Shakespeare Lab, and has been nationally recognized for its reading series, New Work Now!.

New Work Now! falls early in its season, and brings new works from both emerging and established artists to the public for free. This year, some of the readings are part of the Arab/Israeli Festival; the series runs from October 23 to November 6.

Meanwhile, Wrecks, a solo piece featuring four-time Academy Award-nominee Ed Harris, is written and directed by Neil LaBute, famous for plays and screenplays such as In the Company of Men, The Shape of Things, and Nurse Betty, among countless others. This newest offering challenges expectations about love, relationships, and family with the same razor insight characteristic of LaBute. The production’s spectacular reviews led to a sold-out run, and this U.S. Premiere has recently been extended to play through November 19.

Emergence-See, headlined as “an explosive new play where rhythm, rhyme and remembrence rise” imagines that a slave ship has just surfaced out of the Hudson River at the base of the Statue of Liberty. The author and solo performer of the piece, Daniel Beaty, takes on forty different personalities, weaving them into a lyrical exploration of the nature of freedom and fundamental humanity. Directed by Kenny Leon, the electrifying show runs from October 10 to November 12.

The World Premiere of Durango opens next, the newest play from Julio Cho, whose recent BFE won accolades and awards. Chay Yew directs this story of a single father, named Boo-Seng, who decides to embark on a road trip to Durango, Colorado, with his two teenager sons. The struggles hidden in their family relationship begin to rise as the trip goes on, as the sons reveal the impact of their father’s decision to leave Korea to chase the American Dream. The production runs from November 7 to December 10.

Under the Radar is another festival to which the Public Theater plays host, focusing on highly innovative and independent new work that operates well outside of mainstream drama. It also highlights the global trends in contemporary theater by bringing productions from other countries to stand alongside those from the U.S. This year, pieces from Canada, the UK, and Bolivia will be incorporated, running from January 16 to January 28, 2007.

The World Premiere of a new musical, Passing Strange, is scheduled for January. Singer and songwriter Stew is, aptly, both the composer and performer of this new manifestation of musical theater. The project, directed and created in collaboration with Annie Dorsen with additional assistance from Heidi Rodewald on composition, tells the story of a young black bohemian who searches for identity and and a place to belong amidst the confusion of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Stew was commissioned by the Public to develop this musical after gaining popularity for his performances at Joe’s Pub.

In the Spring, the Public will provide the venue for Craig Lucas’s newest play, The Singing Forest. Lucas, famous for plays such as The Light in the Piazza, Reckless and Prelude to a Kiss, examines the aftermath of the Holocaust through the lens of our contemporary commercial culture. Three generations, the contemporary, that of Freud’s inner circle in the Vienna of the 1930s, and that of post-WWII Paris, are interwoven, revealing their secrets, their differences, and their similarities. Bartlett Sher, the world-famous classical director and artistic director of the Intiman Playhouse since 2000, will helm this play, marking a second partnership with Lucas after the director was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Director for his 2005 production of The Light on the Piazza.

Over the course of the year, various pieces of Suzan-Lori Parks’ 365 Days/365 Plays will be presented by the Public. The project is the result of Parks commitment to write one play per day starting in November 2002. The Public is the vanguard on the New York City branch of the 365 Days/Plays Festival, but the Festival itself spans the entire nation, where the plays will be presented simultaneously from November 13, 2006 to November 12, 2007. The largest collaboration in the history of American theater will involve 60 different theater companies in New York, organized by the Public.

King Lear concludes the Public’s season; Kevin Kline, one of America’s greatest Shakespearean actors, will star in Shakespeare’s epic tragedy about family, betrayal, love and madness. Pulitzer-Prize winner, three-time Tony Award winner, seven-time Tony Award nominee, and two-time Drama Desk Award winner James Lapine, director and librettist of musicals such as Into the Woods and Sunday in the Park with George, has signed on as director.

The twenty-two year old American Repertory Theatre is truly unique. The A.R.T. is the only non-profit theatre in the United States that can claim a resident acting company, an international training conservatory (in conjunction with the famous Moscow Art Theatre), and association with a major univeristy (the no-less famous Harvard University). The A.R.T. is every bit as international as it is ‘American,’ having performed not only in eighty-one U.S. cities in 22 states, but also in twenty-one foreign cities in 16 countries around the globe. The A.R.T. can claim amongst its other acheivements a Pulitzer Prize, a Tony Award, and a Jujamcyn Award.

A.R.T. specializes in bold new plays and adaptations, with over half of its 160 productions to date made up of premieres. Playwrights such as Christopher Durang, David Mamet, David Rabe, Adam Rapp, and Paula Vogel, along with other authors more famous for work outside of the theatre, such as Don DeLillo, David Lodge, and Derek Walcott, have seen premieres of their plays at the A.R.T. In recent years, even its productions of classic plays from Sophocles to Shakespeare to Marivaux to O’Neill have taken on striking, vividly modern tones. Many productions at the A.R.T., whether new or classic, have an innovative, experimental flavor.

Artistic director Robert Woodruff took over from the theatre’s founder, Robert Brustein, in 2002. Like the cross-town ‘rival,’ the Huntington Theatre Company, the A.R.T. recently opened up a second smaller space in order to accomodate their expanding season. The 300-seat Zero Arrow Theatre supplements the original 556-seat Loeb Drama Center, located on opposite sides of the Harvard Square area in Cambridge.

The 2006-2007 A.R.T. season commences with bobrauschenbergamerica, a play inspired by the works of artist Robert Rauschenberg, and envisions a road trip across America through the lens of his style. Author Charles L. Mee returns after seeing four of his plays done at the A.R.T. in the past. Anne Bogart, famous in the theatre world for her work on ‘Viewpoints,’ in addition to her 2 Obie Awards, a Bessie Award, a Guggenheim and a Rockefeller Scholarship, takes time out from her role as the Artistic Director of SITI Company to direct this show. It runs in the Loeb Drama Center from September 9 through October 7.

The Dresden Dolls, a duo originating in Boston and describing themselves as “Brechtian punk cabaret,” a classification at least preferable to all the other pigeonholing they defy, composed a production titled The Onion Cellar. Regular A.R.T. director Marcus Stern guides band members Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione in this production at Zero Arrow, running from December 9 through January 13, 2007.

Wings of Desire, appearing next at the Loeb, is a World Premiere adaptation of Wim Wenders’ film of the same title, adapted by Gideon Lester, Artistic Associate at the A.R.T., Ko van den Bosch, and Ola Mafaalani. Dutch Mafaalani will also be directing the play and serving as a liaison with Toneelgroep Amsterdam, the premiere theatre company of the Netherlands. Wenders’ story about a guardian angel who tires of the eternity of an existence marked only by observation, and the choice he faces when he falls in love with a mortal, and the new staging will be running from November 25 through December 17.

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest receives a remarkable twist in the American Premiere of this adaptation by Ridiculusmus, a two-man comedy duo who play all the parts, from Algernon to Miss Prism. The famously amusing original play has been delighting even more audiences with this treatment, and will be showing at the Loeb from December 21 through January 14.

Artistic Director Robert Woodruff helms the next production, Jean Racine’s Britannicus. The classical temprament of Racine’s 17th century France combines with the classical age of Rome when the master playwright unfolds the story of Emperor Nero, his political and personal scandals feeding and stemming from his madness. The play will run from January 20 through February 11 on the Loeb stage.

Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist is rendered stunningly in a new adapatation of the novel by Neil Bartlett, a playwright famous for his deft translations. In this version, a group of Victorian music hall singers come together to tell the story with as script that is predominantly spoken and not sung. Using only the original language from the text, Bartlett captures the spirit and essence of the story in a manner unmatched, with all the ferocity, violence and fear preserved alongside the tenderness and hope. Bartlett will be directing the production, as he until recently served as the Artistic Director at the Lyric Hammersmith in London. This American Premiere of the adaptation will be touring to New York and Berkeley, California, following its run in Cambridge from February 17 through March 24.

Elections and Erections: A Memoir of Fear and Fun is the season’s second showing at the Zero Arrow Theatre. This sharp satire written and performed by Pieter-Dirk Uys attacks political outrage itself, with Uys playing, naturally, all of the roles. This American Premiere will be showing from April 4 through May 6.

The A.R.T. pays tribute to Harold Pinter, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature last year for a lifetime of work, by closing their season with his play No Man’s Land. Perhaps the most significant British playwright in the second half of the 20th century, Pinter is most famous for his plays The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Homecoming, and Betrayal. No Man’s Land centers on two writers, stranded in the ‘no man’s land’ of late middle age. The production will be in the very capable hands of veteran A.R.T. director David Wheeler, who has directed 13 Pinter plays, 2 of of them at the A.R.T. He was additionally distinguished with an Elliot Norton Award for his work on Shaw’s Misalliance at the A.R.T., and also directed Al Pacino in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel on Broadway, which won the actor a Tony Award. The production will be running at the Loeb from May 12 to June 10.

The Huntington Theatre Company celebrates its 25th season as one of Boston’s top-tier professional theatre companies. Its productions have garnered three Tony Award nominations for plays that have transferred to Broadway after their intial run in Boston, and have won six Elliot Norton Awards—Boston’s equivalent of the Tonys—for Outstanding Production. With a long history of putting on definitive productions of classic plays, the Huntington has also developed strong relationships with some of America’s best contemporary playwrights, and has been balancing their season in recent years with the work of new up-and-coming writers. Almost 50 American, New England or World Premieres grace the Huntington’s history, including works by authors such as Tom Stoppard, Brian Friel, August Wilson, Jon Robin Baitz, Christopher Durang, and Donald Margulies.

Under the guidance of Artistic Director Nicholas Martin, the last few years have seen the Company’s remarkable expansion. In 2004, the Huntington added an additional theatre space to its season roster, and now holds five productions in its 890-seat Boston University Theatre and two productions in the gorgeous new 370-seat Virginia Wimberly Theatre in the newly-renovated Calderwood Pavillion in the Boston Center for the Arts. The BCA houses four different theatre spaces, used by many different theatre companies in the Boston area.

The Huntington’s 2006-2007 season opens with Radio Golf, the final play in the late August Wilson’s groundbreaking ten-play cycle that chronicles the African-American experience in each decade of the 20th century. It marks the eighth of the Pulitzer-Prize-winning playwright’s works to be produced by the Theatre. This World Premiere runs at the B.U. Theatre from September 8th through October 15th, and will continue its run on Broadway thereafter. Kenny Leon, who directed Gem of the Ocean at the Huntington two years ago and also the 2004 Broadway run of A Raisin in the Sun, is leading the project.

The first show at the Virginia Wimberly Theatre is another World Premiere: Mauritius, a shockingly hysterical and thrilling intrigue about stamp collecting. Pulitzer-nominated playwright Theresa Rebeck, writer for “NYPD Blue” and “Law & Order,” also returns to the Huntington after 2004’s production of her comedy Bad Dates. Rebecca Taichman directs the show, which runs from October 6 through November 12.

Rabbit Hole comes to the Huntington’s B.U. Theatre after being the smash hit on Broadway in 2006, claiming 5 Tony Award nominations, including one for Best Play. This new production of David Lindsay-Abaire’s touching and unexpectedly funny story about coping with loss is directed by John Tillinger and runs from November 3 to December 3. The playwright was previously most famous for his play Fuddy Meers, and has won the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award.

Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece The Cherry Orchard runs in the B.U. Theatre from January 5 to February 4, 2007. Artistic director Nicholas Martin helms the production, and reunites the award-winning team that brought 2001’s Hedda Gabbler to Broadway. Kate Burton, who recieved a Tony nomination for her performance in Hedda, returns as Madame Ranevsky.

Lisa Kron, another Tony-nominated actress, will come to the B.U. Theatre to recreate the role that garnered the nomination. Well is one of several pieces that Kron has written and starred in herself, and in this semi-autobiographical piece of meta-theatre, Kron’s attempts to put on a play about her family are constantly interrupted by the family itself. The production, directed by Leigh Silverman, will run from March 5 to April 8.

At the Virginia Wimberly Theatre, Persephone marks another World Premiere by hot new playwright Noah Haidle. This story of the inner monologue of a 500-year-old statue constructed during the Renaissance and now standing in a park in an American city serves as a brilliant introduction to Haidle’s wit and imagination. Nicholas Martin directs, and the show plays from March 30 through May 6.

Streamers rounds out the season, playing in the B.U. Theatre from May 18 - June 17. Tony Award-winning author David Rabe, famous for his plays In the Boom Boom Room and Hurlyburly and films The Firm and Casualties of War, tells the story of four young soldiers, exiting boot camp in 1965 and facing the escalation of the violence in Vietnam and the patterns of change in society. Director Scott Ellis has received many Tony nominations, including one for his recent Broadway revival of Twelve Angry Men.