Steppenwolf announced their 2015-16 season today. And inside the envelope is some pretty exciting news.
The man from Oklahoma is back. Ensemble member Tracy Letts, who as a world class writer and actor is one of the sharpest double threats around (but can he sing and dance?), has written a new play. And Steppenwolf is doing the world premiere.
If that alone doesn’t get you on a plane to Chicago, maybe the rest of the impressive lineup will.
Also more visibility for Annie Baker on the biggest stages in the land. Her Pulitzer-winning THE FLICK is also on the list. But if you want to see THE FLICK, your next chance starts TOMORROW in Seattle at New Century Theatre Company.
In 2015-16, Anna D. Shapiro takes over from Martha Lavey as Artistic Director at Steppenwolf.
World Premiere
John Steinbeck’s
East of Eden
Adapted by ensemble member Frank Galati
Directed by founding ensemble member Terry Kinney
September 17 – November 15, 2015 in the Downstairs Theatre
Escaping a turbulent past, Adam Trask is determined to make a new start in California’s Salinas Valley. Adam and his wife Kate settle on a beautiful farm, and soon Kate gives birth to twins Caleb and Aaron. But family history, sibling rivalry and the impending danger of World War One will threaten their little piece of paradise. East of Eden is a sprawling and unflinching story that asks if is it possible to escape the mistakes of previous generations and choose your own course.
Ensemble member Frank Galati adapted and directed Steppenwolf’s groundbreaking production of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath in 1988, which won a Tony Award for Best Play and for Best Direction. Co-founder and ensemble member Terry Kinney was in the original cast of The Grapes of Wrath. Among Kinney’s Steppenwolf directing credits are The Violet Hour, A Streetcar Named Desire, A Clockwork Orange, Of Mice and Men and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, which moved to Broadway and won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play.
Chicago Premiere
Domesticated
Written and directed by ensemble member Bruce Norris
December 3, 2015 – February 7, 2016 in the Downstairs Theatre
Politician Bill Pulver faces the cameras to stumble his way through a carefully crafted apology as his wife Judy stands stoically behind him…but what is she REALLY thinking? We are about to find out in Bruce Norris’s wickedly funny, unpredictable play about a marriage burst apart by a sex scandal. This scathing, wildly entertaining play investigates gender politics, modern marriage and the sexual mysteries of the animal kingdom.
Domesticated marks the ninth play by Bruce Norris that Steppenwolf has produced. The play premiered at the Lincoln Center in New York in 2013. Most recently Steppenwolf premiered Norris’s The Qualms, which had a subsequent production at Playwrights Horizons. For Clybourne Park, Norris won the Tony Award for Best Play, the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards (London) for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He is the recipient of the Steinberg Playwright Award, The Whiting Foundation Prize for Drama, as well as two Joseph Jefferson Awards for Best New Work.
Chicago Premiere
The Flick
By Annie Baker
Directed by Dexter Bullard
February 4 – May 8, 2016 in the Upstairs Theatre
Three underpaid employees sweep up stale popcorn in a run-down movie house called The Flick, one of the last theaters in Massachusetts still projecting 35mm films. For Avery, this isn’t a dead-end job. It’s a way to get closer to the art form he loves. Passionate debates about cinema lead to a friendship of sorts with co-workers Sam and Rose. But will their tentative bond survive as they reveal what they actually need from each other? The Flick is a heartfelt cry for the kind of authentic connection we all want, even if we’re a little afraid of it.
Annie Baker makes her Steppenwolf debut with The Flick. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Susan Smith Blackburn Award and Obie Award for Playwriting, The Flick premiered at Playwrights Horizons in 2013. Described as “one of the freshest and most talented dramatists to emerge Off Broadway in the past decade” (New York Times), Baker’s other works include The Aliens (Obie Award for Best New American Play), Body Awareness and Circle Mirror Transformation (Obie Award for Best New American Play), which Dexter Bullard directed at Victory Gardens in 2011. Bullard has directed for Steppenwolf’s First Look Repertory of New Work and recently directed Big Meal at American Theatre Company. He is the head of Graduate Acting and Showcase Artistic Director with The Theatre School at DePaul University.
World Premiere
Mary Page Marlowe
By ensemble member Tracy Letts
Directed by TBA
March 31 – May 29, 2016 in the Downstairs Theatre
Mary Page Marlowe is an accountant from Ohio. She’s led an ordinary life, making the difficult decisions we all face as we try to figure out who we really are and what we really want. As Tracy Letts brings us moments—both pivotal and mundane—from Mary’s life, a portrait of a surprisingly complicated woman emerges. Intimate and moving, Mary Page Marlowe shows us how circumstance, impulse and time can combine to make us mysteries…even to ourselves.
Tracy Letts was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play for August: Osage County, which premiered at Steppenwolf in 2007, played on Broadway, London’s National Theatre and the Sydney Theatre. Steppenwolf also produced the world premieres of Letts’s Superior Donuts (transferred to Broadway in 2009);and Man from Nebraska (premiered at Steppenwolf in 2003, Pulitzer Prize finalist). Letts received a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for Steppenwolf’s production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? He has been an ensemble member since 2002.
Chicago Premiere
Between Riverside and Crazy
By Stephen Adly Guirgis
Directed by ensemble member Yasen Peyankov
June 23 – August 21, 2016 in the Downstairs Theatre
Ex-cop “Pops” Washington and his ex-con son Junior are barely holding on to one of the last great rent stabilized apartments in Manhattan. Pops has his hands (not to mention his apartment) full as he navigates a steady stream of sketchy houseguests and sweats out the impending verdict on his law suit against the police department. A celebration of the glorious contradictions that make up human nature, this rowdy dark comedy looks at the slippery nature of justice, and the grit it takes to finally move on.
Between Riverside and Crazy premiered at the Atlantic Theatre in New York under the direction of ensemble member Austin Pendleton. Steppenwolf has produced three other works by Guirgis, including the critically acclaimed The Motherf**ker with the Hat under ensemble member Anna D. Shapiro’s direction. Ensemble member Yasen Peyankov most recently directed Steppenwolf’s Russian Transport in 2014 and Hushabye at Steppenwolf as part of the 2014 First Look Repertory of New Work. Peyankov will direct Steppenwolf’s upcoming production of Grand Concourse in 2015.
