Before I left Chicago, I asked our terrific assisant director, Jonathan Berry, if he would write us an occasional blog from the Chicago theatre. HIs first is below, it's a really terrific insight into what's going on in his theatreworld this season.
News from the Chicago Theatre Front:
Summer in Chicago is always a difficult time for theatre, because unlike our neighbors to the East in the Big Apple, our Summer’s are lovely with wind coming off the lake, mild temperatures that only rarely push into sweltering heat, and an array of outdoor festivals neighborhood block parties, and music festivals Lollapalooza and Pitchfork. All of this, with the addition of two well supported professional baseball teams makes battling for a summer audience a particular challenge.
But, taking the advice of Daniel Burnham (one of Chicago's beloved architects who redefined this city with his beautiful buildings and civic planning) many of the city's theatre companies are choosing to make no small plans and instead, are pushing the theatrical envelope with a bevy of new and exciting work that is proving far more successful than trotting out the old summer hit standbys.
While I haven't seen all of them, (I've been buried in rehearsals for my own play, which I will shamelessly self promote at some point in this blog), I've heard great things and these are on my list of shows to get to, now that my own production has opened.
Coming up at Steppenwolf, the Chicago Theatre juggernaut that refuses to rest on its laurels is a new play from provocateur playwright Bruce Norris. Mr. Norris has written such scorching satire as THE PAIN AND THE ITCH, THE UNMENTIONABLES, and PURPLE HEART; all of which debuted at Steppenwolf under the direction to Anna D. Shapiro. Shapiro has been taking a break for the last year, coming off her success of AUGUST, OSAGE COUNTY and is now paired once more with Norris on this world premier. Norris is always interesting, and is known to be an equal opportunity offender, spewing bile at both the politically left and right. Shapiro's direction is always sharp, honest, and on point and the community is very excited to get a first look at this play when previews start the end of June. Find the details here.
In the far North of Chicago, is a 28 year old Chicago company who has made its reputation bringing new adaptations of literary work to exciting theatrical life. This time around, Director Paul S. Holmquist and his ambitious team has taken on Neil Gaiman's NEVERWHERE. I'll catch this next weekend, but the team that Holmquist has assembled includes puppet and mask work, in addition to projections and the more typical design elements. Holmquist is a very physical director, putting a lot of emphasis on creating the world through movement, and this piece seems no exception. With the challenges inherent in the script (a smoke monster, a floating market, countless fights, and an underground world), the team had to be particularly creative in transforming the small Lifeline stage. I look forward to checking out this [[world premier|http://lifelinetheatre.com/performances/09-10/neverwhere/index.shtml
|adaptation.]]
This next one is a bit of self-promotion, but it's a show that I'm proud of and that people seem to like, so I'll put it on the list and try to be modest about it. The Gift Theatre of Chicago is one of the many companies that have sprung from a class of actors enrolled in The School at Steppenwolf - (A 10 week summer acting intensive, taught by Steppenwolf ensemble members and friends of the theatre to professional actors looking to rejuvinate their art.) They specialize in extraordinarily intimate and honest work, not a lot of thrills, and a stage that puts every audience member no more than 10 feet from the stage. For their summer offering, they have chosen SUICIDE, INCORPORATED - a new script, written by an emerging Chicago playwright Andrew Hinderaker. The play is improbable summer fair: It begins as a dark satire about a business that will, for a fee, edit your suicide note to make sure you really leave a mark on your way out of this world. It then slowly shifts into a drama about the challenge men have connecting with one another, and the need for that human connection to generate a will to live. I'm really proud of the performances we strove to keep it as simple and honest and direct as possible, and the work has been really well received. We are sold out of the initial run, but there's talk of extension and I hope that it continues to do well for this company who took a chance on a http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/the_theatre_loop/2010/06/suicide-incorporated-at-gift-theatre-a-deeply-moving-inquiry-into-what-lives-are-worth.html
Brecht has made a very strong showing this spring and summer, in two different productions from two exciting companies. Strawdog Theatre, filled with some of the best rough and tumble, staunchly non-union Chicago actors just closed a very strong production of GOOD SOUL OF SZECHUAN, directed by Shade Murray. It featured a brand new rock score and a lead performance by Michaela Petro that was both ferocious and tender. In its small space, brimming with actors who sang, played their own instruments, and dove fully into their multiple roles, it was a Chicago theatre experience that really felt like it could only happen here.
Similarly, Tuta who have been around about 10 years, but who have, in the last 3 been making an indelible mark on the Chicago scene with their eastern European approach to production, just knocked it out of the park (Do people get that baseball term? A home run? What's the cricket equivalent?) with a production of the very rarely produced BAAL. Ian Westerfer in the lead role managed to make that terrible hedonist charming and appealing and appalling all in the same moment. A new score, by Josh Schmidt (ADDING MACHINE) played by the actors, kept the story flowing and made a strong case for this play being ALMOST stageworthy. While it will never be in the Brechtian top 5, the heart and soul of this production, and the committed performances from these actors pushed at the walls of the intimate Chopin basement and made us all glad that Chicago theatre allows for this kind of production risk.
FINALLY what Chicago update would be complete without a look into what local boy made good David Cromer was up to. David directed a revolutionary production of Thornton Wilder's OUR TOWN that moved to NY and won every off Broadway award it could, catapulting David into the realm of hot NY director; after slugging away (another baseball reference?) at the Chicago theatre scene for 20 some years. He had made a career of doing impossibly good work in these tiny little spaces, getting no money for it, and scraping by on stipends and teaching positions, until finally breaking through in an enormous way.
He has come back home this summer, to produce two wildly different plays. The first, at Writers Theatre in Glencoe, IL (a suburb of Chicago) is an incredibly intimate production of STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE that surrounds the Kowalski house on all sides by the audience. You can see them sweat and grasp and the intimacy allows for a delicacy in playing that seems to reveal this classic text anew. If there's anything really revolutionary about David's work, its that he trusts completely the playwright and just tries really hard to do what the script asks, and do it honestly and without pretension. It's simple, but remarkably effective and takes a lot of trust on the part of all the participants.
After that opened, he leapt over to Mary Arrchie theatre company and directed a production of Kirk Lynn's CHERRYWOOD. Mary Arrchie has been around 25 years, scraping by with leaky roofs, and dirty dressing rooms, and seats from the early 80's. But they gave David his first breaks, and supported them throughout, so he brought them this production. 49 actors on stage, 50 seats in the audience, everyone on top of one another. Despite that, the show is remarkably clear and thrilling to be in the middle of. It teems with the energy of a wild party just on the edge of falling apart, and you are inches away from the sweaty 20 somethings that inhabit this strange, familiar world.
I feel so fortunate to be here in Chicago at this particular moment, able to do my work as a director in a time when audiences and theatres alike are concerned by the economics, but making the important bold artistic decisions anyway. It feels, somehow, important again to be putting on plays and speaking to the world in this medium that is ancient and yet, finding new ways to be relevant for today. While the death of theatre is always discussed, and the shows that won Tony Awards in NY seem to verify that diagnosis, proud to be living in a city that, for this moment, is proving that making a bold and daring choice based more in passion than good sense, will be rewarded. I hope that, if you make it across the pond, you'll check out what the nooks and crannies of our theatre scene has to offer. It may be a little more work to get there, and the bathroom may give you pause, but the work on stage will, I hope, feel vital and immediate and thrilling to be a part of.
For a comprehensive list of what's going on in the Chicago Theatre scene, take a look here