THIS IS OUR
YOUTH Kenneth Lonergan By
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Contents
6
Welcome to This Is Our Youth
Letter from Director of New Play Development Aaron Carter
22 On the Brink of Adulthood, Half-Equipped A conversation with playwright Kenneth Lonergan, director Anna D. Shapiro and artistic director Martha Lavey
E d i to r
C o n t r i b u to r s
Design
N e e l McN e i ll
Aaron Carte r
Donovan Foote
Evan Hatfi e ld Martha Lavey Suzann e M i lle r Joe l Moor man Karyn Todd
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Contents 3
THIS IS OUR YOUTH w e lc o m e to
This Is Our Youth lead by ensemble member Anna D. Shapiro, is a darkly comic, sympathetic and truthful play that continues Steppenwolf’s history of compassionately exploring characters who are in the throes of difficult personal transformation. This Is Our Youth focuses on three young people on the brink of adulthood. We first meet Dennis, “a dynamic, fanatical and bullying kind of person; amazingly goodnatured and magnetic.” He’s quickly joined by his friend Warren, a “strange barking-dog of a kid with large tracts of thoughtfulness in his personality.” Warren has been kicked out of the house by his violent father, and in retaliation Warren has absconded with $15,000 in cash. As Dennis and Warren try to figure out what to do with their windfall, we see a friendship characterized by a mix of generosity, co-dependency and casual cruelty that is quite common among boys on the verge of adulthood. They are trying on different varieties of manhood: they test each other athletically and physically, they pride themselves on arcane knowledge, they boast of their sexual experience. Dennis and Warren are joined by Jessica, a romantic interest of Warren’s. Jessica is “a fairly 6 Welcome
cheerful but very nervous girl” who manages that nervousness by cultivating self-assurance through defensiveness. Over the course of one evening and the following morning, a profound shift occurs in their relationships as the last of their youthful naiveté falls away. Left alone at one point, Jessica and Warren debate the nature of identity. Jessica sees individuals as constantly evolving, with little connection to their previous incarnations: What you’re like now has nothing to do with what you’re gonna be like. Like right now you’re all this rich little pot-smoking burnout rebel, but ten years from now you’re gonna be like a plastic surgeon reminiscing about how wild you used to be... you’ll definitely be a completely different person. Everything you think will be different and the way you act and all your most passionately held beliefs are all gonna be completely different and it’s really depressing. Warren counters with a more essentialist view, even if his science is a little shaky: I think that you basically get a set of characteristics and then they pretty much just develop in different ways…I think that personality components are like protons and electrons. Like in science: Every molecule is made of the same basic components, like the difference between a
“ The feeling that we must change everything and the simultaneous fear that we are powerless to effect specific change is not limited to young people on the brink of adulthood.” hydrogen molecule and a calcium molecule is like one proton or something… So my theory is that people’s personalities are basically constructed the same way. None of them are exactly the same thing, but they’re all made of the same thing. As you can read in the interview with Kenneth Lonergan, the characters in This Is Our Youth are trying to figure out who they will become in order to cope with the challenges of independent life as adults. But a deeper question is also active within the play. What This Is Our Youth captures so eloquently is an unsettling paradox. On one hand, circumstances demand that we make choices that appear to have the power to change the course of our lives forever. And yet, we also have a sneaking suspicion that we vastly overestimate the ability to purposefully transform ourselves. Either the fundamental aspects of our identity have already been set—as in Warren’s view. Or—as Jessica suggests—we have no power over what we will change into. The feeling that we must change everything and the simultaneous fear that we are powerless to effect specific change: that is an experience not limited to young people on the brink of adulthood. I think every person facing a potentially transformative event has felt this paralyzing contradiction. Think back to your own milestones: first kiss, first lover,
first job, first apartment, first child. Part of what resonates so strongly in This Is Our Youth is that we witness three people emerge changed from a shared experience and as a result realize that we are always in transformation—whether we want to be or not. By the end of This Is Our Youth, Dennis has received news that shakes him to the core. He launches into a riff that captures his sense of the fragility of life and his place in it. But there is also a quieter moment in which Warren sees through Dennis’ bullying bravado. You can practically watch the scales fall from Warren’s eyes. Warren chooses to placate Dennis, but he does so from a place of self-awareness and insight, rather than co-dependent need. It’s a subtle shift—the kind you can miss if you’re not watching carefully. There’s no way to know if Warren is conscious of it, but in that moment he offers a more sophisticated rebuttal to Jessica’s concerns about the future. It is not external circumstances that mark the most significant changes; not the leap from burnout rebel to plastic surgeon. It is a subtle shift of perspective that signals our most profound transformations.
Aaron Carter Director of New Play Development Welcome 7
Create your Career
Martha Lavey †* Artistic Director
Davi d Hawkanson Executive Director
S t eppen w o l f T h ea t r e C o m pan y p r e s en t s
THIS IS OUR YOUTH By Kenneth Lonergan †* Directed by ensemble member Anna D. Shapiro Fea t u r i n g
Columbia College Chicago offers more than 100 programs taught by accomplished, awardwinning faculty. At Columbia, students learn to transform their passions into successful careers as part of the world’s next generation of artists and innovators.
M ichae l Ce ra*, Ki e ran Cu lki n*, Tavi G evi nson* Production Todd Ros e nthal + Scenic Design Ann Roth + Costume Design B r ian MacD evitt + Lighting Design Rob M i lb u r n + & M ichae l Bod e e n + Sound Design Rostam Batmanglij Original Composition Thomas Schall Fight Choreographer Ceci li e O’R e i lly Vocal Coach B e r n i e Te ls ey° Casting Director Camb ra Ove r e nd* Stage Manager Kevi n G. Dwye r Assistant Stage Manager
World Premiere originally presented by The New Group, Scott Elliot, Artistic Director; Claudia Catania, Executive Producer. Produced by Second Stage Theatre, Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Carol Fishman, Managing Director, Alexander Fraser, Executive Director. Subsequently produced Off-Broadway by Barry and Fran Weissler and Eric Krebs. This Is Our Youth is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.
Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a constituent of Theatre Communication Group (TCG), the national organization for nonprofit professional theater.
Live What You Love. colum.edu
† member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble. * member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers. + member of United Scenic Artists, Local 829 of the IATSE. ° member of the Casting Society of America.
Contents 9
Cast and contributors C a s t (in alphabetical order)
A dd i t i o nal S ta f f
M ichae l Ce ra*
Jonathan b e r ry Assistant Director
Warren
Ki e ran Cu lki n* Dennis
Tavi G evi nson* Jessica
G i na Haye s J e r r e ll h e nd e r son Directing Interns b e njam i n Travi s Associate Lighting Designer Jan e Chan Lighting Assitant
Unde r s t u d i e s Talley B eth Gale Jessica Joe Li no Dennis Taylor D e l Vecch io Warren
Se t t i n g
Kar e n Thom pson Light Board Operator And r ew Rovn e r Sound Board Operator Rave nswood Sce n ic Set Construction D e s i r e e Ar nold Jam i e Karas And r ew Lex Props Overhire
New York in 1982.
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† member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble. * member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers. + member of United Scenic Artists, Local 829 of the IATSE. ° member of the Casting Society of America.
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Cast member Tavi Gevinson with ensemble member Anna D. Shapiro
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THIS IS OUR YOUTH
bios
M i c h ael C e r a (Warren) starred as Nick Twisp in Youth in Revolt, directed by Miguel Arteta in association with Weinstein Company. Other starring roles include Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and in 2013 Crystal Fairy & The Magic Cactus and Magic Magic, two films directed by award-winning Chilean director Sebastian Silva. Most recently, Michael starred in the Charlie Kaufman directed FX pilot How & Why, alongside John Hawks, Sally Hawkins and Catherine Keener. K i e r an C u lk i n (Dennis) Film credits include Margaret, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Lymelife, Paperman, Igby Goes Down, The Dangerous Lives Of Alter Boys, The Mighty and The Cider House Rules. Stage credits include Kenneth Lonergan’s The Starry Messenger (The New Group); Eric Bogosian’s SubUrbia (Second Stage Theatre); After Ashley (Vineyard Theatre, Obie Award); James Lapine’s The Moment When (Playwrights Horizons); and This Is Our Youth (The Garrick Theatre) in the West End. Ta v i Ge v i n s o n (Jessica) is an actress, writer and editor-in-chief of Rookie. Last year, she appeared in Enough Said, written and directed by Nicole Holofcener and recently guest-starred on Parenthood (NBC). Tavi has written for publications like The Believer, ELLE and The Chicago Tribune and spoken at TEDxTeen, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Sydney Opera House, the New Yorker Festival and the Melbourne Writers Festival. Rookie, a website for teenage girls, was founded by Tavi in 2011 and will be publishing its third print edition this October with Penguin Random House. Tavi recently graduated from Oak Park and River Forest High School in Illinois.
K enne t h L o ne r g an (Playwright) plays include This Is Our Youth (1996), Drama Desk Best Play nominee; The Waverly Gallery (2000), Pulitzer Prize finalist; Lobby Hero (2001), Drama Desk Best Play nominee, Outer Critics Circle Best Play nominee, Olivier Award nominee for Best Play during its West End run; The Starry Messenger (2009) and Medieval Play (2012). His first film, You Can Count On Me (2000), which he wrote and directed, was an Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee for best screenplay and won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, among numerous other awards and nominations. His second film, Margaret (2011) and Margaret - Extended Edition (2012), won the FIPRESCI Award at the Vienna Film Festival and received widespread critical acclaim in the United States and abroad. He also co-wrote the screenplays for Analyze This (1999) and Gangs of New York (2002). Kenneth lives in New York City with his wife, J. Smith-Cameron and their daughter, Nellie. A nna D . S h ap i r o (Director) most recently directed the revival of Of Mice and Men on broadway. She was nominated for a 2011 Tony Award for her production of Stephen Adly Guirgis’ award winning play, The Motherf**ker with the Hat, and was awarded the 2008 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Direction of a Play for her production of Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County. Anna has been affiliated with Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago since 1995, serving as the original director of the New Plays Initiative, later joining the artistic staff as Resident Director, Associate Artist and, since 2005, as an ensemble member where her directing credits include A Parallelogram, Up, The Crucible, The Unmentionables (also at Yale Repertory), the world premiere of The Pain and the Itch (also at Playwrights Horizons in New York), I Never Sang for My Father, the world premiere of Man from Nebraska, The Drawer Boy, Side Man (also in Ireland, Australia
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and Vail, Colorado), Three Days of Rain and the world premiere of The Infidel, among others. She recently staged The Motherf**ker with the Hat at Steppenwolf in 2013, Domesticated (Lincoln Center Theatre) and A Parallelogram (Mark Taper Forum). Shapiro is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and Columbia College and the recipient of a 1996 Princess Grace Award, as well as the 2010 Princess Grace Statue Award. She is a full-time professor in Northwestern University’s Department of Theatre and has served as the Director of the Graduate MFA Directing Program since 2002. T o dd R o s en t h al (Scenic Design) has designed scenery for 33 productions at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Broadway credits include August: Osage County (Tony Award, Best Scenic Design of a Play); The Motherf**ker with the Hat (Tony Award nomination); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Tony Award, Best Revival of a Play); Of Mice and Men and This Is Our Youth. Select Off-Broadway credits include Red Light Winter (Barrow Street Theatre); and Domesticated (Lincoln Center Theater). Todd was also the set designer for New York’s Big Apple Circus. International credits include work at the Royal National Theatre, Sydney Theater and Theatre Royal as well as in Australia, London, Ireland. Regional credits include Goodman Theatre (artistic partner), Guthrie, Alliance Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, La Jolla Playhouse, Arena Stage, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and many others. Museum Exhibitions include Mythbusters: The Explosive Exhibition, The International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes. Awards include Olivier, Helen Hayes, Ovation, Joseph Jefferson and the Michael Merritt Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration. He is an associate professor at Northwestern University and a graduate of Yale School of Drama. Toddar.com A nn R o t h (Costume Design) Select theater credits include Betrayal, The Nance (Tony Award, Best Costume Design of a Play), The Testament of Mary, Death of a Salesman, Hurlyburly, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Singin’ in the Rain, Waiting for Godot and The Odd Couple. Ann has Tony nominations for The Royal Family, The Crucifer of Blood, The House of Blue Leaves and The Book of Mormon. Select film credits include The English Patient (Academy Award, Best Costume Design), The Way Way Back, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Julie & Julia, The Reader, Doubt, Mamma Mia!, Closer, The Village,
Cold Mountain, The Hours, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Birdcage, The Mambo Kings, Working Girl, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Silkwood, Nine to Five, Hair, The Day of the Locust (BAFTA, Best Costume Design), Klute and Midnight Cowboy. HBO credits include Angels in America and Mildred Pierce. Awards include the Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award (2000) and Theater Hall of Fame (2011). B r i an Mac D e v i t t (Lighting Design) Steppenwolf Theatre Company credits include Morning Star directed by Frank Galati. Recent New York credits include A Raisin in the Sun, Betrayal, The Book of Mormon (West End); The Enchanted Island (Met Opera), Death of a Salesman, The Book of Mormon (Tony Award, Best Lighting Design of a Play), Fences and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Tony Award, Best Lighting Design of a Play). Additional Tony Awarded work includes Into the Woods, The Pillowman and The Coast of Utopia. Dance credits include Merce Cunningham’s Nearly Ninety, as well as work with Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Tere O’Connor Dance, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company and Nancy Bannon. Directing credits include Proof (Theater Three); Spring Awakening (University of Maryland). Brian is a member of Naked Angels, faculty at the University of Maryland and father to Jake and Georgie. R o b M i l b u r n & M i c h ael B o deen (Sound Design) Broadway credits include music composition and sound for No Man’s Land & Waiting for Godot, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Miracle Worker, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Speed of Darkness, music for My Thing of Love, sound for Of Mice and Men and the Steppenwolf Theatre Company production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Superior Donuts, reasons to be pretty, A Year with Frog and Toad, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Hollywood Arms, King Hedley II, Buried Child, The Song of Jacob Zulu, and The Grapes of Wrath. OffBroadway credits include music and sound for Checkers, Inked Baby, After Ashley, The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, Boy Gets Girl, Red, Space, Marvin’s Room, sound for Tales of Red Vienna, Jitney, Family Week, Juvenilia, Brundibar, The Pain and the Itch and music direction and sound for Eyes for Consuela and Ruined. They have created music and sound at many of America’s resident theaters (often with Steppenwolf Theatre Company) and at several international venues. milbomusic.com.
THE Qualms a w o r ld p r e m i e r e b y t h e p u l i t z e r p r i z e - w i nn i n g a u t h o r o f c ly b o u r n e p a r k .
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18 bios
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R o s ta m Ba t m an g l i j (Original Composition) is the producer, co-writer, composer and multi-instrumentalist of the band Vampire Weekend. Vampire Weekend’s last album, Modern Vampires of the City, topped the Billboard charts on its release, was voted Rolling Stone’s album of the year in 2013, and picked up a Grammy for Best Alternative Album in 2014. T h o m a s Sc h all (Fight Choreographer) has served on more than 40 Broadway shows including Of Mice And Men, Romeo and Juliet, Lucky Guy, Death Of A Salesman, Venus In Fur, War Horse, A View From The Bridge, After Miss Julie, Mary Stuart, Waiting For Godot, The Seafarer, Coram Boy, Journey’s End, Wicked and Noises Off. Off Broadway, he has worked on King Lear, Hamlet, Mother Courage, Richard III, Titus Andronicus (Public Theater); Disgraced, Blood And Gifts (Lincoln Center Theater); Murder Ballad, Ruined (Manhattan Theatre Club); Look Back In Anger and Dinner With Friends (Roundabout Theatre Company). This is Thomas’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company debut. C ec i l i e O ’ Re i lly (Vocal Coach) is currently working on the new Bruce Norris play The Qualms for Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Other Steppenwolf credits include Belleville, The Motherf**ker with The Hat, The Birthday Party, Head of Passes, Three Sisters, A Parallelogram, Fake, American Buffalo, The Unmentionables, The Pain and The Itch, The Dresser, Seafarer, Dublin Carol, The Weir, Beauty Queen of Leenane, Superior Donuts, Man from Nebraska and August: Osage County. She also served as Dialect Coach for the film version of August: Osage County. Cecilie recently completed work on the Broadway production Of Mice and Men directed by Anna D. Shapiro and will coach The Night Alive for Steppenwolf ’s upcoming 2014/15 season. C a m b r a O v e r end (Stage Manager) is thrilled to be part of her first full production at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, having previously been a stage manager on the Broadway production and National Tour of August: Osage County. Other Broadway credits include Of Mice and Men, Lucky Guy, That Championship Season, The Lion King, Hair and One Man Two Guvnors. Off-Broadway credits include Domesticated (Lincoln Center Theatre); My Name is Asher Lev, Rated P for Parenthood (Westside Theatre); Make Me a Song (New World Stages); Crazy Mary, Pen, Miss Witherspoon, Fran’s Bed (Playwrights Horizons); Opus (Primary Stages); and A Spanish Play (Classic Stage Company).
20 FEATURES
K e v i n G . D w y e r (Assistant Stage Manager) is thrilled to continue working with Steppenwolf Theatre Company after serving as a Stage Management Apprentice in the 2013/14 season. Previous Steppenwolf credits include Leveling Up and Lord of the Flies. Boston credits include Betrayal, Private Lives, Captors (Huntington Theater Company); The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Coriolanus (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company); NewFest 2013: Catatonia, The Grapes of Wrath, Tartuffe and Cloud Nine (Emerson Stage). Kevin is a graduate of Emerson College with a BA in stage and production management. “Love to Jessica, Mom, Dad and Eric.”
Life’s waiting.
Ma r t h a L a v e y (Artistic Director) has been an ensemble member since 1993 and has appeared at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in more than 20 productions. Elsewhere in Chicago she has performed at Goodman Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, Northlight Theatre and Remains Theatre and in New York at the Women’s Project and Productions. She has served on grants panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, Theatre Communications Group, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, 3Arts, USA Artists and the City Arts panel of Chicago. Lavey holds a doctorate in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and is a member of the National Advisory Council for the School of Communication at Northwestern. She is a recipient of the Sarah Siddons Award and an Alumni Merit Award and honorary Doctorate of Arts from Northwestern University.
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D a v i d Ha w kan s o n (Executive Director) prior to Steppenwolf Theatre Company was the Managing Director of Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, under the artistic leadership of Joe Dowling. Before the Guthrie, he served for eight years as the Managing Director of Hartford Stage in Connecticut with Artistic Director Mark Lamos. Earlier in his career, he was Managing Director of Arizona Theatre Company. He was a former senior staff member at the National Endowment for the Arts and subsequently chairman of its Theater Program. He has also had an active career as an arts management consultant and trustee for many national organizations and foundations. He currently serves as a trustee of the League of Chicago Theatres and the Arts Alliance Illinois. He is a graduate of Lawrence University.
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Ma r t h a L a v e y : What is the origin of this play for you—and are your thoughts about it different now, 18 years after you wrote it originally? K enne t h L o ne r g an : Well, I wrote the play almost 15 years after it takes place, so it doesn’t feel all that different to me now than it did then. Maybe I haven’t matured enough over the last 20 years.
On the Brink of Adulthood, Half-Equipped A conversation with playwright Ke nn eth Lon e rgan, director Anna D. S hapi ro and artistic director Martha Lavey
22 FEATURES
A nna D . S h ap i r o : My first experience with the play was seeing it and I remember how authentic and how original it felt. I graduated high school in 1983—Kenny and I are basically the same age. I think part of what the play is exploring is human paralysis and how young people can become immobilized when reality doesn’t match their expectations. M L : The play examines a particular generation of young people growing up in a specific cultural situation in New York. First of all, they’re all white, which I think is significant to the play in terms of evoking a specific milieu. They’re children of prosperous families and I think a really important dynamic in the play is their relationship with their parents. In 1982, the parents are probably in their early 50’s. Kenny, how would you describe that generation of parents? K L : Well, the character of Jessica refers to her parents’ generation as “the last pathetic remnants of Upper West Side Jewish liberalism,” but I would say she also agrees with most of her parents’ values wholeheartedly. She just doesn’t see them as having been terribly effective. I would describe their parents as being secular, mostly but not exclusively Jewish liberals, interested in social issues; what they used to call knee-jerk Liberals. They hated Nixon, hated McCarthy, joined the Civil Rights
movement, protested the Vietnam War... And then just as their kids are on the brink of adulthood, Ronald Reagan is elected in 1980 and it felt as if the entire liberal movement had come crashing down and that everything they believed in growing up had been resoundingly rejected by the country overall. M L : How do you feel the disillusionment of that generation relates to what the kids are experiencing? K L : Well, they are stepping into a world where there is no longer a place for their particular philosophy. They’re full of opinions and beliefs and ideas, but at that very instant, their team— so to speak—has been not just beaten but totally dismantled—so they don’t quite know what to do with themselves. And of course their family situations are not especially stable. So they find themselves struggling to break free from their families without necessarily rejecting the ideas their families gave them. Which leaves them in kind of an odd spot. A S : Kenny and I had a great conversation with Ann Roth, the costume designer and it was so illuminating because I got to watch them spar over generalization. One of the designer’s responsibilities is trying out different things so we can figure out exactly who these characters are. And when you’re dealing with a writer who is writing about a group of people that he knows extremely well, the conversations get really interesting. For example, my mother started taking me to NY every summer around 1980. And I had an older cousin who would take me to clubs like Danceteria and Studio 54. I was really young, like 14— M L : —How did you get in? A S : Well, they didn’t really card then. (She laughs.) And I would dress up like Madonna.
Features 23
And so Ann, like I did, assumed that Jessica would have dressed like that. And Kenny said, “The girls in the group that I’m talking about would never have dressed like Madonna— that was too mainstream.” That was a really important moment to me in my understanding of the play geographically. As a Midwestern kid, Madonna was the “other”—she was a rebellious image. But if you were growing up in New York, she was considered part of the mainstream culture and thus something to be rejected. M L : Kenny, so this play somehow captures something that was in your experience. And now you’re a parent, right? How old is your daughter? K L : She’s 12. M L : What do you think her This Is Our Youth going to look like? K L : I’m sure it’s going to look really different, but I’m preparing myself to be just as alarmed about it as I would be if I were the father of one of the characters in the play. It’s scary. But I also find it touching that as you grow out of adolescence, for a short time you are somewhat free to invent or at least make a conscious choice about what kind of person you want to be. When you’re a little kid, your personality seems like a given and your circumstances are your family’s circumstances. When you become an adult, if you’re like most people, you end up settling in to one track or another depending on what’s available. Once you leave home you find you can experiment with who and what you want to be—for a while anyway. But I will say even though one of the common notes for my particular group was to deliberately carve out a style of life outside the mainstream of the 1980s, looking back it’s easier for me to see how we were still shaped, constrained, pulled and formed by the terribly powerful
forces all around us. It’s a cliche to say what a different world it was, but it was. There were no computers, no internet—1980 feels much closer to the world of 1960 than the world of 2000. And 2000, which is almost 20 years ago, seems like yesterday to me. A S : I totally agree. We’ve been having this really complicated conversation about how to educate our kids and I come from a devout public school background. And my brother said to me the other day, “The public school you want to send your kids to doesn’t exist anymore.” K L : There are some things that my daughter is going to go through that I hope I understand because of what all 12 year-olds have to go through. But there’s a lot that’s really hard for me to relate to—I didn’t grow up staring at an iPhone for 12 years... The organized assault of popular culture and advertising had not quite consolidated into the inescapable leviathan it is now. They were just starting to bring together the threads of popular culture and advertising and the TV and movie culture in the ‘80s. Now it’s a well-oiled universal constant of life. But one thing that I think cannot possibly be different from the ‘80s or from any other decade is that singular time in your life when you step out of your teenage years and into the adult world only half-equipped to deal with it. Teenagers have so much more depth of experience than their parents think and so much less than they think. It’s a difficult and wonderful and fascinating moment in life, whether you come to it in 1982 or 2014. I never understand why these characters are sometimes described as burn-outs, when they are just churning with feeling and in love with ideas. Any more than I understand why they’re often described as spoiled because their parents are well-off instead of indigent.
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24 This is our youth
T h e S t eppen w o l f E n s e m b le first began performing in the mid-1970s in the basement of a Highland Park church, the ambitious brainchild of three high school and college friends: Jeff Perry, Terry Kinney and Gary Sinise. Fast forward 36 years and the Steppenwolf Theatre Company has become the nation’s premier ensemble theater—redefining the landscape of acting and performance. The ensemble has grown to 44 members who represent a remarkable generation of actors, directors and playwrights. Thrilling, powerful, groundbreaking productions from Balm in Gilead and The Grapes of Wrath to August: Osage County—and accolades that include the National Medal of Arts and 12 Tony Awards—have made the theater legendary. Steppenwolf’s artistic force remains rooted in the original vision of its founders: an artist-driven theater, whose vitality is defined by its sharp appetite for groundbreaking, innovative work. That work is represented in production photos displayed throughout the theater.
Joan Allen
Kevin Anderson
Alana Arenas
Randall Arney
Kate Arrington
Ian Barford
Robert Breuler
Gary Cole
Kathryn Erbe
K. Todd Freeman
Frank Galati
Francis Guinan
Moira Harris
Jon Michael Hill
Tim Hopper
Tom Irwin
Ora Jones
Terry Kinney
The Steppenwolf Ensemble Tina Landau
Martha Lavey
Tracy Letts
John Mahoney
John Malkovich
Mariann Mayberry
Tarell Alvin McCraney
James Vincent Meredith
Laurie Metcalf
Amy Morton
Sally Murphy
Bruce Norris
Austin Pendleton
Jeff Perry
William Petersen
Yasen Peyankov
Martha Plimpton
Rondi Reed
Molly Regan
Anna D. Shapiro
Eric Simonson
Gary Sinise
Lois Smith
Rick Snyder
Jim True-Frost
Alan Wilder
steppenwolf 27
S t eppen w o l f S ta f f Martha Lavey
Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry and Gary Sinise
David Hawkanson
Artistic Director
Executive Artistic Board
Executive Director
Artistic
PAUL G. MILLER
Neel McNeill
Adrian castro
CHARLES MOSER
Erica Daniels
Executive Assistant
Marketing Assistant
Facilities Staff
Master Properties Artisan
Associate Artistic Director
Lupe Garcia Quiles
Shilla Shakoori
Emily Guthrie
Aaron Carter
Events Management Associate
Graphic Designer
Angela johnson
Karyn Todd
Office Management Associate & Receptionist
Public Relations Assistant
Producing Associate
Jackie Snuttjer
Audience Services Manager
Jenni Page-White
Finance Specialist
David Barati Victor David Padam Dhungel Tul Ghaley Tika Ram Kafley Ethan Ozaniec Mohammad Ismail Shamshuddin Mohamed Shofi Bhagirath Timsina
Greta Honold
Literary Associate
Jessamyn Fuller Casting and School Assistant
Tracy Letts Amy Morton Yasen Peyankov Anna D. Shapiro Jessica Thebus Associate Artists
Sheldon Patinkin Artistic Consultant
Steppenwolf for Young Adults Hallie Gordon Artistic and Educational Director
Megan Shuchman Associate Education Director
Lauren Sivak
Development SANDY KARUSCHAK ERIC EVENSKAAS
Audience Services Supervisors
Associate Director of Development
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ROSEANN BISHOP
Megan a. Smith
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DEBORAH STEWART Director of Foundation and Government Relations
KENDRA VAN KEMPEN Director of Special Events
Suzanne Miller Annual Fund Manager
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Kaleigh Lockhart Cioffi
Teaching Artists
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Rachel D. Freund
Individual Giving Coordinator
Development Coordinator
Anna Brenner Development Associate
Lauren Connor Foundation and Government Associate
Sarah Tongren Special Events Associate
Eric Van Tassell
Marketing, Communications & Audience Services JOhn Zinn
Director of Finance
Director of Marketing and Communications
Scott Macoun
Donovan Foote
IT Director
Erin Cook Company Manager
Kate holst Test Human Resources and Professional Leadership Programs Coordinator
Design Director
erika Nelson Associate Director of Marketing
JOEL MOORMAN Digital Content Producer
jamie alexander
Brian Hurst
Marketing Manager
Finance Coordinator
Kevin Castillo
Samar Sharba
Digital Marketing Manager
IT Associate
Molly Layton
Emilie De Angelis
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Managing Director
Audience Services Subscription Manager
Mike brunlieb MATTHEW LYLE
Jessica Gretch
David M. Schmitz
STEPHANIE HELLER
Director of Development
Education and Community Programs Coordinator
Administration
JIMMY FREUND
Craig Barnes Billie Rye Bryant Rebecca Butler Derrik Dickinson Reynaldo Dumas Elizabeth Gottmann Lacey Holmes Max Lando Sotirios Livaditis Theresa Masse Sarah Nelson Tyrone Phillips Charles Strater Audience Services Associates
Publicity Cathy Taylor public relations inc Audience Outreach CASEY VANWORMER
Custodial Staff
EVAN HATFIELD Director of Audience Experience
JAY JUSSAUME Director of Operations
Antonio Ibarra Physical Plant Supervisor
Peter van kempeN Operations Coordinator
Costume Director
MAE HASKINS Assistant Costume Designer
Front of House Staff
MARTHA WEGENER
MUSTAFA CHAUDHRY DONALD COULSON Mayom Acien
Audio Engineer
Volunteer Usher Coordination
Production Manager
Brianna Parry Assistant Production Manager
RUSSELL POOLE Technical Director
Christopher Kristant Shop Foreman
Kyle Land Russell Scott Scenic Carpenters
Melissa rutherfoord Charge Scenic Artist
Jenny DiLuciano
Isango Ensemble’s Olivier Award-winning
LAUREL CLAYSON
Shop Foreman
JACK MEYER, THE SAINTS
The Bard’s timeless drama features Chicago favorite Larry Yando in the title role
CARYN WEGLARZ KLEIN
Kevin Peterson
Tom Pearl
Operations
Staff Wardrobe
Will Allan Autumn Cranor Amber Dettmers Anna Donnell Daniel Dvorkin Sarah Goldberg Leanna Harney Bridget Holmes Chase Kimball Jessica Lind Eleni Sauvageau Elissa Shortridge Brittany Stock Shunna Tolliver Rachel Tornquist Christopher Young
Parking Staff
KING LEAR
Melissa tulchinsky
Front of House Manager
Production
Audience Outreach Associates
Wardrobe, Hair & Make-up Supervisor
Head Draper
Daniel Rubens Tiffany Rae Wilson Sidney Cristol Charles Frydenberg Joshua Green Marilyn Hillary Jennifer Hogan Thomas Kelly Max Lando Annaliese Mcsweeney Terrence Mosley
JESSICA STRATTON
Danielle shindler
Associate Campaign Director
Audience Outreach Supervisors
Properties Artisan
THE MAGIC FLUTE
lynae vandermeulen
IMPEMPE YOMLINGO From South Africa, a vibrant, new interpretation of Mozart’s most beloved operatic work
Staff Draper
Daisy lindas Project Coordinator
J. R. LEDERLE Lighting Supervisor
PERICLES
ERNESTO GOMEZ Head Electrician
RICK HAEFELE
Stratford Festival actor Ben Carlson returns in Shakespeare’s most adventurous tale
House Carpenter
DAWN PRZYBYLSKI Stage Carpenter
DUNSINANE
GREGOR MORTIS
A stunning sequel to Macbeth from the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre of Scotland
Assistant Audio Engineer
Cassie Calderone Malcolm Ewen Christine D. Freeburg Laura D. Glenn Michelle Medvin Deb Styer
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY
Stage Managers
Artistic Director Barbara Gaines stages a world premiere musical of the beloved Jane Austen novel
Professional Leadership Program Frederick Alexander Angela Alvarez Michelle Benda Brannon Bowers Erin Brady Colleen Debelius Erica Bush Lamar Farr Janak Jha Hilary Jimenez Tim Komatsu A.J. Roy Grace Wong
Pauline Malefane in The Magic Flute, photo by Keith Pattison
Director of New Play Development
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Accessibility at Steppenwolf Committed to providing services and programming that enhance the experience of guests with disabilities, Steppenwolf is proud to feature: • Audio-described performances, artistic conversations and touch tours of the stage for guests who are blind or visually-impaired. • Guides dedicated to assisting patrons during audio-described performances. • Complimentary playbills in Braille, large-print and audio formats. • Sign language-interpreted and open-captioned performances for guests who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. • Volunteers who use sign language to greet the audience at sign-interpreted performances. • Assistive listening devices in our Downstairs and Upstairs theaters. • Wheelchair accessible seats and restrooms in all of our theaters. Would you like to utilize or learn more about these services? Audience Services 312-335-1650 TTY 312-335-3830 E-mail access@steppenwolf.org
Steppenwolf Customer Service Tips Driving to the theater? Rather than arriving to discover that our garage has reached capacity (which can happen during busy performances), please enter the Steppenwolf Parking Hotline (312-335-1774) into your cell phone and call us when you’re a few minutes away from the theater—we’ll tell you if there’s still space available in our facility, or suggest the most convenient alternative. Spending your intermission in line at the bar? Enjoy the entire break by ordering and paying for your intermission refreshments before the show. When you exit the theater at the end of the first act, your drinks will be waiting for you. Need restaurant information or the score of the ballgame? Please visit our book shop and information desk at the south end of the main floor lobby. Hailing a cab after the play? This is typically an easy affair—Halsted is a busy street and sees a fair amount of taxi traffic. If you’d like assistance hailing a cab or calling a company, though, just ask a member of the house staff; we’re happy to help.
Lost or Found? On-site? Please check in with a member of the house staff. Already left? Call the Front of House office at 312-932-2445. Want to provide feedback? Your input is always valuable to us. Have an opinion about the play or artistic content? Stick around for the post-show discussion featured after every performance, fill out the 60-Second Survey inserted in this program or join the conversation at facebook.com/steppenwolftheater. Have a comment about your overall experience at the theater ? Please ask us for a customer service form to fill out, or e-mail us at customerservice@steppenwolf.org. Need to contact a patron during a performance? If you need to contact a patron during a performance in our Downstairs or Upstairs Theaters, please call our Concierge Desk at 312-932-2476. Hours: one hour prior to curtain until 15 minutes after curtain call.
Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the House Manager. The theater reserves the right to limit admission of children younger than the age of six. The taking of photographs and the use of any type of recording device is not allowed in the theater during performances and is a violation of state and federal copyright laws. Digital media will be deleted, and tape or film will be confiscated. Photo/Video Disclaimer: During your visit, you or members of your family may be filmed, videotaped, and/ or photographed by a Steppenwolf employee, contract photographer or the media. Your attendance at Steppenwolf events serves as permission for the use of your image, or the image of your family members, by Steppenwolf.
32 This is our youth
Content Disclaimer: Steppenwolf offers an advisory about any stage effect of potential concern to patrons’ health. We will post this information as soon as it’s available. We don’t offer advisories about subject matter, as sensitivities vary from person to person. If you have any concerns about content, please contact audience services.
Life’s biggest moments often happen on the smallest stages.
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