Director Jessica Thebus first got to know playwright Sarah Ruhl when she taught her as a student at the Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston ( where Thebus herself was once a student ) . Over time, Thebus would work alongside Ruhl as a fellow Piven drama instructor, and then as a highly esteemed director and interpreter of her work.
But don't ask Thebus for the exact timeline of that progression, since many of those roles overlapped from the 1990s through to today.
"I think I get the dates slightly wrong," said Thebus, who is currently directing the Chicago-area premiere of Ruhl's Late: A Cowboy Song with actor Polly Noonan ( another artist who honed her craft alongside Thebus and Ruhl ) at Piven Theatre Workshop.
This Piven artistic homecoming is one that Thebus is particularly keen to share with Noonan and Ruhl. Although Ruhl is based in New York and unlikely to see the show due to her very young twins, Thebus said they're in constant conversation via phone, e-mail and texting.
"We all share a language and a source of inspiration from being in the Workshop," Thebus said. "And to return there to do material now is just a great pleasure."
Late: A Cowboy Song was first heard via About Face Theatre a few years ago in a developmental workshop that Thebus directed ( the Clubbed Thumb in New York premiered it in 2003 ) .
The play concerns Mary ( Noonan ) , whose marriage with her possessive childhood sweetheart, Crick, is thrown into question when she meets up with a former high school classmate named Red, who has become a "lesbian cowboy."
"I always feel that everything Red is saying to ( Mary ) is completely new information to her," Thebus said. "Red is willing to be just herself even though it doesn't fall into any neat categoriesand all of this is what Mary needs to hear."
As to whether Mary and Red's relationship becomes physical, Thebus says the play leaves that aspect open to interpretation.
"There certainly is the romantic in their relationship, but it is not what begins it," Thebus said. "It's a very personal play and told very theatrically and with fascinating language."
This past decade, Ruhl's work has a playwright has risen to great prominence. Two of her plays, The Clean House and In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play, were respective finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in drama in 2005 and 2010. Ruhl was also awarded a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant in 2006.
But early in Ruhl's career, her work wasn't regularly produced in Chicagosave for her artistic home base at Piven. Once accolades started pouring in for Ruhl from around the country, then other Chicago theaters started to take notice. For instance, the company co-founder Joyce Piven staged Ruhl's Eurydice professionally in 2004four years ahead of Victory Gardens Theater's take on the play in 2008.
"One of Piven's missions is really to create cycles of mentorship and really find ways that people can have the space to collaborate together to develop new work," said Piven artistic director Jennifer Green. "Obviously Sarah was an incredible talent and really knew Piven inside and out."
Green said the company waited since its last Ruhl production in 2004 for the conditions to be favorable to reunite her work with Piven alumna Thebus and Noonan on Late: A Cowboy Song. And as another sign of Piven's dedication to Ruhl, the company plans on staging the Chicago-area premiere of her new adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Three Sisters with artistic director emeritus Joyce Piven directing this fall. ( Even more Ruhl will be seen around Chicago this upcoming season, since Court Theatre is producing her adaptation of Virginia Woolf's Orlando in March 2011. )
But now Green and Thebus are focusing all their attention on Late: A Cowboy Song, which just opened July 26. ( Look for a review of the production in the Aug. 4 issue of Windy City Times. )
"It's fascinating that way it really talks about the tangled web of intimacy and what happens in your mind when you're living in a situation where you can't breathe," Thebus said. "The play is about a lot of things. For me I would say importantly, among other things, it's about why we don't leave each other even when we're unhappy."
And though Green is certain that Late: A Cowboy Song should appeal to everyone, she hopes LGBT audiences turn out to see the show in Piven's intimate 70-seat space.
"Sarah Ruhl really paints really exceptionally, interesting and dynamic female characters," Green said. "It's a really beautiful love story in that way and I would hope that would speak to the LGBTQA community as well as all communities."
Piven Theatre Workshop's production of Sarah Ruhl's Late: A Cowboy Song continues through Aug. 22 at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes, Evanston. Performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays with 2:30 p.m. matinees on Sundays. Tickets are $25. Call 847-866-8049 or visit www.piventheatre.org .