CHICAGO ( April 20, 2015 ) — Steppenwolf Theatre Company announced today the full cast for the first show of its 40th Anniversary Season, the world premiere production of John Steinbeck's sweeping masterpiece East of Eden, adapted by ensemble member Frank Galati and directed by Steppenwolf co-founder and ensemble member Terry Kinney. Galati's 1988 adaptation of Steppenwolf's The Grapes of Wrath won him two Tony Awards and catapulted Steppenwolf into the national spotlight.
The powerhouse cast for East of Eden features ensemble members Kate Arrington as Cathy Trask, Francis Guinan as Samuel Hamilton, Tim Hopper as Adam Trask and Alan Wilder as Dr. Murphy and Mr. Bacon. The cast will also include Casey Thomas Brown as Aron Trask, Aaron Himelstein as Caleb Trask, Elizabeth Laidlaw as Eva/Mrs. Bacon/Nurse, Stephen Park as Lee,Brittany Uomoleale as Abra Bacon and Dan Waller as Joe and Will Hamilton. The production is a reunion for Guinan, Hopper, Wilder and Kinney, all who appeared in Galati's 1988 adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath. East of Eden begins previews September 17, 2015 and runs through November 15, 2015 in Steppenwolf's Downstairs Theatre.
Ensemble member and Tony Award-winning director Anna D. Shapiro will direct ensemble member Tracy Letts's ambitious new play, Mary Page Marlowe, featuring a 17-member cast to be announced in the coming months. An ensemble member since 2005, Shapiro has directed several acclaimed Steppenwolf productions including three of Tracy Letts's plays: August: Osage County ( 2008 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards ), Letts's adaptation of Three Sisters and Man from Nebraska. Most recently she directed Steppenwolf's production of This Is Our Youth and Larry David's Fish in the Dark on Broadway. As previously announced, Shapiro will succeed Martha Lavey as Artistic Director at the start of the 2015/16 season.
Martha Lavey, who will have served 20 years as Steppenwolf Artistic Director at the conclusion of this season, has been cast alongside fellow ensemble members Alana Arenas, Tom Irwin, and Mariann Mayberry in Domesticated, a Chicago premiere production written and directed by ensemble member and Pulitzer Prize-winner Bruce Norris. Domesticated runs December 3, 2015 — February 7, 2016 in the Downstairs Theatre.
Ensemble members Tim Hopper and James Vincent Meredith will be joining the cast of Between Riverside and Crazy by Stephen Adly Guirgis, author of Steppenwolf's hit production of The Motherf**ker with the Hat. Between Riverside and Crazy runs June 23 — August 21, 2016.
Additional casting for the 2015/16 Subscription Season will be announced at a later date.
Season subscriptions are currently on sale. Packages start at $100. Student, educator and access discount subscriptions available. To purchase a 2015/16 subscription, visit Audience Services at 1650 N Halsted St, call 312-335-1650 or visitsteppenwolf.org .
Steppenwolf Theatre Company's 2015/16 Subscription Season
( All plays, artists and dates are subject to change )
World Premiere
John Steinbeck's
East of Eden
Adapted by ensemble member Frank Galati
Directed by co-founder and ensemble member Terry Kinney
September 17 — November 15, 2015 in the Downstairs Theatre
Featuring ensemble members Kate Arrington, Tim Hopper, Francis Guinan and Alan Wilder with Casey Thomas Brown,Aaron Himelstein, Elizabeth Laidlaw, Stephen Park, Brittany Uomoleale and Dan Waller
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
Featuring ensemble members Alana Arenas, Tom Irwin, Martha Lavey and Mariann Mayberry
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 ensemble member Anna D. Shapiro
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.
Anna D. Shapiro received the 2008 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Direction of a Play for August: Osage County by Tracy Letts. Her work on Broadway includes the critically acclaimed revival of Steppenwolf's production of This Is Our Youth; Larry David's Fish in the Dark; and the Broadway revival of Of Mice and Men. She was nominated for a 2011 Tony Award for her production of Stephen Adly Guirgis's award-winning play, The Motherf**ker with the Hat, which she also directed at Steppenwolf to critical acclaim. She began working with Steppenwolf in 1995 and became an ensemble member in 2005, where her directing credits include Up, The Crucible, The Unmentionables and Tracy Letts's Man from Nebraska, ( named by TIME Magazine as one of the Year's Top Ten of 2003 ), among others.
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
Featuring ensemble members Tim Hopper and James Vincent Meredith
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 Hatunder ensemble member Anna D. Shapiro's direction. Ensemble member Yasen Peyankov most recently directed Steppenwolf'sRussian Transport in 2014 and Hushabye at Steppenwolf as part of the 2014 First Look Repertory of New Work. Peyankov will direct Steppenwolf's Chicago premiere production of Grand Concourse,
July 2 — August 30, 2015 in the Downstairs Theatre.
Major support for East of Eden is provided by The Negaunee Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation.
Major support for Mary Page Marlowe is provided by The Roy Cockrum Foundation.
Major support for Steppenwolf's New Play Development Initiative is provided by The Davee Foundation and the Zell Family Foundation.
United Airlines is the Official and Exclusive Airline of Steppenwolf.
Steppenwolf's 2014/15 season explores the question, How did I get here?, through five stories about losing—and finding—your way.Currently playing: Marie Antoinette by David Adjmi, directed by Robert O'Hara ( now playing — May 10, 2015 ) in the Upstairs Theatre; Garage Rep 2015 featuring three Chicago storefront companies playing in rotating rep in the Garage Theater ( now playing — April 26, 2015 ); and The Herd by Rory Kinnear, directed by ensemble member Frank Galati ( now playing — June 7, 2015 ). Up next: The Chicago premiere production of Grand Concourse by Heidi Schreck, directed by ensemble member Yasen Peyankov ( July 2 — August 30, 2015 ) in the Downstairs Theatre.
Steppenwolf Theatre Company is America's longest standing, most distinguished ensemble theater, producing nearly 700 performances and events annually in its three Chicago theater spaces—the 515-seat Downstairs Theatre, the 299-seat Upstairs Theatre and the 80-seat Garage Theatre. Formed in 1976 by a collective of actors, Steppenwolf has grown into an ensemble of 44 actors, writers and directors. Artistic programming at Steppenwolf includes a five-play Subscription Season, a two-play Steppenwolf for Young Adults season and two repertory series: First Look Repertory of New Work and Garage Rep. While firmly grounded in the Chicago community, nearly 40 original Steppenwolf productions have enjoyed success both nationally and internationally, including Off-Broadway, Broadway, London, Sydney, Galway and Dublin. Steppenwolf has the distinction of being the only theater to receive the National Medal of Arts, in addition to numerous other prestigious honors including an Illinois Arts Legend Award and 12 Tony Awards. Martha Lavey is the Artistic Director and David Schmitz is the Managing Director. Nora Daley is Chair of Steppenwolf's Board of Trustees. For additional information, visit steppenwolf.org, facebook.com/steppenwolftheatre andtwitter.com/steppenwolfthtr .
