SLOWGIRLby

GreG PierceDirecteD by ensemble member

randall arney

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THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE OTHER MARY

FONDLY DO WE HOPE ... FERVENTLY DO WE PRAY

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6 Welcome to Slowgirl Letter from Artistic Director Martha Lavey

16 Every Tongue Confess A conversation between Artistic Director Martha Lavey and fellow ensemble members Randall Arney and William Petersen.

Editor Alicia Graf

Contributors Aaron Carter Jeffrey Fauver Evan Hatfield Paul Koob Martha Lavey Suzanne Miller Joel Moorman

Design Lisa Frye

Cover Ensemble member William Petersen

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contents

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sends ripples through his calm. At some moment, we shift our attention from how Becky’s turbulence is a cover for her anxiety to how Sterling’s calm is a cover for his own internal turbulence.

Both Becky and Sterling have profound questions about choices they have made in their lives and both harbor feelings of guilt and shame. They’ve each adopted behaviors to cover that shame and to keep them from confronting the secrets that live in their hearts. The beauty of a play is that the playwright can find two unlikely people, put them in a room together, and allow them to wrestle with the conflict that was, finally, always their own.

“We see their conflict and we see how, in the conflict, they become each other’s mirror.”

What I love about a two-character play structured in this manner is that we are the third element. We are the third mirror. We watch this pair struggle with

their own drama, we watch them find each other, and there we are, seeing ourselves in both.

My guess is that we all of us harbor some degree of shame or guilt or regret about some action of our earlier life (because that’s what growing up means). How do we gain forgiveness? How do we forgive ourselves? I think Slowgirl would suggest that our great release is in the compassionate witness of another. When we stop hiding out, as Sterling does, as Becky does, we re-enter the world.

Steppenwolf Artistic Director Martha Lavey

I love plays of any scale—I love big, sprawling work that travels through time, and domestic dramas in the confines of home, and fantastical imaginings in fractured worlds, and I love two-character dramas in a single place. Each has its pleasures.

One of the particular pleasures of a two-character drama is that inevitably, the playwright gives us two characters and impresses us with their differences. For the play to be dramatic, we feel, fairly early on, a conflict brewing. But the larger design of a two-character drama is to understand that beyond the conflict, the meeting of these two characters is inevitable. We begin to see how they need one another to resolve the conflict that lies in both of their hearts. We see their conflict and we see how, in the conflict, they become each other’s mirror.

And so it is with Slowgirl. Becky, a 17-year high school student, travels to Costa Rica, seeking refuge in the forest enclave of her maternal uncle, Sterling. She’s in trouble: a terrible accident at

a party she attended has ensnared her. The police are investigating how a fellow student, Mary Beth (the “slowgirl” of the title) leapt, fell (or was pushed?) from a second floor window. Becky is being questioned about her whereabouts at the party at the time of the accident.

Sterling has been living in Costa Rica, in solitude, save for the couple who attend his house and land. It’s a meditative life—he’s built a labyrinth on his land that he walks daily. His life looks calm, quiet and self-aware. When Becky blows into the room, she can’t stop talking. If she isn’t talking, she’s plugged into her iPod, or grabbing at her phone, frustrated by the lack of cell service. She wants rum in her smoothie, she wants escape, and she is unsettled by the sounds of nature, fearful of what’s out there. She appears utterly un-self-aware.

Over the course of the play, the history of both characters is revealed. Becky is not polite—she questions Sterling about his life in Costa Rica and about his life prior to his time there. Her own turbulence

Welcome to Slowgirlby Artistic Director Martha Lavey

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Steppenwolf Theatre Company presents

slowgirlBy greg PierceDirected by ensemble member randall Arney†*

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a constituent of Theatre Communication Group (TCG), the national organization for nonprofit professional theater.

† 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.

Produced by Lincoln Center Theater, New York City, 2012.

Slowgirl is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.

Production Takeshi Kata+ SCENIC DESIGN Janice Pytel+ CoSTUME DESIGN Daniel Ionazzi+ LIGhTING DESIGN Richard Woodbury+ SoUND DESIGN AND oRIGINAL MUSIC

Erica Daniels° CASTING DIRECToR Laura D. Glenn* STAGE MANAGER Brianna Parry PRoDUCTIoN ASSISTANT

Individual Production Sponsors henry and Leigh Bienen, George A. Joseph, Lois Browning, Donna and Dirk Vos

Martha Lavey†* Artistic Director David Hawkanson Executive Director

Partial support for open captioning provided by Theatre Development Fund

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Featuring

Rae Gray William Petersen†*

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Cast and ContributorsCast and Contributors

Cast (in alphabetical order) Rae Gray* (Becky) William Petersen†* (Sterling)

Understudies Marilyn Bass (Becky)

Setting Sterling’s house outside the tiny town of Los Angeles, Costa Rica.

Time A week in late April.

There will be no intermission.There will be a post-show discussion immediately following the performance.

Additional Staff Thomas Murray Assistant Director Steve Sorenson Lighting Assistant John Garofalo Studio Lighting Assistant John Garofalo Studio Lighting Assistant Ravenswood Scenic Set Construction Rich Gilles Geffen Playhouse Properties Master Desiree Arnold Properties overhire Andrew Rovner Sound Board operator Karen Thompson Light Board operator Andrea Berting Wardrobe Crew Christina Covarrubias Rehearsal Assistant

As a courtesy to the actors and your fellow patrons, please turn off your cell phones before the performance and after the intermission. The taking of photographs and the use of any type of recording device are 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.

† member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble. * member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers.

Cast and Contributors

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Bios Bios

RAE GRAy (BECkY) is incredibly thrilled to be back at Steppenwolf Theatre Company where she also appeared in The Book Thief and Wedding Band. Chicago credits include

Circle Mirror Transformation (Victory Gardens Theater); The Real Thing (Writers’ Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Goodman Theatre); Inherit the Wind (Northlight Theatre); Sunday in the Park with George (Ravinia Festival with Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald); The Crucible, Cry of Players (TimeLine Theatre Company); Meet Me in St. Louis (Drury Lane Theatre); Oliver!, State Fair (Marriott Theatre); Completeness (Theater Wit); and Jailbait (Profiles Theatre). Regional credits include The North China Lover (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); and Meet Me in St. Louis (Gateway Playhouse). Upcoming credits include The North China Lover (Lookingglass Theatre Company). Television credits include Boardwalk Empire (HBO) and Chicago Fire (NBC). Rae is a student at The University of Chicago.

WILLIAM PETERSEN (STERLING) an ensemble member, first appeared at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in the seminal production of Balm in Gilead in 1980 and has since appeared in Fool for

Love, Dublin Carol and Endgame. In 1979, William founded the Remains Theater Ensemble in Chicago with a group of fellow actors, including Steppenwolf ensemble members Gary Cole and Amy Morton. In 1996, William made his Broadway debut in a revival of Tennessee Williams’s The Night of the Iguana. He served as executive producer on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and was nominated in 2004 for a Golden Globe Award for his portrayal of Gil Grissom, the lead investigator.

GREG PIERCE (PLAYWRIGhT) is a playwright, lyricist and fiction writer. His play Slowgirl was the inaugural play of Lincoln Center Theaters Claire Tow Theater, and is published by Dramatists Play Service. His original musical The Landing, written with John Kander, will premiere at the Vineyard Theatre in the 2013/14 season. His stage adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, written with director Stephen Earnhart, premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival and went on to play the Singapore Arts Festival. He has developed work with Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage Theatre, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Naked Angels and The New Group. He has received fellowships from the Edward F. Albee Foundation and the Djerassi Institute, and is under commission from Lincoln Center Theater and Vermont Stage Company. A graduate of Oberlin College, Greg received his MFA from Warren Wilson College. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and lives in New york City.

RANDALL ARNEy (DIRECToR) has been a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble since 1984. He served as Artistic Director for the company from 1987 - 1995, during which time he established the current Steppenwolf space at 1650 N Halsted St and oversaw the Broadway transfers of The Grapes of Wrath, The Song of Jacob Zulu and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. Randall is currently the Artistic Director of the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, California, a position he has held since 1999.

TAKESHI KATA (SCENIC DESIGN) is excited to be back at Steppenwolf Theatre Company where he has designed for The Tempest and The Seafarer. Other Chicago credits include God of Carnage (Goodman Theatre). New york credits include 3 Kinds of Exile, Storefront Church, Through a Glass Darkly, Port

Authority (Atlantic Theater Company); Adding Machine (Minetta Lane Theatre); Orson’s Shadow (Barrow Street Theatre); as well as work at Playwrights Horizons, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Vineyard Theatre, LAByrinth Theater Company and The Play Company. Regional work includes the Alley Theatre, American Players Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Geffen Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum, The Old Globe, Resident Ensemble Players and Williamstown Theatre Festival. He is an Assistant Professor at The University of Southern California’s School of Dramatic Arts.

JANICE PyTEL (CoSTUME DESIGN) returns to Steppenwolf Theatre Company having previously designed costumes for Belleville, Middletown, The Seafarer, The Pain and the Itch, The Drawer Boy and The Infidel, among others. Recent design credits include The Electric Baby (Rivendell Theatre Ensemble); The Lake Effect (Silk Road Rising); The Whale (Victory Gardens Theater); A Raisin in the Sun (Milwaukee Repertory Theater); Completeness (Theater Wit); Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West (TimeLine Theatre Company); and Clybourne Park (Alley Theatre). Broadway credits include I Am My Own Wife and 33 Variations. Regional credits include work at The Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Centerstage, Alliance Theatre, Arena Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Geffen Playhouse, Madison Repertory Theatre and others. Chicago credits include work at Goodman Theatre, Court Theatre, Writers’ Theatre, About Face Theatre, Famous Door Theatre Company, Lookingglass Theatre Company and Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, where she is a company member. Her online portfolio can be found at janicepytel.com.

DANIEL IONAzzI (LIGhTING DESIGN) returns to Steppenwolf Theatre Company where he designed The Seafarer. He has designed for theaters across

the country including South Coast Repertory, The Denver Center Theatre Company, Arena Stage and Geffen Playhouse. He designed the lighting installation for Teatro alla Moda for the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. His design work can also be seen in the 4-D cinematic experience, Beyond all Boundaries, at the National World War II Museum. Daniel is Production Manager for Geffen Playhouse and Director of Production for the Department of Theater at The University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of The Stage Management Handbook and The Stagecraft Handbook.

RICHARD WOODBURy (SoUND DESIGN AND oRIGINAL MUSIC) is happy to return to Steppenwolf Theatre Company where prior credits include Middletown, August: Osage County and others. More recent credits include Measure for Measure, Teddy Ferrara and Other Desert Cities at the Goodman Theatre. Broadway credits include Desire Under the Elms, August: Osage County, Talk Radio and others. Richard has received Jeff, Helen Hayes, Ruth Page and IRNE awards for his work, as well as nominations for Drama Desk and Ovation awards. He has composed numerous commissioned scores for dance and is Associate Professor and Music Director in the Dance Department at Columbia College Chicago.

LAURA D. GLENN (STAGE MANAGER) is thrilled to be working with Randall Arney again, as well as completing the circle of now having worked with all 43 members of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble. Over the past 24 years, Steppenwolf credits include Head of Passes, Three Sisters, Middletown, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Parallelogram, Superior Donuts, The Violet Hour, Purple Heart, Space, Nomathemba, Picasso at the Lapin Agile and many others. Northlight Theatre credits include production stage management for The Whipping Man,

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Bios

The Odd Couple, Ten Chimneys, Season’s Greetings, Sense and Sensibility, A Life, Souvenir, Better Late, Retreat from Moscow, Permanent Collection, Cat Feet, Blue/Orange, Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie, Sky Girls, Rounding Third and A Skull in Connemara. International credits include Better Late (Northlight Theatre, Galway Arts Festival); Orange Flower Water, Purple Heart (Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Galway Arts Festival); The Man Who Came to Dinner (Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Barbican Centre’s BITE Festival); and the regional and Broadway productions of Buried Child (Steppenwolf Theatre Company). Laura has been a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association for 23 years.

BRIANNA PARRy (PRoDUCTIoN ASSISTANT) couldn’t be more pleased to be returning to Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where she completed an apprenticeship during the 2011/12 season. Chicago credits include the pre-Broadway premiere of Big Fish and the Chicago tour of The Book of Mormon (Aurora Productions, Broadway In Chicago); Down and Derby (The New Colony); Fat Pig, Three Sisters, fml: how Carson McCullers saved my life and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (Steppenwolf Theatre Company). Brianna is a graduate of Kenyon College in Ohio.

MARTHA LAVEy (ARTISTIC DIRECToR) has been an ensemble member since 1995 and has appeared at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in The March, Middletown, Endgame, Up, Good Boys and True, Love-Lies-Bleeding, Lost Land, I Never Sang for My Father, The House of Lily, Valparaiso, The Memory of Water, The Designated Mourner, Supple in Combat, Time of My Life, A Clockwork Orange, Talking Heads, SLAVS!, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Ghost in the Machine, A Summer Remembered, Love Letters, Aunt Dan and Lemon and Savages. 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, 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.

DAVID HAWKANSON (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 is Chairman of the Arts Alliance Illinois. He is a graduate of Lawrence University.

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every tongue confess

Their chat began with stories from the early days of both Steppenwolf and Remains Theater Ensemble, a Chicago company William Petersen helped found in the 80s.

martha lavey: Can we talk about when you met each other. Randy, were you a Steppenwolf ensemble member by the time Remains started? you weren’t, were you?

randall arney: No I wasn’t. I can tell you, though, when I met Billy.

William Petersen: I know when I met Randy…

ra: It was—well, the first professional play I’d ever been in was Balm in Gilead—

WP: yeah, I met you in the diner!

ra: That’s right! I came up from college. In fact, was two or three weeks late—a week late, maybe—for first rehearsal.

ml: Because you had just graduated college?

ra: yeah I had just gotten my MFA from Illinois State University, I was trying to decide where I was going to move. And John Malkovich—I had been buddies with him from school—and he said, “Well. I’m casting a play right now and nobody’s getting paid anything but if you wanna do that you can have a part.” And that was kinda why I went to Chicago instead of New york or somewhere else.

ml: Oh really?

WP: Good idea though—

ra: I remember I was a week late and I walked in on one of those rehearsals, Billy, where the script was just crazy—

WP: yeah I remember I was literally in the diner [on the set] when I met you!

ml: So you worked together in Balm in Gilead. And what else?

ra: And the great one, Billy and I were just talking about it: 29 years ago this summer we did Fool for Love.

WP: And the Steppenwolf company was out of town. The company was actually doing Balm in Gilead, weren’t they?

ra: That’s right. That summer Balm was going on in New york. And we did Fool and it was successful enough it ran all summer.

WP: yeah, we started in the spring and we kept running it. And it was Phyllis, Wilson, Eich, Randy, Rondi and me.* Remember we’d go up on the roof and drink beer—

ra: And shoot bottle rockets at the neighbors!

ml: Billy haven’t you been at Geffen, under Randy’s direction?

WP: No. But I see his plays. And we talk about it literally every time we see each other.

ra: Exactly. We meet in the grocery store and talk about what we’re going to be doing and when. And it’s funny, I’d actually talked to Billy about Slowgirl too, independently of you.

ml: What happened, did I call you up Randy and say, will you direct Slowgirl?

ra: you did.

ml: But you guys had already been—

ra: We had chatted about the play—

WP: Martha, you and I had talked about, remember I had talked to you about if first and I said I don’t think I should do it. And then I talked to Randy separately about something else. And he mentioned this play called Slowgirl and I said, “Randy, I just told Martha I didn’t want to do it!”

ml: Well, I had asked Billy if he would come do a play and he brought Slowgirl to the table and I said I really like it. And Billy said, yes, but I don’t think I’m right for it. And so we read all these other plays. But the one that stuck with all parties was Slowgirl.

ra: And I remember you, Billy, saying to me the play is intriguing but I just don’t think I’m right for the part.

WP: I still feel that way! I completely feel that way. Every night before I go to sleep I think, “What the…” (trails off, laughing)

ml: But don’t you think, Randy, that’s one of the things that makes Billy interesting for it?

ra: Totally. And in fact I think that’s such a strength of Steppenwolf too. Living out here in Los Angeles you see how much people flow in what is perceived as their type. And over the years, the strength of our company has been that we’ve been able to give each other parts—

Artistic Director Martha Lavey discusses Slowgirl with ensemble members Randall Arney and William Petersen.

* Phyllis Schuringa, Assistant Director; Wilson Milam, Box office, who later directed at Steppenwolf; Stephen B. Eich, Managing Director; Randall Arney as Martin; Rondi Reed as May; and William Petersen as Eddie.

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WP: —that you wouldn’t normally get—

ra: That you wouldn’t normally get! And what’s great about that is right away you’ve created an even more interesting character, because you’ve got some opposites going on inside the part.

ml: Let me ask you something, Billy. Does the idea of escaping like Sterling in Slowgirl—does that ever appeal to you at all? The idea that, “I’m just walking away from all this.”

WP: I think that is the case. I’m not sure that there is any guy who doesn’t think about that, especially if you’ve been married. (laughs)

But no, I don’t think I could do it. Certainly not with the way my life has been. Well, there’s two things. Part of it is because of playing sports on teams with other guys and being in theater with other people. Seeking those groups: that’s sort of who I am.

And I will say that I’ve been studying –probably dabbling—in Buddhism the way that Sterling does in the play. And I do understand the value of being able to be alone. I’ve been alone a lot when I was traveling on movies. Even in some plays. I’ve spent a lot of time alone—days, weeks. And I don’t think ultimately I could do what Sterling is doing.

ml: I think the three of us as theater people can probably relate. We are energized by being in casts—families, really—that come together and then dissipate. There is something I think in us that is both deeply social and deeply alone. Why would we be in pursuit of something that keeps giving us the chance to inhabit what is basically a mask?

ra: And as you say, come into a family structure that is really intense and breaks up in two months.

ml: Randy, what do you feel the play is about?

ra: What’s great is the play is about a lot of things. There’s something about redemption in the play. There’s something about learning to live with one’s self. There’s a great thing about family in the play. Just the connectedness of family, and Sterling’s choice to get completely out of that, or to allow himself to be pushed out of it. And yet somehow the tentacles of that family stay current.

The older I get, I think in every single play, every character in it ultimately just wants a hug. It comes down to that with these two loners. Becky, Sterling’s niece, she’s not a loner exactly, but she’s alone with her problems and her fears. And both of these characters are given the gift of having a listener.

ml: you know, Randy, isn’t that so great? What is theater but that we get to be the silent witness to the people who are going through the worst thing. We get to be their listeners. To me theater provides the hope that our craziest parts can be humanized, they can be understood, they can be empathized with.

ra: Empathy. That is so true. Theater teaches empathy. We sit in the dark and we let people confess. It’s good for them and it’s good for us.

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Cast and ContributorsCast and Contributors

The Qualms

The Way WesT

Russian TRanspoRTEnsemble member Yasen Peyankov

Bruce Norris

By Erika ShEffErDirecteD By ensemBle memBer YaSEn PEYankovFeaturing ensemble members Tim Hopper, Mariann Mayberry and Alan Wilder

By Mona ManSour DirecteD By ensemBle memBer aMY Morton

Ensemble member Amy Morton

By BrucE norriS DirecteD By PaM Mackinnon

subscRibe noW. See all five plays for as little as $100. steppenwolf.org/subscribe | 312-335-1650

GettinG AheAd Five stories About our hunGer to come out on top, And the discoveries we mAke on the wAy.

world PrEMiErE jul 3 – aug 31, 2014

a rowdy Russian family in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn is on a daily hustle to achieve the american Dream. When uncle Boris arrives from the old country, his mysterious business ventures force the family to decide just how far they are willing to go to come out on top. a funny, passionate family drama that slyly transforms into a heart-pounding thriller, Russian Transport is a fascinating look at the contemporary american immigrant experience.

In a modern-day California town that’s seen better days, Mom shares death-defying tales of pioneer crossings with her two squabbling adult daughters as she waits for her bankruptcy to come through. Peppered with original prairie songs, this hilarious and heartbreaking play about today’s american family explores the mixed blessing of our great frontier spirit, which has fueled both self-delusion and survival.

at a beachside apartment complex, a group of friends gathers for their regular evening of food, drink, drugs and partner-swapping. When Chris and Kristy attempt to become the newest members, the evening does not go as planned. The artichoke dip grows cold as the party devolves into a territorial battle over mating privileges. Does sex ruin everything? and what is the purpose of monogamy? Pulitzer Prize-winning author Bruce Norris’s comedy explores the eternal struggle for power, status and getting laid.

chicago PrEMiErE FEB 6 – May 11, 2014

world PrEMiErE aPR 3 – juN 8, 2014

TRibesBy nina rainE DirecteD By ensemBle memBer auStin PEndlEtonFeaturing ensemble members Alana Arena, Francis Guinan and Molly Regan

Ensemble member Alana Arenas

Billy’s intellectual and proudly eccentric English family is its own tiny empire: private languages, in jokes and fiery arguments. Billy, deaf since birth, is the only one who truly listens. When he meets his girlfriend Sylvia, he is introduced to a larger Deaf community, which sparks a struggle for self-identity and rebellion against his family. Tribes is a sharp, witty story about finding the place where you can be heard—–and a family that feels like home.

chicago PrEMiErE DEC 5, 2013 – FEB 9, 2014

By Zinnie hArris DirecteD By ensemBle memBer tinA LAndAuFeaturing ensemble members Joan Allen, Robert Breuler, Tim Hopper, Ora Jones and Yasen Peyankov

On a 19th-century Spanish farm, Beatriz is happily preparing for her sister’s wedding when the house is overrun by soldiers. In the chaos, she becomes the unintentional guardian of a young girl. Her determination to reunite the child with her father sweeps Beatriz along on a journey across war zones and through time. But what began as a simple act of kindness takes on a strange twist when the girl acquires curious powers. The Wheel is a spellbinding story of what happens to hope and human nature in times of war.

The WheelaMErican PrEMiErE SEP 12 – NOV 10, 2013

Ensemble member Joan Allen

2013/14 seasonsteppenwolf

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Board of TrusteesStaff

Executive Committee Nora Daley, Chair Eric Lefkofsky, Secretary Paul W. Goodrich, Treasurer henry S. Bienen Carole L. Brown Douglas R. Brown Michael Cahan Elizabeth h. Connelly Lynn Lockwood Murphy kenneth J. Porrello Deborah h. Quazzo Randall k. Rowe Bruce Sagan harry J. Seigle Stephanie B. Smith John R. Walter helen Zell

Trustees Sarah BeardsleyMichael W. BenderEbs BurnoughTerri L. Cablekeith CardozaRobin Tennant ColburnBeth Boosalis Daviskim DavisJ. Scott EtzlerRich FeitlerNene FoxhallScott P. GeorgeLawrence M. GillRobert J. Greenebaum, Jr. Caryn harrisJohn h. hartGeorge A. JosephDonna La PietraMartha LaveyMary LudfordRonald J. Mallicoat, Jr. Janet MelkL. heather MitchellChristopher M. MurphyDavid C. PisorMerle ReskinMichael R. SalemRobert SanbornManuel “Manny” SanchezAnna D. ShapiroMatthew ShapiroColette Cachey Smithburg

Emeritus Trustees J. Robert Barr Lawrence Block John N. Fox, Jr. Gloria Scoby

Past Chairpersons William L. Atwell Larry D. Brady Douglas R. Brown Laurence Edwards John N. Fox, Jr. Elliott Lyon Gordon Murphy William h. Plummer Bruce Sagan Gloria Scoby Donna Vos

Artistic

ERICA DAnIELS Associate Artistic Director

REBECCA RUgg Artistic Producer

AARon CARTER Director of New Play Development

JACoB g. PADRÓn Producer

nICk WARD Casting and School Associate

TRACy LETTS AMy MoRTon AnnA D. ShAPIRo JESSICA ThEBUS Associate Artists

ShELDon PATInkIn Artistic Consultant

Steppenwolf for young Adults

hALLIE goRDon Artistic and Educational Director

MEgAn ShUChMAn Education Manager

LAUREn SIvAk Education Assistant

AMAnDA JAnE DUnnE ALI hoEFnAgEL MARIE CISCo L’oREAL JACkSon MIChAEL LEon BLAkE MCkAy nICoLE RIPLEy AShLEy RoBERSon SAMUEL RoBERSon EMILIo RoBLES Teaching Artists

Administration

DAvID M. SChMITz Managing Director

RAChEL D. FREUnD Director of Finance

hEAThER C. JoIREMAn Events Management Director

SCoTT MACoUn IT Director

ERIn Cook Company Manager

kATE hoLST TEST human Resources and Professional Leadership Programs Coordinator

BRIAn hURST Finance Coordinator

SAMAR ShARBA IT Associate

PAUL g. MILLER Executive Assistant

LUPE gARCIA QUILES Events Management Associate

AngELA JohnSon office Management Associate & Receptionist

JACkIE SnUTTJER Finance Specialist

Development

SAnDy kARUSChAk Director of Development

EMILIE DE AngELIS Director of Campaign Gifts

ERIC EvEnSkAAS Director of Individual Giving and Donor Services

MEgAn A. SMITh Director of Corporate Relations

DEBoRAh STEWART Director of Foundation and Government Relations

kEnDRA vAn kEMPEn Director of Special Events

JESSICA gRETCh Individual Giving Coordinator

kALEIgh LoCkhART Development Coordinator

SUzAnnE MILLER Donor Services Coordinator

LAUREn FIShER Special Events Associate

LoUISE gERAghTy Donor Relations Associate

ERIC vAn TASSELL Corporate Relations Associate

Marketing, Publicity & Audience Services

John zInn Director of Marketing and Communications

JEFFREy FAUvER Communications Director

PAUL kooB Design Director

ThoMAS WEITz Digital Assets Director

ERIkA nELSon Associate Director of Marketing

JAMIE ALExAnDER Marketing Manager

LISA FRyE Graphic Designer

JoEL MooRMAn Digital Content Producer

nEEL MCnEILL Marketing Assistant

TAMARA ToDRES Director of Audience Services

JIMMy FREUnD Audience Services Manager

STEPhAnIE hELLER Audience Services Subscription Manager

MIkE BRUnLIEB MATThEW LyLE Audience Services Supervisors

MoLLy LAyTon Group Sales Associate

RoSEAnn BIShoP Subscriptions and Audience Services Assistant

CRAIg BARnES BILLIE BRyAnT REBECCA BUTLER DERRIk DICkInSon REynALDo DUMAS LACEy hoLMES SoTIRIoS LIvADITIS ThERESA MASSE SARAh nELSon DAnIEL RUBEnS SARAh TongREn Audience Services Associates

operations

JAy JUSSAUME Director of operations

AnTonIo IBARRA Physical Plant Supervisor

PETER vAn kEMPEn operations Coordinator

ADRIAn CASTRo PADAM DhUngEL RyAn PALMA Facilities Staff

vICToR DAvID TIkA RAM kAFLEy JERoME LEE EThAn ozAnIEC BhAgIRATh TIMSInA Custodial Staff

EvAn hATFIELD Director of Audience Experience

DAnIELLE ShInDLER Front of house Manager

Ron BogACkI kELSEy ChIgAS AUTUMn CRAnoR AMBER DETTMERS DAnIEL DvoRkIn SARAh goLDBERg

BRIDgET hoLMES MIChELLE JACoBSon ChASE kIMBALL JESSICA LInD MIChELLE MAURER MIkE MRoCh MAggIE RITTER MELISSA RoSE ELISSA ShoRTRIDgE kEnShUnnA ToLLIvER Front of house Staff

MUSTAFA ChAUDhRy DonALD CoULSon InDRA kAFLEy Parking Staff

JACk MEyER, ThE SAInTS Volunteer Usher Coordination

Production

AL FRAnkLIn Production Manager

DIxIE UFFELMAn Associate Production Manager

RUSSELL PooLE Technical Director

RoBERT S. BRoWn Assistant Technical Director

RogELIo RIoJAS Scene Shop Foreman

ChRISToPhER ALER ChRISToPhER gRUBB kyLE LAnD Scenic Carpenters

MELISSA RUThERFooRD Charge Scenic Artist

JEnny DILUCIAno Properties Master

AnDRIA SMITh Assistant Properties Master

ChARLES MoSER Master Properties Artisan

RICk hAEFELE house Carpenter

DAWn PRzyByLSkI Stage Carpenter

MARThA WEgEnER Audio Engineer

gREgoR MoRTIS Assistant Audio Engineer

J. R. LEDERLE Lighting Supervisor

ERnESTo goMEz house Electrician

JESSICA STRATTon Wardrobe Supervisor

MELISSA TULChInSky Staff Wardrobe

CARyn WEgLARz kLEIn Costume Director

MAE hASkInS Assistant Costume Designer

LAUREL CLAySon head Draper

kEvIn PETERSon Shop Foreman

LynAE vAnDERMEULEn Staff Draper

DAISy LInDAS Project Coordinator

MALCoLM EWEn ChRISTInE D. FREEBURg LAURA D. gLEnn MIChELLE MEDvIn kIM oSgooD kAThLEEn E. PETRozIELLo DEB STyER CASSIE WoLgAMoTT Stage Managers

Call Center

CASEy vAnWoRMER Associate Campaign Director

ALI hoEFnAgEL Audience outreach Supervisor

DAWn Cook SIDnEy CRISToL RoB DIERIngER ChARLES FRyDEnBERg JULIA gUETTIER MARILyn hILLARy ELLIoT IvInS TERREnCE MoSLEy TIFFAny RAE WILSon DAnIEL RUBEnS Audience outreach Associates

LInDSAy AMER JACkIE DIMITRIEF JovAn kALA hAnnAh REBEkAh hEUSEL MoLLy hoULAhAn kATELyn MUEnCk FRAnCISCo LoPEz Ivy REID kAThRyn RUvUnA ChLoE SACkS JAMILA TyLER MELAnIE vITATERnA MIChELLE yAgI Summer 2013 Interns

TERRy kInnEy, JEFF PERRy AnD gARy SInISE Executive Artistic Board

MARThA LAvEy Artistic Director

DAvID hAWkAnSonExecutive Director

24 25

The Steppenwolf ensemble 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 43 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

Tina Landau Martha Lavey

Tracy Letts John Mahoney John Malkovich Mariann Mayberry Tarell Alvin McCraney James Vincent Meredith

Laurie Metcalf Amy Morton Sally Murphy 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

The Steppenwolf Ensemble

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Accessibility at SteppenwolfCommitted to providing services and programming that enhance the experience of guests with disabilities, Steppenwolf is proud to feature:

Steppenwolf Customer Service Tips

•Audio-describedperformances,artisticconversationsandtouch tours of the stage for guests who are blind or visually-impaired.

•Guidesdedicatedtoassistingpatronsduringaudio-described performances.

•ComplimentaryplaybillsinBraille,large-printandaudioformats.

•Signlanguage-interpretedandopen-captionedperformancesfor guests who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

•Volunteerswhousesignlanguagetogreettheaudienceat sign-interpreted performances.

•AssistivelisteningdevicesinourDownstairsandUpstairs theaters.

•Wheelchairaccessibleseatsandrestroomsinallofourtheaters.

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

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.

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.

Stage Manager Malcolm Ewen assists Alberta o’Shaughnessy and George hedges, subscribers who are visually-impaired, during the touch tour for Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Our commitment to never stand still

helps others chase their dreams.

A Division of Health Care Service Corporation, a Mutual Legal Reserve Company, an Independent Licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association

®

To Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, nothing is more colorful than seeing our communities � ourish with dreams and inspiration. That’s why we actively support the arts and education, and implement outreach wellness programs in the neighborhoods we call our own. The way we see it, there’s a time to help our future get ahead. And that time is always. 

02713_5263_BCBSIL_6x8.5_4c_ProgramAd_ChasingDreams.indd 1 5/20/13 10:21 AM