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Book Review by Samuel L. Leiter . . .
John Mayer. Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago: In Their Own Words (London and New York: Methuen Drama, 2016). 261pp.
25th Edition.
Few would dispute that New York is America’s first city, or that Chicago, as one of its nicknames proclaims, is—at least where its theater is involved—the second. For all its achievements, Chicago’s Loop is far less glorious than Broadway. On the other hand, Chicago bears comparison with New York when it comes to its Off and Off-Off-Broadway equivalents. In fact, were one to select America’s foremost theater company, it would be hard to deny that accolade to the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, an Off-Loop institution so crucial to Chicago’s artistic culture.
Founded in 1974, and soon to begin its 50th season, Steppenwolf was not actually born in Chicago. That blessed event transpired in the progressive suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, 25 miles from Chicago. In New York terms that would be like saying its most renowned theater came from Long Island’s Massapequa or New Jersey’s Morristown. Steppenwolf didn’t move to Chicago until 1980.
But that is part of its remarkable story, which began when local high school pals, Gary Sinise and Jeff Perry, and a friend, Terry Kinney, began doing plays in a Unitarian Church basement seating 88 spectators; they dubbed themselves Steppenwolf because one of their group happened to be reading Herman Hesse’s novel of that name. An impressive high school drama teacher, Barbara June Patterson, had a powerful influence, as did what the boys knew of the Group Theatre and the Moscow Art Theatre, whose ensemble-based work they hoped to emulate.
All three founders went on to renown, as did an astonishing number of the actors who joined their project, including John Malkovich and Laurie Metcalf, each a devoted player in its history. Significant American playwrights, like Tracy Letts and Terrel Alvin McCraney, are also company mainstays. Many members came from small Midwestern towns and studied theater at places like Illinois State University, Eastern Illinois University, and Northwestern. Ensemble members are free to work elsewhere when not involved at Steppenwolf.
In 2016, John Mayer, who had been peripherally associated with Steppenwolf for many years (and had written his doctoral dissertation on it), detailed the company’s history in his compact, highly informational book, Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago: In Their Own Words. The subtitle refers to his inclusion of comments from many of the company’s ensemble members. He offers five narrative chapters, interlarded with quotes from actors, designers, directors, playwrights, staff, and critics; following each chapter are sections called “In Their Own Words,” which, with different thematic emphases, offer only quotes, from veterans as well as newbies.
To mention just a few of the starrier names not already cited, there’s Joan Allen, Kathryn Erbe, K. Todd Freeman, Frank Galati, Amy Morton, John Mahoney, Austin Pendleton, William Petersen, Anna D. Shapiro, and Lois Smith. Once selected to join the ensemble, an artist remains in it for life; only rarely has anyone left. By 2016, the ensemble, having started with less than 10, comprised 44 artists and had done over 300 shows.
No other American company can boast such an array of affiliated luminaries over so long a successful span of years. The closest would likely be New York’s Circle Repertory Company, which ran from 1969 to 1996. For all its achievements (recently discussed in this column), the CRC never gained the heights of Steppenwolf, which has grown into a well-funded cultural enterprise, with a multi-theater campus, including its own training facility.
In clear-cut prose, Mayer describes not only the company’s origins, but offers commentary from the artists themselves on what the work entails. Mayer reveals how important collaboration has always been, how much the actors depend on one another’s support, how little ego is allowed to interfere, how invested the actors are in their work, and how often actors and directors often cross from one field to the other. Moreover, all this happens in an environment that fosters an abiding sense of family.
Naturally, the principal productions over the years are mentioned—beginning with the company’s first season, done on a shoestring, Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, Grease, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Mayer, though, concentrates mainly on a small number of milestones: Lanford Wilson’s Balm in Gilead (1980), Sam Shepard’s True West (1982), Galati’s adaptation of Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1988), and Letts’s August: Osage County (2007). The latter three all moved to New York: True West to Off-Broadway, the others to Broadway. Mayer notes productions that also played abroad, London in particular. Over time Steppenwolf accrued numerous awards—such as Chicago’s Jeffs and New York’s Tonys—many of which are noted.
Mayer’s book, indexed and accompanied by an abundance of small black-and-white photos, goes into Steppenwolf’s various moves before finding its permanent home. He explains the troupe’s ever-evolving organizational and artistic principles. Also examined are its increasingly sophisticated fund-raising, audience development, and educational projects. And we read about the company’s lineage of artistic directors, beginning with Gary Sinise, and—in 2016 when the book was published—ending with Anna D. Shapiro, who succeeded the distinguished Martha Lavey in 2015. (Shapiro moved on in 2021, five years afterward.)
Space is also occupied by discussions of the struggle to maintain success in the face of actors having left Chicago and being so much in demand. Such outside commitments may have made it difficult to perform in the home that brought them fame, but it’s impressive how often they nevertheless managed to do it.
By the time we reach the last page, we’ve witnessed what began as an afterschool project for three teenage boys blossom into an internationally revered, multimillion-dollar establishment considered by many to be the closest thing America has to a national theater. And it happened not in the first, but in the Second City.
Coming up: Julian Schlossberg, Try Not to Hold it Against Me.
Leiter Looks at Books welcomes inquiries from publishers and authors interested in having their theater/show business-related books reviewed.