We have launched many exciting and innovative projects for this 30th Anniversary Season. I would like to give you some of our reasoning for one of our most ambitious projects: the conversion of the Upstairs Theatre into a proscenium theatre. As you know, with the goal of adding more programming flexibility and variety to the subscription series last season, we moved one of the five subscription series productions to the Upstairs Theatre. In doing so, we recognized that we were asking our subscribers to take a leap of faith with us in giving up the familiarity and comfort of their regular seats in the Downstairs Theatre. This was coupled with the fact that 80% of our subscribers had never been in the Upstairs Theatre. Asking our subscribers to trust us and move upstairs for a truly different theatre experience was, to many observers, a big gamble. Our subscribers embraced the challenge of the change, which helped make ensemble member Tina Landau’s production of Cherry Orchard one of the most critically acclaimed and widely popular productions of the subscription season – as well as one of the best-attended productions ever presented Upstairs. In addition, the reconfiguration of the subscription season gave us more flexibility in all of our programming last year, including the offering of the non-subscription production of One Arm in our Downstairs Theatre. Throughout the 18-week run of Cherry Orchard, our marketing and audience services staff spent a great deal of time and effort carefully collecting audience feedback on the Upstairs experience. The overall results demonstrated the worth of the experiment: some 40,000 patrons made their first visits to the Upstairs Theatre. While the response from the audience was overwhelmingly positive, there were some reasoned complaints about the quality of the seating and sight lines. After a careful review of all of the considerations, Martha Lavey and I made the decision to continue taking at least one subscription production upstairs for the next couple of seasons. As a result, we also decided to convert the Upstairs Theatre into a new performance facility that would serve better both the work onstage and the audience. The new Upstairs Theatre configuration was designed by Morris Architect Planners, the architectural firm of the current Steppenwolf Theatre Company facility. The newly refurbished theatre is a 300-seat proscenium facility with the same comfortable, upholstered seats found in the Downstairs Theatre. The focus of the stage and intimacy of the space will serve plays produced Upstairs in a different way than is possible in the Downstairs Theatre. This new theatre will serve not only the subscription series, but also some of the Steppenwolf for Young Adults productions, the Traffic Series and productions of our popular Visiting Companies Initiative. We expect this new theatre will play an increasingly important role in showcasing and supporting the diversity of Steppenwolf’s presentations. As I wrote earlier, this is just one of the many innovations we are adding to this 30th season. Whether it’s the new theatre, the enhanced and expanded Backstage program, the additional post-show discussions, or offering a subscription season of all new plays, we are making these innovations to continue to ensure that Steppenwolf is a vital and creative theatre for you, our audience. You are the ultimate judge of how well we have succeeded at achieving that goal. We do value hearing your reaction to these changes and all aspects of our work. One of the easiest ways to give us your feedback is to send us an e-mail at customerservice@steppenwolf.org. Thank you for your continued interest and support of Steppenwolf.
News & Articles
A Letter from the Executive Director on the New Upstairs Theatre
by David Hawkanson
We have launched many exciting and innovative projects for this 30th Anniversary Season. I would like to give you some of our reasoning for one of our most ambitious projects: the conversion of the Upstairs Theatre into a proscenium theatre. As you know, with the goal of adding more programming flexibility and variety to the subscription series last season, we moved one of the five subscription series productions to the Upstairs Theatre. In doing so, we recognized that we were asking our subscribers to take a leap of faith with us in giving up the familiarity and comfort of their regular seats in the Downstairs Theatre. This was coupled with the fact that 80% of our subscribers had never been in the Upstairs Theatre. Asking our subscribers to trust us and move upstairs for a truly different theatre experience was, to many observers, a big gamble. Our subscribers embraced the challenge of the change, which helped make ensemble member Tina Landau’s production of Cherry Orchard one of the most critically acclaimed and widely popular productions of the subscription season – as well as one of the best-attended productions ever presented Upstairs. In addition, the reconfiguration of the subscription season gave us more flexibility in all of our programming last year, including the offering of the non-subscription production of One Arm in our Downstairs Theatre. Throughout the 18-week run of Cherry Orchard, our marketing and audience services staff spent a great deal of time and effort carefully collecting audience feedback on the Upstairs experience. The overall results demonstrated the worth of the experiment: some 40,000 patrons made their first visits to the Upstairs Theatre. While the response from the audience was overwhelmingly positive, there were some reasoned complaints about the quality of the seating and sight lines. After a careful review of all of the considerations, Martha Lavey and I made the decision to continue taking at least one subscription production upstairs for the next couple of seasons. As a result, we also decided to convert the Upstairs Theatre into a new performance facility that would serve better both the work onstage and the audience. The new Upstairs Theatre configuration was designed by Morris Architect Planners, the architectural firm of the current Steppenwolf Theatre Company facility. The newly refurbished theatre is a 300-seat proscenium facility with the same comfortable, upholstered seats found in the Downstairs Theatre. The focus of the stage and intimacy of the space will serve plays produced Upstairs in a different way than is possible in the Downstairs Theatre. This new theatre will serve not only the subscription series, but also some of the Steppenwolf for Young Adults productions, the Traffic Series and productions of our popular Visiting Companies Initiative. We expect this new theatre will play an increasingly important role in showcasing and supporting the diversity of Steppenwolf’s presentations. As I wrote earlier, this is just one of the many innovations we are adding to this 30th season. Whether it’s the new theatre, the enhanced and expanded Backstage program, the additional post-show discussions, or offering a subscription season of all new plays, we are making these innovations to continue to ensure that Steppenwolf is a vital and creative theatre for you, our audience. You are the ultimate judge of how well we have succeeded at achieving that goal. We do value hearing your reaction to these changes and all aspects of our work. One of the easiest ways to give us your feedback is to send us an e-mail at customerservice@steppenwolf.org. Thank you for your continued interest and support of Steppenwolf.