Most Americans can recognize John Malkovich from his film work – independent features and blockbusters alike – and many will know him from the theatre roles which made him and Steppenwolf respected internationally (Pale in Burn This, Lee in True West, amongst others), but only the most die-hard Steppenwolf and Chicago aficionado can brag about knowing Malkovich’s full oeuvre of theatre work over the last 29 years at Steppenwolf.
Test your John Malkovich trivia with the following quiz.
0-3 answers correct: Impressive, you know your Malkovich.
4-8 answers correct: Wow, are you on Steppenwolf’s payroll?
9-10 answers correct: You are either Jeff Perry, Gary Sinise, Terry Kinney or Martha Lavey and it doesn’t count.
1) In 1980, John Malkovich directed this highly acclaimed play which featured a heart-broken Laurie Metcalf, a blazed-out Gary Sinise and a transvestite Jeff Perry. _________
2) Although Terry Johnson is currently directing John Malkovich in Stephen Jeffreys Lost Land, John recently directed this Terry Johnson play at Steppenwolf, as well as in Paris and Barcelona. __________
3) “What this production will do is reconfirm, if it needed doing, that Steppenwolf is the most exciting ensemble in town. God help us if some of the folks become stars and fly away.” In 1981, the Chicago Reader prophesized John, Gary Sinise’s and Steppenwolf’s imminent success with this quote about which production of a Steinbeck classic, later made into a film with both Malkovich and Sinise. __________
4) John Malkovich and Terry Kinney co-starred as brothers Biff and Happy in the Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, who played their father? ___________
5) John Malkovich starred as the frustrated dreamer, Tom Wingfield in Steppenwolf’s 1979 production of Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, later revived on Halsted in 1998. In which Chicago suburb was that original production presented? ___________
6) In 1996, on Steppenwolf’s stage, John Malkovich preformed as the dangerous debauchee John Milmot alongside Martha Plimpton in this Stephen Jeffreys play. ________
7) John Malkovich twice directed Gary Sinise, Jeff Perry and Alan Wilder in this Harold Pinter father-son drama that was later taken to Broadway. ___________
8) In 1994, John Malkovich took on the roles of both adaptor and director on a production of Libra, based on the novel by this White Noise author. _______
9) Steppenwolf’s production of True West, with John Malkovich and Jeff Perry as brothers, featured this ensemble member, who is, in reality, their same age, as the brother’s loony mother. _____________
10) In Burn This, Joan Allen portrayed a beautiful dancer-choreographer who falls in love with John Malkovich, whose character was a gruff, yet oozingly- sexual ___________.