One of the many changes we made at Steppenwolf this year to enhance your theater-going experience was the conversion of the Backstage publication in to our house program. In the past, Backstage was a publication made available only to our subscribers, containing in-depth articles and coverage of Steppenwolf productions and events. The prior house program was a national publication that, while providing adequate space for cast listings, staff credits and contributor recognition, left insuffi cient space to provide you with background on the play, the playwright and other subjects that might enhance your play-going experience. As one long-time subscriber from Potomac, Maryland, (yes, Potomac, Maryland!) wrote me last year: “I feel a real disconnect between the commercial New York flavor of your program and the richness, substance and unique Chicago nature of Steppenwolf.” Steppenwolf’s audiences are smart, committed, sophisticated theater-goers. They expect this theatre to give them challenging, thought-provoking, innovative experiences. We know from our discussions with you in events like our post-performance discussions that you want to be engaged. The new expanded program is another attempt to do that. For example, in this issue there are exclusive interviews with the playwrights Don DeLillo and John Kolvenbach, a conversation with ensemble member Austin Pendleton about his upcoming appearance in Cormac McCarthy’s new play The Sunset Limited, a contextual article addressing Steppenwolf’s history of plays on the family dynamic, photos of Steppenwolf’s production history and much more. Our corporate partners at Ogilvy & Mather have worked tirelessly with us to design a publication that effectively combines the magazine, program and new content into one publication. We have had a great response to the publication from you, our audience. Although, as with any new project of this ambition, there’s always room for improvement. Through our audience surveys that specifically solicited your feedback to the publication, we have received some very helpful suggestions and questions. Some thought that the size of the program made it difficult to transport. If the hope is that you will take Backstage home with you after the performance for further reading, we need to think about that problem. Some of you voiced concern that the publication appeared unnecessarily expensive for Steppenwolf. In fact, by adding some advertising to the publication and combining its function to serve both the magazine and program functions, the net cost of the publication has been significantly reduced. Finally, Backstage is still sent in advance to subscribers, some of whom felt that receiving the publication twice seemed wasteful. We understand that reaction and are working on ways to offer subscribers a choice as to when and where they want to receive Backstage. Our goal with the new Backstage is simply to make your theater-going experience at Steppenwolf a rich and unique one. Please continue to give us feedback on this or any of the other initiatives we are launching in this special anniversary season. One of the easiest ways to give that feedback is by e-mail at customerservice@steppenwolf.org. As always, thank you for your continued interest and support of Steppenwolf.
News & Articles
Listening to You
by David Hawkanson
One of the many changes we made at Steppenwolf this year to enhance your theater-going experience was the conversion of the Backstage publication in to our house program. In the past, Backstage was a publication made available only to our subscribers, containing in-depth articles and coverage of Steppenwolf productions and events. The prior house program was a national publication that, while providing adequate space for cast listings, staff credits and contributor recognition, left insuffi cient space to provide you with background on the play, the playwright and other subjects that might enhance your play-going experience. As one long-time subscriber from Potomac, Maryland, (yes, Potomac, Maryland!) wrote me last year: “I feel a real disconnect between the commercial New York flavor of your program and the richness, substance and unique Chicago nature of Steppenwolf.” Steppenwolf’s audiences are smart, committed, sophisticated theater-goers. They expect this theatre to give them challenging, thought-provoking, innovative experiences. We know from our discussions with you in events like our post-performance discussions that you want to be engaged. The new expanded program is another attempt to do that. For example, in this issue there are exclusive interviews with the playwrights Don DeLillo and John Kolvenbach, a conversation with ensemble member Austin Pendleton about his upcoming appearance in Cormac McCarthy’s new play The Sunset Limited, a contextual article addressing Steppenwolf’s history of plays on the family dynamic, photos of Steppenwolf’s production history and much more. Our corporate partners at Ogilvy & Mather have worked tirelessly with us to design a publication that effectively combines the magazine, program and new content into one publication. We have had a great response to the publication from you, our audience. Although, as with any new project of this ambition, there’s always room for improvement. Through our audience surveys that specifically solicited your feedback to the publication, we have received some very helpful suggestions and questions. Some thought that the size of the program made it difficult to transport. If the hope is that you will take Backstage home with you after the performance for further reading, we need to think about that problem. Some of you voiced concern that the publication appeared unnecessarily expensive for Steppenwolf. In fact, by adding some advertising to the publication and combining its function to serve both the magazine and program functions, the net cost of the publication has been significantly reduced. Finally, Backstage is still sent in advance to subscribers, some of whom felt that receiving the publication twice seemed wasteful. We understand that reaction and are working on ways to offer subscribers a choice as to when and where they want to receive Backstage. Our goal with the new Backstage is simply to make your theater-going experience at Steppenwolf a rich and unique one. Please continue to give us feedback on this or any of the other initiatives we are launching in this special anniversary season. One of the easiest ways to give that feedback is by e-mail at customerservice@steppenwolf.org. As always, thank you for your continued interest and support of Steppenwolf.