As a new era at Steppenwolf begins, I am honored to invite you to join us for our 2016/17 Season. Putting this season together, the first curated by our new artistic team, has been hugely exciting and deeply rewarding. We are eager to share with you a larger and more diverse selection of experiences, including bold, inspiring, funny and brave work, all featuring our ensemble in ways both familiar and new. This is a momentous time to be a part of our ensemble theatre experiment, and I do hope you’ll be with me for the journey. Highlights from our coming season include:
- A moving and enthralling world premiere from playwright David Rabe (Streamers, Hurlyburly) that I will direct to kick off the season.
- A smart and insightful new play, commissioned by Steppenwolf, about the staff in a boutique hotel in New York from playwright Erika Sheffer and director/ensemble member Yasen Peyankov, the team that brought you Russian Transport.
- A world premiere comedy from ensemble member Tracy Letts.
- A sly and subversive family comedy from playwright Taylor Mac, featuring ensemble member Amy Morton, that took New York by storm.
I am also thrilled to let you know that we are implementing an exciting change to our regular five-play season. As Steppenwolf subscribers, we’ve heard from you that you crave both choice and flexibility in your season subscription. To that end, we are excited to announce that we will be producing six subscription plays next year, offering you the opportunity to choose between two productions in our Upstairs Theatre, introducing options that we believe will help you fit Steppenwolf more easily into your busy lifestyle.
I have been a part of the Steppenwolf family for over twenty years and I know I share with you a deep commitment to the continued excellence of our theater. As artistic director, it is my goal to generate more opportunities to make manifest that excellence, with both increased opportunities for our current company members as well as more chances to feature younger and more diverse artists we hope will help shape our future.
This new season marks the beginning of a multi-year effort to match our ambition with your experience: To invest in the artistry that is and will continue to be the hallmark of Steppenwolf Theatre by creating vital and thrilling work more often and to make it even easier for you, our subscribers, to be a part of it.
Thank you for your generosity and for your appetite for exciting theatre. I feel honored to share these new collaborations from our ensemble and other exciting theatre artists with you.
Warm regards,
Anna D. Shapiro
Artistic Director