Sometimes it seems there are almost as many ways for a play to get programmed at Steppenwolf as there are scripts in the world. In the case of Lucas Hnath’s The Christians, there was a wonderful intersection of interests that spanned several years, two different artistic directors, many staff members and more than a few of our ensemble. The road that led us to tonight is perhaps the best example of how a theater like ours, one that governs itself based on shared interests and encourages each individual to think in terms of what’s best for the whole, goes about choosing what work to share with our primary partner: you.
Several years ago, our former Artistic Director, Martha Lavey, brought the play to the artistic staff . It was a play about which she felt strongly and she wanted to check our response. I remember reading it and being immediately struck by its form. The Christians is truly original in that it changes the dynamic of the event/audience relationship from performer/passive observer to one of leader/follower and so instantly increases the tension of the exchange. Not only is the literal theater environment transformed, the function of public sharing changes. In this play, rhetorical thematic ideas are bravely replaced with direct questions about and challenges to some of the most essential mysteries of human existence. I was also deeply moved that Hnath posed these questions so humanely, gently bursting forth from characters whose intent was so immediately evident; questions of faith, of belief and perhaps most compelling, questions about what motivates us in our public declaration of either.
Many of us in the company and on staff advocated on behalf of the play, but in the end, we simply could not match it with a director. This is a very important part of any programming decision: even if the artistic director chooses the play and the ensemble stands behind it, the project needs a director whose connection to the work is deep enough and personal enough to guide it through to a meaningful production. In the case of The Christians, this seemed almost perversely necessary: a play about the complexities of faith and its public testimony needed not just a translator of the idea but a believer in the endeavor.
Miraculously, almost a year after our last conversation about the play, ensemble member K. Todd Freeman found himself workshopping another of Hnath’s plays just as artistic producer Aaron Carter sent him The Christians in hopes that it would pique his directorial interest. Primed by
his experience with Hnath in the workshop, K. Todd read it and responded that he passionately wanted to direct it. He felt a personal connection not just to the ideas of the play but the characters struggling with them—and as an actor’s theatre, this connection is our North Star. The play, and its life at Steppenwolf, seemed predestined.
In a way, the programming of the play and the way it came about is, in itself, an articulation of our entire organization’s shared search for stories that look for the meaning and brotherhood in this world. And at a time of such national fracturing, it feels healing to us to embark on the journey that is The Christians, where the human experience and all its un-knowableness is re ected with dignity, compassion and in the end, faith.
Anna D. Shapiro, Artistic Director