Steep TV

Festen

2011-05-05T18:34:00.000-07:00

A Steep Theatre 10 Year Span

2010-12-30T12:38:00.000-08:00

Guest Artists On Steep

2010-12-28T23:23:00.000-08:00

Guest Artists On Steep - The L.A. Boys

2010-12-27T23:17:00.000-08:00

A Rare Look Behind the Scenes

2010-12-26T11:12:00.000-08:00

Hollow Lands

2009-07-24T09:53:00.000-07:00

Parlour Song

2009-04-18T11:34:00.000-07:00

Jeff Recommended!

IN ARABIA WE'D ALL BE KINGS

2009-02-26T07:54:00.000-08:00

Complements of Jim Poole Creative Productions

Join us for Steep's 8th Gala!

2008-11-03T20:28:00.000-08:00

Help us celebrate Steep's 8th Season at our annual Gala & Silent Auction!

Go to SteepTheatre.com to purchase a ticket!

Enjoy a fun-filled evening of dancing, drinks and appetizers, all the while placing your bids on some exciting lots. The past two Galas were huge successes and this year's celebration promises to be more of the same!
	Open bar, dancing, appetizers and silent auction
	Saturday, November 15, 2008 from 8pm - 12am
	The Swedish American Museum 5211 N. Clark St in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago

Our 1st Production in the New Space: "SEVEN DAYS"

2008-11-03T19:45:00.000-08:00

Steep Theatre Company opens its 2008-09 season and its new theater with an original and daring work by company member Egan Reich. Seven Days is a tantalizing blend of political intrigue, sultry romance, and biting social commentary.

This season opener, conceived and written specifically for the Steep ensemble, showcases the majority of Steep members who helped contribute to the final draft in a first-ever company workshop. Steep's Jim Poole directs. Many firsts to be celebrated for the rapidly expanding Steep Theatre: new space, new works, and new techniques.

Join us November 15 in congratulating Steep Theatre on eight great years in Chicago theater at Steep's 8th Anniversary Gala!

WE'VE MOVED to 1115 W. Berwyn Avenue, Chicago, IL 60640!

Heavy Equipment On Board!

2008-11-03T19:21:00.001-08:00

Steep Theatre Heavy Equipment was installed on Oct 9!
At one point traffic was completely stopped on Berwyn Avenue... and 3 CTA busses were stacked up waiting for our 20 ton crain's counter weight to swing out of the street.

All mechanical systems: Heat, A/C, Lighting, and Bathrooms are complete and functional. (Yes! that was plural for bathrooms! and yes - AIR CONDITIONING!!!

All THANKS to DAVE BARTUSEK of Prairie Home Builders

GREAT JOB, DAVE!

Greensboro, A Requiem

2008-06-03T05:52:00.000-07:00

Click To Play

More on Greensboro

2008-05-24T06:55:00.000-07:00

Jeff Recommended!
Greensboro: A Requiem Steep Theatre Company

Chicago Tribune's Chris Jones
"...a sincerely performed and quite provocative show from one of Chicago's up-and-coming theater companies, and it includes some moving moments, many from superb ensemble cast member Lily Mojekwu. Steep co-founder Peter Moore is dangerously charming as the notorious David Duke; Brendan Melanson fleshes out the most horrible kind of Klansman; and, as police informant Edward Dawson, Steep's Alex Gillmor superbly evokes one of those glib double-dealing sleezeballs who remain a dangerous pox on the American social landscape."

Chicago Reader, Kerry Reid
"...a threnody of sorrow, rage, and regret runs through the script, and Akin's cast captures it with grace and power."

ChicagoCritic.com
"Alec Gillmor, as the sociopath Edward Dawson, aptly depicts the coldly cruel methods of the Klan, the Nazi and the police and the FBI."

TimeOut's 4 STAR Review

2008-05-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

Time Out Chicago / Issue 168 : May 15–21, 2008

Greensboro: A Requiem By Emily Mann. Dir. Brad Akin. With ensemble cast.

On November 3, 1979, an anti–Ku Klux Klan rally was held in Greensboro, North Carolina, by members of the Communist Workers Party; with TV news cameras rolling, the protesters were attacked by members of the Klan and the American Nazi Party, who shot 13 people, killing five. On November 4, 1979, the Iranian hostage crisis began and the Greensboro massacre disappeared from the nation’s front pages. Mann’s docuplay attempts to give the incident the respect it deserves, and she’s largely successful.

Mann builds her play out of courtroom transcripts, news accounts and her own interviews with survivors, participants (Alex Gillmor plays both a Klan member and law-enforcement informer) and personalities like David Duke. A projection at the top of the show states that every word of dialogue was spoken by a real person.

The playwright makes a compelling case for the complicity of Greensboro police and the local FBI, but her best work is in laying out the human complexities and regrets. Survivors rue their naïveté and mourn their youthful idealism; a preacher notes the difference between the church and the divine; a Klan speaker says Louis Farrakhan should be a model for the KKK.

Akin’s fluid, minimalist staging allows the ensemble to shine, most in multiple roles; highlights include Peter Moore ranging from blithely bigoted Duke to a paralyzed survivor, and Lily Mojekwu’s nuanced takes on four women. But the play’s heart, oddly enough, is Gillmor’s chillingly straightforward, very human turn as its most unsympathetic character.

— Kris Vire

Greensboro Runs Thru June 14th

2008-05-10T17:33:00.000-07:00

"Something happened in Greensboro, North Carolina,
I think you should know about."
November 3rd, 1979. Five demonstrators are shot and killed by members of the Nazi party and the KKK. The entire event is televised. No attacker is ever convicted. This is a story about violence, injustice, and the politics of race. This is the story of an American Tragedy.

This will be the first Chicago producction of Emily Mann's Greensboro: A Requiem and Steep Theatre's final production at their space on Sheridan until they move to their new location in the Fall.

Next Exit: Greensboro!

2008-05-05T17:25:00.000-07:00

We Made It In The Edgewater Newsletter!

2008-05-04T16:51:00.000-07:00

Edgewater Welcomes Steep Theatre
EDC is pleased to announce that Steep Theatre Company has chosen Edgewater for it's new home. We were pleased to work closely with Steep to find a home in Edgewater and add another amenity to the revitalizing Berwyn business district. In addition, EDC is helping Steep to identify sources of financial assistance to support the costs of building-out the space for their new home on Berwyn.

Peter Moore from Steep Theatre provides the following story about the move:

"After launching our search for a new theater in November 2007, Steep has signed a lease on a storefront space. Our new home is located at 1115 West Berwyn in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago. Plans are in place to open our 2008-2009 season in our new theater this Fall.

The Edgewater Development Corporation was a huge help in finding us a home in Edgewater. We're looking forward to continuing to work with them as we become part of the neighborhood.

The new site is nearly the twice the size of our current theater and will offer the sort of comfortable and professional performance space that our audience and artists deserve, while not sacrificing the intimacy that has been the trademark of Steep productions for years. We are very excited about this space and the growth we are poised to make in our new theater.

The space was formerly a small grocery store and has been vacant for years. While we have made great strides towards reaching our fundraising goals, there is a lot of work left to be done in order to realize the vision we have for our new theater."

To contribute and be a part of the new Steep Theatre, please click on the donation button to the right or send your donation to Steep Theatre Company, 5343 North Paulina, Chicago, IL 60640. We will also have some great fundraising events in the coming months. We hope you will be able to join us.

In the meantime, work continues at our Sheridan theater. We will conclude our 2007-2008 season and our tenure at 3902 North Sheridan with our production of Greensboro: A Requiem. This docu-drama by Tony Award winning playwright Emily Mann brings light to the events surrounding an anti-Ku Klux Klan rally that left 5 protesters dead in 1979. The show opens Thursday, May 8th and runs through Saturday, June 14th.

Watch what we do next!

Review Redux

2008-03-10T16:05:00.000-07:00

At Windy City Times, Jonathan Abarbanel reviews Breathing Corpses.
Here's the good parts (why read anything else?):

"Breathing Corpses is grim—although sprinkled with quirky humor—but it's never tragic, ...[Laura Wade's] crisp dialogue technique shines.

Fortunately, Steep is deep in talented actors guided by the experienced director Robin Witt. Scene Three is the prime showcase, in which Lucy Carapetyan and Jonathan Edwards portray an attractive young couple bound by mutually inflicted physical violence, both sexual and asexual. The fury of their self-centered characters is both terrifying and titillating. Julia Siple opens and closes the play as a whimsical hotel housekeeper a bit too fascinated by the bodies she finds in the beds. In the final scene she meets a live one at last, yet despite their flirtation the play closes on an ambiguous note: Is her glow of happiness one of joy or merely excitement and potential danger?

Marcus Stephens' beige-and-yellow scenic design creates four distinct playing areas lined up across the wide but shallow stage, surrounded by corrugated steel panels—a la storage lockers—to suggest the constricting box-like rooms referenced by several characters. It's good-looking...

The company use rather good British accents...

If you must read the entire review, you can see it here.

Appreciating Our Gritty Gestalt

2008-03-03T13:13:00.000-08:00

THEATER REVIEW

Steep Theatre earns its buzz
90-minute, arresting drama from British playwright Laura Wade
By Chris Jones | TRIBUNE CRITIC
March 3, 2008

Because we all have to die some place, corpses inevitably intrude into everyday life. People encounter dead bodies in bushes, storage units, hotel rooms. But what of the people who make such discoveries? Do their jolting rubs against tangible mortality destroy them? Excite them? Change them for good?

Such disturbing questions are the core of Laura Wade's arresting 90-minute contemporary drama from Britain, "Breathing Corpses," currently in a provocative Chicago premiere at the tiny Steep Theatre. But the 30-year-old Wade, long a staple of the "most promising young playwrights" critics' lists in London, doesn't even leave it there.

She has said she took her title from a line by Sophocles: "When a man has lost all happiness, he's not alive. Call him a breathing corpse." Thus in Wade's 2005 play -- which follows three sets of characters running into dead bodies -- the notion of what constitutes a corpse is most assuredly up for debate.

This is a juicy, tightly packed and exceedingly smart play, and the fast-growing, buzz-heavy Steep Theatre Company had packed its little Sheridan Road storefront to the gills Friday night. If you attend this theater on a Friday or Saturday night, you'll probably have to listen to actors compete with a cover band seeping through the walls from the bar next door. You therefore get an unofficial sound design: For part of Friday's show, it was Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire," which had a certain unctuous resonance.

Weirdly, the bleed doesn't kill the experience. On the contrary, it adds to the gritty gestalt and gives the actors more to fight against.

Wade's play demands an intensely visceral production. Director Robin Witt and her cast deliver it intermittently. There are sags in the action, problematic casting, some unnecessary intrusion of fussy realistic details and an occasional deficit of sexual tension where the script wants us to be squirming in our seats.

But when this show is on the boil (as distinct from when it falls to an overly surly simmer), it's hot. The scene between actors Lucy Carapetyan and Jonathan Edwards, who play a couple immersed in heat and violence, sizzles deliciously on that dividing line between normal marital tensions and mutually assured destruction. As a chambermaid obsessed with death, the terrific Julia Siple skillfully navigates a repressed, nervous character who both horrifies us and yet seems as normal as the English provinces she -- and those dead and alive -- inhabit.

Check out the article here.

What's Happening to the Boy's Club?

2008-03-01T11:42:00.000-08:00

NEW CITY'S Tip of the Week
by William Scott

Steep Theater's "Breathing Corpses" belongs to the women of the tight ensemble this company has created. Be sure that the men involved are unfailingly spot on, but I am taken with the women. Laura Wade's script is funny and frightening. Unwitting characters stumble upon dead bodies and become the corpses themselves of scenes to follow in the time-bending chronology. The work unfolds as a well-crafted psychological thriller. Chicago is lucky this heralded writer from across the pond has come at last. Robin Witt's nimble and often quiet treatment of the material feels just right. She has a steady hand, but just as any great director she seems to barely touch the material, letting the story of death and violence unfold like real life. Julia Siple, Franette Liebow and Lucy Carapetyan anchor the show with honest portrayals of large characters. They embody their roles with specificity and dynamism. The show flies by leaving you hungry for more.

"Breathing Corpses" runs at Steep Theater, 3902 North Sheridan, (312)458-0722, through March 22. (2008-02-26)
link to the article here.

Breathing Corpses Trailer

2008-02-24T09:24:00.000-08:00

Video compliments of Jim Poole Creative Productions
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"By turns darkly comic and harrowing, the one-act nails the anguish of dysfunctional relationships in which trust and passion have turned into tedium and rage."
- Chicago Reader

"Recommended: A Must-See Show!"
- Center Stage

"FOUR STARS!"
- Time Out Chicago

"Steep is deep in talented actors guided by the experienced director Robin Witt."
- Windy City Times

Now playing at Steep Theatre
Thurs., Fri., Sat. @ 8PM

thru March 22
312 458-0722

This Brisk Steep Production

2008-02-21T22:02:00.000-08:00

Christopher Piatt weighs in on Breathing Corpses

It’s a mean trick, really. The five out-of-sequence scenes in Laura Wade’s clever dread-mystery Breathing Corpses fit together like the large, chunky pieces in a harmless jigsaw puzzle for infants. Once you’ve assembled them, however, the doomsday picture you see is grisly enough to make adults look away. Like Schnitzler's La Ronde with murder where the sex should be, Wade ties a daisy chain of tangentially related encounters into a single loop, showing us that the average joe's subconscious despair is knotted up in everybody else's. (Imagine a chart tracing how a virus gets transmitted from stranger to stranger, only with angst.) And yet in this brisk Steep production, director Robin Witt handles the material by young British scribe Wade the way British mysteries are best delivered: tart and lively, even with all the dead bodies lying about.

We first encounter a welcome stereotype; Julia Siple is keen as usual, playing a plucky chambermaid with low self-esteem who discovers a dead body in one of her rooms. (It gets her down, doncha know, because it seems like she’s the only girl on staff who ever finds cadavers on the job.) But in the next scene, Wade’s comic voice subsides with a look into the domestic life of a man panicked by the putrid stench wafting from one of the storage units he rents out, and uglier still when the play then cuts to a violent squabble between a yuppie couple (dynamic work from Jonathan Edwards and Lucy Carapetyan) whose weekend routine has been shattered when they discover a murdered girl’s body in the park. The playwright then winds us back to where we started, demonstrating en route how laughs, terror and grief often grow from the same root. With nary an underqualified actor, and a creepily impersonal wrap-around aluminum-siding set from Marcus Stephens, Steep takes us on a journey that’s also something of a trip.

We Made USA TODAY

2008-02-20T21:18:00.000-08:00

Check out the "10 Tips for Chicago Tourists" article here.

WE ARE GROWING!

2008-02-08T08:21:00.000-08:00

We are proud to welcome three new members to our ensemble:

Caroline Neff - actor - A recent graduate of Columbia College, Caroline most recently captivated audiences at Steep as Gwen in Coronado,and as Curley's Wife in Of Mice and Men. Her charisma and charm have cast her in numerous productions in Chicago and abroad, among them Mary-Arrchie Theater and Infamous Commonwealth.

Egan Reich - actor and playwright - Recently Egan's play, The Most Liquid Currency in the World was produced by Pinebox at the Building Stage in November, 2007, and General Desdemona (originally produced at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2004) is being produced at Proctor's in Albany, NY, in the spring of '08. At Steep, he was seen as Judas in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and Boyd in Book Of Days.

and
Melissa Riemer - actor - Trained at the Drama Studio London, Melissa has performed in Jeff Nominated Book Of Days as Martha Hoch, in Catch - 22 as Luciana, and the Steep Family Reunion in a variety of hilarious roles. She brings dynamic skill and experience working throughout Chicago Theater, including the Griffin Theater, Piven, Side Project and Backstage.

We are very excited about our future together at Steep and invite you to join us this year.

Watch what we do next!

In The Press

2008-02-03T20:59:00.000-08:00

Steep Sets First Capital Goal

BY Jonathan Abarbanel

At its annual fundraiser last November, 5-year old Steep Theatre Company launched its first-ever capital campaign, aiming to raise $30,000. It’s a modest goal, but it will be enough to build out a new home space for the troupe, says executive director Peter Moore. At present Steep occupies a storefront on Sheridan Road near Irving Park, but Moore says the sound bleed from the live bands playing at the next door bar is driving them bonkers. He said Steep would be happy to pick up a few more seats and a little more lobby and backstage room, but essentially they want to duplicate what they have now. Steep is looking north of Irving Park Road and east of Lincoln, which covers a large swath of Chicago’s North-Northwest Side. Ideally, Steep will open its 2008-2009 in the new home come September.

From the 2/1/08 issue of Perform Ink in the Behind the Curtain column.

Steep Scores on "Best of '07" Lists!

2008-01-03T15:24:00.000-08:00

From On The Fringe column in the Chicago Tribune:

Nina Metz picks Coronado at #3: A mystery about past indiscretions and betrayals unspooled in this play by novelist Dennis Lehane ("Mystic River"), but it was the performances here that I loved. The actors swerved from playful seduction to cat-and-mouse anxiety, and I bought it every step of the way.

At the very top of Kerry Reid's list is The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at #1 : Steep delivered a stunning version of Bertolt Brecht's Hitler-as-Capone allegory, bolstered by a dazzling performance by Yosh Hayashi in the title role and directed with verve and intelligence by Jonathan Berry.

Up next for STEEP THEATRE: Laura Wade's time-bending thriller "Breathing Corpses" in February.
Read the article here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/stage/chi-0104_bestofthefringejan04,1,1327194.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

TIME OUT's Most Wanted Top Ten list puts The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at #6:

Just when we thought both ribald satire and serious analysis of Adolf Hitler’s ascent had lost all currency, Steep’s revival of Bertolt Brecht’s 1941 Hitler allegory, set by the author in gangland Chicago, showed us otherwise. Jonathan Berry’s live-wire period staging—a major step forward for storefront Steep—put its finger smack-dab on how despots can rise in times of economic panic. And as the hunchbacked title character, writhing Yosh Hayashi turned out the non–Osage County performance of the year.
Read the article here.

Over at the Sun Times, Hedy Weiss also named us on her "things I really dug this year" list. Don't pin her down to a number, she won't have it....
*The epic proportions of the tiny Steep Theatre revival of Bertolt Brecht's "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui," with a star turn by Yosh Hayashi as a Chicago mob boss.

Celebrate Steep's 7th Anniversary!

2007-10-15T07:30:00.000-07:00

The Gala is coming!
Nov. 17th

Get Steep'd here!

CORONADO

2007-10-15T01:24:00.000-07:00

Play the Trailer!

Video complements of Jim Poole Creative Productions

Sept. 27 - Nov. 3rd
Thursday thru Saturday
8pm
3902 N. Sheridan Rd.
Where Sheridan meets Sheffield
Reservations: 312 458-0722

"As in Lehane's books, there is violence -- this is a thriller -- and a parent's worst fear realized: the loss of a child. I would argue that his heightened realities work better on stage than film. ("Gone Baby Gone," the Ben Affleck-directed adaptation of that Lehane title, debuts Wednesday at the Chicago International Film Festival.) The Steep production -- in its wonderfully crammed storefront manner -- is both piquant and moony, like the fractured moments of a life. It is a combination that burrows deep into the psyche."
- Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune
See the full Tribune review here.

"So tightly-constructed is Lehane’s intricate narrative and so riveting his preternaturally-eloquent personnel that we never lose our way—or if we think we may have, we are happy to wait until we find it again...director Kevin Gladish and his stalwart cast...generate ensemble performance at its most exemplary."
- Windy City Times
See the full WC Times review here.

"What's worse than murder?"
What we're willing to do for love, money, and, finally, redemption.
From the author of Mystic River and the company that brought you The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Steep Theatre Company presents Dennis Lehane's Coronado.

Coronado follows three intertwining tales: A father and son searching for a missing girl and a stolen diamond, a psychiatrist and a patient having an illicit affair, and two lovers plotting a murder. Set in the Southwest, Coronado is a taut thriller that explores the dark side of America and the things we're willing to do for love, for money, and finally for redemption.

Also, be sure to join us in congratulating Steep Theatre on seven great years in Chicago theater. RESERVE YOUR TICKET to the 7th Anniversary Gala TODAY!

Teaser Trailer for INSIGNIFICANCE

2007-08-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

Play the Trailer!
Video complements of Jim Poole Creative Productions

July 26th thru September 1st, 2007
Thurs, Fri and Sat nights at 8pm
3902 N. Sheridan Road
Where Sheridan meets Sheffield

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Chicago Sun Times Review

2007-08-04T21:11:00.000-07:00

Monroe, Einstein meet smart

August 1, 2007

BY HEDY WEISS Theater Critic
In 1982 (about seven years after E. L. Doctorow put a slew of historical figures from the early 20th century on a collision course in his novel, "Ragtime"), Terry Johnson, the British playwright and director, put his own time-warping cosmic spin on America, homing in on the mid 1950s. In the process, he saw to it that characters evoking Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio and Senator Joe McCarthy (the rabid anti-communist), crossed paths in a hotel room.

Johnson called his play "Insignificance" -- a title at once deeply ironic and deadly accurate. And along the way he not only unspooled Einstein's mind-altering theories about the most elemental laws of the universe. But he tapped into the whole spirit-draining notion of celebrity and the corrosive battle of the Cold War era's political "isms," and also imagined his own particular version of the big (and perhaps final) nuclear bang.

"Insignificance," now in a first-class production by Steep Theatre (the little Wrigleyville storefront that just enjoyed a huge success with Brecht's "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui"), works a neat trick by lacing the most complex ideas with iconic personalities. My companion, a physicist, was mightily impressed with the fullness and accuracy of Johnson's explanations of Einstein's theories. But the fact that Johnson has Marilyn Monroe (who wants nothing more than to be valued for her intellect), do most of the play's heavy intellectual lifting is a huge plus. And even if you don't comprehend everything, Johnson has devised enough vivid metaphors to let you catch enough.

It is 1954, and The Professor (Toby Nicholson, perfectly understated as a 70-year-old Einstein), is in town for a lecture at a conference on world peace. But there is to be no peace, for banging on his door is McCarthy (a perfectly bullying Vince Teninty), who demands he testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. (In fact, Einstein was never called to testify, though a massive F.B.I. dossier was amassed on him.)

A ferocious self-improver, McCarthy prides himself on his vocabulary, and Johnson uses the senator's infatuation with the word "solipsist" (one who believes the self is the only reality) to giddily riff on other theories of existence.

Enter The Actress (a virtuosic performance by Julia Siple, who not only brilliantly parses Einstein's theories, but captures the emotional mess that was Marilyn). In town shooting "The Seven Year Itch," she is determined to gain validation from the genius. The possibly pregnant actress also is fleeing her wildly jealous husband, the world-famous Ballplayer (Alex Gillmor, ideal as the tall, lean, gum-popping DiMaggio), a man almost as trapped by fame and intellectual self-doubt as his wife.

Director Brad Akin keeps the mix of tragedy, comedy and gargantuan ideas in a tight magnetic field. And the play's finale hints at just how short our stay in "Hotel Universe" might turn out to be.

'INSIGNIFICANCE'

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
When: Through Sept. 1
Where: Steep Theatre, 3902 N. Sheridan
Tickets: $18
Phone: (312) 458-0722

Recommended: A "Must See" Show

2007-08-04T20:55:00.000-07:00

CENTERSTAGE: "MUST SEE"
Steep Theatre rolls a romantic comedy and free physics lesson into one show.

Those close-shouldered, ensemble-minded bruisers at the Steep Theatre take on a play about four singular stars. Marilyn Monroe, Jospeh McCarthy, Joe Dimaggio and Albert Einstein, trapped in some sort of metaphysical hotel room, debate reality, relativity and relationships. Reviews of past production have tagged Terry Johnson's 1982 script as either clever or pointless, but director Brad Akin did an excellent job with Steep Theatre's "Book of Days" in 2005, making this "Insignificance" worth checking out.

The Centerstage Review, by Elisabeth Kilpatrick.
Tuesday Jul 31, 2007

Who knew that science could be so romantic?
Apparently scrappy storefront Steep Theatre did. The ensemble caps off its 2006-2007 season with "Insignificance," an elegant dark comedy that meshes physics and intimacy in a 1950s New York hotel room.
Ensemble member Brad Akin directs British playwright Terry Johnson's 1982 work, which asks an off-the-wall question: What if the lives of Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, Albert Einstein and Joseph McCarthy collided one evening? Johnson boldly places the American-as-apple-pie celebrities in fact-based fictional situations, challenging our perceptions of who these stars really were and letting their personalities shine through.
On the eve of Einstein's trial for suspected communism, his attempts to work keep getting interrupted, first by pushy McCarthy and, much later, by the disheveled but glamorous Monroe. A kooky, charming explanation from the starlet on Einstein's theory of relativity helps to forge a sweet bond between the duo, at least until Monroe's mad-as-hell husband, DiMaggio, shows up.
Ensemble member Julia Siple plays Monroe as a breathy confection dying to be taken seriously. She's a wonderful complement to ensemble member Alex Gillmor's meathead DiMaggio, whose character Gillmor seems to have seasoned liberally with the guy from SNL's "2 A-Holes" sketches. Their snippy banter carries large chunks of the play, as do DiMaggio's conversations with Einstein, played with understated aplomb by Toby Nicholson.
Vince Teninty's McCarthy simply doesn't get as much stage time as the others, and his character is less layered and engaging. Still, while the performances lack a little polish (tripping over lines was a regular occurrence at Thursday's premiere), they all showcase real talent through the crackling onstage chemistry. Akin has scaled "Insignificance" nicely for Steep's 40-seat space, and each audience member straining forward to see what happens next is rewarded with a close glimpse of the action.
In the long stretch of night before dawn, the celebrities’ edges soften, and we see them as people, not stars. A few overly melodramatic moments do sneak in, but for the most part the ensemble uses a deft touch, and the intimate conversations that take place are as mesmerizing as the dozens of prisms of light floating onstage at the end of the show.

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

2007-06-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

Play The Trailer!

Video complements of Jim Poole Creative Productions

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
Directed by Jonathan Berry, Brecht's epic ensemble piece recounts Hitler's rise to power through the story of a gangster's attempt to take over the Cauliflower Trade in 1930's Chicago.

Chicago gangsters, political corruption, scare tactics and extortion in the vegetable business parallel the players and maneuvers involved in the Nazi's ascent to power in the years leading up to the Second World War. Arturo Ui's manipulation of terror and apathy for political gain undoubtedly will continue Steep's tradition of bringing stories to the stage that strike a chord with the "everyperson".

Featuring ensemble members Jonathan Edwards, Alex Gillmor, Brendan Melanson, Peter Moore, Jim Poole, and Julia Siple with Sean Bolger, Ariel Brenner, Steve Gensler, Yosh Hayashi, Shole Milos, Paul Myers, Josh Odor, Eddie Paul, and Jon Stutzman

MAY 31 thru JULY 7
Thursdays - Saturdays @ 8 PM

Brecht's 'Rise' red-hot on Steep storefront stage

2007-06-06T20:27:00.000-07:00

SunTimes review:

June 6, 2007

BY HEDY WEISS Theater Critic

What better metaphor could there be for the thugs who rose to power in Nazi Germany than the mobsters who ruled Chicago in the 1920s? And who could appear more ridiculous (though deadly dangerous) than a ruthless, pathetic little Chicago criminal engaged in ever-escalating terror -- a man with an intriguing resemblance to Shakespeare's misshapen Richard III?

This, as it happens, is the essential premise of Bertolt Brecht's 1941 play, "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui," now receiving one of those red-hot, astonishingly accomplished storefront productions for which Chicago is famous. Steep Theatre's large-scale, small-stage take on the play is sensational. And gifted director Jonathan Berry, whose recent hits include "Dead End" and "The Piano Tuner," once again demonstrates his flair for animating period pieces, shaping large ensembles and orchestrating dialogue as if it were musical notation.

Arturo Ui (Yosh Hayashi, ideal as the twisted goose-stepper) is a vicious, cold-blooded runt hungry for power. Down on his luck, he hatches a plan to corner the city's cauliflower market, demand big-time protection money from the vegetable vendors and strong-arm a squeaky-clean official to front for him.

Ui's brutal tactics work, just as Hitler's did, and his rise is never successfully resisted.

Paul Myers, Josh Odor, Jonathan Edwards, Peter Moore, Sean Bolger and Ariel Brenner are standouts in an altogether flawless cast -- one supported at every turn by the design team.

hweiss@suntimes.com - ARTICLE found here

'THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI'

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
When: Through July 7
Where: Steep Theatre, 3902 N. Sheridan
Tickets: $18
Phone: (312) 458-0722

Steep is more than up to the challenges of 'Ui'

2007-06-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

ON THE FRINGE:

By Kerry Reid
Special to the Tribune

June 8, 2007

Bertolt Brecht's 1941 gangster allegory "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui" could be the theatrical equivalent of Godwin's Law, that Internet-age maxim decreeing that whoever brings up a Hitler analogy in an online discussion loses the argument. Al Capone was a murderous thug, but he was driven by greed, not an overarching ideology based on racial "purity" and world domination.

Jonathan Berry's cunning staging of "Arturo Ui" for Steep Theatre Company neatly avoids the awkward problems of the analogy -- and the limitations of the storefront space -- by de-emphasizing the usual elements of Brecht's "epic" theater in favor of a smart, fast-moving, hard-boiled burlesque. The result is the most cohesive and satisfying show I've seen from this company to date, and it features a dazzling, sit-up-and-take-notice performance from Yosh Hayashi in the title role, who is first among equals in a stellar ensemble. Steep specializes in large-cast productions, with many actors playing multiple roles, and every performance here is in exquisite sync with the tone of the production.

George Tabori's bold translation incorporates Shakespearean blank verse, emphasizing the play's debt to "Richard III." The hunch-shouldered Hayashi slithers through his den of thieves, murderers and extortionists like a malevolent apostrophe, eliminating anyone who gets in the way of his plans to take over the Chicago "cauliflower trust" and to annex Cicero (read: Austria). Scratchy voice-overs make the connection between the onstage events and critical turning points in the rise of Hitler, such as the burning of the Reichstag and the assassination of Dollfus, the Austrian chancellor. (In one of the more pointed R III references, Hayashi's Ui pitches woo to the widow of "Dullfeet" over the casket of her murdered husband.) The funniest scene, in which a disheveled and drunken thespian (Jim Poole) teaches the near-feral Ui how to walk with authority and address the crowd, grows chilling as the dictator-in-waiting begins to ape the mannerisms of Hitler -- though having Ui appear with the famous Hitler 'stache at the end might be hammering the point home a bit too hard.

But one doesn't need to know every historical parallel to grasp Brecht's essential point -- would-be dictators are petty narcissistic criminals who should be greeted with mass derision rather than fear. Heather Gilbert and Jessica Harpenau's stark lighting design incorporates several work lights hanging from cords around the perimeters. One wishes that someone on stage would grab a light, shove it into the face of Hayashi's addled "mastermind" and say "Here. Is this what you're so afraid of?" Their failure to do so is what gives Brecht's imperfect but engaging parable its relevance, made crystal-clear in this not-to-be-missed production.

On-line article can be found here.

4 Star Time Out Review

2007-06-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

****

June 7 - 13 Issue

A flashlight shines on each Chicago gangster’s face, among them Arturo Ui (Hayashi), a laughably dense but ruthless mobster-monster looking to ascend in evil’s ranks. Director Berry likewise shines a piercing light on Brecht’s gripping allegory of Hitler’s rise to power. If Brechtian has become one of those eponymous terms that, in their overuse, have less meaning than cachet, whatever it signifies—highlighting theatrical artifice, thus alienating not to distance but to provoke—Berry gets it and gets it across. With mobsters speaking the stylized, rhyming language, Ui is engagingly disorienting—a disorientation compounded by a design (set: Brandon Wardell; lighting: Heather Gilbert, Jessica Harpenau) that evokes at once a specific time, no time and any time. While the complicated plot confuses (and weirdly absents Hitler’s anti-Semitism), Berry makes crystal clear the trajectory of evil rising.

Among a strong ensemble, Hayashi is exceptional; “Buy me a judge,” his weaselly Ui squawks, “or else I got no rights.” With Hayashi’s twisted frame manifesting Ui’s twisted soul, he enlists a pompous old actor to teach him to walk and talk power. The ensuing high jinks, as Ui adopts grotesque gestures broadly exaggerating Hitler’s, elicit our laughter. After Ui takes over the cauliflower trust by offering “protection” to grocers who fail to resist his resistible rise, those same gestures, now eerily realistic, elicit our astonishment. In the second act, Berry’s staging markedly loses force and focus, but the final image, slamming tight the Ui-Hitler link, isn’t a light in the face, but a slap.—Novid Parsi

On-line article found here.

Dueling Critics: On Public Radio WBEZ

2007-06-06T17:00:00.000-07:00

Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui is on stage now at Steep Theatre in Lakeview, and here to tell us if we should resist Arturo or not are our Dueling Critics Jonathan Abarbanel and Kelly Kleiman.
Link to Listen to the Podcast!

First aired on WBEZ 91.5 FM 6/08/07 Dueling Critics is a segment of Eight Forty-Eight, an award-winning magazine format hosted by Steve Edwards.