Photo Flash: Steppenwolf Theatre's CLYBOURNE PARK

Steppenwolf Theatre Company kicks off its 2011/12 season with Bruce Norris' Pulitzer Prize-winning play Clybourne Park directed by ensemble member Amy Morton, playing September 8 - November 6, 2011 in Steppenwolf's Downstairs Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St. Clybourne Park features ensemble member James Vincent Meredith with Karen Aldridge, Cliff Chamberlain, Stephanie Childers, Kirsten Fitzgerald, John Judd and Brendan Marshall-Rashid. The press performances are Saturday, September 17 at 3 pm and Tuesday, September 20 at 7:30 pm. Single tickets are currently on sale.

On two separate afternoons, 50 years apart, a modest bungalow on Chicago's northwest side becomes a contested site in the politics of race. September 1959: Russ and Bev are moving out to the suburbs. They've inadvertently sold the house to the neighborhood's first black family and ignited a community showdown. September 2009: the neighborhood is ripe for gentrification and the house is again changing hands. This time to a young white couple with plans for demolition and a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. In a provocative nod to A Raisin in the Sun, longtime Steppenwolf collaborator Bruce Norris takes a hilarious look at what happens when home becomes a battleground.

Bruce Norris won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Clybourne Park. His other works at Steppenwolf include A Parallelogram, The Unmentionables, The Pain and the Itch, We All Went Down to Amsterdam, Purple Heart and The Infidel. An ensemble member since 1997, Amy Morton's many Steppenwolf directing credits include American Buffalo, Dublin Carol, The Weir, The Pillowman, Love-Lies-Bleeding (also Kennedy Center) and Glengarry Glen Ross (also Dublin and Toronto).

Steppenwolf's 2011/12 season explores how everyday lives are touched by war. In each of the five plays, war exerts a pressure-sometimes centrally, sometimes obliquely-on the lives of the characters-a purpose, a deep need that moves them into action.

The production team for Clybourne Park includes: Todd Rosenthal (scenic design), Nan Cibula-Jenkins (costume design), Pat Collins (lighting design) and Rob Milburn & Michael Bodeen (sound design). Additional credits include: Erica Daniels (casting), Deb Styer (stage manager) and Michelle Medvin (assistant stage manager).

Photo Credit: Michael Brosilow