Photo Flash: First Look at Steppenwolf for Young Adults' FML

Steppenwolf for Young Adults's FML: HOW Carson McCullers SAVED MY LIFE opened last night at in Steppenwolf's Downstairs Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St. Check out these production shots of the world premiere.

FML: HOW Carson McCullers SAVED MY LIFE by Sarah Gubbins is directed by Joanie Schultz and will play until March 18, 2012  The production features Zoe Levin, Ian Daniel McLaren, Lily Mojekwu, Fiona Robert and Bradley Grant Smith. 

About the show: "Jo's junior year of high school in suburban LaGrange, Illinois started off just fine-not that it's ever easy being queer at 16. Thankfully, a new English teacher assigns Carson McCullers' famed novel The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter and Jo discovers an unshakable kinship to McCullers' central character John Singer. Like Singer, Jo is forever the listener, definitively the outsider, perpetually misunderstood and filled with unrequited love. Yet when she is a victim of a gay-bashing incident, her world is turned upside down and she must decide whether to seek revenge or redemption. A story about isolation, fitting in and finding oneself, fml: how Carson McCullers saved my life is a play about surviving high school and how literature still has the power to transform how we see the world."

"This spring, we are proud to present Sarah Gubbins' fml: how Carson McCullers saved my life, commissioned especially for Steppenwolf for Young Adults," comments Artistic and Educational Director for SYA Hallie Gordon. "This world premiere is inspired by our fall production of Carson McCullers' The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter. We are excited to investigate how McCullers' classic tale has prompted a bold response from a contemporary playwright-creating something new and meaningful for the current generation of young adults," adds Gordon.

Sarah Gubbins is a Chicago playwright whose full length plays include Fair Use, In Loco Parentis, The Water Play and The Kid Thing. Her plays have been read or developed at Steppenwolf, The Public Theater, New York Theater Workshop, The Goodman Theatre, American Theater Company, About Face Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, Next Theatre Company, Actor's Express and Collaboraction. Joanie Schultz recently directed Seth Bockley's Ask Aunt Susan at the Goodman Theatre and Sarah Gubbins' The Kid Thing, a co-production with About Face Theatre and Chicago Dramatists. Other directing credits include The Metal Children at Next Theatre, Wreckage and Many Loves at Caffeine Theatre, Shining City at Redtwist Theatre, A Brief History of Helen of Troy and In Arabia We'd All Be Kings at Steep Theatre, The Ring Cycle at Building Stage and A Perfect Wedding and Stone Cold Dead Serious at Circle Theatre.

The fml: how Carson McCullers saved my life production team includes: Chelsea Warren (sets) David Hyman (costumes), Lee Keenan (lights), Thomas Dixon (sound) and Mike Tutaj (projections). Additional credits include Erica Daniels (casting) and Cassie Wolgamott (stage manager).

Photo credit: Michael Brosilow.

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