Steppenwolf for Young Adults Announces 2010-2011 Season Including MOCKINGBIRD

Steppenwolf for Young Adults announces its 2010-2011 Season: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, dramatized by Christopher Sergel and directed by Hallie Gordon and Samuel J. and K., a new play by Mat Smart, directed by ensemble member Rick Snyder.

"For our 2010-2011 Season, Steppenwolf for Young Adults is pleased to present a classic work and an exciting new play that speak to each other across decades and cultures about issues of race and family," comments Artistic and Educational Director of SYA Hallie Gordon. "As Steppenwolf embarks on a new season exploring the public/private self, these two plays focus on one of the challenges young adults face everyday: trying to balance their public and private identities," adds Gordon.

Tickets are currently on sale for high school groups only by contacting the Steppenwolf for Young Adults Education Coordinator at (312) 654-5639. Individual tickets will go on sale to the public at a later date.

Steppenwolf for Young Adults' 2010-11 Season:

October 12 - November 12, 2010
To Kill a Mockingbird
By Harper Lee
Dramatized by Christopher Sergel
Directed by Hallie Gordon
Featuring ensemble member Al Wilder with Carolyn Defrin, James D. Farruggio, Franette Liebow, Larry Neumann Jr., Gary Simmers, Sandra Watson and Dexter Zollicoffer (additional casting to be announced).
In the Steppenwolf Upstairs Theatre

Set in Alabama during the Great Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows the journey of Jem and Scout Finch, whose father has been appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man framed for a crime he didn't commit. As the trial progresses, Jem and Scout witness their community in a tense tug of war between justice and racism. This timeless classic compels us to take an honest look at our nation's past and our moral responsibility to each other.

Harper Lee found instant fame after To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960. The novel was showered with literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. After Mockingbird, Lee collaborated with childhood friend Truman Capote on his nonfiction masterpiece In Cold Blood, but never published another novel. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush in 2007. Christopher Sergel's stage adaptations include Winesburg, Ohio, Cheaper by the Dozen, Up the Down Staircase and Black Elk Speaks.

February 22 - March 13, 2011
Samuel J. and K.
A new play by Mat Smart
Directed by ensemble member Rick Snyder
In the Steppenwolf Upstairs Theatre

In honor of Samuel K.'s college graduation, Samuel J. gives his adopted brother two roundtrip plane tickets to his birthplace in Cameroon. Though Samuel K. identifies as American and is uncertain about exploring his African roots, he eventually agrees to travel to Africa with his brother. As the two leave their home in suburban Chicago, they find themselves on a transformative journey, forced to navigate a foreign culture and the complexities of brotherhood. Samuel J. and K. is a compelling, contemporary story about race, identity and the bonds of family.

Naperville, Illinois native Mat Smart is a two-time recipient of the Jerome Fellowship from The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. His other plays include The Hopper Collection, The 13th of Paris and The Bebop Heard in Okinawa. He is a co-founder of Slant Theatre Project in New York City and an alumnus of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab.

Steppenwolf for Young Adults' unique approach combines play production with educational components to enhance arts education for young audiences, as well as their teachers and families. SYA creates two full-scale professional productions each season specifically for teens. Working closely with the Chicago Public and metropolitan area schools and other community partners, SYA annually ensures access to the theater for more than 15,000 participants from Chicago's diverse communities. The initiative also includes post-show discussions with artists; classroom residencies led by Steppenwolf-trained teaching artists in more than 30 classrooms in 14 public high schools; professional development workshops for educators; and the Young Adult Council, an innovative year-round after school initiative that uniquely engages high school students in all areas of the theater's operations.

Samuel J. and K. is being developed as part of Steppenwolf's New Plays Initiative. Steppenwolf is recognized as a national leader in the development and production of new work for the American canon. Through this initiative, the company maintains ongoing relationships with writers of international prominence and rigorously discovers and supports the work of early and mid-career playwrights. Steppenwolf's New Plays Initiative is generously sponsored by The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Zell Family Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and members of the Directors Circle.

Committed to the principle of ensemble performance through the collaboration of a company of actors, directors and playwrights, Steppenwolf Theatre Company's mission is to advance the vitality and diversity of American theater by nurturing artists, encouraging repeatable creative relationships and contributing new works to the national canon. The company, formed in 1976 by a collective of actors, is dedicated to perpetuating an ethic of mutual respect and the development of artists through on-going group work. Steppenwolf has grown into an internationally renowned company of 43 artists whose talents include acting, directing, playwriting and textual adaptation. For additional information, visit www.steppenwolf.org, www.facebook.com/SteppenwolfTheatre and www.twitter.com/SteppenwolfThtr.

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