VIRGINIA WOOLF?, DETROIT et al. Set for Steppenwolf '10-'11 Season

Steppenwolf Theatre Company announced its 2010-2011 Subscription Season, exploring the theme of public/private self. Season subscriptions go on-sale to the public on Wednesday, March 10th at 11 a.m.

"For our 2010-2011 season, we explore the theme of public/private self. The five plays we have chosen explore how the public and private aspects of our lives unfold in an increasingly complex world," comments Steppenwolf Artistic Director Martha Lavey. "We have chosen five stories that, in their unique ways, reveal the dual nature of our public/private lives and the multiple communities in which we circulate. The dynamic interplay between our public and private selves is home to both our darkness and our brilliance. We invite you to join us for our 35th anniversary and experience lives that may seem familiar-until they reveal their beautiful, strange angles," adds Lavey.

Steppenwolf ensemble members currently confirmed for the 2010-2011 Season include: Alana Arenas, Kate Arrington, Robert Breuler, K. Todd Freeman, Tina Landau, Tracy Letts, Amy Morton, Sally Murphy and Yasen Peyankov. Additional casting to be announced.

The Steppenwolf Theatre Company 2010-2011 Subscription Season includes:

Detroit
September 9 - November 7, 2010
A new play by Lisa D'Amour
Featuring ensemble members Kate Arrington and Robert Breuler
In the Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre

Picture-perfect couple Ben and Mary fire up the grill to welcome the new neighbors who've moved into the long-empty house next door. Three barbeques later, the fledgling friendship veers out of control, shattering Ben and Mary's carefully maintained semblance of success-with comic, unexpected consequences. Detroit is a fresh, off-beat look at what happens when we dare to open ourselves up to something new.

Lisa D'Amour is a playwright and interdisciplinary artist whose works have been presented in New York and other major U.S. cities. D'Amour has been commissioned to write two new plays for Steppenwolf over the next two years through support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Edward Albee's
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
December 2, 2010 - February 6, 2011
Directed by Pam MacKinnon
Featuring ensemble members Tracy Letts and Amy Morton
In the Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre

On the campus of a small New England college, George and Martha invite a new professor and his wife home for a nightcap. As the cocktails flow, the young couple finds themselves caught in the crossfire of a savage marital war where the combatants attack the self deceptions they forged for their own survival. Ensemble members Tracy Letts and Amy Morton face off as one of theatre's most notoriously dysfunctional couples in Albee's hilarious and harrowing masterpiece.

Edward Albee is a Pulitzer Prize and Tony® Award-winning American playwright whose noted works include A Delicate Balance, Seascape, Three Tall Women and The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? Pam MacKinnon returns to Steppenwolf, having previously directed Good Boys and True. A trusted collaborator of Albee's, MacKinnon most recently directed his play Occupant at New York's Signature Theatre, having previously directed productions of Peter and Jerry; The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? and The Play About the Baby.

Sex with Strangers
January 20 - May 15, 2011
By Laura Eason
Directed by associate artist Jessica Thebus
Featuring ensemble member Sally Murphy with Stephen Louis Grush
In the Steppenwolf Upstairs Theatre

Ethan is a hot young writer whose online journals of "sexcapades" are the buzz of the blogosphere. Olivia is an attractive 30-something whose own writing career is fizzling. They hook up, sex turns into dating and dating into something more complicated. A break-out hit at Steppenwolf's 2009 First Look Repertory, Sex with Strangers explores how we invent our identity - online and off - and what happens when our private lives become public domain.

Laura Eason, a longtime member of the Lookingglass Theatre ensemble, is the author of more than 15 plays, both original works and adaptations. Previous productions at Steppenwolf include When the Messenger is Hot, A Tale of Two Cities and Huck Finn. Jessica Thebus directed Sex with Strangers during Steppenwolf's 2009 First Look Repertory of New Work. Other Steppenwolf directing credits include Intimate Apparel, Dead Man's Cell Phone, No Place Like Home, When the Messenger is Hot (also 59E59 Theaters, NYC) and Sonia Flew.

The Hot L Baltimore
March 24 - May 29, 2011
By Lanford Wilson
Directed by ensemble member Tina Landau
Featuring ensemble members Alana Arenas, K. Todd Freeman and Yasen Peyankov
In the Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre

The Hotel Baltimore used to be the swankiest place in town-now it has a date with the wrecking ball. Eviction notices just went out to its residents, who live on the fringes of society and call the seedy hotel home. This acclaimed play from the author of Balm in Gilead is filled with everyday humanity-unexpectedly intimate and moving. Helmed by visionary director Tina Landau, Hot L Baltimore reveals the private lives of an unconventional community about to be turned inside out.

Steppenwolf's defining 1980 production of Lanford Wilson's Balm in Gilead later transferred Off-Broadway. Other plays by the Pulitzer Prize winner seen at Steppenwolf include The Fifth of July, Home Free, his translation of Three Sisters (1985) and Burn This. Tina Landau's Steppenwolf directing credits include The Brother/Sister Plays, Superior Donuts by ensemble member Tracy Letts (also on Broadway), The Tempest, The Diary of Anne Frank, Cherry Orchard, The Time of Your Life, The Berlin Circle and her own play, Space.

Middletown
June 16 - August 14, 2011
A new play by Will Eno
Directed by Les Waters
Featuring ensemble member Alana Arenas
In the Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre

Mary Swanson just moved to Middletown. About to have her first child, she is eager to enjoy the neighborly bonds a small town promises. But life in Middletown is complicated: neighbors are near strangers and moments of connection are fleeting. Middletown is a playful, poignant portrait of a town with two lives, one ordinary and visible, the other epic and mysterious.

Will Eno's frequently produced play THOM PAIN (based on nothing) was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. His other works include The Flu Season, TRAGEDY: a tragedy and OH, THE HUMANITY and other exclamations. Les Waters serves as Associate Artistic Director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre. He returns to Steppenwolf, having previously directed The Designated Mourner and The Memory of Water.

Subscription Series packages start at $135. Dinner/Theatre and Wine Series packages are also available. To purchase a 2010-2011 subscription, contact Audience Services at 1650 N. Halsted, (312) 335-1650 or visit www.steppenwolf.org.

Free post-show discussions are offered after every performance in the subscription season.
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 42 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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