Paving The Way For Fresh Theatre In ChicagoUnless you're a new Steve On Broadway (SOB) reader, you already know how much I absolutely adore Chicago's
Steppenwolf Theatre Company, along with all the incredible individuals behind the scenes who make it all come together.
As with many maturing theatre organizations, Steppenwolf takes enormous pride in championing tomorrow's creative stage visionaries today. Each year, Steppenwolf provides a select group of talented young men and women with the opportunity to intern and learn the ropes, often quite literally.
During my visits through the last several years, one highlight for me has been getting to know many of these incredibly gifted individuals. When one of them, a remarkably self-assured David Perez, happened to tell me that he was starting a theatre company with two of his peers from the Steppenwolf Theatre Apprentice Program (Brittany Barnes and Julia Dossett), I was intrigued. Being regaled by Perez's fearless determination and sheer grit, I just knew that this was someone to watch -- no matter that he may have been serving me a drink as part of his apprenticeship duties.
Perez, Barnes and Dossett, along with Tim Schoen, formed
Pavement Group "with the endeavor to provide bold artistic opportunities for emerging playwrights, designers, directors, and arts managers." I love the fact that the vision of these Steppenwolf graduates is to serve as a test-kitchen for new plays and playwrights alike.
To date, I've had the good fortune of seeing two incredibly well-acted and directed plays,
fracture/mechanics and
Lipstick Traces - A Secret History Of The 20th Century. Mind you, since I'm a generation older than these brilliant twenty-somethings, I know I'm not exactly their target audience. But no matter. They are striking a powerful chord by providing riveting entertainment geared toward weaning a whole new generation on the joys of live theatre.
Pavement Group has taken a very important step forward in their evolution. In addition to producing many plays, they have jumped through the necessary hoops to become a bona fide 501(c)(3) organization. And with that, they're able to accept your tax-deductible donations. I hope you'll consider
giving to this fledgling and immensely exciting theatre company.
Who knows? Pavement Group could very well be the Steppenwolf of tomorrow. But you can get those early bragging rights by
supporting it today.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Brittany Barnes, Chicago, David Perez, fractured/mechanics, Julia Dossett, Lipstick Traces: A Secret History Of The 20th Century, Pavement Group, Steppenwolf, Tim Schoen
Lipstick Traces - A Secret History Of The 20th Century (The SOB Review) - Av-Aerie, Chicago, IL
*** (out of ****)How radically cool is this?
In setting the stage for the
Pavement Group's decidedly underground
Lipstick Traces - A Secret History Of The 20th Century, invited guests entered Chicago's
Av-Aerie through a loading dock door and were required to check in to make sure their names were included on the list. There were no tickets, per se, just donations to be offered in a basket.
Talk about setting the stage for something as freewheeling and fascinating as the mini-history on the origins of the punk movement, which, as told here, was not so much about creating art as actually living in a situation.
If you've never heard of the Windy City's fledgling Pavement Group, count this as your lesson. Founded by three
Steppenwolf Theatre Apprentice Program members -- David Perez, Brittany Barnes, and Julia Dossett -- along with Tim Schoen, the company's first play
Perks of Nudity was produced barely a year and a half ago. The Pavement Group's vision:
...is to be the “kitchen” for new plays and new playwrights in Chicago. We strive to provide the pragmatic and institutional support to enable fresh plays to flourish. Through development, dramaturgy, and pairing of playwrights and directors, our proverbial “kitchen” provides the artistic and practical atmosphere needed for great plays to reach fruition.
Having now taken in Pavement Group's latest production, helmed by Perez, who also serves as the company's artistic director, this is a company to watch.
Lipstick Traces is a fast-paced whizbang work (clocking in well under 2 hours), filled with such illuminating detours ranging from the nearly nihilistic
Dada movement to the formation of the
Sex Pistols that it's easy to feel like all of the wind has just been knocked out of you.
With a hardworking cast, Perez succeeds in making the audience "negotiate your taste around it," as he puts it in his program notes. That includes an excellent recreation of the Sex Pistols' infamous early interview on Britain's "
Bill Grundy Show" in which
Johnny Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten, played to an authentic, anarchist hilt by Joey Steakley) and his mates freely litter their appearance with expletives that would still make our stateside
FCC blanch.
Taking us on this hectic jaunt down an alternate universe's memory lane are Zach Gonzalez-Landis as the smooth-talking impresario
Malcolm McLaren and Heidi Koling as Dr. Narrator. Both offer terrific performances bordering on terrifying, particularly when Koling's Narrator and the industrious cast effectively connect the daringly dangerous dots spanning the fifty year gap between the Dadaists and the punk movement in such rapid-fire brilliance -- including through Paul Elliott's breathtaking video design -- that I regretted not being able to see
Lipstick Traces once more to more adequately comprehend all of its nuance.
As offered by the Pavement Group,
Lipstick Traces is far from traditional fare. But the challenging piece was raw and vital, as well as exciting. Credit this group for opening the live theatre, perhaps the second oldest form of amusement, up to a new generation seeking out, ironically enough,
alternative entertainment.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Chicago, David Perez, Heidi Koling, Lipstick Traces: A Secret History Of The 20th Century, Paul Elliott, Pavement Group, Steppenwolf, The SOB Review, Zach Gonzalez-Landis
