Score One for the Girls: THE WOLVES at the Goodman's Owen Theatre

Against all kinds of obstacles, women in theater have thrown down the gauntlet on more than one front. Freedom from harassment, decent access to directing, design and stage management jobs, consideration for women playwrights and actors when artistic directors are choosing their seasons... It's all on the table. And it only makes sense. If you look around when you go to the theater, you already know that audiences are more likely to be made up of women. But how have theaters responded? Is anything getting better? From my perspective, the answer is yes and no. Locally, we've seen some progress*, a continuation of good work**, and a decided retreat into Same Old Same Old White Guy Theater***. But Chicago's Goodman Theatre has taken the ball and run with it, with programming like Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves, directed by Vanessa Stalling, who earned her MFA in directing at Illinois State University.

The Wolves is a wonderful choice, an inside look at a team of girls playing soccer and what's important to them. Stalling is the perfect director for it, too, with her emphasis on the physical side of theater, and appreciation for women on stage who can "look strong, be aggressive or take up space." That is exactly what these soccer players do as they run through practice, joke around, pick at issues they may not exactly understand, vie for playing time, and struggle with things like friendship, teamwork, sexuality, parents and mortality. None of it is revolutionary, just new, because somebody is finally listening in to teenage girls who find joy in strength and competition, pushing and kicking their way in a world that isn't all that welcoming.

DeLappe's script uses overlapping, fragmented dialogue that kicks around in a much less disciplined fashion than the drills the girls are running, veering from global atrocities to yogurt, yurts, tampons and maxi pads with breathless speed. Both the dialogue and the action are choreographed and tricky, but Stalling keeps her actors on their toes throughout the play and together, they drive the narrative perfectly. Whether or not any of these women actually played soccer during their high school years, they've brought their skills up to a level that reads like the real thing. Their stamina and focus are amazing.

As #46, Erin O'Shea stands out both with her soccer prowess as well as her acting, delivering emotional depth as an outsider who can't quite figure out the social cues that come so easily to her teammates. ISU grad Cydney Moody is a delight as #8, the more naïve one who falls apart when she finds out that the national tournament will be in Tulsa instead of Orlando, while Sarah Price makes smart girl #11 a real treat. I also enjoyed Isa Arciniegas as the no-nonsense captain of the team, Taylor Blim as a sweet girl who shows signs of an eating disorder, Angela Alise as the stressed-out goalie, Mary Tilden as a goofball whose jokes don't exactly land, and Aurora Real De Asua and Natalie Joyce as the most socially advanced of the bunch. Meighan Gerachis arrives late in the game, but she makes quite an impact with a heartbreaker of a monologue.

The Wolves is staged in the round (or rectangle) in the Goodman's Owen Theatre, with the audience up close to the action. Set Designer Collette Pollard has created a simple but effective space lined with artificial turf and surrounded by netting that allows for in-your-face athletics. Mikhail Fiksel's sound design and Keith Parham's lighting design add a blast of energy, as well.

Because it has proved so popular, The Wolves has been extended past its original end date. That means you can still see it through March 18 if you can get a ticket.

THE WOLVES
By Sarah DeLappe

The Owen Theatre at the Goodman Theatre
February 9 to March 18, 2018

Directed by Vanessa Stalling
Set design by Collette Pollard
Costume design by Noël Huntzinger
Lighting design by Keith Parham
Original music and sound design by Mikhail Fiksel
Dramaturgy by Kristin Idasak

Production Stage Manager: Nikki Blue
Soccer Skill Building Coach: Katie Berkopec

Cast: Angela Alise, Isa Arciniegas, Taylor Blim, Aurora Real De Asua, Meighan Gerachis, Natalie Joyce, Cydney Moody, Erin O'Shea, Sarah Price and Mary Tilden


* Illinois State University has done excellent work in spotlighting plays by women, people of color and from authors outside the United States, in its last two seasons. In Urbana, the Station Theatre is devoting most of its current season to women playwrights and women directors.

** New Route Theater in Bloomington-Normal continues its mission of giving a voice to underrepresented communities and ethnically and culturally diverse playwrights. 

*** Heartland Theatre has just announced a new mainstage season that will be 100% white male voices, after two seasons with paltry representation (a play by Anna Zeigler in 2017 and book and lyrics by Tina Landau in this year's Floyd Collins are the sole contributions of women) and more than double the number of roles available to men over those seasons.

Chicago's Jeff Awards for 2014

The Equity half of Chicago's annual Joseph Jefferson Awards -- AKA the Jeffs -- were handed out Monday night Drury Lane Oakbrook. Big winners included American Blues Theatre, the Goodman and Writers Theatre, but the awards were spread out over a dozen different shows by the end of the evening. A tribute to the members of the Chicago theatre community who passed away this year -- a huge loss to a tight-knit community -- was an emotional highlight of the night.

So who walked away with the hardware? Here are your winners:

PRODUCTION (Play/Large)
The Dance of Death, Writers Theatre

PRODUCTION (Play/Midsize)
The Normal Heart, TimeLine Theatre Company

PRODUCTION (Musical/Large)
Brigadoon, Goodman Theatre

PRODUCTION (Musical/Midsize)
Hank Williams: Lost Highway, American Blues Theater

PRODUCTION (Revue)
Ain't Misbehavin', Porchlight Music Theatre

DIRECTOR (Play)
Nick Bowling, The Normal Heart, TimeLine Theatre Company

DIRECTOR (Musical)
William Osetek, Next to Normal, Drury Lane Productions

DIRECTOR (Revue)
Brenda Didier, Ain't Misbehavin', Porchlight Music Theatre

ENSEMBLE
The Seafarer, Seanachaí Theatre Company

ACTOR IN A PRINCIPAL ROLE (Play)
Larry Yando, The Dance of Death, Writers Theatre

ACTRESS IN A PRINCIPAL ROLE (Play)
Shannon Cochran, The Dance of Death, Writers Theatre

ACTOR IN A PRINCIPAL ROLE (Musical)
Matthew Brumlow, Hank Williams: Lost Highway, American Blues Theater

ACTRESS IN A PRINCIPAL ROLE (Musical)
Susie McMonagle, Next to Normal, Drury Lane Productions

ACTOR (Revue)
John Hartman, Depraved New World, The Second City

ACTRESS (Revue)
Renee Matthews, Old Jews Telling Jokes, Daniel Okrent & Peter Gethers, Richard Frankel, Tom Viertel, Steven Baruch, and Marc Routh

SOLO PERFORMANCE
Gwendolyn Whiteside, Grounded, American Blues Theater

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE (Play)
Mike Nussbaum, Smokefall, Goodman Theatre and South Coast Repertory

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE (Play)
Sandra Marquez, A View From the Bridge, Teatro Vista

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE (Musical)
Mark David Kaplan, Les Misérables, Drury Lane

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE (Musical)
Jessica Rush, Gypsy, Chicago Shakespeare Theater

NEW WORK
Rebecca Gilman, Luna Gale, Goodman Theatre

NEW ADAPTATION
John Mossman, The Goddess, The Artistic Home

CHOREOGRAPHY
Rachel Rockwell, Brigadoon, Goodman Theatre

ORIGINAL MUSIC IN A PLAY
PigPen Theatre Co., The Old Man and the Old Moon, Writers Theatre

MUSIC DIRECTION
Malcolm Ruhl, Hank Williams: Lost Highway, American Blues Theater

COSTUME DESIGN (Large)
Mara Blumenfeld, Brigadoon, Goodman Theatre

COSTUME DESIGN (Midsize)
Bill Morey, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Porchlight Music Theatre

LIGHTING DESIGN (Large)
William Kirkham, The Little Prince, Lookingglass Theatre Company in association with The Actors Gymnasium

LIGHTING DESIGN (Midsize)
Rebecca A. Barrett and Lee Keenan, Dorian, The House Theatre of Chicago

SCENIC DESIGN (Large)
Collette Pollard, In the Garden: A Darwinian Love Story, Lookingglass Theatre Company

SCENIC DESIGN (Midsize)
Katie-Bell Springman, Cock, Profiles Theatre

SOUND DESIGN (Large)
Mikhail Fiksel, The Old Man and the Old Moon, Writers Theatre

SOUND DESIGN (Midsize)
Lindsay Jones, Grounded, American Blues Theater

PROJECTIONS/VIDEO DESIGN
Sage Marie Carter, Les Misérables, Drury Lane

ARTISTIC SPECIALIZATION
Austin Cook, Piano/Conductor: Ain't Misbehavin', Porchlight Music Theatre
Jeff Klapperich, Portrait Artist: Dorian, The House Theatre of Chicago

FACING OUR TRUTH at the Goodman -- Playwrights Respond to Trayvon Martin

When the world doesn't make sense, writers look for ways to deal with the insanity. Novels, documentaries, investigative journalism... And plays. Playwrights use the forum of the stage to poke and prod at the issues, to turn them over and ponder them. They don't necessarily provide answers. But they do offer questions.

The Trayvon Martin case -- where a gun-toting man named George Zimmerman shot and killed an unarmed kid and then used Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law as an excuse -- sparked debate and horror in a lot of quarters. It comes as no surprise that the issues of racism, privilege and injustice in our neighborhoods and in our legal system illuminated by the Trayvon Martin debacle have prompted a response on the dramatic front.

New York's New Black Fest, "a gathering of artists, thinkers, activists and audiences who are dedicated to stretching, interrogating and uplifting the Black aesthetic," commissioned Facing Our Truth, a collection of short plays responding to the Trayvon Martin case written by some of America's hottest and most exciting theatrical voices. The playwrights include Marcus Gardley (Every Tongue Confess, dance of the holy ghost), Tala Manassah and Mona Mansour (they co-wrote After, while Mansour is the author of That Hour of Feeling, a Humana Festival play, among others), Winter Miller (In Darfur), Dominique Morisseau (Detroit ’67), Dan O’Brien (The Body of an American) and A. Rey Pamatmat (Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them, another Humana Festival hit).

When Facing Our Truth premiered last December in New York, there were six total pieces, including Pamatmat's "Some Other Kid," Morisseau's "Night Vision," Miller's "Colored," "No More Monsters Here" by Mansour and Manassah, and "The Ballad of George Zimmerman," a folk opera written by O’Brien with composer Quetzal Flores.

Facing Our Truth: Short Plays on Trayvon, Race & Privilege is slated to play various places around the U.S., including -- next Monday -- a performance at Chicago's Goodman Theatre. This special reading of the plays in Facing Our Truth begins at 7 pm in the Goodman's Owen Theater on March 3. Reservations are required, but you will not be able to make them online. You'll need to call the Goodman directly at 312-443-3800.

U of I's Amanda Drinkall Set for VENUS IN FUR at the Goodman

Amanda Drinkall

The Goodman Theatre has announced casting for its upcoming production of David Ives' Venus in Fur, and the tricky, complex, sexy role of Vanda, the Venus in question, will be played by Amanda Drinkall, a University of Illinois alum just starting to break out in Chicago theatrical circles.

Since her time as an undergrad in Champaign-Urbana, Drinkall has performed as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet with the Michigan Shakespeare Festival and Ursula in Much Ado About Nothing at the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, as well as performing in Chicago with the Goodman (Measure for Measure), Strawdog Theatre (Great Expectations), Lifeline Theatre (Pride and Prejudice), Victory Gardens (Failure: A Love Story) and The Back Room Shakespeare Project (Othello, Romeo and Juliet, A Winter’s Tale, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream). As part of the ensemble at Red Tape Theatre, she has appeared in Young Jun Lee's Lear and Pullman, WA, The Skriker, Brand, The Love of the Nightingale, and The Making of a Modern Folk Hero. And she is listed as part of the cast for hamlet is dead. no gravity at Red Tape, opening January 27.

Drinkall's take on chilly Estella and sweet Biddy in Strawdog's Great Expectations earned her a spot on Chicago Tribune critic Chris Jones' list of the best acting performances of 2013.

Venus in Fur is an interesting choice for the Goodman, given its focus on an erotic cat-and-mouse game between a director and the actress who wants a role in his play. Ives' play (and the play within the play) take their cues from Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's Venus in Furs, an 1870 century novel that depicted the kinky power dynamic between a siren named Wanda and the man who wants to be her sex slave. Sacher-Masoch gave his name to the word "masochism," by the way.

Ives' funny, modern, still kinky spin on Venus started off-Broadway in 2010, moving to the Lyceum Theater on Broadway in 2011. The play was nominated for the Best Play Tony and it won Best Actress for Nina Arianda, who played Vanda opposite Hugh Dancy's Thomas, the playwright.

For the Goodman, director Joanie Schultz will take the reins, with Drinkall and Rufus Collins, an actor with extensive Broadway and off-Broadway credits, as Thomas.

Venus in Fur is set to open March 8 in the Goodman's Albert Theatre, the 856-seat main stage, with performances through April 13, 2014.

Coming Up: Something Wild at the Goodman in 2012-13

It's time for Chicago theaters to announce their new seasons, with Steppenwolf first out of the gate a few days ago. I previewed Steppenwolf's 2012-13 season here, but today we'll be looking at the Goodman Theatre, which has announced an ambitious and exciting slate of shows falling under the theme "Expect Something Wild."

The Goodman has two theaters -- the larger, more grand Albert, which seats 856, and the smaller Owen Theatre, which has room for 468 -- which means they have several subscription plans, allowing you to do all eight shows in both theaters, or pick one or the other. There will be five mainstage shows in the Albert Theatre, and three more intimate shows scheduled in the Owen.

First up is Tennessee Williams' "Sweet Bird of Youth," directed by "visionary wunderkind" David Cromer for the Albert. Cromer was born in Skokie, Illinois, and he has a pile of Jefferson Awards for his work in Chicago, plus he earned a Lucille Lortel and an Obie in 2009 for his well-received (and dramatically different) direction of "Our Town." This is his first trip to the Goodman.

"Sweet Bird of Youth" is a Williams classic, with unforgettable characters like Princess Kosmonopolis, the aging screen goddess whose career is crumbling, and young, handsome gigolo Chance Wayne, who makes a big mistake when he brings his new girlfriend, the Princess, to his hometown in Mississippi, where he  comes up hard against his old girlfriend Heavenly and her powerful family."Sweet Bird of Youth" is scheduled for September 15 to October 28 in the Albert Theatre.

Next is "Black N Blue Boys," subtitled "Broken Men," by Dael Orlandersmith, set for September 29 to October 28 in the Owen. The play is described as "an explosive narrative that uncovers the darkest corners of humanity—and shatters our notions about predators and their victims." Orlandersmith was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn prize in 1999 with "The Gimmick" -- she won that award in 2003 and was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for "Yellowman."

Jon Robin Baitz's "Other Desert Cities," a smart family drama about a woman who has written a memoir revealing a long-buried family secret to the world, will play in the Albert from January 12 to February 17, 2013. "Desert Cities" was a hit at Lincoln Center last year, with a follow-up Broadway production. Ben Brantley reviewed it for the New York Times, including this major compliment: "Built with gleaming dialogue, tantalizing hints of a dangerous mystery and a structural care that brings to mind the heyday of Lillian Hellman, 'Cities' has the appeal of a Broadway hit from another age."

Christopher Shinn's "Teddy Ferrara" is up next in the Owen. Shinn is another Pulitzer Prize finalist, and his new play seems ripped from the headlines, about a gay college student whose world is turned upside-down by a campus tragedy. "Teddy Ferrara" will play February 2 to March 3, 2013.

The last play in the Owen is "The Happiest Song Plays Last," by Quiara Alegría Hudes, opening April 13 and running till May 12, 2013. Hudes was nominated for a Tony for the book of "In the Heights," but she goes farther afield with "The Happiest Song," setting the action in North Philadelphia and a town in the nation of Jordan. The first is the home of a community volunteer trying to help the needy, while the latter is the location of her cousin, an Iraq War vet, as he tries his hand as an action movie star. "The Happiest Song Plays Last" was part of the 2011 National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.

The most interesting play for me on the Goodman's schedule is Lynn Nottage's "Meet Vera Stark," which takes a look at Hollywood during its "golden" years when black actresses could play only maids. In the play, Vera Stark really is a maid, to a star known as "America's little sweetie pie," while Vera tries to hunt down her own dreams for stardom in her spare time. She makes a bit of a splash in the small roles available to her, which doesn't go over well with "America's little sweetie pie." And then the play leaps forward to the 1970s and then 2003, as film scholars try to figure out what happened to this mysterious actress who jumped off the screen way back when. Nottage is a fabulous writer, the Hollywood premise is fascinating, and I can't wait till "Meet Vera Stark" hits the spotlight in the Albert Theatre April 27 to June 2, 2013.

And the last play of the season will be Mary Zimmerman's take on "The Jungle Book," based on the 1967 Disney movie. It will feature Zimmerman's trademark stage magic, mixing songs, dance, lights, costumes and whatever else she comes up with to create stunning visuals. The Goodman is calling "The Jungle Book" the theatrical event of the season, and if it's anything like Zimmerman's other work, it will be that and more.

"The Jungle Book" will swing by the Albert Theatre June 22 to July 28, 2013.

They will add one other show, to be announced later, to its Albert schedule, presumably to fit sometime in the November/December area. Stay tuned for that announcement.

In the meantime, peruse the descriptions of the other seven shows at the Goodman website, and be sure to look closely at the "Expect Something Wild" banner, which has "The Jungle Book" written all over it in the coolest possible way.

March 20: Inside "Iceman" with Nathan Lane and Brian Dennehy

"The Iceman Cometh" is coming to Chicago's Goodman Theatre, in a much-anticipated production starring Nathan Lane as Hickey, the salesman everyone is waiting for, Brian Dennehy as former anarchist Larry, and Stephen Ouimette (of "Slings and Arrows" fame) as Harry Hopes, the owner of the saloon where these barflies congregate. Goodman artistic director Robert Falls directs this "Iceman."

So we know about that, and we're on notice to try to acquire tickets now. But today's big news is that Dennehy and Lane will be appearing in a special "Artist Encounter" next Tuesday, March 20, in the Albert Theatre at the Goodman, to talk about the play with the Tribune's Rick Kogan and Chris Jones. Tickets are $25 for the general public or $20 for Goodman subscribers or donors or "Trib Nation" members. If you have questions about the Artist Encounter with Lane and Dennehy, you are invited to call the box office at 312-443-3800.

Dennehy had made something of a career of interpreting Eugene O'Neill, and he was the receipient of the Eugene O'Neill Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. Dennehy won a Tony for "Long Day's Journey Into Night," also directed by Robert Falls, and he did "Desire Under the Elms" at the Goodman and on Broadway, "Hughie" at the Stratford Festival in Canada, "A Touch of the Poet" at the Goodman with Falls, and he played Hickey in an earlier "Iceman Cometh," again directed by Falls, at the Goodman in 1990 and at the Abbey in Dublin in 1992. 

Nathan Lane is better known for his musical comedy stylings than as an interpreter of O'Neill, but he indicated in an interview with the Chicago Tribune's Chris Jones that he was in the mood to take on the formidable challenge of a major O'Neill role, especially since he'd be in Chicago, working with Falls and long-time friend Dennehy. Jones quotes Lane as saying, "I thought... that if I was going to climb this mountain, I should do it in a city where I feel comfortable and with people with whom I feel comfortable."

The Goodman's production of "The Iceman Cometh" opens April 21 and runs through June 10, 2012.