Chicago—Steppenwolf Theatre Company proudly announces the world premiere of Love-Lies-Bleeding by Don DeLillo, directed by ensemble member Amy Morton, featuring ensemble member Martha Lavey with Louis Cancelmi, John Heard, Larry Kucharik and Penelope Walker. This production, part of Steppenwolf’s 30th season devoted entirely to new work, begins performances on April 27, 2006 in the Steppenwolf Upstairs Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted. The production will run until May 28, 2006, and subsequently play at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, June 17-25, 2006, a co-production of The Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays.
Love-Lies-Bleeding focuses on the last years of a free-spirited artist, now left invalid after a second stroke. His estranged son, wife and ex-wife struggle over the ultimate question: how do they let him die with dignity? As DeLillo masterfully tackles the ethics of their decision, he amplifies what it truly means to be alive.
“Love-Lies-Bleeding interrogates a host of human concerns with a deep and personal caring and fearless dispassion,” states artistic director Martha Lavey. “The question of when life begins and ends – is central to Love-Lies-Bleeding. The situation of the play, the conflict, as it were, appears to be a debate, among family members, about willfully ending the life of Alex, a man who exists in ‘a persistent vegetative state.’”
With Love-Lies-Bleeding, Steppenwolf continues its collaboration with one of America’s foremost writers: Don DeLillo. Among his acclaimed novels are Americana, White Noise, Mao II and Underworld. Steppenwolf produced DeLillo’s novel Libra, adapted and directed by ensemble member John Malkovich in 1994, and the play Valparaiso, directed by ensemble member Frank Galati in 2000.
Now in her 10th season as Steppenwolf’s artistic director, ensemble member Martha Lavey most recently appeared on stage in Lost Land. John Heard can currently be seen in Prison Break and has appeared in such films as Awakenings, Home Alone, In the Line of Fire and the upcoming American Gothic. Louis Cancelmi is a graduate of The School at Steppenwolf, and previously appeared at Steppenwolf in Until We Find Each Other, as well as The Drawer Boy at Paper Mill Playhouse and Vincent in Brixton at Lincoln Center and in London’s West End. Penelope Walker has appeared in The Story and Crowns at The Goodman Theatre. Larry Kucharik makes his Steppenwolf debut.
Ensemble member Amy Morton most recently directed Men of Tortuga and The Dresser at Steppenwolf and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. Her production of Topdog/Underdog, which started at Steppenwolf, was seen at the Alley Theatre in Houston, The Dallas Theatre Center and Hartford Stage. For Steppenwolf she has also directed Glengarry Glen Ross, We All Went Down to Amsterdam, The Weir and Mizlansky/Zalinski or Shmucks. As an actor she recently appeared at Steppenwolf in The Well-Appointed Room and will appear later this season in The Unmentionables.
The Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays will annually showcase a new work of an American playwright staged by an American theater company. Throughout its long history, the Fund awarded grants totaling nearly $4 million to more than 125 playwrights, 60 not-for-profit theaters across the country and 130 new plays. Those awarded include Pulitzer Prize winners Tony Kushner for Angels in America, Robert Schenkkan for The Kentucky Cycle, and Wendy Wasserstein for The Heidi Chronicles. Other notable productions supported by the Fund include Incommunicado by Tom Dulack, The Last of the Thorntons by Horton Foote, Golden Child by David Henry Hwang, which was co-produced by the Kennedy Center in Washington and on Broadway, and The Magic Fire by Lillian Garrett-Groag, which was seen at the Kennedy Center and at other prominent regional theaters including the Guthrie Theatre and The Old Globe.
Steppenwolf last appeared at The Kennedy Center in 1996 with Nomathemba (Hope) directed by ensemble member Eric Simonson and co-written by Joseph Shabalala, Ntozake Shange and Eric Simonson.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman, Michael M. Kaiser, president, is America’s living memorial to President Kennedy. It is the nation’s busiest performing arts facility with performances for audiences totaling nearly two million; Center-related touring productions, television, and radio broadcasts welcome 20 million more. Now in its 35th season, the Center presents the greatest examples of music, dance, and theater; supports artists in the creation of new work; and serves the nation as a leader in arts education.
Committed to the principle of ensemble performance through the collaboration of a company of actors, directors and playwrights, Steppenwolf Theatre Company advances 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 ongoing group work. Steppenwolf has grown into an internationally renowned company of thirty-five artists whose talents include acting, directing, playwriting, filmmaking and textual adaptation.
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