Chicago—Steppenwolf Theatre Company presents the world premiere of after the quake, adapted and directed by ensemble member Frank Galati from the work by Haruki Murakami, featuring Keong Sim, Hanson Tse, Kayla Tucker, Tiffany Fujiwara, Aiko Nakasone and Andrew Pang. The production begins performances on October 20, 2005 in the newly renovated Steppenwolf Upstairs Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted. after the quake runs until February 19, 2006, when it will travel to the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, C.T.
In 1995, Haruki Murakami, Japan’s most highly regarded novelist, returned to his hometown of Kobe after a disastrous earthquake nearly destroyed the entire city. after the quake, the collection of short stories inspired by this event, measures the hidden devastation of a people after a natural disaster. Murakami’s short stories “super-frog saves tokyo” and “honey pie” comprise the stage adaptation of after the quake, which features live cello and koto music.
"Murakami is one of the most dazzling and mysterious writers of fiction in our contemporary world. His vision is at once comic and disturbing. His sense of language is clean, precise and deeply poetic," states adaptor and director Frank Galati. "When Steppenwolf approached Murakami to adapt the novel, we couldn't have predicted that so many and such vast calamities would unfold before our eyes, here in the aftermath of Katrina, Rita, the Tsunami. after the quake speaks to the loss of life, the shattering grief, the terrible fear of a world unstable politically, and a planet that seems to be sort of shifting, boiling up underneath our feet."
Haruki Murakami is the author of over a dozen novels, including The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Sputnik Sweetheart and Kafka on the Shore. His work has been translated into thirty-four languages, and has received numerous awards, including the Noma Literary Award, Kuwabara Takeo Academic Award and Yomiuri Literary Prize.
An ensemble member since 1987, Frank Galati's literary adaptations include the Tony Award-winning The Grapes of Wrath and the world premiere Oedipus Complex. Recently, Galati directed the Steppenwolf productions of Homebody/Kabul, The Royal Family and Valparaiso. He also performed alongside ensemble member John Mahoney in The Drawer Boy.
A native Chicagoan, Keong Sim previously appeared in Radiant Baby at the Public Theater, Anything Goes at Papermill Playhouse, and guest-starred on the television series Rescue Me, Law & Order and E.R. Hanson Tse makes his regional theatre debut in after the quake, having previously appeared in Romeo and Juliet at Public/NYSF and in the short film Beach Closed in Winter. Aiko Nakasone appeared in the original Broadway casts of RENT and The Rocky Horror Show, as well as the national tours of The Who's TOMMY and Starlight Express. Andrew Pang just finished the first national tour of Thoroughly Modern Millie. Other credits include The Joy Luck Club at Long Wharf Theatre, Long Day's Journey into Night at New York's National Asian-American Theatre Company, the premiere of Warren Leight's No Foreigners Beyond this Point and multiple roles in television and film. Tiffany Fujiwara and Kayla Tucker, alternating the role of Sala, make their Steppenwolf debut.
Live cello and koto music will accompany the production.
The designers of after the quake are James Schuette (set), James F. Ingalls (lights), Mara Blumenfeld (costumes), with Andre Pluess and Ben Sussman (composition and sound). Malcolm Ewen is the stage manager and Christine Freeburg is the assistant stage manager.
Previews for after the quake are October 20-29, 2005. The production opens Sunday, October 30, 2005, and runs until February 19, 2006. Curtain times are as follows: Tuesday through Sunday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3:00 p.m. Wednesday matinees on January 18 and 25, February 1, 8 and 15, 2006, at 2:00 p.m. There will be no Sunday evening performances January 22 and 29, February 5, 12 and 19, 2006. Additionally, there will be no performances on November 24, 2005, December 24 and 25, 2005 and January 1, 2006.
Tickets are $20-60. For tickets, visit www.steppenwolf.org or call 312-335-1650.
There will be free post-show discussions offered daily throughout the run.
Steppenwolf Theatre Company has a long history of cultivating emerging playwrights. The New Plays Initiative, formalized in 1995, commissions and develops new plays for the Steppenwolf stage and beyond.
Boeing is the Exclusive Corporate Sponsor of after the quake. The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust is the Exclusive Foundation Sponsor of after the quake. Additional support was provided by the Richard and Mary L. Gray Production Endowment Fund.
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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