Chicago—Steppenwolf Theatre Company presents the Midwest Premiere of Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage, directed by Steppenwolf associate artist Jessica Thebus, featuring Velma Austin, Cheryl Lynn Bruce, Eli Goodman, JoNell Kennedy, Kymberly Mellen and Morocco Omari. Intimate Apparel begins performances on January 13, 2005, in the Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted. Bank One is the Exclusive Production Sponsor of Intimate Apparel. Esther, an African-American woman living in the dawn of the last century, makes an uncommon living for herself sewing exquisite lingerie. Her skilled artistry allows her rare access into the private lives of others, where she uncovers that no one is quite what they seem. This revealing new American drama is the winner of five national awards for Best Play, including the prestigious New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. "The play is loosely inspired by my great-grandmother, who made intimate apparel at the turn of the 20th century," notes playwright Lynn Nottage. She continues, "I wanted to write this play to know my great-grandmother better, and in the process, to rediscover my own history. It was a wonderful experience that also made me very sad, because I thought 'I don't know who she is…I know nothing about her.' That's what sent me on this journey, to discover who I am by rediscovering my personal history." The cast of Intimate Apparel includes Velma Austin (Esther), Cheryl Lynn Bruce (Mrs. Dickson), Eli Goodman (Mr. Marks), JoNell Kennedy (Mayme), Kymberly Mellen (Mrs. Van Buren) and Morocco Omari (George Armstrong). The designers of Intimate Apparel are Todd Rosenthal (sets), Ann Wrightson (lights), Linda Roethke (costumes), Andre Pleuss and Ben Sussman (sound.) The stage manager is Robert Satterlee and assistant stage manager is Kerry Epstein. Previews for Intimate Apparel are January 13-16 and 19-22, 2005. The production opens Sunday, January 23, 2005, at 6:00 p.m., and runs through March 13, 2005. Please note our curtain times: all performances run Tuesday through Sunday at 7:30 p.m., as well as Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3:00 p.m. and Wednesday matinees on February 23, March 2 and 9, 2005, at 2:00 p.m. There will be no Sunday evening performances on February 27, March 6 and 13, 2005. The performance on February 9, 2005, will be sign language interpreted for the deaf and hard of hearing. The performance on February 10, 2005, will be audio-described for the blind and sight impaired. Free post-show discussions presented by Artistic Director Martha Lavey and Associate Artistic Director Curt Columbus will be held after the Wednesday matinee performances. Post-show discussions with the cast and artistic staff are held Tuesdays and Thursdays during the regular run. Ticket prices are $20 to $60. Audience services hours are 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every day and 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on days with evening performances. The Audience Services number is (312) 335-1650. Real-time online ticketing is available at www.steppenwolf.org. Twenty $20 tickets are available at Audience Services beginning at 11:00 a.m. on the day of the performance. Half-price rush tickets are available one hour before each show. For group sales reservations, contact the Group Sales Manager at 312-654-5629. Discounts are available for groups of ten or larger. Steppenwolf gratefully acknowledges its 2004-2005 season sponsors: Premier Benefactors—Ogilvy & Mather, Inc., and Sara Lee Foundation; Grand Benefactors—American Express, Bank One, Mercedes-Benz USA, The Shubert Foundation, Inc., the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust and United Airlines; Benefactors—Ariel, Lord, Bissell & Brook, LLP, and Vinci. Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s programs are partially supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency grant and by a CityArts Program 4 grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. Steppenwolf Theatre Company is located near all forms of public transportation and is wheelchair accessible. Street and lot parking are available. Assistive listening devices are available for every performance. 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 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. Notes of Interest This revealing new American drama is the winner of the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Play, the Gassner Award for Best Play, the American Theatre Critics Association's Francesca Primus Award Best Play, the Steinberg New Play Award and the PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award for Drama for Nottage’s body of work. Written by acclaimed American playwright Lynn Nottage, whose earlier play Crumbs from the Table of Joy had its world premiere was produced as part of the 1995-1996 Arts Exchange season. Directed by associate artist Jessica Thebus, whose previous Steppenwolf credits include No Place Like Home, Whispering City and The Water Engine. Thebus received two Jeff nominations for her work on About Face Theatre's Pulp and Winesburg, Ohio. Biographies LYNN NOTTAGE (Playwright) Her play Fabulation! or, The Re-Education of Undine recently concluded a sold out run at Playwrights Horizons. Intimate Apparel (Roundabout Theatre Company, South Coast Rep, Center Stage and Mark Taper Forum) is the winner of the coveted 2004 NY Drama Critics Circle Award, Outer Critics Circle Best Play and John Gassner awards, American Theatre Critics/Steinberg 2004 New Play Award, 2004 Francesca Primus Award. An anthology of her plays Crumbs from the Table of Joy and Other Plays was published by TCG, and includes Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Las Meninas, Mud, River, Stone, Por’Knockers and Poof! Her plays have been produced and developed at theatres throughout the country, including the Alliance Theatre, The Sundance Institute Theatre Lab, Second Stage, Freedom Theatre, Crossroads Theatre, Intiman, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Steppenwolf, Yale Rep., The Vineyard Theatre, among others. She wrote the feature film Side Streets (Merchant Ivory Productions) directed by Tony Gerber. The film was an official selection at the Venice and Sundance Film Festivals. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious 2004 PEN/Laura Pels Award for literary excellence, fellowships from Manhattan Theatre Club, New Dramatists and the New York Foundation for the Arts, where she is a member of the Artists Advisory Board. She is also the recipient of a NEA/TCG(99/00) grant for a year long theatre residency at Freedom Theatre in Philadelphia. Ms. Nottage is a resident member of New Dramatists, a graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama, where she is currently a visiting lecturer. JESSICA THEBUS (Director) is an associate artist with Steppenwolf Theatre Company and an Artistic Associate at About Face Theater. Recent projects include About Face Theatre’s Pulp (Jeff nomination Best Director, After Dark Award, Best Production) and Winesburg, Ohio (Jeff nomination Best Director, After Dark Award, Best Director), A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the University Of Notre Dame, No Place Like Home at Steppenwolf, an outdoor spectacle at the Field Museum, They All Fall Down at Lookingglass, Seven Moves at About Face, Salao: The Worst Kind of Unlucky with Redmoon Theatre (where she is a long time collaborator) Melancholy Play by Sarah Ruhl and Abingdon Square by Maria Irene Fornes at the Piven Theater, where she is a long time member of the teaching staff. For Steppenwolf’s Arts Exchange, she wrote Haymarket Eight (with Derek Goldman) and directed Whispering City and David Mamet’s The Water Engine, which moved to Theater on The Lake, and most recently, A Tale of Two Cities. Jessica has also directed at Center Theater, Lifeline Theater, Collaboraction Theater and Caravan Productions, as well as touring internationally with the Bread and Puppet Theater. She holds a doctorate in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and has designed courses and taught at The University of Chicago, DePaul University, Columbia College and Roosevelt University. She is currently a faculty member in the Directing Program at Northwestern. VELMA AUSTIN (Esther) recently appeared as Velma in August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at the St. Louis Black Repertory, where she had also appeared in The Screened In Porch, Spirit North and I Am A Man. Her most recent stage work includes Waiting To Be Invited, Bourbon At The Border and Un-Spoken Prayers. Additional theater credit includes The Sovereign State of Boogedy, The Colored Museum, The Sutherland, Root Causes, God’s Trombones and The Piano Lesson. Velma’s awards include a Joseph Jefferson for Best Actress, a Woodie Award, a Black Theater Alliance Award and many other nominations in Chicago and New York. Velma spent 4 years touring with lead roles in Shelly Garrett’s original Beauty Shop and Living Room. She made her film debut in Losing Isaiah with Halle Berry and Jessica Lange, followed by Light It Up with Usher and Vanessa Williams. She was born and raised in the countryside of Kingston, Jamaica. Velma is a graduate of United States International University. CHERYL LYNN BRUCE (Mrs. Dickson) most recently appeared in The Story at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. Last season she premiered in Lookingglass Theatre's Race. She also appeared in Mary Zimmerman’s production of Trojan Women at Goodman Theatre. Her work in The Voice of Good Hope at Victory Gardens received a Best Actress Jeff Nomination. She played Bertha in August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at Missouri Repertory, and in 1999 travelled to Graz, Austria to perform works by Suzan-Lori Parks at the Steirischer Herbst Arts Festival. Cheryl created the role of Elizabeth Sandry for Steppenwolf Theatre’s Tony-winning production of The Grapes of Wrath. She’s performed in regional theatres around the country including BAM, Chicago Theatre Company, Circle-in-the-Square, Crossroads Theatre, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre, Kennedy Center, Northlight Theatre, Remains Theatre and Shakespeare Repertory, as well as Broadway and Off-Broadway houses. ELI GOODMAN (Mr. Marks) last appeared at Steppenwolf as Enrico Fermi in the Arts Exchange production of World Set Free. Other credits include: The Action Against Sol Schumann (Victory Gardens), The Last Night at Ballyhoo (Mercury Theatre), Incident at Vichy (Writers Theatre), Comedy of Errors and Much Ado About Nothing (Chicago Shakespeare), Wit and A Christmas Carol (Actors Theatre of Louisville), along with many others. Eli also spent a season touring as a clown with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. Eli has directed locally for Prop Theatre and Bailiwick Repertory. Television and Film credits include: Early Edition, A Moment of Grace and Crown Molding. JONELL KENNEDY (Mayme) last appeared in Eden at Victory Gardens Theatre. She’s also appeared in The Goodman’s staging of Cry the Beloved Country, Puddin’ and Pete, Marvin’s Room, Midsummer Night’s Dream and George C. Wolfe’s Spunk, for which she won a Joseph Jefferson Award. Regional credits include Purlie Victorious at Tiffany’s Attic and The Colored Museum at Yale Repertory Theatre, Monkey Grass at L.A.’s The Victory Theatre and Legacies at L.A.’s The Matrix. Her most recent films include Michael Mann’s Collateral, Me You And Everyone We Know and Guess Who? starring Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher. KYMBERLY MELLEN (Mrs. Van Buren) was recently seen in My Own Stranger, Our Town, Cleo in Rocket to the Moon (for which she received a Joseph Jefferson Award) and Butley at Writers’ Theatre in Glencoe. Other Chicago credits include Passion at Ravinia, Two Gentlemen of Verona with Shakespeare on the Green at Barat College, The Romance Cycle: Cymbeline and Pericles and My Fair Lady at Court Theatre, Sunday in the Park with George, Short Shakespeare! A Midsummers Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet at Chicago Shakespeare Theater and multiple roles in The American Girl Revue. MOROCCO OMARI (George Armstrong) theater credits include Space at Steppenwolf, Knock Me a Kiss at Victory Gardens, Blues for an Alabama Sky at The Goodman Theatre, and reprised at Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Pill Hill at The Chicago Theatre Company, and the west coast premiere of Take Me Out at The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. Television credits include: recurring roles on Joan of Arcadia, Dragnet and Girlfriends.