They are “that little theater upstairs,” one enthusiast remarked, a 74-seat space at 3829 N. Broadway that epitomizes the arty, lofty attic theater of off-Loop daring.
Congratulations are in order: The Strawdog Theatre Company is about to begin its 10th-anniversary season, and in the maelstrom of ups and downs and vast changes that plague our theater scene, Strawdog is proving to be not only a survivor but also a consistent one.
While many such companies struggle through complete staff and ensemble changes every year or so, Strawdog is still under only its second artistic director, Richard Shavzin, whose capable directing talents have served the theater well since 1993.
The troupe committed itself to a kind of bedrock off-Loop manifesto some years back — newer, more daring works of modern theater, heavy on Midwestern and even world premieres. Though they are on the verge of some stylistic changes, thanks to some new members, for the most part the script, story and acting remain at the forefront, unlike the more visually oriented theater of postmodern invention.
They mix unknown fare with more traditional repertory offerings: One of Strawdog’s bigger successes in recent years was a revival of Lanford Wilson’s “Burn This,” for example, and next season’s anniversary lineup begins with the Chicago premiere of “Dark Rapture,” described as a film noir on stage, by established American playwright Eric Overmyer (“On the Verge”).
This summer, through Aug. 9, the troupe is presenting the fourth in its collection of new or unheralded one-acts oriented around a single theme. This year’s theme is a hot one: religion. Called “Crossing Boundaries IV: Leap of Faith,” the program features seven short plays and two performance pieces on the topic.
“We solicit submissions in two ways,” Shavzin explains. “We ask directors to submit their ideas, and they often suggest existing works.” One director picked “The Freak,” by Erik Ehn, part of a series of “Saint” plays.
The other source for submissions is playwrights, and this year’s selections include six brand-new works. There’s also “Scar,” an existing performance piece by Caridad Svich, and an original performance piece, created by the cast and director, called “Rites of Passage,” forged in part by reliance on Anne Bogart’s system of theatrical development. (Participants begin by gathering together to strip concepts to bare essentials and definitions. “What is ritual? What is Chicago?” they might ask, for instance, Shavzin says.)
He admits he was a little skeptical of the topic this year at first: “Elizabeth Laidlaw, who’s producing this series for the third year, came up with the idea, and I worried it might be a lot of treatises on how religion ruined me as a youth or so slavishly dogmatic as to be uninteresting. That turned out not to be the case. Many of the pieces turned out to be somewhat peripheral to religion and deal more with spirituality and ritual.”
Surviving as an off-Loop troupe is never easy. “Right now things are going well,” Shavzin says. “Artistically we’re confident. In terms of recognition, we’re pleased with the reactions these days from the community. Box office could always be better. The theater community more and more seems to be competing for an audience that isn’t growing. I think our biggest challenge is to grow that audience and, in our case, expand the demographics.”
A third of Strawdog patrons come from Generation X, another third are in their 30s and the last are in their 40s or 50s. Shavzin thinks theater needs to have a broad, across-the-board appeal “if the off-Loop movement is to survive.”
The Goodman Theatre and Victory Gardens Theater have named two playwrights as recipients of this year’s Scott McPherson Award: Rebecca Gilman and Kristine Thatcher.
Each theater is sponsoring its separate $5,000 award this year.
Gilman, author of more than a dozen plays, including “The Glory of Living” premiered by the Circle Theatre, receives the award from the Goodman.
Thatcher, who is one of the area’s most accomplished actresses as well, receives the award from Victory Gardens, where her “Emma’s Child” played to great acclaim and where she is a member of the newly created playwrights ensemble. She plans to appear in the title role of one of her earlier plays, “Neidecker,” this fall at Chicago Writer’s Theatre.
McPherson was the Chicago actor and playwright who wrote ” ‘Til the Fat Lady Sings” and “Marvin’s Room.” The latter premiered in 1990 at the Goodman Studio and went on to become an international hit, graced with a film version last year. He died of AIDS in 1992.
