`There are three power centers in this country,” opines playwright Jeffrey Sweet. “They control politics, business and entertainment. And they are all immediately recognizable to everyone by their initials.”
As anyone who lives in the Midwest knows, the denizens of L.A., N.Y. and D.C. often seem to regard the rest of the nation as something best seen from a cruising altitude of 31,000 feet. And even though Chicago-based work shows up regularly on bicoastal cultural radar screens, the city has a deeply rooted theatrical inferiority complex and a corresponding desire to gain national credibility.
Second City took its name from a New Yorker article attacking Chicago’s lack of urbanity. Steppenwolf co-founder Gary Sinise has often remarked on his troupe’s desperate initial struggles for respect in New York. And it sometimes seems like every Chicago actor is leaving for Los Angeles, where it is at least possible to make a living from the performing arts.
Issues of excessive coastal influence and consequent Midwestern bitterness concern Sweet in “Flyovers,” the former Chicagoan’s new play currently in previews at Victory Gardens (the press opening is Thursday). Premiering here like many of this author’s plays, Sweet’s latest work follows the return of a successful West Coast movie critic to his Midwestern hometown. There he encounters his boyhood nemesis — an embittered blue-collar bully named Ted with scores to settle.
But there’s the question of who is the real bruiser here.
“The real bullies,” says the play’s director, Dennis Zacek, “are N.Y., L.A. and D.C. They make choices that affect Ted’s life and which he cannot control.”
In an intriguing piece of casting, former Remains Theatre actor William Petersen (who first earned his union card by acting for Zacek in 1979 at Victory Gardens) is returning to his hometown from his current Los Angeles base to star in Sweet’s play.
However, this actor who left the Midwest to seek (and find a measure of) celluloid fame and fortune will play the role of Ted, the poor guy who could never leave his small town and thus takes out his anger on the nerdy fellow who managed to escape.
Petersen says that he’d much rather have stayed in the Midwest himself.
“I live in California so I can afford to do projects like this,” says the actor (who still owns a condo here despite a budding film career on the West Coast). “I’d rather be here than anywhere else. I still feel like an off-Loop rat.”
Self-styled happy rodents can be found on both coasts. “You can launch your career in non-Equity theater in Chicago without being regarded as a worm,” Sweet says. “In New York, you’d be beneath contempt. Chicago is still far and away the best city in which to develop new work.”
Petersen’s rival in the play is Mark Vann, another Chicago actor who has flirted with Los Angeles. And the lead actress is Amy Morton, a former colleague of Petersen’s at the now-defunct Remains. Morton, who’s currently a member of the Steppenwolf ensemble, has stayed in Chicago. Given the themes of this play, Zacek has lined up a particularly interesting mix of high-quality performers who are closely linked to these issues.
“This play is a really a sociological debate,” says Petersen. “It deals with the nature of celebrity in this country and how our values have changed. It shows that working hard in a factory is no longer respected in America.”
Sweet, a peripatetic author and teacher who’s a genial master of personal promotion, seems particularly happy to have his work produced again in Chicago (even though it’s clear he also craves a greater level of national fame than this prolific and talented member of the Victory Gardens Playwriting Ensemble has so far been able to achieve). But he’s pushing hard.
One of Sweet’s earlier plays, “With and Without,” did well when it premiered at Victory Gardens. But despite a well-received small-scale Uptown production in Manhattan, it failed to transfer off-Broadway because of one negative review in the New York Times.
Just another day in a power city. And that sort of thing is partly why even those who earn most of their livings on the coasts sometimes schedule Chicago stopovers.
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Several Chicago theaters recently have attracted the kinds of star performers who can entice people who would not otherwise come to a play.
Lookingglass Theatre Ensemble is currently enjoying the services of David Schwimmer in “The Idiot,” and Steppenwolf Theatre is selling lots of tickets to “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” courtesy of star John Mahoney. Laurie Metcalf is on the Steppenwolf Studio slate for later in the summer.
Next year should bring more of the same. Brian Dennehy will be performing in “Death of a Salesman” at Goodman Theatre in September; Harry J. Lennix will be in “Waiting for Godot” at the Goodman in January.
William Petersen says he’s hoping to work at Northlight Theatre in the upcoming season.
There have been whispers that David Mamet may be involved when Northlight presents the Chicago premiere of his play “The Old Neighborhood,” and there’s been interest expressed in performing here by ex-Chicagoans Dennis Franz and Joe Mantegna (they’re old pals of B.J. Jones, Northlight’s new artistic director).
Dixie Carter is slated to star in Northlight’s upcoming production of “Masterclass.” And Victory Gardens has persuaded Julie Harris to come to Chicago to star in Claudia Allen’s new play, “Winter.” Harris is a long-time fan of Allen’s work, and the support of one of all America’s best-loved performers should provide a major boost to this local playwright’s national fortunes.
