"It started out as a very ad hoc kind of thing, a little bit of that Chicago goodwill," says Greta Honold, coproducer of LookOut, Steppenwolf's multigenre performance series and the current iteration of the theater's nearly three-decade tradition of hosting smaller companies.
2 comments:
I have worked and volunteered a lot with children’s theatre, and I have always thought that someday I would open a company that works with theatre educators to bring theatre and art to young audiences. I remember one student who I had, he was probably about 5 or 6, began our 12-week class session barely being able to tell me his name, because he was so nervous. By the end of the week, he was cast as the role of the farmer in the little play that was put on, and was able to stand on stage in front of an audience and yell "Oh dang nabbit!" By the end of the class, he was proud and confident in himself. There has been extensive research that suggests that exposure to the arts at a very young age helps children to develop children’s motor skills, and as they grow up to contribute to their critical thinking and creativity.
Coming from an area in which new theater oriented towards younger audiences is almost completely separated from the theater that is seen as being "higher class", this kind of program is really exciting to read about. Using established programs and spaces to open doors for more alternative or developing groups is a really great way to diversify the content that dedicated theater-goers are experiencing. The article also mentions that there are connections being formed between the performers in these new groups and the Steppenwolf group, which is also exciting because it is a way for these artists to form important connections in an established group that will give them more opportunities in the future. Bringing more alternative artists into professional theater is a great way to get more innovative theater into established groups and normalize performances that push boundaries and get younger audiences involved. Like Francis says, this program is bringing together groups that will be setting the tone for theater for the next 20 to 30 years, and its great that they are getting a chance to work in the same spaces and connect their art.
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