Directors Phylicia Rashad and Jess McLeod Join Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s 2023/24 Season

 

Directors Phylicia Rashad and Jess McLeod Join Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s 2023/24 Season

CHICAGO – Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the nation’s premier ensemble theater company, is pleased to announce that directors Phylicia Rashad and Jess McLeod will join the company’s 2023/24 Season. Rashad, a two-time Tony Award winner, will direct the world premiere of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Purpose, an epic drama that confronts family, faith and Black American Politics featuring ensemble members Alana Arenas, Glenn Davis and Jon Michael Hill. McLeod, who served as Resident Director of Hamilton Chicago, will helm Steppenwolf’s Chicago premiere of Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play, a skewering comedy about everything right, wrong and woke in America, featuring ensemble members Audrey Francis and Tim Hopper.

Artistic Directors Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis comment, “A successful production requires an exceptional director, and we’re thrilled to have hired two incredible leaders to helm these projects next year. First, we are ecstatic to welcome the legendary Phylicia Rashad back to Steppenwolf, where she last directed 2018’s The Roommate. Phylicia is an honored friend of the theatre, and we’re looking forward to her partnership with the brilliant Branden Jacobs-Jenkins on his new play. And for our production of The Thanksgiving Play, who better than Jess McLeod, a highly skilled and thoughtful director who brings a passion for social justice and a healthy sense of humor to Larissa Fasthorse’s shrewd and biting comedy.”

Classic Memberships are now on sale for Steppenwolf’s 2023/24 season at steppenwolf.org/myseason. Steppenwolf Flex Memberships are also currently on sale: Black Card Memberships with six tickets for use any time for any production and RED Card Memberships for theatergoers under 30. Single tickets for both productions will go on sale at a later date.

About the Productions:

Purpose – World Premiere!

By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

Directed by Phylicia Rashad

Featuring ensemble members Alana Arenas, Glenn Davis and Jon Michael Hill

March 14 – April 21, 2024

In the Downstairs Theater

For decades, the influential Jasper family has been a pillar of Black American Politics: civil rights leaders, pastors and congressmen. But like all families, there are cracks and secrets just under the surface. When the youngest son Nazareth returns home to Illinois with an uninvited friend in tow, the family is forced into a reckoning with itself, its faith and the legacies of Black radicalism. Rowdy, hilarious and filled with intrigue, Purpose is an epic family drama – a long-awaited world premiere from one of the country’s most celebrated voices.

The Thanksgiving Play – Chicago Premiere!

By Larissa FastHorse

Directed by Jess McLeod

Featuring ensemble members Audrey Francis and Tim Hopper

April 25 – June 2, 2024

In the Ensemble Theater in Honor of Helen Zell

Four (very) well-intentioned theatre people walk into an elementary school. The work at hand: a Thanksgiving pageant that won’t ruffle any feathers. What could possibly go wrong? In MacArthur Genius Larissa Fasthorse’s skewering and satirical comedy, well, just about everything. Rambunctious, thorny and not altogether politically correct, The Thanksgiving Play serves up the hypocrisies of woke America on a big, family-style platter. Come get ya some.

For information on Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s full 2023/24 Season, visit steppenwolf.org/myseason.

  

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