REHEARSAL PHOTOS

Randall Arney (Dr. Sweet) joined the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble in 1984 and served as artistic director from 1987-1995. Steppenwolf (directing): True West, Slowgirl, The Seafarer, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Death and the Maiden, Curse of the Starving Class, Killers, The Geography of Luck, Picasso at the Lapin Agile (directed subsequent national and international productions). Steppenwolf (acting): Born Yesterday, Ghost in the Machine, The Homecoming, Frank’s Wild Years, You Can’t Take It with You, Fool for Love, True West, Balm in Gilead, Coyote Ugly. As artistic director of Steppenwolf, Arney oversaw the creation of a new state-of-the-art theater, which is Steppenwolf’s current home. Broadway transfers under his leadership include The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, The Song of Jacob Zulu (six Tony Award nominations) and The Grapes of Wrath (1990 Tony Award – Best Play). Arney recently served as the artistic director of the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles (1999-2017). Education: MFA, Illinois State University; he has taught at the University of California Los Angeles, Steppenwolf, around the US and in Tokyo. Member: SAG-AFTRA, SDC, AEA.

Carrie Coon (Agnes White) joined the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble in 2019. Steppenwolf: Mary Page Marlowe, Tracy Letts’s adaptation of Three Sisters, The March, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Broadway: Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Tony nomination – Best Featured Actress in a Play; Theatre World Award). Off Broadway: Mary Jane (2018 Lucille Lortel Award, Obie Award, Drama Desk nomination); Placebo (Playwrights Horizons). Film: Gone Girl, The Post, Widows, Avengers: Infinity War, The Nest. Upcoming: Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Television: The Sinner (Critics’ Choice Television Award nomination), HBO’s The Leftovers, FX’s Fargo. She won a Critics’ Choice Television Award for her performance in HBO’s The Leftovers and a TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Drama for her performances in The Leftovers and Fargo. Upcoming: The Gilded Age.

Jennifer Engstrom (R.C.) Steppenwolf Theatre Company: Lindiwe, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The North Plan, Hir (u/s). New York: Excuse My Dust (A Dorothy Parker Portfolio) curated and performed by Engstrom. Chicago: Small Mouth Sounds, Simpatico, The Mutilated, Fatboy, 3C (A Red Orchid Theatre); Sweet Bird of Youth (Goodman Theatre); A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Streetcar Named Virginia Woolf (Writers Theatre); Sky Girls (Northlight Theatre); The Hot l Baltimore (Mary-Arrchie Theatre). Regional: Simpatico (McCarter Theatre); Angels in America (Kansas City Repertory Theatre); A Streetcar Named Desire (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Film: SLICE, Swing Shift. Television: Chicago Fire. For BZ.

Steve Key (Jerry Goss) Steppenwolf Theatre Company: One Arm, The Libertine, As I Lay Dying. Broadway: SWEAT. Off Broadway: The Effect (Barrow Street Theatre); Blue Surge (The Public Theater). Chicago: Feathers & Teeth, Vigils, Zoo Story, Blue Surge (Goodman Theatre); Grace, Better Late (Northlight Theatre); Rest, Circle Mirror Transformation (Victory Gardens Theater); Brothers Karamazov (Lookingglass Theatre); The Unseen (A Red Orchid Theatre); The Rainmaker, Orpheus Descending (American Blues Theater); Coyote On A Fence, Talk Radio (Shattered Globe Theatre). National Tours: August: Osage County, SWEAT. Film: Public Enemies, Hayseed, Canvas, 1,000 Acres. Television: FBI: Most Wanted, The Good Fight, Boss, Chicago Fire, Elementary, Mob Doctor, Law & Order: SVU.

Namir Smallwood

(Peter Evans) joined the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble in 2017. Steppenwolf: True West, BLKS, Steppenwolf for Young Adults’ Monster, Man in Love, The Hot l Baltimore. Broadway: Pass Over. Off Broadway: Pipeline, Pass Over (Lincoln Center). Chicago: The Lost Boys of Sudan (Victory Gardens Theater); Charm (Northlight Theatre); The Grapes of Wrath (The Gift Theatre); East Texas Hot Links (Writers Theatre). Regional: Marin Theatre Company, Pillsbury House Theatre, Ten Thousand Things, Guthrie Theater. Television: Chicago Fire, Betrayal, Elementary, American Rust (Showtime).

Tracy Letts (Playwright) is the author of The Minutes (Pulitzer finalist), Linda Vista, Mary Page Marlowe, The Scavenger’s Daughter, Superior Donuts, August: Osage County (Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award for Best Play), Man from Nebraska (Pulitzer finalist), Bug and Killer Joe. He also wrote the screenplays for the films August: Osage County, Bug and Killer Joe. He won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play for his performance as George in the Tony Award-winning revival of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which premiered at Steppenwolf. He joined the Steppenwolf ensemble in 2002, where he has appeared in American Buffalo, Betrayal, The Pillowman, The Pain and the Itch, The Dresser, Homebody/Kabul, The Dazzle, Glengarry Glen Ross and Three Days of Rain, among others. He has also appeared in Broadway productions of All My Sons and The Realistic Joneses. Film appearances include Little Women, Ford v Ferrari, The Post, Lady Bird, The Lovers, Indignation, Christine, The Big Short, Imperium, Wiener-Dog and Guinevere. TV roles include Homeland, The Sinner, and Divorce. Coming in the spring of 2022, he can be seen in the HBO series about the 1980’s Los Angeles Lakers. In 2019, Steppenwolf’s production of Linda Vista ran at Broadway’s Hayes Theater and was a New York Times Critic’s Pick. Steppenwolf’s production of The Minutes had its 2020 Broadway production interrupted during previews by the pandemic. It will resume performances on Broadway at Studio 54 in March 2022 with Letts in the cast.

David Cromer (Director) Broadway: The Sound Inside; The Band’s Visit (2018 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical); Brighton Beach Memoirs, The House of Blue Leaves. Off Broadway: The Treasurer (Playwrights Horizons); Man from Nebraska (Second Stage); The Band’s

...cont’d Bios Visit, Women or Nothing (Atlantic Theater); Really Really (MCC Theater); When the Rain Stops Falling, Nikolai and the Others (Lincoln Center Theater). At Barrow Street Theatre, he directed Tribes, The Effect, Orson’s Shadow, Adding Machine (presented at the Minetta Lane) and Our Town, which originated in Chicago and later played in London, Los Angeles, Boston and Kansas City. In Chicago his credits include Next to Normal, A Streetcar Named Desire, Picnic, Booth (Writers Theatre); Cherrywood, Mojo, The Hot l Baltimore (Mary-Arrchie Theatre); The Cider House Rules (co-directed with Marc Grapey at Famous Door); and Angels in America (The Journeymen); among others. For his direction he has received a Tony Award, a Drama Desk, three Obie Awards, three Lucille Lortel Awards, a Joe A. Callaway Award, four Jeff Awards and in 2010 was made a MacArthur Foundation Fellow.

Takeshi Kata (Scenic Design) Steppenwolf Theatre Company: Slowgirl, The Tempest, The Seafarer. Broadway: Clyde’s (Helen Hayes); Derren Brown: Secret (Cort). Off Broadway: Office Hour (Public Theatre); Man from Nebraska (Second Stage); The Great Leap (Atlantic Theatre Company). Chicago: Gloria, Until the Flood, God of Carnage (Goodman Theatre). Regional: Angels in America: Part I & II (Berkeley Rep); Cambodian Rock Band (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse); Quixote Nuevo (Huntington Theatre Company, Hartford Stage). Kata has won Jeff and Obie Awards and has been nominated for Drama Desk, Ovation, San Francisco Critics Circle, TBA and Barrymore awards. He is an Associate Professor at University of Southern California, School of Dramatic Arts. Sarah Laux (Costume Design) Broadway: The Band’s Visit, Fully Committed, The Humans. Off Broadway: Kimberly Akimbo, Blue Ridge, This Ain’t No Disco, On the Shore of the Wide World, The Band’s Visit (Atlantic Theater Company); The Humans (Roundabout Theatre Company); Superhero, Man from Nebraska (Second Stage Theater); Downstairs (Primary Stages); Jerry Springer: The Opera (New Group, Obie Award); Ultimate Beauty Bible (Pg 73); The Effect (Barrow Street Theatre); The Half Life of Marie Curie (Audible). Regional: A Play Is a Poem (Taper Theater); Before the Meeting (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Bad Dates, Come Back, Little Sheba (Huntington Theatre Company); Bad Jews (George Street Playhouse); Thresh/ Hold (Pilobolus Dance Theater). Film: Freakshow, The Sixth Reel, Not Okay. Television: High Fidelity, Godfather of Harlem: S2. @lauxy123

Heather Gilbert (Lighting Design) Steppenwolf Theatre Company: Dance Nation, MS. BLAKK FOR PRESIDENT, Constellations, A Separate Peace, First Look 2013, The Infidel, Pot Mom. Broadway: The Sound Inside (Studio 54). Off Broadway: Barrow Street Theatre. Chicago and Regional: Goodman Theatre; Actor’s Theatre Louisville; Center Theatre Group; Studio Theatre; Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Williamstown Theatre Festival; Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Kansas City Repertory Theatre; Alley Theatre; American Repertory Theater; Magic Theatre; Pasadena Playhouse. International: Almeida Theatre, London; Singapore Rep; Encuentro Festival Teatro Buendia, Montreal. Education: MFA, The Theatre School at DePaul University. Awards: Bug: 2020 Jeff Award; The Sound Inside: 2020 Drama Desk Award, 2020 Tony nomination, 2020 Outer Critics Circle Honoree; NEA/TCG Career Development Grant; 3Arts Award. Gilbert serves as the Head of Lighting Design at Columbia College Chicago. @htglights

Josh Schmidt (Sound Design) Steppenwolf Theatre Company: Between Riverside and Crazy, The Herd, Tribes, The Birthday Party, The March, Time Stands Still, among others. New York: Therese Raquin (Roundabout Theatre Company/ Studio 54); House of Blue Leaves (Walter Kerr Theatre); Brighton Beach Memoirs (Nederlander Theatre); Water by the Spoonful (Second Stage Theater); Dinner with Friends (Roundabout Theatre Company); When the Rain Stops Falling (Lincoln Center Theater); 3 Kinds of Exile, Dying for It (Atlantic Theater Company); About Alice (TFANA); among others. Chicago: The First Deep Breath, Pipeline (Victory Gardens Theatre); How I Learned to Drive (Raven Theatre); Twelfth Night (Writers Theatre, associate artist). Schmidt is the award-winning composer of ADD1NG MACH1N3 (Minetta Lane Theatre, Next Theatre); A Minister’s Wife (Lincoln Center Theater, Writers Theatre); Midwestern Gothic (Signature Theatre); and Gift of the Magi (American Players Theatre). Upcoming commissions: The Metropolitan Opera. Upcoming film: The End. Teaching: University of Wisonsin-Milwaukee.

Matt Hawkins (Fight Choreographer) is a Chicago-based director, actor, fight choreographer and movement director. Awards: five Jeff Awards, sixteen nominations. Education: MFA (directing), The University of Iowa; BFA (acting), Southern Methodist University. He is currently an associate professor at the University of Notre Dame, where he serves as Director of Musical Theatre and Creative Producer of the New Works Lab for the Department of Film, Television and Theatre. He is married to actor/ director/documentarian Stacy Stoltz.

Tonia Sina (Intimacy Choreographer) Steppenwolf Theatre Company: Dance Nation. Chicago: Dead Man Walking (Lyric Opera); Grease, Darling Grenadine (Marriott Theatre); The Bakkhai (Stratford Festival). Sina invented the field of intimacy direction in her master’s thesis, and she is the Founder of Intimacy Directors International. She is featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Buzzfeed and Huffington Post, among many other national publications and podcasts. She is also a soon-to-be triple kidney transplant recipient and rare disease patient advocate. Daphne Rose, her service dog, is also thrilled to be part of the Steppenwolf family.

Sydney Charles (Dramaturg) is very grateful to be a partner on this Steppenwolf Theatre Company production of Bug. As an actor, she was most recently seen at Goodman Theatre in the acclaimed live-streamed show I Hate it Here. Other Chicago credits include Duchess! Duchess! Duchess!, Wally World (Steppenwolf); Theatre for One: Here We Are, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Court Theatre); Lottery Day, Father Comes Home From the Wars Parts 1, 2 & 3 (Goodman Theatre); The Color Purple (Drury Lane); Nina Simone: Four Women (Northlight Theatre); Flyin’ West (American Blues Theater); The Wiz (Kokandy Productions); and Dessa Rose (Bailiwick Chicago). Regional credits include I Hate it Here (Studio Theatre). Television credits include South Side, The Chi, Shameless, The T and The Haven.