Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

Theatre 289
Regional theatre produces much of America’s greatest drama. Tracy Letts’s August: Osage County, a large-scale
(thirteen actors, three-plus hours) realistic comedy about a wildly dysfunctional Oklahoma family, was created by
Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company, long famed for its ensemble acting. Following its Chicago premiere,
the show went on to Broadway, where it was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, along with the Tony,
New York Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Awards. Steppenwolf artistic director Anna D. Shapiro ingeniously
staged the quarrelings and couplings—of the many characters shown here in the now-famous dinner scene in
the second act—so audience members felt they knew each one of the characters personally and probably also
felt they knew someone in their own lives exactly like them. Deanna Dunagan (center, with pearl necklace) plays
the central role of Violet, the drug-addicted family matriarch, for which she received the Tony Award for best
actress. Steppenwolf-based designers included Todd Rosenthal (scenery), Ana Kuzmanic (costumes), and Ann G.
Wrightson (lighting). © Sara Krulwich/The New York Times/Redux
theatres found throughout New York neighborhoods. Several
of the best off-Broadway houses are near the Broadway
area (American Place Theatre, Manhattan Theatre
Club, Playwrights Horizons) but operate in smaller and
less elegant spaces and therefore under off-Broadway contracts.
Some of the best stage productions in America—
including eventual Tony and Pulitzer Prize winners—have
come from these companies in recent years.
Off-off-Broadway, a designation dating from the
1960s, denotes semi-professional or even amateur theatres
located in the New York metropolitan area, often
in church basements, YMCAs, coffeehouses, fringe festivals,
and converted studios or garages. The actors’ union
oversees off-off productions under its “Showcase Code,”
which allows union actors to perform for next to nothing
to allow them to enjoy the public exposure and press
reviews that could lead to the off-Broadway and eventually
Broadway roles to which they aspire.
Many artists, however, find the artistic excitement of
off-off-Broadway more appealing than the money and
glamour of Broadway or even Hollywood. The annual
Obie Awards, given by the Village Voice, recognize