Dear Angie McMahon,
Thanks for writing. I’m intrigued/happy to hear 4 of my plays in Chicago (on one evening? or four separate?) and one in the suburbs, and then a fifth one in Chicago after the 4 close. It’s a great idea you’ve decided to publicize together.
I’d be happy to answer your questions, but it would help me a lot to know which plays of mine are being done.
Could you tell me that?
Then I’ll do my best to answer.
I know Chicago is a great theatre town, but I’m sorry to say I don’t have much direct connection to Chicago. Early on, when Robert Falls ran the St. Nicholas Theatre (is that correct in my memory?), he directed “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You” in Chicago. And before that Robert Christiansen (sorry, is that the right spelling) did a famous critical thing: he panned the play “The Idiots Karamazov” (co-authored by me and Albert Innaurato), and then the next day he wrote another review saying he had changed his mind, his first review was wrong, and he really liked it. (He interviewed me some years later and told me the story himself.)
My other sort of connection to Chicago is my joy working with Joan Allen when she starred in my play “The Marriage of Bette and Boo”… with Joan, of course, coming from Steppenwolf. This past fall the Public Theatre did 10 plays from its history as a celebration (10 separate evenings, readings), and 5 of the original cast came back including Joan, who was as fabulous as ever.
If you tell me the names of my plays being done, I’ll have a better chance of answering your other two questions.
best, Chris Durang
