Andrews, Guinan and Letts Lay a Plan in 'American Buffalo', Opening in Chicago

   Kenneth Jones, Playbill.com Kenneth Jones, playbill.com   – Mon Dec 14, 5:21
pm ET

Steppenwolf Theatre Company's new production of David Mamet's American Buffalo,
directed by Amy Morton, opens Dec. 13 after previews from Dec. 3. Patrick
Andrews plays young Bobby opposite Steppenwolf ensemble members Francis Guinan
as Don and Tracy Letts as Teach.

Morton, an actress and director, is also a Steppenwolf ensemble member. The
drama about small-time crooks who plot a crime from a junk shop will play to
Feb. 7, 2010, in Steppenwolf's Downstairs Theatre at 1650 N. Halsted St., in
Chicago.

Morton received a 2008 Best Actress Tony nomination for Steppenwolf's August:
Osage County on Broadway. Chicago actor-playwright Letts won the Pulitzer Prize
for August: Osage County, which also featured Guinan in the original Chicago and
Broadway cast.

According to Steppenwolf, "In a cluttered, run-down Chicago junk shop, three
small-time crooks plot to steal a valuable buffalo nickel. As the heist
unravels, the men's frustration and paranoia intensify. Ensemble member Amy
Morton directs this groundbreaking American play that weaves humor and menace
throughout an emotionally charged struggle for identity and dominance."

Chicago-area native Mamet writes and directs theatre, film and television.
Steppenwolf has produced Mamet's productions of The Water Engine and the
Pulitzer Prize-winning Glengarry Glen Ross (also directed by Morton). American
Buffalo, from 1977, won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award.

The design team for American Buffalo includes Kevin Depinet (sets), Nan
Cibula-Jenkins (costumes), Pat Collins (lights) and Rob Milburn and Michael
Bodeen (sound and original music). Malcolm Ewen is the stage manager and
Christine D. Freeburg is the assistant stage manager.

For tickets and more information call (312) 335-1650 or visit
www.steppenwolf.org.

What's 'Buffalo' really worth?

December 14, 2009
BY HEDY WEISS

Is a savagely actable play like "American Buffalo" — David Mamet's 1975 drama,
now in a Steppenwolf Theatre revival under the explosive direction of Amy Morton
—the same thing as a great play?

I have no clear answer to this question. But not for the first time while
watching this Mamet play — a multifaceted tale of three losers trapped in
various acts of desperation and betrayal — have I felt wholly enthralled by the
performances at hand, while also feeling just vaguely cheated by the play.

Am I watching a modern-day Greek tragedy in which two men of very different
temperaments end up turning a young boy starved for a mentor into a sacrificial
lamb — a story in which the outcome clearly will be catastrophic, but the
getting there is all?

Am I watching an exercise in human depravity, weakness and self-destruction that
uses the familiar metaphor of American business to signify all that is rotten in
mankind?

Or, is "Amerian Buffalo" simply a blunt but ferociously executed exercise in
different forms of rage?

Morton, who demonstrated her genius for animating Mamet's work back in 2001 with
her brilliant Steppenwolf revival of "Glengarry Glen Ross," has done the job
again here with the help of a bravura cast.

She has cast this buffalo nickel of a play with pure gold. And set designer
Kevin Depinet's vision of the Chicago junkshop where the play unfolds enhances
the story in a profound way. For instead of the usual jampacked storefront,
Depinet gives us a basement operation at the foot of a dark, steep stairway, so
the characters appear to descend into the Underworld. And yes, the world of
Mamet's play is a little slice of Hell.

Don (Francis Guinan) is the owner of the shop, a sad, impotent, middle-aged man
with no real instincts or smarts about his business. He also is not averse to
petty crime activities, though he certainly is not the man to do the job.

Don has taken Bob (Patrick Andrews), a similarly sad little street waif, under
his wing, and is prepping him for a life of minor crime. The upcoming heist
involves retrieving an American buffalo nickel from the yuppie guy who
essentially played Don for a fool and wildly underpaid for the coin.

Enter Teach (Tracy Letts), son's lowlife "friend." He decides to take over.

Letts, of course, also is the prize-winning playwright behind "August: Osage
County" and "Superior Donuts." An actor of true genius and relentless,
blistering black humor, he is a masterful interpreter of other playwrights' work
(Pinter as well as Mamet), and you can see their powerful influence on his own
writing.

With a little paunch encased in a garish print polyester shirt (Nan
Cibula-Jenkins' costume his priceless), and a gray ponytail and receding
hairline framing a ruddy complexion, Letts looks like a repo man who lives in a
single room occupany hotel. And he nails every line of misanthropic,
misogynistic vituperativeness Mamet has dished out. Hate-filled and sickly
hilarious, Teach is the play's motor. And Letts is totally revved up from the
word go.

Guinan, the most self-effacing of actors, superbly evokes a man whose
ineffectuality becomes dangerous. And Andrews, who has played everyone from a
young Horton Foote to the "Cabaret" emcee in recent seasons, is so good he
easily might become the next Steppenwolf ensemble member. A fantastic chameleon,
Andrews also is the most physically graceful actor in town.

"American Buffalo" puts its actors through hell, but this production is a
heavenly master class in acting.


'AMERICAN BUFFALO'
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
When: Through Feb. 7
Where: Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted
Tickets: $20-$77
Phone: (312) 335-1650

Gary Cole

Entourage, Kim Possible, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Entourage, West Wing
and Family Guy: check out
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TMCe  Sun, Dec 13, 10:45 AM  Mozart and the Whale
USA  Tue, Dec 15, 9:00 AM  Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
TMCe  Thu, Dec 17, 11:35 PM  Mozart and the Whale
LIFE  Fri, Dec 18, 10:00 AM  Frasier
TMCe  Fri, Dec 25, 7:00 AM  Mozart and the Whale
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Francis Guinan

SPIKE  Thu, Dec 17, 9:00 AM  CSI: NY


Terry Kinney

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John Malkovich

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Laurie Metcalf
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TMCe  Wed, Dec 16, 11:15 PM  Beer League
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Sally Murphy

CBS  Tue, Dec 22, 10:00 PM  The Good Wife


Austin Pendleton

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USA  Tue, Dec 22, 5:00 PM  Law & Order: Special Victims Unit


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Martha Plimpton

BRAVO  Sun, Dec 13, 9:00 PM  Law & Order: Criminal Intent
BRAVO  Mon, Dec 14, 1:00 AM  Law & Order: Criminal Intent
USA  Wed, Dec 16, 4:00 AM  Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
ABC  Thu, Dec 17, 8:00 PM  Grey's Anatomy
SUNDe  Sun, Dec 20, 12:00 AM  Marvelous
SUNDe  Sun, Dec 20, 6:35 AM  Marvelous
USA  Tue, Dec 22, 11:00 AM  Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
CBS  Tue, Dec 22, 10:00 PM  The Good Wife


Rondi Reed

NIK  Mon, Dec 14, 5:30 AM  Roseanne
NIK  Tue, Dec 15, 3:30 AM  Roseanne


Gary Sinise

CSI: NY check out
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FLIXe  Tue, Dec 15, 4:15 PM  That Championship Season
HALMRK  Wed, Dec 16, 10:00 PM  Fallen Angel
CBS  Wed, Dec 16, 10:00 PM  CSI: NY *** NEW ***
HALMRK  Thu, Dec 17, 4:00 PM  Fallen Angel
FLIXe  Sat, Dec 19, 7:30 AM  That Championship Season
HALMRK  Sat, Dec 26, 6:00 PM  Fallen Angel
HALMRK  Sun, Dec 27, 12:00 AM  Fallen Angel


Lois Smith

USA  Thu, Dec 17, 4:00 AM  Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
HBO2e  Sat, Dec 19, 10:00 PM  True Blood
USA  Tue, Dec 22, 12:00 PM  Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
HBO2e  Sat, Dec 26, 10:00 PM  True Blood

Gary Sinise

AMC  Tue, Dec 15, 8:00 PM  The Green Mile
AMC  Wed, Dec 16, 4:00 PM  The Green Mile
CINEMAX  Sat, Dec 19, 2:00 PM  Apollo 13
ION  Sat, Dec 19, 6:30 PM  Mission to Mars
SPIKE  Mon, Dec 21, 6:00 PM  Forrest Gump
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AMC  Sat, Dec 26, 8:00 PM  The Green Mile


Lois Smith

HBO2e  Wed, Dec 16, 6:00 AM  Larger than Life
TMCe  Thu, Dec 17, 3:50 AM  Foxes
FMC  Mon, Dec 21, 2:00 AM  Next Stop, Greenwich Village
HBO2e  Thu, Dec 24, 6:00 AM  Larger than Life


Alan Wilder

BRAVO  Sat, Dec 19, 9:00 PM  Kiss the Girls
BRAVO  Sat, Dec 19, 11:30 PM  Kiss the Girls
FX  Tue, Dec 22, 8:00 PM  Home Alone
FX  Tue, Dec 22, 10:00 PM  Home Alone
FMC  Thu, Dec 24, 6:00 PM  Home Alone
FMC  Thu, Dec 24, 8:00 PM  Home Alone
FMC  Thu, Dec 24, 10:00 PM  Home Alone
FMC  Fri, Dec 25, 12:00 AM  Home Alone
FMC  Fri, Dec 25, 2:00 AM  Home Alone
FMC  Fri, Dec 25, 4:00 AM  Home Alone
FMC  Fri, Dec 25, 6:00 AM  Home Alone
FMC  Fri, Dec 25, 8:00 AM  Home Alone
FMC  Fri, Dec 25, 10:00 AM  Home Alone
FMC  Fri, Dec 25, 12:00 PM  Home Alone
FMC  Fri, Dec 25, 2:00 PM  Home Alone
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FX  Fri, Dec 25, 7:30 PM  Home Alone
FMC  Fri, Dec 25, 8:00 PM  Home Alone
FMC  Fri, Dec 25, 10:00 PM  Home Alone
FMC  Sat, Dec 26, 12:00 AM  Home Alone
FMC  Sat, Dec 26, 2:00 AM  Home Alone
FMC  Sat, Dec 26, 4:00 AM  Home Alone
FX  Sat, Dec 26, 7:30 AM  Home Alone

Austin Pendleton

HBOSGe  Mon, Dec 14, 3:00 PM  Greedy
REELZ  Wed, Dec 16, 8:00 PM  Manna From Heaven
REELZ  Wed, Dec 16, 11:00 PM  Manna From Heaven
HBOSGe  Thu, Dec 17, 4:40 AM  The Front Page
HBOSGe  Fri, Dec 18, 6:00 AM  Greedy
FX  Sat, Dec 19, 8:00 PM  Christmas With the Kranks
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FMC  Wed, Dec 23, 9:00 PM  My Cousin Vinny
FX  Thu, Dec 24, 12:00 AM  Christmas With the Kranks
FX  Thu, Dec 24, 4:30 PM  Christmas With the Kranks
HBOSGe  Fri, Dec 25, 3:35 AM  Greedy


William Petersen

TCM  Sat, Dec 19, 12:00 AM  Amazing Grace and Chuck
MOMAXe  Tue, Dec 22, 12:45 PM  Young Guns II


Martha Plimpton

ENC  Sun, Dec 13, 6:05 PM  The Goonies
ENC  Mon, Dec 21, 6:45 AM  The Goonies
ENC  Mon, Dec 21, 6:05 PM  The Goonies
SHO2e  Tue, Dec 22, 9:15 AM  Music From Another Room
ENC  Sat, Dec 26, 11:15 AM  Parenthood
ENC  Sat, Dec 26, 6:00 PM  The Goonies


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MOMAXe  Sun, Dec 13, 9:15 AM  Eye for an Eye
MOMAXe  Sun, Dec 13, 9:00 PM  Eye for an Eye
BET  Fri, Dec 18, 1:00 PM  Mo' Money
MOMAXe  Tue, Dec 22, 2:30 PM  Eye for an Eye

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MOMAXe  Sun, Dec 13, 5:20 AM  Betrayed
HBO2e  Mon, Dec 14, 9:30 PM  The American President
DISXD  Tue, Dec 15, 5:00 PM  Atlantis: The Lost Empire
FMC  Tue, Dec 15, 10:00 PM  Barton Fink
AMC  Wed, Dec 16, 7:45 AM  In the Line of Fire
HBO2e  Wed, Dec 16, 11:30 AM  Eight Men Out
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HBO2e  Fri, Dec 25, 2:30 PM  The American President


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HBO2e  Tue, Dec 15, 9:30 AM  Changeling
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HBO2e  Tue, Dec 15, 8:30 PM  Changeling
TMCe  Tue, Dec 15, 11:00 PM  Beowulf
AMC  Wed, Dec 16, 7:45 AM  In the Line of Fire
DISXD  Wed, Dec 16, 5:00 PM  Eragon
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Steppenwolf Avoids Stars, Making Its Own Instead

Published: December 12, 2009

When "Superior Donuts" opened on Broadway this fall, it did so without the box
office benefit of a famous cast member. Instead, it arrived in New York with
something almost as valuable: a Steppenwolf pedigree.

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

In the very competitive world of New York theater, where casting for star power
has become the norm, and the bottom line speaks louder than any line of
dialogue, the Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago is something of an anomaly:
a staunch champion not only of emerging playwrights, but also of homegrown
casts.

Unlike many other companies, which lack the clout or the wherewithal to defy
producers' penchant for casting marquee names in major roles, Steppenwolf has
stood firmly behind its lesser-known performers.

Part of that commitment can be traced to the company's ensemble structure. Plays
are chosen — sometimes even written — with specific actors in mind. It also
helps that the playwrights, often company members, tend to be fiercely loyal to
their fellows and to value the chemistry that grows out of working closely
together on a gestating play, sometimes for years.

That was the case with "Donuts" and the phenomenally successful "August: Osage
County," both written by a Steppenwolf ensemble member, Tracy Letts, who won a
Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award for "Osage County."

"Tracy is the strongest possible advocate for keeping our own casts," said
Martha Lavey, Steppenwolf's artistic director and an ensemble member. She said
Mr. Letts had a very strong point of view, which is shared by Anna Shapiro, who
directed "Osage" in Chicago and New York. "You have to have stalwart artists,"
Ms. Lavey added.

"Stalwart" is not a term anyone would use to describe the casting decisions for
another recently transplanted Chicago play, "A Steady Rain." This emotionally
fraught police drama by the Chicago playwright Keith Huff earned acclaim during
its run at the Chicago Dramatists and later at the Royal George Theater.

When New York producers expressed interest, the two lead actors, Randy
Steinmeyer and Peter DeFaria, who are standouts in Chicago, were dumped in favor
of Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig. The critics were lukewarm on the Hollywood
pairing, but audiences ignored the tepid reviews, pushing ticket sales for the
play's 12-week run into record-breaking territory.

Representatives for Mr. Huff, who is working on a screenplay of "A Steady Rain,"
said he was traveling and unavailable for comment. Meanwhile, Mr. Steinmeyer and
Mr. DeFaria continue to work in Chicago. They both said they were pleased for
Mr. Huff, whom Mr. DeFaria calls "the most down-to-earth guy you'll ever meet,"
and that neither held a grudge against their megastar substitutes. They don't
mince words, however, in discussing how they were replaced.

Two or three years ago, Mr. DeFaria said, before there was any inkling that the
play might be a hit, a producer approached him. "He said, `Peter, I have two
words for you: Tom. Cruise.' "

"And I just thought, `This guy is high,' but that was the kind of star they
wanted," Mr. DeFaria continued. "And then they went and got Wolverine and James
Bond."

Mr. DeFaria said he and Mr. Steinmeyer were aware that the producers wanted to
get huge movie stars into the roles: "They were very upfront about it. I guess I
just didn't think it was a real possibility."

Neither actor saw the play in New York. They might have, they said, if someone
had invited them or sent them tickets. Instead, "They offered us house seats,"
Mr. Steinmeyer said. "For $120 apiece."

What Mr. Steinmeyer and Mr. DeFaria lacked was the kind of advocate Steppenwolf
has in producer Jeffrey Richards. Mr. Richards, one of Broadway's most
successful producers — his recent shows include "Spring Awakening" and Harold
Pinter's "Homecoming" — is one of Steppenwolf's most committed supporters. As
the lead producer for both "Osage" and "Superior Donuts," he insisted on keeping
the original casts intact.

"Jeffrey took a giant risk with `Osage,' and a giant risk with `Donuts,' " said
David Hawkinson, Steppenwolf's executive director.

Mr. Richards acknowledged that every production was a risk, but insisted that
Steppenwolf's works were better bets than most. "The quality of the plays, the
productions — it's not to be denied," he said. "Having a name like Steppenwolf
is buying insurance."

"Superior Donuts" is to close on Jan. 3 after nearly 100 performances. While
that sounds like a fairly anemic run, especially next to the 648 for "Osage," it
is robust compared with this year's revival of "Brighton Beach Memoirs."

That Neil Simon play lasted only one week. It didn't have any major movie stars,
either.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company








             Treat those on your holiday list this year to the Steppenwolf Pass -
             World Class Theatre that fits into their schedule.

             Get 3 tickets to one show or 1 ticket to three shows, the Pass is
the most flexible way to experience our season. With quantities limited, don't
miss out on the easiest way to enjoy any of these exciting plays. Tickets
subject to availability.

                   American Buffalo Endgame
                   December 3, 2009 - February 7, 2010
                  April 1 - June 6, 2010

                   The Brother/Sister Plays A Parallelogram
                   January 21 - May 23, 2010 July 1 - August 29, 2010

             Order online or call 312-335-1650.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

             Join us as we transform our Garage Theatre into Merle's Place,
Chicago's coolest dive bar circa December 1975. Click here for more info on this
fantastic pre-show event with free food, drink, music and Mamet.


--------------------------------------------------------------------
             Now Playing
             American Buffalo, by David Mamet, through 02/07.

             On Sale
             The Brother/Sister Plays, by Tarell Alvin McCraney, begins 01/21.
             A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, begins 02/23.
             Joe Frank in "Is There Something Wrong?", 03/13 only.

             Discover. Debate. Discuss. Check out the Steppenwolf blog.



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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Talking Broadway, East Hampton's favorite husband and wife producing team,
Stewart Lane and Bonnie Comley hosted an intimate dinner - if you call 50
intimate - to toast the extraordinary reviews for their latest Broadway outing
Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tracey Letts' latest work "Superior Doughnuts"
which has audiences howling with laughter one moment and weeping the next. Over
a lovely dinner at the legendary Friar's Club, there were many toasts for the
savvy producers who currently have "West Side Story" and "The 39 Steps" on the
boards and two mini-celebrations for guests at the host's table. Glasses were
raised to Southampton's Sara Herbert Galloway and her new fiancé Barry Klarberg
who was responsible for the skating rink sized diamond on her hand and to my
Hamptons.com colleague another Southamptonite Edward Callaghan who turned 42 -
once again - that day. There were so many toasts that the whole crowd had to
skip dessert and hop on a luxury coach for the short jaunt to the Music Box
Theatre where a whole section - center orchestra natch - at the performance of
"Superior Doughnuts" had been reserved.

The bittersweet comedy stars Michael McKean as a Polish American former draft
dodger and Jon Michael Hill, a young Black college drop-out. The unlikely pair
become friends while working in a dilapidated Chicago doughnut shop The play is
Letts' follow-up to his epic "August: Osage County," which won the Pulitzer
Prize and the Tony Award for best play and closed on Broadway in June after 648
performances.

Many in the audience remembered McKean from "This is Spinal Tap" ("Spinal Tap"
by the way was just nominated for two Grammys) but Jon Michael Hill was a
revelation. With his street wise funny style and rapier repartee, the
24-year-old member of Chicago's famed Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a shoo-in
for the Clarence Derwent Award for newcomers as well as the Theater World Award
for his Broadway debut - and the Tony, Drama Desk, New York Critics Circle
awards. Congrats to Stewart and Bonnie and their fellow producers for bringing
this incredible slice of contemporary life to the New York stage!

Leaving the theater, the guests got caught in the shrieking frenzy of fans
outside the theater where "A Steady Rain" with Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig is
packing them in nightly. Sure enough the cries were for "Wolverine" and "James
Bond" who came out to sign playbills, shake hands and in the case of Hugh kiss
every proffered cheek. Old time glamour on the Great White Way.

Mamet's dialogue gives a workout in 'Buffalo'

December 10, 2009
By J.T. MORAND

The language in David Mamet's "American Buffalo" is the greatest challenge to
actors and directors putting on the play about three small-time Chicago crooks
who are plotting to steal a valuable buffalo nickel.

But, that challenge is being met and conquered by Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble
members Amy Morton, Francis Guinan and Tracy Letts. The three have a long
history of working with each other, thus making all challenges easier to take
on.

Morton, a member since 1997 and a longtime Mamet fan, is directing the play that
shows Don (Guinan), a junk shop owner who is convinced he's been swindled after
letting the nickel go for less than what he thinks it's worth. Don conspires
with Teach (Letts) to steal back the coin with the help of a young thief named
Bob (Patrick Andrews).

These are gritty characters that come from the streets of Chicago. They're not
the most refined gents.

Mamet, Morton said, wrote the dialogue true to the characters.

"His stuff is extremely difficult for actors to memorize," she said. "It goes
quickly and it's written in a particular vernacular."

She added, "It's rapid fire banter. Working class Chicago grammar is different
than what these guys (the actors) are used to speaking."

Guinan, an Elmhurst resident, who has been with Steppenwolf since 1979, said the
characters are emotional, but not articulate. There's a lot of swearing, he
added.

"The language is a monster to deal with," he said. "But, it put Mamet on the
map."

Recently, Oak Park native Morton worked with Letts on the Letts-written "August:
Osage County," which earned Morton a Tony Award nomination on Broadway and Letts
a Tony and Pulitzer Prize. Guinan recalls working with Morton when she directed
"Mizlansky/Zilinsky or Schmucks" in 1999.

"She was tireless and it turned out to be a wonderful production," he said.
"She's very exacting, which you have to be with the language."

He added that working with Letts never gets dull.

"He works really hard and he's extremely imaginative," he said. "He's great at
improv and there's always something new to respond to."

Morton has a long history with both Guinan and Letts, which will add a lot to
how "American Buffalo" comes across on stage, she said.

"There's a certain amount of shorthand working with each other," she said.
"Hopefully it makes for a richer experience onstage."

Although new to the group, Patrick Andrew has been able to keep stride with the
veterans and pick up on nuances in Mamet's work.

"Patrick Andrew really seems to get it," Guinan said. "He goes to some dark
places that don't jump off the page."

Morton, who has followed Mamet since early in his career as a playwright,
directed "Glengarry Glen Ross" at Steppenwolf in 2001. But, it wasn't enough.
She's wanted to direct "American Buffalo" for years.

"It holds a special place for me," she said.

'American Buffalo'
Dec. 15 to Feb. 7 at Steppenwolf's Downstairs Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St.,
Chicago. www.steppenwolf.org

Amy Morton steps out of 'August' shoes to run a Chicago junk shop in 'American
Buffalo'

Amy Morton, who took acting classes at the former St. Nicholas Players in
Chicago in the late 1970s, says she was weaned on to David Mamet. That explains
a lot. If you've got that tricky customer's ideas, neuroses and epigrams coming
at you like mother's milk, it's hardly surprising that, 30 years later, you find
yourself on Broadway screaming profanities at your onstage mama.

So it went with Morton, who spent most of the past three years playing the role
of Barbara Fordham in Tracy Letts' "August: Osage County." There was the
original Chicago run in 2007; the Broadway engagement that sucked up the first
half of 2008 (and then some); the London production last fall at the National
Theatre; and the 2009 first national tour, which she mostly restaged for
director Anna D. Shapiro.

In the middle of all that, she found time to shoot a decent role in the Jason
Reitman movie "Up in the Air".

Next summer, there's a chance to perform "August" once again in Australia at the
Sydney Theatre Company. If Morton has the stomach. "Putting that black dress
on," she mused in an interview this week, "my neck hurts just thinking about
it."

So it probably comes as a relief to Morton, 50, that the Broadway prospects of
her Steppenwolf Theatre Company revival of "American Buffalo," which opens
Sunday night and stars Letts, Francis Guinan and Patrick Andrews, would appear
to be roughly zero. "American Buffalo" was just on Broadway — for about 30
seconds — in a production directed by Robert Falls of the Goodman Theatre,
starring John Leguizamo, Cedric the Entertainer and Haley Joel Osment.

As denizens of a junk shop on Lincoln Avenue, that notably eccentric bit of
casting was about as credible as a cast of Sarah Palin, Miley Cyrus and Rachel
Maddow. The show died fast, probably poisoning the Gotham ground for further
revivals of the 1975 Mamet classic.

Not that Mamet pays this play much attention anymore. He's moved on to the likes
of "Race," which I saw in New York last week and found to be an ideological
theatrical contrivance both gripping and deeply aggravating. "American Buffalo"
was from when he still was creating credible people and railing against
corporate takeovers of little guys, rather than the perils of affirmative
action.

Morton's production of "American Buffalo" will head to the McCarter Theatre in
Princeton, N.J., in March, replete with the Pulitzer Prize-winning Letts in his
polyester duds playing the role of Teach. This is Letts' first onstage outing in
a while.

"It is nice to get to tell him what to do for a change," Morton says of the role
switch that has her directing the guy who wrote the Barbara role. You won't be
surprised to hear that Morton's revival of "American Buffalo" is apropos of
little more than her long-seated desire to direct this particular script, which
(along with "Glengarry Glen Ross") is clearly Mamet's best. There are no plans
for conceptual innovation: "It's still a 1970s junk shop on Lincoln Avenue," she
says. And although Morton will follow-up "American Buffalo" by directing "Awake
and Sing" for the Northlight Theatre, she remains first and foremost an actor.
She still lives in Chicago and has no plans to move. And she'll be back onstage
at Steppenwolf next season. Just not in that play.

A little late but happy birthday anyway John! Hope you had a nice day.

Jo

Josh Brolin Broke John Malkovich's Thumb

JOSH Brolin has been forced to issue a grovelling apology after injuring movie
veteran John Malkovich during a fight scene in their upcoming comic book movie
Jonah Hex.

Josh ended up breaking the thumb of Oscar winner John who plays the villain to
his cowboy hero in the film.

"He did amazingly," says Josh, who also shared his Wild West adventure with
Megan Fox.

"He was in incredibly good shape. And I think I wound up breaking his thumb. I
was really sorry about that but he was tough. He calmly asked me to pull this
thumb back into place after it had happened!"

John Malkovich playing The Vulture in Spider-Man 4?

In the past two months Spider-Man 4 has had more casting rumors than Aunt May
has wheatcakes.

The latest rumblings come courtesy of Movieline, who reports that John Malkovich
is in talks to play Spidey rogue The Vulture.

If confirmed this may be sad news for everyone who hoped that the long-teased
Lizard would make his celluloid debut. But, longtime Spider-Man production
followers will remember that for a long time Malkovich was rumored to play
Norman Osborn and his evil green counterpart. So, should this rumor prove to be
true, the casting would be a bit serendipitous, if nothing else.

Hello all,

I posted American Buffalo pics in the AB folder that I created.
Enjoy!
Anyone in here who's going to see the play?

Jolanda

Welcome Leslie! Hope you enjoy your stay here.
Please let us know if you ever visited Step!

Jolanda

>The film first got a DVD release in 2001 with a Two-Disc Collector's Edition;
for its fifteenth anniversary, Paramount has decided to rerelease the set in
special packaging as a "Chocolate Box Gift Set" just in time for Christmas.<

Very cool. lol  I wonder if it has new extras on it.

Mel

A Playwright's Other Job
Pulitzer winner Tracy Letts in his lesser-known role: actor

Acting never made Tracy Letts famous. He spent four years in Los Angeles trying
out for TV shows, snagging a bit part on "Seinfeld" and getting rejected by
"JAG."

Playwriting, on the other hand, made him a national name. Last year, he won the
Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for his drama about a dysfunctional family,
"August: Osage County." This fall, his new play, "Superior Donuts," came to
Broadway.

Now, after two years off the stage, Tracy Letts the actor is returning in
"American Buffalo," a David Mamet play that started performances this week at
Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company. During a recent rehearsal break, Mr.
Letts admitted feeling rusty, especially when it came to memorizing Mr. Mamet's
exacting dialogue.

Tracy Letts performs in David Mamet's 'American Buffalo' at the Steppenwolf
Theatre Company in Chicago.
."There's a kind of panic that creeps in," said Mr. Letts, who is sporting a
walrus moustache for his role in the '70s-era drama about small-time crooks.

The 44-year-old Oklahoma native, known as a chronicler of domestic strife, says
performing gives him a necessary emotional outlet: "If I didn't act," he jokes,
"I would eventually climb up in a tower with a rifle and a scope."

Mr. Letts dropped out of Southeastern Oklahoma State University (where his
parents both taught English), and worked briefly in theater in Dallas. At 20, he
moved to Chicago, where he performed in local theater productions—and began
writing some of his own plays. His first play, "Killer Joe," was performed in a
40-seat house in a Chicago suburb in 1993. It would later play London's West End
and Off Broadway.

But he was still focused on his acting career. He moved to Los Angeles, where he
recalls the work as spotty and largely unfulfilling—though he says a turn in the
classic "Festivus" episode of "Seinfeld" still pays him residuals. He returned
to Chicago in 2001 when he was cast in "Glengarry Glen Ross" at Steppenwolf, and
he joined the ensemble as an actor the following year. Between roles, he worked
on a new play, set in his home state of Oklahoma: "August: Osage County."

A steady string of roles culminated in 2007 with "Betrayal," a Harold Pinter
drama about a tortured love triangle in which Mr. Letts played Robert, an
oppressively sad character whose wife cheats on him with his best friend. Mr.
Letts likened playing the role to "climbing into a coffin 75 minutes at a time."

Two days after "Betrayal" closed, rehearsals began for "August: Osage County."
His father, Dennis Letts, who was also an actor, was cast in the play as the
family patriarch. The drama ran at Steppenwolf in the summer of 2007 and opened
on Broadway that December. Two months later, the elder Mr. Letts, who also
appeared in the Broadway production, died of cancer. Less than two months after
that, Mr. Letts won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for drama.

"August" went on to win five Tonys in June 2008, including the award for best
play. Days later, Mr. Letts's "Superior Donuts" debuted at Steppenwolf. The play
explored the father-son dynamic between a donut-shop owner and a young protégé.
It opened on Broadway this fall and will close in January.

Mr. Letts says he is now backed up until the spring with writing projects,
including a screenplay for Natalie Portman based on a true crime story and the
screenplay for "August." Once he's finished, he says, he'll get back to writing
plays. He's even considering a musical.

And he doesn't rule out the idea of performing in one of his earlier plays one
day. "At some point, they're so far away from you, they don't feel like they're
you anymore," he says.

Amy Morton Goes "Up in the Air"

Amy Morton, Tony Award nominee for her turn in August: Osage County, trades in
her former Oklahoma dysfunctional family for the Wisconsin-based one in the new
film "Up in the Air."

The Paramount Pictures feature film starring George Clooney opens in select
cities Dec. 4 before spreading to a wide release on Dec. 25. Jason Reitman
directs his and Sheldon Turner's screenplay.

In the R-rated film, Morton plays one of two siblings (along with Melanie
Lynskey) who are somewhat estranged from their forever-flying brother (Clooney)
who fires people for a living. Stage veteran J.K. Simmons also makes an
appearance in the film as one of the termination victims.

Morton directed the current Steppenwolf Theatre Company revival of David Mamet's
American Buffalo playing at the Chicago stage. The man who provided the actress
with her Tony-nommed role — playwright Tracy Letts — stars in her staging with
Francis Guinan and Patrick Andrews. (More at steppenwolf.org)

For more information on "Up in the Air" visit TheUpInTheAirMovie.com.

Andrews, Guinan and Letts Lay a Plan in Chicago's American Buffalo, Directed by
Morton

By Kenneth Jones
03 Dec 2009

Steppenwolf Theatre Company's new production of David Mamet's American Buffalo
begins Dec. 3. Patrick Andrews plays young Bobby opposite Steppenwolf ensemble
members Francis Guinan as Don and Tracy Letts as Teach.

Steppenwolf ensemble member Amy Morton directs the drama about small-time crooks
who plot a crime from a junk shop. Performances will play to Feb. 7, 2010, in
Steppenwolf's Downstairs Theatre at 1650 N. Halsted St., in Chicago. The opening
is Dec. 13.

Morton received a 2008 Best Actress Tony nomination for Steppenwolf's August:
Osage County on Broadway. Chicago actor-playwright Letts won the Pulitzer Prize
for August: Osage County, which also featured Guinan in the original Chicago and
Broadway cast.

*

According to Steppenwolf, "In a cluttered, run-down Chicago junk shop, three
small-time crooks plot to steal a valuable buffalo nickel. As the heist
unravels, the men's frustration and paranoia intensify. Ensemble member Amy
Morton directs this groundbreaking American play that weaves humor and menace
throughout an emotionally charged struggle for identity and dominance."

Black sheep of 'August: Osage County' darken the prairie
Oklahoma family puts on a dismal, convincing display of dysfunction

The windows of the Westons' house, located 60 miles northwest of Tulsa, are
covered with dark paper year-round. The inhabitants "don't differentiate between
night and day." They're content to be trapped in a long, dim tunnel of memories,
some suppressed and others obsessed over, until one family member chooses to
escape the hard way.

Ramifications of that decision provide abundant fuel for the three-hour-plus
running time of "August: Osage County," the 2008 Pulitzer Prize- and Tony
Award-winning roller-coaster of a play by Tracy Letts that is now at the Kennedy
Center's Eisenhower Theater. Getting to know the Westons and all their secrets
is an experience that will haunt you for days after.

With a certain debt to Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee (and maybe even the
"Mamma's Family" sketches on "The Carol Burnett Show"), Letts has created a
brilliant epic about a downright determinedly dysfunctional clan, filled with
compelling characters drawn in sometimes painful detail and peppered with issues
that can confront all of us. The result is a rare theatrical high.

At the center of the drama - and some of the most wicked laughs in what is often
a very funny, raw-language play - is the Weston matriarch, Violet. She's
addicted to pills and put-downs, the latter aimed with particular relish and
deadly accuracy at her three daughters, brought under the family roof again
after the suicide of their alcoholic, poetry-writing father.

Violet is one of the juiciest roles to come along in years, and it couldn't make
a tighter fit for Estelle Parsons. She first tackled the assignment during the
Steppenwolf Theatre Company's Broadway run of "August: Osage County" (succeeding
the original Violet, Deanna Dunegan), and she brings to this touring production
a visceral impact all the more startling given that Parsons just turned 82.

Never mind that Violet is a woman in her mid-60s. Everything about Parsons'
performance is as believable as it is affecting - the shift from slurred to
all-too-precise speech; the contrast between a wild dash down the stairs and a
dazed shuffling of feet once on the ground; the penetrating looks; the hand
reaching out to grasp for remnants of those Violet has driven away.

Todd Rosenthal's impressive three-story set, lit with exquisite subtlety by Ann
G. Wrightson, is peopled with other remarkably astute actors.

Shannon Cochran superbly limns every nuance of the spring-loaded eldest
daughter, Barbara, whose husband is leaving her for the oldest, smarmiest of
reasons; whose cynicism is the only real match for her mother's; and whose fate
appears to be heading into "Grey Gardens" territory. (As Barbara observes, it's
a good thing we can't tell the future - "Otherwise, we'd never get out of bed.")

Angelica Torn brings a telling vulnerability to Ivy, the middle daughter who
faces the most unexpected roadblock to her first real chance for love. And Amy
Warren, with her deliciously musical voice, captures the endearing qualities of
the group-hug-seeking Karen, the youngest and far-from-wisest of the family.

Libby George gives a striking performance as Violet's sister, Mattie, who hides
her own dark sin under aggressive makeup and relentless badgering of her awkward
son, Little Charles (vividly portrayed by Stephen Riley Key). Paul Vincent
O'Connor sometimes sounds too studied as Mattie's husband, Charlie, but he
uncovers the character's reserve strength tellingly in the end.

Emily Kinney has the whole contemporary teenager thing down pat as Barbara's
daughter Jean, a mix of bluster, indifference and insecurity. Jon DeVries
bestows on patriarch Beverly Watson so much personality and articulates the
character's literary-allusion-filled lines with such vivid growls and elongated
vowels, that it's a pity he gets only the one, opening scene. The remainder of
the cast proves admirable at creating three-dimensional figures in this
galvanizing slice of life on the plains.

"August: Osage County" is structured by Letts with a sure, steady hand, moving
full tilt (the hours pass very quickly) as it comes full circle, achieving in
the process a poignancy that cuts very deep.

When Barbara, facing the reality that her marriage is over, says to her husband,
"I'm never going to understand why," she could be speaking about all of the dead
ends faced by the extended Weston family. And the simple, honest response her
husband gives her - "Probably not" - echoes in each rumble of distant thunder
heard later outside the house as Violet and Barbara confront each other one last
time.

"August: Osage County" continues through Dec. 20 at the Kennedy Center, 2700 F
St., NW. Tickets are $25 to $80. Call 202-467-4600 or go to kennedy-center.org.

The Low Self Esteem of Lizzie Gillespie, a romantic comedy, will also be
produced by John Malkovich under his Mr. Mudd house. The film revolves around "a
woman whose lack of self-worth has limited her choice in men to losers. Just as
she is about to hit the bottom of the barrel, her life takes an unexpected turn
when she is pursued by the hottest guy ever."

Sounds less clever than I'd have hoped, but with these writers on board,
anything is possible. Kaling will also play a supporting role in the film.

Forrest Gump (Chocolate Box Gift Set) DVD Review
Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 11.30.2009

This DVD set is like a box of chocolates...literally. But is it worth a
double-dip?

Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Written by: Eric Roth

Starring:
Tom Hanks - Forrest Gump
Robin Wright Penn - Jenny Curran
Gary Sinise - Dan Taylor
Mykelti Williamson - Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue
Sally Field - Mrs. Gump
Haley Joel Osment - Forrest Gump, Jr.
Michael Conner Humphreys - Young Forrest Gump.
Hanna R. Hall - Young Jenny Curran
Richard D'Alessandro - Abbie Hoffman
Peter Dobson - Elvis Presley
Dick Cavett - Himself
Sam Anderson - Principal Hancock
Geoffrey Blake - Wesley
Siobhan Fallon Hogan - Dorothy Harris

Domestic Gross: $329,694,499
Worldwide Gross: $677,387,716

DVD Release Date: 11/3/09
Running Time: 142 Minutes

Rated PG-13 for drug content, some sensuality and war violence.

It's hard to believe that it has been nearly fifteen years since the 67th
Academy Awards. That year was one of the more hotly-contested years in recent
memory, as two critical juggernauts on very different sides of the filmmaking
spectrum came head-to-head. The first, Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, was a
film that enormously influenced the prominence of independent filmmaking and put
Tarantino on the map. With heavily stylized violence, a script whose language
would make sailors cringe and an over-the-top "cool factor," the film was the
dream story of a new generation of filmgoers. In the other corner were Robert
Zemeckis, a director who had long been working in Hollywood, and his slice of
Americana known as Forrest Gump. Featuring Tom Hanks in the starring role,
Zemeckis's film was a nostalgic look at America's history put up against an
anti-heroic vision of the new generation of film-makers. When the dust had
settled, Gump stood taller, having earned six Academy Awards of Fiction's single
win for Best Adapted Screenplay. The success of Forrest Gump helped set Hanks in
an entirely new class of cinematic respect and did the same with Zemeckis. The
film first got a DVD release in 2001 with a Two-Disc Collector's Edition; for
its fifteenth anniversary, Paramount has decided to rerelease the set in special
packaging as a "Chocolate Box Gift Set" just in time for Christmas.

The Movie

Hanks stars as the titular character, a simpleton who finds himself travelling
through some of the most significant moments of the latter half of the twentieth
century. Born to a noble—if not financially well-off—single Southern woman
(Fields), Forrest is born with a crooked spine and a below-average IQ. While
Mrs. Gump repeatedly tells him that he is no worse or different than anyone
else, other people do not agree and mock him repeatedly. One person who doesn't
is Jenny (Wright Penn, played by Hall as a child). Jenny accepts him for who he
is, and she becomes Forrest's love for life. While his journeys separate him
from Jenny and she strays into the excess of the sixties and the seventies, she
is always in his thoughts. Forrest's extraordinary nature—his strong legs, his
single-minded nature, his simple and uncomplicated outlook and his hand-eye
coordination—takes him to great places, and introduces him to great people. In
Vietnam, he meets Lieutenant Dan Taylor (Sinise) and Bubba Blue (Williamson),
both of whom affect Forrest as much as he affects them. He meets no less than
three Presidents of the United States, plays ping-pong for the United States
against China, earns the Congressional Medal of Honor and captures the nation's
attention by running for over three years. Through it all he always comes home
to his mother, and crosses paths with Jenny, enriching the lives of those around
him and proving his mother's words true, that "life is like a box of chocolates;
you never know what you're gonna get."

Eric Roth penned the screenplay to Forrest Gump, based on the novel by Winston
Groom. The differences between Groom's story and Roth's screenplay are
pronounced, with Groom's book being more of a stretch in terms of the suspension
of disbelief. His novel is a farcical tale that includes Forrest running for
Senate under the slogan "I've gotta pee" and joining the space program, where he
meets a life-long friend in the male orangutan Sue who becomes his partner in
the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. Roth took out the sillier elements of the film
and inserted several sequences of his own to make the story a more heartfelt
story about the humanity of a decent man, whose simplicity allows him to
navigate the tumultuous second half of the twentieth century and not be weighed
down by it. Roth's Forrest is a childlike character, a truly good man who by
nature of his simplicity boils things down to their best elements.

At the same time, the world around him is not so good. His lifelong love Jenny
finds herself falling into the hippie movement and pays for it with abuse,
emotional trauma and, eventually, disease. Lieutenant Dan's hardship throws him
into a tailspin that he is unable to recover from without Forrest's help. Many
have debated the political leanings of the film, with Forrest living a clean and
conservative lifestyle while those who suffer around him—particularly Jenny—are
suffering as a result of their immersion into the counterculture lifestyle of
excess. It can be noted that in adapting the novel, Roth seemed to take all of
the things Forrest does wrong and transfers them to his more liberal would-be
girlfriend. Still, the story doesn't seem to be mean-spirited and in Forrest,
there is a constant acceptance of what Jenny does, even if he doesn't understand
it. While the argument can be made for political leanings, the film seems to
ultimately stand from a neutral point of view, and the conclusion of Jenny's
story seems to imply redemption and maturity. The story is less about political
archetypes than it is individuals who take different paths throughout the wild
era, and in the end we are supposed to love them all.

Therein lies part of the problem with the film. While a first viewing of Forrest
Gump leaves plenty of opportunity for amazement and wonder, successive viewings
allow the flaws to seep out more. When viewed objectively and not through
Forrest's eyes, Jenny really is an abhorrent sort of character. It's clear that
she loves Forrest, and part of her motivation for coming back to Forrest time
and again is because he's safe, and he can care for her or pick her up when
she's down. The situation is less pronounced with some others, but even Lt. Dan
is a character who would have become very little without his slow friend to help
him out and save him. The only characters who appear saintly are the
Gumps—Forrest through his simplicity and Mrs. Gump through a single-minded
devotion to her son. Any character outside of these ones and Bubba Blue are
little more than caricatures, and they prove to be one-dimensional types who
don't hold up to scrutiny. Jenny's boyfriend is an abusive revolutionary type.
The girls who Lt. Dan and Forrest take home are just spiteful call girls. The
people sitting on the bench with Forrest might as well be called Ms. Bored And
Uncaring, Mr. Disbelieving and Ms. Nice Woman Who Believes. No one gets much
screen time and so there isn't enough to develop them.

The other problem with the script is that by midway through, it starts to drag.
Once Forrest has returned home from Vietnam, the story starts to crawl and loses
direction. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that, with as many iconic
appearances in historical events as we see up until then, there's simply nothing
so interesting to hold sway there. Even some of those historical events seem to
be rather unnecessary. Forrest's appearance at George Wallace's historic attempt
to prevent the desegregation comes off like a cinematic version of "Where's
Waldo," and the appearance on the Dick Cavett show where he inspires John Lennon
with the lyrics to "Imagine" seems tacked on just for the gag—one that doesn't
work. The meetings with the President come off much better, though it is
admittedly bizarre to see Lyndon Johnson leaning in to murmur that he'd like to
see Gump's wounded buttock and then when it happens, he gets a strange grin on
his face. In the end, the story picks up and finishes on a generally satisfying
note, but still leaves the story flawed as a whole.

What makes this film, without a shadow of a doubt, are the performances. Tom
Hanks was coming of an Oscar-winning performance in Philadelphia, a move that
redefined him in many people's eyes. He furthered that here and solidified his
status as one of the top dramatic men in Hollywood. He handles Forrest in a way
that no one else could have, balancing the character's age and innocence
perfectly. There isn't a single moment where Hanks allows his character to fall
into anywhere less than near-perfection, and moments such as Jenny's revelation
in the present day show what a talented actor Hanks is. In the hands of nearly
any other actor, the character simply wouldn't have worked—and if the character
didn't work, the film would have failed drastically. Hanks is exceptional in the
role which remains one of his best pieces of work.

That is to say nothing against his supporting cast. Robin Wright Penn hits all
the right notes as Jenny Curran. She is a deeply flawed character but it is
through Wright Penn that we can accept and even appreciate her. She plays Jenny
with the right touches of love for Forrest and hatred for herself, and in that
we can understand better why she does what she does. Gary Sinise was deservedly
nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Award for Lt. Dan, who also could have
become a one-note joke in the hands of a lesser actor. Sally Fields provides
stability as Forrest's mother and Mykelti Williamson is very memorable as Bubba
Blue. This movie is a perfect convergence of casting and performances, and they
are what allow the film to succeed.

Robert Zemeckis has proven himself to be a talented and capable director over
the years. His early success came with comedy, between the Back to the Future
franchise and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Forrest Gump was his first experience
with a more dramatic piece and he does several things well. The primary thing he
does well is the visual effects, which at the time were second to none. They may
seem trite and standard fare now, but in 1994 digitally removing a man's legs,
inserting actors into archival footage and taking 1,500 extras to make a crowd
of over 50,000 were amazing accomplishments and with Industrial Light and Magic
on the job, Zemeckis allows these effects to soar. Some of them have not aged
particularly well—particularly the morphing of certain famous people's mouths to
match words or a moment when Dan climbs into his wheelchair—but they still stand
as hallmarks of visual effects. Where Zemeckis fails is in allowing the movie to
wander too much. He makes no attempts to rein in Roth's script and instead is
focused on letting the actors and effects people wow the audience. That's all
well and good, but for a film that could have been so much more, Zemeckis lets
it falter. He knows he is making a fantasy, albeit a more reality-based one than
Back to the Future, and he expects his audience to just play along. That works
the first time around; however, once the glamour has worn off the flaws creep
forth and what becomes evident is that while Forrest Gump is a good film that
has wrapped itself firmly around Americana, that doesn't make it a great film.

Film Rating: 7.0

The Video

This is basically an identical DVD to the 2001 Two-Disc Collector's Edition,
right down to the video and audio transfers. That leaves Forrest Gump with a
good, though not perfect, video experience. The first flaws can be noticed early
on in the opening title sequence, where distortion can be seen in the lettering.
Delineation is not as clean as it could have been and a lot of images come off
too soft. On the other hand, the colors and black levels are very nicely done.
There are some noticeable levels of grain and digital artifacts can be seen on
higher-end televisions. Some scenes look quite crisp, while others less so. The
last thing that is unfortunate is that the DVD transfer allows us to see flaws
in the effects, which were fine fifteen years ago but are more noticeable now.
This last problem takes very little points off as there is only so much that can
be done to improve it without tinkering, and Zemeckis must be commended for
resisting the temptation to go in and "improve" things the way Spielberg and
Lucas have on their films.

Video Rating: 7.0

The Audio

Like the video, the audio is the same as in the 2001 DVD set, but unlike the
video the audio comes through excellently. The ambient sounds are quite
striking, particularly in the Vietnam scenes where all the channels get quite a
workout. Alan Silvestri's now-famous score sounds beautiful and the dialogue is
never difficult to understand. There are no major amounts of hissing to be heard
and all in all, the Dolby Digital 5.1 track sounds quite nice. There is also a
French Stereo Surround track. Subtitles are available in English.

Audio Rating: 8.0

The Packaging

For this fifteenth anniversary release, Paramount has housed the DVD set in a
"Chocolate Box Gift Set" casing. Of course, with the possibility someone being
dumb enough to actually eat entirely-too-old candy, there are no actual
chocolates inside. Instead we have the two-disc set, a fourteen page booklet
called "The Journey of Forrest Gump" that features a timeline of Forrest's life
and pictures, a covering with scratch n' sniff chocolates and a fake feather.
The box is a bit hefty to fit on a home DVD shelf, but makes for a nice
centerpiece somewhere in the house if one doesn't mind the DVD's being separate
from the rest of their collection. The menus on the DVD's feature such images as
the feather, Forrest's dog tags, or faded images of the characters with easily
navigable menus alongside of them. It all looks excellent, but for ease of
storage or practicality it's a bit much.

Packaging Rating: 8.0

Special Features

Audio Commentary with director Robert Zemeckis, producer Steve Starkey and
production designer Rick Carter: There are two commentary tracks, both directly
ported from the previous DVD release. The first features Zemeckis, Starkey and
Carter talking at length about various aspects of the film. They tackle the
pre-production process, establishing the look of the film, casting decisions and
design and location choices. They sometimes run a little dry and the track is
hurt somewhat by the fact that Zemeckis is recorded separately from Starkey and
Carter. Still, the information is definitely worth checking out and they never
become intolerable to listen to the way some tracks can get.

Audio Commentary with producer Wendy Finerman: Finerman talks alone on this
track, when she talks. Periods of dead air abound in this one, which causes it
to sink a bit, but it's certainly better than it would have been if she just
babbled on about banal details to fill time. Additionally, the information she
offers is interesting enough, with anecdotes and nice stories about the
production.

Through the Eyes of Forrest Gump: A Documentary: (30:04) Made at the time of the
film's release, this documentary short is the making-of for the film, and starts
off with Tom Hanks, Sally Field and others talking about Forrest intercut with
appropriate scenes from the footage. Robert Zemeckis talks about how Forrest is
an opportunity to tell "the tapestry of American history." Producer Wendy
Finerman talks about her experiences having first read the book, and Zemeckis
talks about how it was interesting to him because it defied the conventional
rules of movie-making by not having a central conflict to drive the film
forward. Tom Hanks does an amusing impression of Robert Zemeckis and his
reaction to the script before they start talking about the cast. Zemeckis gushes
over Hanks while the actor talks about the character's state of mind. Mrs. Gump,
the young Forrest (who Hanks credits with inspiring his idea for the voice),
Jenny and more. There's some nice information provided here, but nothing too
terribly in-depth. They talk about the character's interactions with famous
people throughout the film and focus a bit on putting Hanks in the JFK scene.
Zemeckis talks about framing Vietnam from Forrest's point of view and we get
Mykelti Williamson talking about Bubba, Sinise talking about Lt. Dan. Hanks
talks a bit about capturing the reality of Vietnam without doing the same old,
same old before they move onto the ping-pong shots and how they accomplished
that. Discussion is also had over filming on the shrimp boat, getting the
hurricane scene done, the feather scene (the longest effects shot in history at
the time) and then some summary. As a half-hour look at the film it is
definitely interesting, without going so far in-depth that it bogs down.

Screen Tests: (9:21) This set of features are a grouping of scene tests for the
duo Michael Conner Humphrey and Hanna R. Hall, Robin Wright and Haley Joel
Osment. They are exactly what one might expect from screen tests, featuring the
cast members doing snippets scenes to see how they work on camera. Humphrey and
Hall show their immediate chemistry, though Humphrey clearly had some lessons by
the time he got to filming. Wright and Osment do their scenes with Hanks, who
speaks without his famous "Forrest voice." Again, the chemistry is definitely
there from the get-go and you can see exactly why these actors were cast in
their roles; Wright shows the innocence and sympathy she brings to the role
right off the bat and Osment is very endearing.

Building The World Of Forrest Gump: (7:18) Production Designer Rick Carter
starts this piece by describing the process behind what the production designers
and art directors do, and then moves on to talk about how he got the project and
what it was to him. He talks about location scouting to find a place that looked
like the South the way they wanted it to be, and discusses the building of the
house and other sets. He talks about the challenges of making Vietnam and
setting it up exactly the way Zemeckis wanted, and the challenges of doing so
much work so quickly. Carter is engaging to listen to, but he only offers a few
tidbits of real value here.

Seeing Is Believing: The Visual Effects of Forrest Gump: (38:35) This is
actually a series of shorter featurettes that cover individual effects sets. We
have the Birth of a Nation scene, in which George Murphy and Ken Ralston talk
about how they set that up from the still picture through the footage, which
involved some use of rotoscoping technology. Ralston talks about doing some
special effects for Forrest running from the teenagers chasing him, as well as
an unused sequence involving Martin Luther King that was better off cut as it
probably would have been a bit much. We get a couple of minutes about Forrest
standing next to George Wallace before they move onto Vietnam for a good seven
minutes. This is more of an overview of several scenes where Ralston shows us
how Zemeckis tends to show us a lot of information with a quick pan shot.
Ralston also talks about the effects of the combat scenes along with the stunt
teams. There's another unused scene of Gump playing Ping-Pong with George Bush
Sr. and then the Johnson, Lennon and Nixon scenes, which added a new layer of
complexity with the use of color. Other shorts involve "Enhancing Reality,"
which was the crowd replication for the Reflecting Pool, football and ping-pong
scenes, and an almost six-minute scene about the removal of Sinise's legs as Lt.
Dan.

Through The Ears Of Forrest Gump: (14:36) This set of five featurettes is about
the sound design, and mostly features sound man Randy Thom in interviews. He
talks about how they framed the slow motion of young Forrest running from
bullies and how much of an opportunity he found that to enhance the scene with
the sounds of the bicycles in a microscopic effect in the first bit, and then
reminisces on how big of a project it was to make it seem like there were more
people in the football stadium than there really was. Like in the visual
effects, the Vietnam scenes get a lot more time and Thom talks about how he came
on board and what opportunities he found in the film. He covers the sounds in
relation to camera placement and trying to make it seem more like it came from
the perspective of the soldiers, and how the entirety of the sound was recorded
separate from the direct filming of the scene. This is definitely the best of
the sound featurettes as you learn a lot about the technical details of sound
mixing and all the different aspects that come into play. The last bit is about
the ping-pong scenes and how they created the sounds of the ball, which was all
done post-production like the Vietnam scenes were. Thom is an intelligent
speaker who makes this all very interesting and well-worth listening to.

The Magic Of Make-Up: (8:01) Make-Up Artists Dan Striepeke, who was one of the
many people associated with this film that was nominated for an Academy Award,
talks about how he got on the film to start this off, which was by virtue of
working with Hanks as far back as Dragnet and The 'Burbs. He talks about
particularly about using hair effects throughout the different years of
Forrest's life and how his make-up partner did all the work on Jenny. There's
discussion of the age make-up on Fields and Gary Sinise's facial hair and look.
There's also a brief bit about Bubba's lip and how that was done. This is quite
standard as make-up featurettes go and there isn't anything as fascinating
offered here as there were in the effects scenes, perhaps because the make-up
just wasn't as revolutionary. That's not to say it's overly boring, just not
absolutely thrilling.

Trailers: (5:06) There are two trailers included; the original theatrical
trailer and one entitled "Remember." The latter appears to have been a trailer
used some time into the film's theatrical run, perhaps toward the end of the
year to drum up support for the Oscars. Both are very good as trailers and
certainly did their job in getting people to go see the film.

Photo Gallery: The Photo Gallery consists of twenty-nine still photos, both
promotional shots and a few behind-the-scenes stills. They are good pictures,
though there is nothing particular special or can't-miss about them. The
navigation is controlled via the left/right arrows on the remote control.

--- In Steppenwolf_Theatre@yahoogroups.com, "jolanda" <jvhuizen@...> wrote:

> No More 'Donuts' in 2010
> The Steppenwolf Theatre Company production of Tracy Letts'  "Superior Donuts"
is to close on Broadway, effective Jan. 3.

- Deb, weren't you going to NYC to see this???

Jo

Check out the article at:
http://thesop.org/entertainment/2009/11/25/celebs-thank-troops-with-concert

Jo

No More 'Donuts' in 2010

The Steppenwolf Theatre Company production of Tracy Letts'  "Superior Donuts" is
to close on Broadway, effective Jan. 3.

January is always a brutal month on Broadway, and the producers clearly felt
that this show didn't have the legs to last past the holidays. It's by no means
been a bust, but business has been spotty.

Cast members weren't suprised but were less than delighted. All were under
contract through the Tony Awards, had re-arranged their lives and had hoped the
show would last through the spring.

The re-appearance of so many Chicago actors earlier than anticipated may have an
impact on casting here in the first half of next year. There will be some
unexpected availability.

Actress embraces role in award-winning drama 'August: Osage County'

Shannon Cochran basks in her latest role as Barbara Fordham in "August: Osage
County." The show was the winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for drama and the
Tony Award for Best Play, as well as awards from Drama Desk, Drama League, New
York Drama Critics Circle and Outer Critics Circle.

Her character is one of three daughters to Violet Weston, the
prescription-drug-addicted family matriarch played by Academy Award winner
Estelle Parsons.

"Estelle is a formidable presence on stage, very demanding, and she has
extracted from me a fiercer embodiment of Barbara than in the original version,"
Cochran said. "I was drawn to Estelle's Violet, Barbara's feelings toward her
absent father and the dynamics between the three sisters because I don't have a
sister of my own and it made me wish for that kind of relationship. Along the
way, I've tweaked the character to conform with what is happening between the
others on stage.

"You meet Barbara when everything she knew about love has changed. She had the
feeling she was her father's favorite child and later believed she was her
mother's favorite. She finds this wasn't true. At the same time, her marriage is
unraveling. I felt so sorry for her, how flawed she is, and I looked for the
warts."

A true journeyman actor, Cochran graduated from the Cincinnati Conservatory of
Music and made her mark early in musical theater, but when she arrived in
Chicago, which she calls her spiritual home, the Steppenwolf Theater Company
gave her opportunities to cross over to drama. There she won the 1988 Joseph
Jefferson Award for her role as Gladys Bump in the musical "Pal Joey," along
with eight succeeding Joseph Jefferson nominations in both musicals and dramas,
the latest in 2008 for a principal role in "The Lion in Winter."

When not on tour, she is a faculty member of the School at Steppenwolf Theater
Company in Chicago and the branch in Los Angeles. Her dozens of television and
film credits include guest appearances on such major shows as "Star Trek," "Law
and Order: Special Victims Unit," "The Office," "The Bold and the Beautiful" and
"Numb3rs," and as the mysterious Anna Morgan in the 2002 DreamWorks thriller
"The Ring."

Joe Frank Performance Rescheduled At Steppenwolf For 3/13/2010

NPR personality Joe Frank's one night performance of Is There Something Wrong?:
An Evening of Spoken Word and Music has been rescheduled for Saturday, March 13,
2010 at 8 p.m. in the Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St.
Tickets purchased for the original performance date Saturday, November 14, 2009
at 8:00 p.m. will be honored. Additional tickets are currently on sale. (Note:
the original performance was cancelled due to illness).

Joe Frank takes the Steppenwolf's stage for an evening of spoken word and music
in one of his most provocative pieces yet. The depth of his work - essentially a
philosophical inquiry - is what gives it its real significance. Beneath every
surreal flourish is a search for something to believe in: a yearning for love, a
quest for self-acceptance. While one critic has called Frank "the most brilliant
comic in America," another has described Frank's stories as "inspired weirdness
that feeds on pathos and irony." Others have used the words "hypnotic,"
"psychotic," "disturbing" and "terrifying." All agree that Frank unfailingly
manages to confound his audience's expectations. Cited as a source of
inspiration by artists as diverse as Ira Glass, Charlie Kaufman and Beck,
Frank's shows are invariably laced with surreal comedy.

Joe Frank began his radio career in 1977 at WBAI, in New York City, and later
served as co-anchor of National Public Radio's All Things Considered in 1978.
Over the course of the next three decades he produced over 200 radio programs
for KCRW and National Public Radio. A Guggenheim Fellow, Frank has been honored
with many major industry awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award, two
Major Armstrong Awards and two Corporation for Public Broadcasting Awards for
radio drama. Over the years, Frank's distinctive approach to making radio has
inspired producers around the world to experiment with and stretch the medium
beyond traditional boundaries. Joe Frank's regular weekly one-hour radio show
airs in Chicago on WBEZ Sunday nights at 11 p.m. For additional information,
visit www.joefrank.com.

Title: Joe Frank in Is There Something Wrong?: An Evening of Spoken Word and
Music
Consulting Director: ensemble member Terry Kinney
Location: Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre
Date: Saturday, March 13, 2010
Curtain Time: 8:00 p.m.

Ticket prices: $29 ($15 student tickets available via phone and box
office only) Note: tickets purchased for the original performance date will be
honored.

Audience Services: 1650 N. Halsted, 312-335-1650
Online ticketing available at www.steppenwolf.org

Steppenwolf is located near all forms of public transportation and is wheelchair
accessible. Street and lot parking are available. Assistive listening devices
are available for every performance.

Committed to the principle of ensemble performance through the collaboration of
a company of actors, directors and playwrights, Steppenwolf Theatre Company's
mission is to advance the vitality and diversity of American theater by
nurturing artists, encouraging repeatable creative relationships and
contributing new works to the national canon. The company, formed in 1976 by a
collective of actors, is dedicated to perpetuating an ethic of mutual respect
and the development of artists through on-going group work. Steppenwolf has
grown into an internationally renowned company of 42 artists whose talents
include acting, directing, playwriting and textual adaptation. For more
information, visit www.steppenwolf.org.