All performances are at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 1650 N. Halsted, in Chicago.
"'Traffic' continues Steppenwolf's season-long conversation about what it means to be an American — this time with a decidedly made-in-Chicago focus," according to the not-for-profit company.
"'Traffic' provides a vibrant platform for dialogue between our audience and an eclectic pool of artists," producer of Cultural Intersections Sylvia Ewing stated. "From mature conversations with David Sedaris and the Pocketbook Lady to sketch comedy to the family-focused music of Maggie Brown and Sones de Mexico, 'Traffic' provides the opportunity for Steppenwolf to be a place where people come together for an experience that bridges entertainment and discovery, the familiar and the unknown."
Tickets to all "Traffic" events will be available to subscribers Oct. 2. General public can purchase tickets on starting Oct. 5. Additional "Traffic" events will be announced at a later date.
For more information visit www.steppenwolf.org or call (312) 335-1650. Steppenwolf's executive director is David Hawkanson. Artistic director is Martha Lavey.
The 2008 Traffic Series
An Intimate Evening with David Sedaris, Jan. 8-13, 2008, Tuesday-Sunday at 7:30 PM, Saturday and Sunday at 3 PM, Upstairs Theatre, $35. "Best-selling author, playwright and commentator David Sedaris, returns to Steppenwolf for eight performances with new material." He's widely known for his books "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and "Naked" and his regular commentary on "This American Life" for National Public Radio.The Pocket Book Monologues, Jan. 14, 2008, at 7 PM, Downstairs Theatre, $35. "The Pocketbook Monologues is a collection of stories from women of color that reveals their heartfelt emotions about intimacy, performed in the style of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, but with the Black female perspective front and center. The women's brutally honest, funny and poignant recollections will take the listener on a roller coaster ride of joy and pain, as they are engage in never-told stories about women's connections to their pocketbooks."A Legacy of Jazz and Poetry, Feb. 4, 2008, at 7:30 PM, Downstairs Theatre, $28. "Jazz maven Maggie Brown and friends explore the legacy of her late father, musician playwright and activist Oscar Brown Jr."A Celebration of Chicago Sketch Comedy, April 14, 2008, at 7 PM, Upstairs Theatre, $25. "kevINda and Schadenfreude together present a night of political, racially-charged, racy sketch comedy to help you laugh your tax woes away. Both groups integrate social and political satire into their comedy sketches and have a few surprises planned for the audience."East Meets the Rest: Tatsu Aoki and The Miyumi Project, May 9, 2008, at 7:30 PM, Downstairs Theatre, $40. "Tatsu Aoki unites taiko drumming with drums from a wide range of cultures, fuses it with jazz, contemporary and classic, to create a new sound with his band, The Miyumi Project. Tatsu has performed at the Hot House, Millennium Park and other venues. He is an artist-in-residence at the Japanese American Service Committee."de coraSON "From the Heart" — From Folk to Fusion with Sones de Mexico Ensemble, May 16, 2008, at 7:30 PM, Downstairs Theatre, $25 adults, $15 children 15 & under. "Sones de Mexico Ensemble, recently nominated for a 2007 Latin Grammy, is Chicago's premier folk music ensemble. The group formed in 1994 to keep the tradition of Mexican 'sones' alive in its many regional forms. . . .The ensemble has developed and popularized many original arrangements of Mexican traditional tunes and has experimented cross-culturally with symphonic, Irish, folk, C&W, jazz, and rock music. This is a big vibrant show for the entire family." *
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 troupe will be represented on Broadway this fall with its acclaimed production of Tracy Letts' August: Osage County.
Steppenwolf was formed in 1976 by a collective of actors and 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 41 artists whose talents include acting, directing, playwriting, filmmaking and textual adaptation."
