Harold Pinter (Playwright) was born in London in 1930. He lived with Antonia Fraser from 1975 until his death on Christmas Eve 2008. (They were married in 1980). After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Central School of Speech and Drama, he worked as an actor under the stage name David Baron. Following his success as a playwright, he continued to act under his own name, on stage and screen. He last acted in 2006 when he appeared in Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape at the Royal Court Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson. He wrote twenty-nine plays including The Birthday Party, The Dumb Waiter, A Slight Ache, The Hothouse, The Caretaker, The Collection, The Lover, The Homecoming, Old Times, No Man’s Land, Betrayal, A Kind of Alaska, One For The Road, The New World Order, Moonlight and Ashes to Ashes. Sketches include The Black and White, Request Stop, That’s your Trouble, Night, Precisely, Apart From That and the recently rediscovered, Umbrellas. He directed twenty-seven theatre productions, including James Joyce's Exiles, David Mamet's Oleanna, seven plays by Simon Gray (one of which was Butley in 1971 which he directed the film of three years later) and many of his own plays including his last, Celebration, paired with his first, The Room at The Almeida Theatre, London in the spring of 2000. He wrote twenty-one screenplays including The Pumpkin Eater, The Servant, The Go-Between, The French Lieutenant's Woman and Sleuth. In 2005 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Other awards include the Companion of Honour for services to Literature, the Legion D’Honneur, the European Theatre Prize the Laurence Olivier Award and the Moliere D'Honneur for lifetime achievement. In 1999 he was made a Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature. Harold Pinter was awarded eighteen honorary degrees.
Les Waters (Director) is a multi Obie Award winning and Tony nominated director. Previous shows at Steppenwolf are The Designated Mourner by Wallace Shawn, The Memory of Water by Shelagh Stephenson, and Middletown by Will Eno. He has directed on Broadway, Off Broadway, and many theatres throughout the US. From 2003-11 he was Associate Artistic Director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and from 2012-18 he was the Artistic Director of Actors Theatre of Louisville. He is both the subject and co-author of The Theatre of Les Waters: More like the Weather, edited by Scott T. Cummings, published by Routledge, 2022.
Andrew Boyce (Scenic Design). At Steppenwolf: Bald Sisters. Recent Chicago credits include Layalina (Goodman), All’s Well That Ends Well (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); A Chorus Line (Drury Lane Theater). Regional credits with most major regional theaters across the U.S. Broadway: Dana H. Off-Broadway credits with Lincoln Center Theater, Roundabout Theater, Atlantic Theater Company, New York Theater Workshop, Vineyard, Primary Stages, among others. Opera credits include Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, Kentucky Opera, Curtis Institute, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Philadelphia Orchestra, among others. Television: Shining Girls (Apple TV); Poker Face (Peacock). MFA: Yale School of Drama. Associate Professor of Design at Northwestern. www.andrewboycedesign.com
Janice Pytel (Costume Design) Steppenwolf: The Qualms, Belleville, Slowgirl, Middletown, The Seafarer, Sonia Flew, and The Designated Mourner and others. Chicago: The Cake, Body Courage (Rivendell Theatre Ensemble); Queen, Hand to God, Hillary and Clinton, Cocked, The Whale (Victory Gardens Theatre); The Caretaker, The Detective’s Wife, A Streetcar Named Desire, Picnic (Writer’s Theatre), Spunk, Fences (Court Theatre) Regional: Milwaukee Rep, Alley Theatre, Kansas City Rep, Alliance, Centerstage, Geffen Playhouse and others. Broadway: I Am My Own Wife, 33 Variations, Dana H. She is a member of Rivendell Theatre Ensemble and serves on the Central Region Executive Board for USA 829.
Yi Zhao (Lighting Design) Steppenwolf debut. Regional: Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre; Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Mark Taper Forum; Dallas Theater Center; Wilma Theater; American Conservatory Theater; Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Huntington Theatre Company; McCarter Theatre Center. Broadway: The Skin of Our Teeth (TONY nomination). Off Broadway: Lincoln Center Theater, Signature Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, Soho Rep., Manhattan Theatre Club. Opera: Norwegian National Opera; Opera Colorado; Detroit Opera; Opera Omaha. Dance: Sasha Waltz & Guests (Germany), Ballet de Lorraine (France). Upcoming: I Need That (Broadway), El Niño (Metropolitan Opera). Proud to return to Chicago, where I discovered my love of theater. www.yi-zhao.com
Mikhail Fiksel (Sound Design) is excited to return to Steppenwolf having previously worked on 1919, Dance Nation and La Ruta. Other Chicago work includes The Goodman, Victory Gardens, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, and Albany Park Theatre Project. Other collaborations include The Public, Playwrights Horizons, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, New York Theatre Workshop, Signature Theatre and his Broadway debut with Dana H for which he received the 2022 Tony Award for Sound Design. Audio production work includes various projects with Audible, WBEZ, and Make-Believe Association, including their Webby nominated sci-fi series “Lake Song”. Other awards include 3 Lucille Lortel Awards, multiple Jeff Awards, and the 2020 Obie Award. He is a proud member of USA and TSDCA and serves as Practioner-In-Residence at Columbia College Chicago. www.mikhailfiksel.com @akadjwhiterussian
Courtney Abbott (Fight Choreographer) [she/they] Steppenwolf: Bald Sisters, Choir Boy, Chlorine Sky. Chicago: Tiger Style!, Wife of a Salesman (Writers); Grease (Drury Lane); And Neither Have I Wings to Fly (First Folio); Georgiana & Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley (Northlight); Enough To Let the Light In (Teatro Vista); Hurricane Diane (Theater Wit); Solaris (Griffin). Regional: Murder on the Orient Express (Milwaukee Rep). Film: Paper Planes, Lee Baby, Departing Seniors. Education: MFA, Ohio University; BS, Northwestern. Courtney is a stakeholder in the Back Room Shakespeare Project. CourtneyAbbott.com
Gigi Buffington (Company Voice, Text & Dialect Coach) has worked at Steppenwolf Theatre Company as Company Vocal Coach for seven seasons. Steppenwolf: Another Marriage, Last Night & the Night Before, Describe the Night, Bald Sisters, Miz Martha, Seagull, King James, BUG, Dance Nation, and many more. Broadway: Grey House, Cost of Living, Between Riverside and Crazy, The Minutes, Clyde’s, Slave Play, Pass Over, Linda Vista, Straight White Men, King Kong Live on Broadway. Off- Broadway: Lucy; Evanston Salt Cost’s Climbing, Catch As Catch Can, Camp Siegfried, Corsicana, On Sugarland, Prayer For The French Republic. International: Downstate (The National), The Merchant of Venice (Venice); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet (with David Tennant and Patrick Stewart), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Royal Shakespeare Company); Regional: The Outsiders; The Devil Wears Prada, The Maids (director), Pericles, Othello. Film: Text Consultant for Spike Lee’s Prince of Cats. Buffington is an Arts Professor at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. AEA, SAG-AFTRA, VASTA.
Laura D. Glenn (Production Stage Manager) Steppenwolf Theatre Company: over the past 33 years some productions include Last Night and the Night Before, Bald Sisters, King James, Lindiwe, True West, Downstate, Domesticated, Middletown, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Love Letters and many others. Chicago: Butler, Whipping Man, Chapatti, Outside Mullingar, A Skull in Connemara and many others (Northlight Theatre). Galway International Arts Festival: True West, Orange Flower Water, Purple Heart (Steppenwolf) Better Late (Northlight Theatre). BITE Festival Barbican Center London: The Man Who Came to Dinner (Steppenwolf). Broadway: Buried Child (Steppenwolf). Laura proudly has worked with all 55 Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble members and has been a member of Actors Equity Association for 33 years.
Jaclynn Joslin (Assistant Stage Manager) Steppenwolf Theatre Company: Last Night and the Night Before, Bald Sisters, King James, Bug, True West, Familiar, Guards at the Taj, BLKS, The Crucible, Between Riverside and Crazy, The Flick, East of Eden. Chicago: Arsenic and Old Lace, Two Trains Running, Othello, Oedipus Rex, The Adventures of Augie March, For Colored Girls, Photograph 51, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, All My Sons, Harvey, The Hard Problem, Blues for an Alabama Sky (Court Theatre); Continuity, The King of Hell’s Palace (Goodman Theatre); Hard Times (Lookingglass Theatre); Roz and Ray (Victory Gardens). Regional: Linda Vista (Center Theatre Group); The Outgoing Tide, Oceanside, 13 Things About Ed Carpolotti, Year Zero (Merrimack Repertory Theatre). Touring: Oklahoma!