ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar
FOOL FOR LOVE
Written by Sam Shepard
Directed by Jeremy Herrin
Featuring ensemble members Cliff Chamberlain, Caroline Neff
and Tim Hopper with Nick Gehlfuss
January 30 – March 16, 2025 in Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theater
FIRST LOOK:
Cast and creative team in rehearsal for Steppenwolf Theatre’s revival of
Steppenwolf Theatre’s "Fool for Love" in rehearsal. Photos by Joel Moorman.
Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the nation’s premier ensemble theater company, is pleased to present a searing revival of Sam Shepard’s dark and beautiful masterpiece Fool for Love, directed by Jeremy Herrin, playing January 30 – March 16, 2025 in Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theater, 1650 N. Halsted St. in Chicago. Single tickets are now on sale at steppenwolf.org or the Box Office at (312) 335-1650.
Fool for Love features ensemble members Cliff Chamberlain as Martin (The Minutes, Superior Donuts), Tim Hopper as The Old Man (The Thanksgiving Play, Downstate) and Caroline Neff as May (POTUS, Another Marriage) with Nick Gehlfuss as Eddie (Chicago Med, Chicago PD, Chicago Fire) in his Steppenwolf debut.
About the Production:
In a sweltering motel room in the Mojave Desert, May and Eddie lick their wounds and get ready for another relentless round. This brawl is eternal and infernal. And the Old Man is always watching.
Perhaps the sexiest, most haunting play of the 20th century, Fool for Love is a twisted and tequila-soaked love letter from Sam Shepard, one of the greatest American playwrights, indulging the need to get inside someone just to tear them apart.
Steppenwolf Artistic Directors Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis comment, “Through the decades, Steppenwolf has returned again and again to Sam Shepard’s searing body of work. His plays, filled with tension, symbol and muscle, pose delights and demands for actors and audiences alike. Fool for Love is no exception, with Eddie and May’s iconic power struggle at the heart of this prize-winning masterpiece.”
Davis and Francis add, “And–we can’t stress enough–there’s nothing quite like Shepard’s work when we do it here. It’s lightning in a bottle; it’s visceral, timeless, contemporary and mythic all in one. For seven short weeks this winter, our Downstairs Theater will once again be transformed to a house of worship dedicated to Shepard, Steppenwolf’s patron saint of irreverent, enigmatic and downright explosive American Drama.”
The creative team includes Todd Rosenthal (Scenic Design), Raquel Adorno (Costume Design), Heather Gilbert (Lighting Design), Mikhail Fiksel (Sound Design), Samantha Kaufman (Fight and Intimacy Choreography), Kate DeVore (Vocal Coach), Jonathan L. Green (Dramaturg), Patrick Zakem (Creative Producer), Tom Pearl (Producing Director), JC Clementz, CSA (Casting), Laura D. Glenn (Production Stage Manager) and Kathleen Barrett (Assistant Stage Manager). For full cast and creative team bios, click here.
Location: Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theater, 1650 N. Halsted St., Chicago
Dates: Previews: Thursday, January 30 – Friday, February 7, 2025
Regular run: Tuesday, February 11 – Sunday, March 16, 2025
Curtain Times: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 pm; Saturdays at 3 pm & 7:30 pm; and Sundays at 3 pm. Please note: there will not be 7:30 pm performances on Tuesday, February 4, Wednesday, March 5 or Tuesday, March 11; there will not be 3 pm performances on Saturday, February 8 or Sunday, February 9; there will be an added 2 pm matinee on Wednesday, March 5.
Tickets: Single tickets for Fool for Love ($20 - $128) are now on sale at steppenwolf.org and the Box Office at (312) 335-1650. Steppenwolf Flex Memberships are also currently on sale: Black Card Memberships with six tickets for use any time for any production and RED Card Memberships for theatergoers under 30.
Education and Engagement:
Throughout the 2024/25 season, Steppenwolf continues its commitment to the next generation of theatre learners, makers and appreciators with robust education and engagement programming. Programming includes dedicated student matinee performances during four of the five Membership Series productions including Noises Off, Leroy and Lucy, Fool for Love and The Book of Grace, in-school residencies in partnership with Chicago Public schools, workshops, panels and events specifically geared towards teens, as well as professional development trainings and resources for educators. Additionally, Steppenwolf is reimagining their community engagement and will pilot new public programming, continue accessibility programming and offer opportunities for deeper explorations for audiences throughout the season. For additional information about Steppenwolf’s Education and Engagement programming and to register your school for a field trip visit steppenwolf.org/education-and-engagement/steppenwolf-field-trip-series.
Accessible Performance Dates:
Audio-Described and Touch Tour: Sunday, March 2, 2025 at 3 pm (1:30 pm touch tour)Open-Captioned: Saturday, March 1, 2025 at 3 pm & Thursday, March 6, 2025 at 7:30 pm
ASL-Interpreted: Friday, March 7, 2025 at 7:30 pm
Artist Biographies:
Sam Shepard’s (Playwright) first New York plays, Cowboys and The Rock Garden, were produced by Theatre Genesis in 1964. For several seasons, he worked with Off-Off-Broadway theatre groups including La MaMa and Caffe Cino. Eleven of his plays won Obie Awards, including Chicago, The Tooth of a Crime and Curse of the Starving Class. Other award-winning plays include Fool for Love, True West, A Lie of the Mind and Buried Child, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1979. In 1986, Shepard was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy in 1992. He was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame two years later. As a writer and director, he filmed Far North and Silent Tongue. As an actor, he appeared in numerous films, including The Right Stuff, Days of Heaven and Resurrection. His final works of prose, The One Inside and Spy of the First Person, were published in 2017, the year of his death.
Jeremy Herrin (Director) was previously Artistic Director of Headlong and is a Founding Director of Second Half Productions. Theatre includes: Children's Children (Almeida Theatre); Best of Enemies (Young Vic/ West End, South Bank Show Award for Best Theatre Production); All My Sons (The Old Vic); The Visit, or the Old Lady Comes to Call, The Plough and the Stars, Statement of Regret (National Theatre); People, Places and Things (National Theatre/ Headlong/ West End/ UK tour/ St. Ann’s Warehouse, New York); This House (National Theatre/ Chichester Festival Theatres/ West End); Labour of Love (Olivier Award for Best Comedy); The Nether, That Face, South Downs, Absent Friends, Death and the Maiden, The Glass Menagerie (West End); Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies (RSC/ West End/ Broadway, Evening Standard Award for Best Director); Junkyard, The Absence of War, The Nether (Headlong); Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (International tour); The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe); Almost Famous (Old Globe, San Diego); Noises Off (Lyric Hammersmith/ West End); Haunted Child, The Heretic, Kin, Spur of the Moment, Off the Endz; The Priory (Olivier Award for Best Comedy), Tusk Tusk, The Vertical Hour, That Face (Royal Court); South Downs, Uncle Vanya (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Moderate Soprano (Hampstead Theatre); Marble (The Abbey, Dublin); The Family Reunion (Donmar Warehouse); Blackbird (Market Theatre, Johannesburg).
Cliff Chamberlain (Martin) joined the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble in 2018. Steppenwolf Theatre Company: The Minutes, Belleville, Clybourne Park, Theatrical Essays, Superior Donuts. Chicago: The Seagull (Goodman Theatre); The Sparrow (The House Theatre of Chicago). Broadway: The Minutes, Superior Donuts. Television: Homeland, Altered Carbon, The Act, Dirty John: Betty, Easy, State of Affairs, Chicago PD, Paper Girls, The Chair. Film: The Wise Kids, Win it All and Netflix’s upcoming RIP. Cliff trained at UCSB and The School at Steppenwolf. "Love to R + E + E + C.”
Nick Gehlfuss (Eddie) For its entire successful nearly decade-long run, Nick Gehlfuss was one of the leads (and fan-favorite) of Dick Wolf’s hit series Chicago Med on NBC. Gehlfuss has portrayed Dr. Will Halstead since the first spinoff episode that launched the series and can often be seen on crossover episodes of Chicago PD and Chicago Fire. Prior to his television work, Gehlfuss made his stage debut in New York in Classic Stage Company's production of Midsummer Night's Dream (Lysander) starring opposite Bebe Neuwirth and Christina Ricci for which he received the prestigious Rosemarie Tichler Award for outstanding performance in a play. In Los Angeles, he starred in Neil Labute’s Reasons to Be Pretty at the Geffen Playhouse. Nick has also been seen in recurring roles in Showtime’s Shameless, HBO’s Newsroom, Starz Power, as well as guest spots in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Good Wife, Person of Interest and Royal Pains. He holds a B.F.A. in Theater and an M.F.A. in Acting.
Tim Hopper (The Old Man) is a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble. Recent roles at Steppenwolf include Caden in The Thanksgiving Play and Andy in Downstate, which traveled to the National Theatre in London, and to Playwrights Horizons in New York. He also appeared at the Goodman Theatre in the title role of Uncle Vanya. Television appearances include Chicago Fire, Emperor of Ocean Park, the Amazon series Utopia, Fargo, The Americans and Empire. Film appearances include Perpetrator; Knives and Skin, School of Rock and To Die For, among others. Off-Broadway: New York Theatre Workshop, Theatre for a New Audience, Vineyard Theatre and the Atlantic Theater. Internationally, the Edinburgh Festival and Antwerp's De Singel Theatre.
Caroline Neff (May) is a Steppenwolf ensemble member. At Steppenwolf, she was last seen in POTUS, Another Marriage, Describe the Night, Seagull, Dance Nation, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, You Got Older, Linda Vista (also Taper Forum and Broadway), The Fundamentals, The Flick, Airline Highway (also Broadway), The Way West, Three Sisters, Annie Bosh is Missing and Where We’re Born. Select theatre credits include: Lettie (Jeff Award Best Actor; Victory Gardens Theater); Uncle Vanya (Goodman Theatre); A Brief History of Helen of Troy (Jeff Award for Best Actress), The Knowledge, Harper Regan, In Arabia We’d All Be Kings (Steep Theatre); The Downpour (Route 66 Theatre); Port (Griffin Theatre); 4000 Miles (Northlight Theatre); Moonshiner (Jackalope Theatre). Regional credits include: Peerless (Yale Repertory Theatre). Film and television credits include: FBI, Three Women, Let the Right One In, The Red Line, Chicago PD, Chicago Fire, Open Tables and Older Children, and heard in multiple Audible Projects such as: Song of the Northwoods, Crowded Hours, Denali and Boar's Nest. She is a proud company member of Steep Theatre and holds her BA from Columbia College.
Accessibility:
As a commitment to make the Steppenwolf experience accessible to everyone, performances featuring American Sign Language Interpretation, Open Captioning and Audio Description are offered during the run of each STC production (see dates above). Assistive listening devices and large-print programs are available for every performance and all our spaces are equipped with an induction hearing loop. Our building features wheelchair accessible seating and restrooms, push-button entrances, a courtesy wheelchair and all-gender restrooms, with accessible counter and table spaces at our bars. For additional information regarding accessibility, visit steppenwolf.org/access or e-mail access@steppenwolf.org.
Sponsor Information:
United Airlines is the Official and Exclusive Airline of Steppenwolf. Steppenwolf is also grateful for the significant season support from lead sponsors Allstate Insurance Company, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Crown Family Philanthropies, Caroline and Keating Crown, Good Chaos, Joyce Foundation, Lefkofsky Family Foundation, Ron and Paula Mallicoat, Northern Trust, Anne and Don Phillips, John Hart and Carol Prins, Robert Rivkin and Cindy Moelis, Shubert Foundation, Inc, Walder Foundation, and Zell Family Foundation. Steppenwolf also acknowledges generous support from premier sponsors Anonymous, ArentFox Schiff, Andrew and Amy Bluhm, Michael and Cathy Brennan, Ann and Richard Carr, Chicago Community Trust, Conagra Brands Foundation, Steven and Nancy Crown, CRC Group, Rich and Margery Feitler, Julius Frankel Foundation, FROST CHICAGO, Goldman Sachs, Shmaila Tahir and Asheesh Goel, Bob and Amy Greenebaum, Kirkland & Ellis, Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Christopher and Eileen Murphy, The Orlebeke Foundation, Polk Bros. Foundation, Bryan Traubert and Penny Pritzker, Sacks Family Foundation, Smart Family Foundation of Illinois, Gary Sinise Foundation, Elliot A. Stultz, and Vinci Restaurant. Steppenwolf also acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. This project is partially supported by a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events.
About Steppenwolf Theatre Company:
Steppenwolf Theatre Company is the nation’s premier Ensemble Theater with 49 members who are among the top actors, playwrights and directors in the field. Thrilling, powerful, groundbreaking productions — from Balm in Gilead and Grapes of Wrath to August: Osage County, Downstate and The Brother/Sister Plays — have made this theatre legendary. Founded in 1976, Steppenwolf started as a group of teens performing in the basement of a church. Today, the company's artistic force remains rooted in the original vision of its founders: an artist-driven theatre, whose vitality is defined by its appetite for bold and innovative work. Every aspect of Steppenwolf is rooted in its Ensemble ethos, from the intergenerational artistic programming to the multi-genre performance series LookOut, to the nationally recognized work of Steppenwolf Education and Engagement which serves nearly 15,000 teens annually. While grounded in the Chicago community, more than 40 original Steppenwolf productions have enjoyed success nationally and internationally, including Broadway, Off-Broadway, London, Sydney, Galway and Dublin. Steppenwolf also holds accolades that include the National Medal of Arts, 12 Tony Awards, and more. Led by Artistic Directors Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis, Executive Director Brooke Flanagan and Board of Trustees Chair, Keating Crown — Steppenwolf continually redefines the landscape of acting and performance.
Steppenwolf’s Mission: Steppenwolf strives to create thrilling, courageous and provocative art in a thoughtful and inclusive environment. We succeed when we disrupt your routine with experiences that spark curiosity, empathy and joy.
We invite you to join our ensemble as we navigate, together, our complex world. steppenwolf.org, facebook.com/steppenwolftheatre, twitter.com/steppenwolfthtr and instagram.com/steppenwolfthtr.
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