From: "Andre Pluess" Subject: winesburgh To: Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 11:09:41 -0600 Chief, in todays sun times - God Love Hedy Weiss! Dreams are played out onstage in 'Winesburg' Arts Exchange is Steppenwolf Theatre's program of performances specially designed for student matinee audiences, but these productions often are among the best work the company presents, and a limited number of performances are scheduled for public viewing. Now onstage, and not to be missed, is "Winesburg, Ohio," Eric Rosen's pristine and poetic new adaptation of the classic 1919 collection of interrelated tales by Ohio-born, Chicago-associated writer Sherwood Anderson. This exquisitely rendered vision of the dark undercurrents that run through the life of a late 1800s Midwestern town--a place whose inhabitants may appear flat and proper on the surface, but who are bursting with thwarted dreams and hidden desires--is as sure to catch fire with adult audiences as with adolescent ones. And director Jessica Thebus and her enchanting cast capture the townspeople's quietly desperate lives with great sensitivity, backed by the haunting original songs of Andre Pluess and Ben Sussman, Brian Bembridge's crisp American gothic set (lit by J.R. Lederle) and Sarah Pace's period costumes. Both a coming-of-age-story and portrait of the artist as a young man, "Winesburg, Ohio" revolves around George Willard (Patrick Sarb), a naive but restless newspaper reporter. Determined to be a famous writer, he chronicles daily events but senses something more is needed. As he is told by Kate Swift (the sensual Lesley Bevan), the spinster schoolteacher just a few years his senior but far more experienced: "Don't be a mere peddler of words. ...Know what people are thinking about, not what they say." The 80-minute show is essentially a collage of character studies or "grotesques," as Anderson described his subjects, gracefully narrated by "The Stranger" (Andrew White). But these studies coalesce into a startling portrait of the psyche of a town. There is George's father, Tom (Chris Farrell), an insecure but self-important hotel manager, and his mother, Elizabeth (McKinley Carter), a woman dying of despair for lost opportunities. Helen White (Kristina Martin) is the potential girlfriend who goes away to school and comes back better for the experience. The Rev. Curtis Martin (Jeff Parker) is the inept preacher who lusts for Kate after glimpsing her through a window. And Wing Biddlebaum (Fred A. Wellisch) is the loner with the nervous hands, whose twisted past keeps him in exile from his first love, teaching. We come to know all these people with a surprising, sometimes shocking intimacy. And when the train whistle blows, and George gets on board for Chicago, we know their spirits will travel with him. Public performances of "Winesburg, Ohio" (highly recommended) are at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and 1 p.m. Saturdays through March 16 at the Steppenwolf Studio Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted. For tickets, $10, call (312) 335-1650. Weekday student matinees are at 10 a.m. Tuesdays-Fridays through March 22.