Steppenwolf Honors Studs

By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 11, 2008 6:45PM

An impressive array of Chicago heavyweights will assemble next Monday evening at 7:30 at the Steppenwolf to pay tribute to Studs Terkel. A staged reading, with music, of Derek Goldman’s adaptation of Terkel’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken makes up the bulk of the program, which will feature David Schwimmer; Steppenwolf Artistic Director Martha Lavey and ensemble members Robert Breuler, K. Todd Freeman, Tom Irwin, and Alan Wilder; director Joyce Piven (mother of Jeremy); and Trib writer Rick Kogan. Tickets will be free but reservations are required. They'll be available to the public beginning tomorrow by calling the Steppenwolf box-office at 312-335-1650.

Studs had a long history of involvement in Chicago theater, including a one-man show playing blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in 2004. In fact he himself had been planning on taking part in an evening honoring the centennial of Nelson Algren's birth, to be held next spring at the Steppenwolf. It'll now have to go on without him. Barry Gifford and John Malkovich are still scheduled to attend.