Alumni and faculty members of Columbia College Chicago are in the cast and creative team for Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s production of Bug, the skin-crawling, mind-bending cult classic by Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning Steppenwolf ensemble member Tracy Letts. A special UNIVERSITY NIGHT performance on Friday, February 7, is only $15 for students. Admission price includes food and drinks, a conversation with the artists involved in the show and a behind the scenes look into the world of Steppenwolf as well as the performance. For University Night tickets, click here.
David Cromer
The show, described as “a luridly funny tale of love, paranoia, and government conspiracy,” is directed by former Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department student and faculty member David Cromer HDR ’17 — recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Columbia College in 2017 and winner of the 2018 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for The Band’s Visit.
David Skvarla
Randall Arney
Heather Gilbert
Rylee Nicole
Nikki Konomos
The show’s cast includes Columbia College alum Steve Key ’88, a graduate of Columbia’s art and design program. And former Columbia College Theatre student Dave Skvarla is Key’s understudy. Also in the cast is former Columbia College Theatre Department teacher Randall Arney, a Steppenwolf ensemble member. The lighting designer is Columbia College Theatre Department faculty member Heather Gilbert, a teacher in the Theatre Department’s Theatre Design program, who recently designed the lights for Cromer’s Broadway staging of The Sound Inside. Columbia College alum Rylee Nicole ’18, who graduated with an Interdisciplinary BA in Fashion Studies and Theatre, is the show’s special effects design consultant. And Columbia College alum Nikki Konomos ’19, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s Stage Management program, is the stage management apprentice.
Anna D. Shapiro
Steppenwolf’s artistic director is Columbia College Theatre Department alum Anna D. Shapiro ’90, HDR ’15, recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Columbia College in 2015. Cromer and Shapiro, who met as fellow students at the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department in the late 1980s, were profiled in a joint interview in the Fall 2019 issue of DEMO.
Bug runs January 23 through March 8 at Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted, in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. Student discounts are available; for information on student discounts, click here. For general ticket information, click here.
