The Steppenwolf Scenario: Establishing the habitus of Chicago’s Off-Loop theatre community

Epplett, Shannon

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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The Steppenwolf Scenario: Establishing the habitus of Chicago’s Off-Loop theatre community

dc:creator Epplett, Shannon

thesis:degree_name Ph.D.

dc:date2018

Abstract

dc:description

This study focuses on the history, development, and structuring elements of Chicago’s Off-Loop theatre community. My research, grounded in Diana Taylor’s concept of scenarios and Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, takes a sociological lens to the historical antecedents and theatrical predecessors of Chicago’s Off-Loop theatre community to find the origins and bases of the qualities which structure the contemporary theatre scene. These qualities; which I identify as community, collegiality, ensemble, hard work, perseverance, small stages, converted spaces, and contemporary and realistic plays; became the dispositions of the habitus that created the Off-Loop theatre scene. Starting in 1969, this scene developed and grew quickly, and within a matter of fifteen years, a motivating mythology – which I term “the Steppenwolf Scenario” – had emerged. This scenario, centered on the story of Steppenwolf Theatre, drives and structures the city’s theatre scene to the present day. The Off-Loop theatre scene began in 1969 with the founding of Body Politic and Kingston Mines theatres, but the conditions and ideas (in Bourdieu’s terminology dispositions) that created the Off-Loop theatre habitus in some cases date to the end of the nineteenth century, and evolved and coalesced slowly over time. This study looks at the history of non-commercial and non-profit theatre efforts in Chicago, breaking it into three eras divided by the World Wars, leading up to the establishment of the Off-Loop theatre scene. In each era, I trace how the dispositions that serve as the basis for Chicago’s Off-Loop theatre habitus became incorporated into the evolving habitus of the city’s theatrical practitioners. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, the social, political, cultural, aesthetic and economic conditions had become favorable for Chicago’s alternative theatrical scene (now dubbed “Off-Loop theatre”) to burst into existence. Within a period of fifteen years, this once alternative theatre scene had become hegemonic, due in large part to the well-established habitus and the development of the Steppenwolf Scenario. While the scenario that I identify bears Steppenwolf’s name, this is not a study of Steppenwolf Theatre – rather, it is the story of a theatre community spinning itself into existence over time, and generating a story to perpetuate itself into the future. This study looks at, to use Diana Taylor’s words, “the ghosts, the images, the stereotypes” that constituted the habitus that created the Off-Loop community, and the scenario that subsequently carries the Off-Loop community forward.

Degree

thesis:*

Name thesis:degree_name: Ph.D.
Level thesis:degree_level: Dissertation
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline: Theatre
Grantor: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Year dc:date: 2018

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*

Author dc:creator: Epplett, Shannon
Contributors dc:contributor: Robinson, Valleri
Graves, Robert
Pullen, KIrsten
Hecht, Stuart J.

Subjects

dc:subject × 95

Rights

dc:rights

Language dc:language: en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*

Handle dc:identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/101527
OAI identifier oai:identifier: oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/101527

The Steppenwolf Scenario: Establishing the habitus of Chicago’s Off-Loop theatre community

Abstract

Degree

Author and committee

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