- Jim Luning
- Martha Lavey
Martha Lavey is an unsentimental romantic. A Kansan by birth, she speaks with prairie earnestness about the practical uses of certain large concepts such as love, citizenship, and leading by following. She’s also one of the few people I know who seems actually to consider the validity of the things she says as she’s saying them. Earlier this month Steppenwolf Theatre disclosed that Lavey will be stepping down from her position as the company’s artistic director in 2015, after a round 20 seasons in the role, to be succeeded by fellow ensemble member—and Tony-winning director—Anna D. Shapiro. (At the same time they announced the retirement of executive director David Hawkanson, named David Schmitz as his heir, and gave information on plans for expanding the “campus” of Steppenwolf’s Halsted Street complex.) Here, in edited form, is the first part of a conversation we had apropos of Lavey’s news:
So this is more about her readiness than your desire?
Mm-hmm. Just that: talking with her, talking with our other associates—and Gary Sinise, one of our founders, very responsible for sitting me in the [artistic director’s] chair. He said, “You know, Martha, you’ve accomplished everything that we talked about in the beginning of your time here, and you have an opportunity to have a third chapter.” And that’s how I feel. The other thing is, at a kind of a spiritual level, I’ve always been aware that this job carries with it a lot of badge value. I’m given currency in the world that has to do with my representative function. It’s borrowed power in a way, right?
The other day I happened to see Mike Daisey’s essay that he wrote in 2008, about institutional theater and how he felt it had abandoned the artist in favor of the administrator. You seem to be worried about that.
