Steve Pickering Returns to Next
Former Artistic Director tackles lead role in the Chicagoland premiere of Defiance
When founding Artistic Director Harriet Spizziri stepped down in 1994, the Next was thriving, producing both a 4-play mainstage season and one or more new plays in a series call the Next Lab. She didn’t need to look far to name a worthy successor. Steve Pickering had already appeared on stage in Coriolanus under the direction of an up-and-comer, Eric Simonson, and had helmed his own adaptation of The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll for the Lab. “We did it on top of a '54 Chevy, rebuilt in the Lab space, no less,” Pickering recalls.
No stranger to the risky brand of work Next had become known for, Steve stepped in as Artistic Director beginning with the 1994/95 Season. Just after Dexter Bullard had introduced Chicago to a young new writer named Tracy Letts in the Lab (Killer Joe), Pickering continued to bring brand new scripts and adaptations to mainstage production for Next audiences. He directed his own adaptation of Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea, the world premiere of Keith Reddin's Almost Blue, his and Charley Sherman's adaptations of Clive Barker's Son of Celluloid, and William Gibson's Burning Chrome. He appeared as Walter Burns in The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur for Associate Artistic Director Sarah Tucker, and directed the American Premiere of Clive Barker's The History of the Devil.
But those of us that weren’t part of the Next family during Steve’s tenure undoubtedly know him best for his extensive and formidable acting career. Named Chicago Magazine’s 1997 Actor of the Year, Pickering has been seen on not only Chicagoland’s most beloved stages, but across the country -- and the pond -- and on the screen.
Most recently, he appeared as Undershaft in Major Barbara for the Clarence Brown Theatre in Knoxville, TN, Harry Brock in Born Yesterday at Milwaukee Rep, and, closer to home, as Kent, opposite Stacy Keach, in Robert Falls' staging of King Lear at the Goodman Theatre. Other credits out of 27 shows at the Goodman include Jamie Tyrone in Falls’ production of Long Day’s Journey into Night opposite Brian Dennehy, and over 700 performances of Falls' Tony Award-winning production of Death of a Salesman, which moved onto Broadway, a National Tour, the Showtime network, and London’s West End. He has played Iago in Othello for both the Court and Chicago Shakespeare, and his regional credits include the Old Globe in San Diego, the Arena in D.C., and the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park.
We are delighted to have Steve back at Next for the first time since his departure at the close of the 1998/99 season. A gifted actor, director and adapter, Steve has played a vital role in making Next Theatre a destination for provocative premieres like Defiance.