Geffen Playhouse and Steppenwolf Theatre Company announce the joint Chicago/LA cast of Noises Off
Written by Michael Frayn
Directed by Anna D. Shapiro
A Co-Production with Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Featuring Vaneh Assadourian, Amanda Fink, Audrey Francis, Francis Guinan, Rick Holmes, Ora Jones, Andrew Leeds, James Vincent Meredith & Max Stewart
Doors slam, sardines fly, and trousers drop in Michael Frayn’s side-splitting British farce about a theater company desperately trying to get their act together. Both onstage and backstage, chaos reigns for a troupe of floundering actors whose forgotten lines, misplaced props, and steamy romantic entanglements make it nearly impossible for the show to go on. An uproarious love letter to the theater, Noises Off is a peek behind the curtain’”where everything that can go wrong, does!
See more about Steppenwolf following the cast below.
Vaneh Assadourian as Poppy Norton-TaylorRegional: Wish You Were Here (Yale Repertory Theatre, Connecticut Critics Circle Award Outstanding Ensemble nomination); A Distinct Society (Co-Production with Pioneer Theater Company and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley); Happiest Song Plays Last (LATC); Hostage (Skylight Theatre Company). Education: B.A., UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. Assadourian is an award-winning audiobook narrator, voice actor, and dialect coach.
Amanda Fink as Brooke Ashton / VickiSteppenwolf Theatre Company: POTUS (u/s Stephanie/Dusty, performed). Chicago: Pro-Am, Plano, I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard, peerless (First Floor Theater, selected); Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Court Theatre, u/s); Tilikum, Give It All Back (Sideshow Theatre Company, u/s). Amanda is a proud company member of First Floor Theater, a co-owner of Black Box Acting.
Audrey Francis as Belinda Blair / Flavia BrentAudrey currently serves as Artistic Director of Steppenwolf Theatre, alongside Glenn Davis, where she has been an Ensemble member since 2017. She is an actor, director, educator and coach. Steppenwolf performing credits include The Thanksgiving Play, The Herd, Between Riverside and Crazy, The Fundamentals, The Doppelgänger (an international farce), and Dance Nation. TV credits include Justified: City Primeval, Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, and Empire. Film credits include Perpetrator, Knives and Skin, Later Days, and Distant Learners.
Francis Guinan as Selsdon Mowbray / BurglarFrancis has been a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble since 1979. He has appeared in more than 30 productions including Downstate, The Birthday Party, American Buffalo, The Seafarer, August: Osage County, and many more. Television appearances include The Exorcist, Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Frasier, and several Star Trek episodes. Film work includes roles in The Last Airbender, Typing, Low Tide, Ghostlight, and Constantine.
Rick Holmes as Lloyd DallasBroadway: Junk: The Golden Age Of Debt, The Visit, Matilda, Peter and the Starcatcher, Spamalot, The Pillowman, Cabaret, and many more. Off-Broadway: Dan Cody’s Yacht (Manhattan Theater Club); Lives of the Saints (Primary Stages); The Threepenny Opera (Atlantic Theater Company); Stop Kiss, Dog Opera, Richard III, Othello (The Public Theater). Upcoming: Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, No Good Deed. M.F.A. in Acting from New York University.
Ora Jones as Dotty Otley / Mrs. Clackett
Ora was most recently seen at Steppenwolf as Rose in The Children. Other productions include Familiar, The Roommate, The Doppelgänger (an international farce), as well as many more. Her Broadway roles include Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Matilda the Musical. Television & Film credits include Emperor of Ocean Park, 61st Street, Betrayal, Chicago Fire, Were the World Mine, Stranger than Fiction, and The Weatherman.
Andrew Leeds as Garry Lejeune / Roger TramplemainBroadway: Teddy & Alice; Falsettos. Touring: Les Miserables (National Tour). Television credits include The Patient, Barry, Veep, Silicon Valley, Ghosts, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, Modern Family, Get Shorty, The Morning Show, Shameless, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and more. He is a member of the Main Company at The Groundlings Theatre in Los Angeles. As a writer, he has written pilots for various networks including ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, USA, and Showtime.
James Vincent Meredith as Frederick Fellowes / Phillip BrentJames received critical acclaim as John Proctor in The Crucible, his first role as a Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble member. James has appeared in an additional 16 productions over the years, most recently in Describe the Night. Broadway credits include: The Book of Mormon, The Minutes, Skin of Our Teeth, and Superior Donuts. Recent TV credits include Chicago Med, Your Honor, FBI, and Fargo.
Max Stewart as Tim AllgoodChicago: Fairview (Definition Theatre); Southern Gothic, Sons of Hollywood (Windy City Playhouse); Walk on the Wild Side (Pale Horse Playhouse); Romeo and Juliet (Kane Repertory Theatre); Letters Home (Griffin Theatre). Television: Chicago Fire, Soundtrack. Awards: NFAA Young Arts. Education: Theatre School at DePaul University (B.F.A. Acting), British American Dramatic Academy, and The Groundlings.
Gary Sinise with Steppenwolf Theatre Company's new sign.
In the Beginning
The Steppenwolf ensemble first began performing in the mid-1970s in the basement of a Highland Park, IL church, the ambitious brainchild of three high school and college friends: Jeff Perry, Terry Kinney, and Gary Sinise.
After early productions including Miss Reardon, Grease, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, the team decided that when Kinney and Perry finished college they would find a permanent space and start a professional resident ensemble theatre company.
Top: John Malkovich, Gary Sinise, Laurie Metcalf, Joan Allen, Greg Winters, Alan Wilder
Bottom: Moira Harris, H.E. Baccus, Jeff Perry
In 1975, Steppenwolf incorporated as a non-profit and produced one play that summer, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds. In the summer of 1976, with a newly formed ensemble that included founders Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry, Gary Sinise, H.E. Baccus, Nancy Evans, Moira Harris, John Malkovich, Laurie Metcalf, and Alan Wilder, the company took up residence in a vacant basement space of the Immaculate Conception Catholic school in Highland Park. There they produced their first season of plays.
2851 N. Halsted Street locationTurning Chicago into a Theater Town
In 1980, the company moved from Highland Park to the city of Chicago into a 134-seat theater at the Jane Addams Center. With an expanded ensemble, the company moved again to 2851 N. Halsted Street and quickly outgrew that space as well. Finally, in 1991, Steppenwolf built their own theater at 1650 N. Halsted Street.
From that time on, groundbreaking productions such as Balm in Gilead, Grapes of Wrath, August: Osage County, and Downstate made this theatre company legendary.
Tarell Alvin McCraney (red shirt), K. Todd Freeman (behind) and
Phillip James Brannon (bandana) rehearsing during The Brother/Sister Plays in 2010Tarell Alvin McCraney Joins Steppenwolf in 2010
In 2010, Tarell Alvin McCraney joined Steppenwolf as an ensemble member when his The Brother/Sister Plays were produced to massive success and critical acclaim. Following this, the company programmed three more of Tarell’s plays: Head of Passes (2013), Ms. Blakk for President (2019), and Choir Boy (2022).
Steppenwolf today. Liz and Eric Lefkofsky Arts and Education Center
Fast forward to today where the Steppenwolf Theatre Company has become the nation’s premier ensemble theatre with 49 members who are among the top actors, playwrights, and directors in the field. In 2021, Steppenwolf opened the Liz and Eric Lefkofsky Arts and Education Center, featuring education and rehearsal spaces as well as a 400-seat in-the-round theater.
Current Steppenwolf Artistic Directors Audrey Francis and Glenn Davis
(Frank Ishman)
Why Geffen Playhouse is excited to partner with
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Steppenwolf’s artistic force remains rooted in the original vision of its founders: an artist-driven theatre, whose vitality is defined by its appetite for bold and innovative work.
More than 40 original Steppenwolf productions have enjoyed success nationally and internationally, including Broadway, Off-Broadway, London, Sydney, Galway, and Dublin. Steppenwolf also holds accolades that include the National Medal of Arts, 12 Tony Awards, and more. Led by Artistic Directors Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis (who will be performing in Noises Off), Executive Director Brooke Flanagan and Board of Trustees Chair, Keating Crown’”Steppenwolf continually redefines the landscape of American theatre.