Fifty years ago, Highland Park native Jeff Perry was one of a group of young people who decided to start a theater company in the basement of a church in Highland Park. That humble beginning was the opening act for the internationally acclaimed Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

Perry is in town helping the company celebrate its landmark fiftieth season by playing the role of Captain in Conor McPherson’s adaptation of August Strindberg’s “The Dance of Death.”

Highland Park native Jeff Perry is a cofounder of Steppenwolf Theatre Company, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary season. (Sandro Miller)

Shortly after the opening night, Perry, who has acted and directed in over 40 Steppenwolf productions, took time to reminisce about the theater company.

“I’m grateful and emotional and sentimental, proud, amazed,” Perry said about Steppenwolf celebrating its 50th season. “In American theater, the experiments of artists gathering together and trying to do their art and govern themselves in a communal way is just as hard as democracy.”

He noted that the Steppenwolf artists have a “strong tendency in our group DNA” to want to focus on marginalized people.

Perry indicated you can observe that in the theater company’s choice of plays, such as “The Glass Menagerie” or “The Grapes of Wrath.” He added that they also often focus on dysfunctional families, as in “August: Osage County” and “Purpose.”

For a theater company to exist a long time, several factors are in play, he indicated.

“You have to have a lot of luck when it comes to the chemistry of the people, when it comes to the tenacity or stubbornness,” Perry said.

The actor playfully suggested that when they started the theater company, their goal was “to change the face of American theater.”

In a more serious vein, Perry said that, in the beginning, “all we knew was that we found out in school that we loved being together. We got a kick out of picking plays together, putting them on, and directing each other, and trying to get better.”

They were serious about their art but took time to have fun.

Perry reported, “Just to burn off energy, we’d stay after play rehearsal in the basement in Highland Park and turn on ‘Blinded by the Light’ at the impossible decibel level and just bounce off the walls and pretend to play air guitar.”

He noted that Laurie Metcalf enjoyed trying to get the other actors to lose their concentration onstage.

“She would place herself facing upstage, having just drawn a giant eyebrow from one side of her face to the other side, knowing that one of her buddies, say Tom Irwin, might have to launch into a monologue while looking at her,” Perry recalled.

They left that basement for Chicago in 1980 and built their current space at 1650 N. Halsted in 1991. Their company has grown and now consists of 49 ensemble members. Steppenwolf has won numerous awards, including Tony Awards, the National Medal of Arts, and the 2025 Pulitzer Prize, and has gained acclaim throughout the world.

With 40-plus Steppenwolf plays on his resume, it was nearly impossible for Perry to choose a favorite.

“There were so many beautiful ones,” he declared. Perry, however, was particularly proud of a production of “The Glass Menagerie,” in the company’s second or third year that was directed by H.E. Baccus.

“If you’re going to do something that well known, you had a good reason,” Perry said. He observed that the play by Tennessee Williams is actually autobiographical, and Baccus’s vision drew elements from the actual experiences of Williams’ characters.

“There was a great love for the story but also a great kind of search for its authenticity,” Perry said.

Another Perry favorite was directed by Tina Landau, who Perry said, was able to “unearth all the beauties of William Saroyan’s ‘The Time of Your Life.’”

Although Perry is obviously pleased to perform during the company’s 50th season, he declared, “I’m ready to return to Steppenwolf any season, whether it’s the 49th or the 51st season.”

He praised “The Dance of Death” as “remarkably funny.”

As for his character, a Captain named Edgar, “Edgar has a great big fearful kind of victimhood,” Perry said. The character is also, “somewhat loving, affectionate, somewhat witty. His biggest strengths are narcissism and trying to monopolize conversation. That’s what Edgar does really well.”

“The Dance of Death” runs through March 22 at Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theater, 1650 N. Halsted St. Tickets are $20-$148.50. For reservations, call (312) 335-1650 or visit steppenwolf.org.

Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/12/highland-park-jeff-perry-steppenwolf-theatre/