Caroline Neff Joins Cast of Steep Theatre's WASTWATER

Steep Theatre's upcoming U.S. Premiere of Wastwater marks the return of two notable members of the Steep family to the Edgewater theatre: Tony Award winner and Steep Associate Playwright Simon Stephens and Jeff Award winner and Steep Ensemble Member Caroline Neff. Stephens is responsible for several of Steep's most memorable productions including Motortown, Harper Regan, and Pornography. Wastwater will be the first Stephens play at Steep since he joined the company in 2013 and won the 2015 Tony Award for Best New Play for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Neff returns home to Steep for the first time since debuting on Broadway last spring and becoming a Steppenwolf Ensemble Member earlier this month. Robin Witt, 2015 Jeff Award winner for Best Director and 2016 nominee, will helm the production, as she did for each of Steep's past productions of Stephens' works.

Neff joins an already impressive cast that features Steep Company Members Peter Moore, Melissa Riemer, Nick Horst, and Jeff Award winner Kendra Thulin, as well as guest artists Joel Boyd, Richard Costes, Bernadette Santos Schwegel, and Allison Anderson. Neff, who has been an integral part of the company since 2008, will be returning to the Steep stage for the first time since their 2013 hit production of The Knowledge.

"There will be some folks with a lot of history and a lot of talent in that rehearsal room, and we're eager to get to it," said Artistic Director Peter Moore. "With Robin guiding the way, I imagine it's going to be a pretty exciting summer around Steep."

About the Cast

Steep Ensemble Members

Nick Horst
Nick moved to Chicago from the city of Missoula, Montana in 2004. He studied acting at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, receiving his BFA. Since graduating Nick has been lucky enough to work with talented theater companies like Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare, The Goodman Theater, Eclipse Theater Company, Pine Box Theater, The Artistic Home and of course Steep. Off the stage Nick can also be seen in film and TV including Stephen Cone's In Memoriam, Chicago Fire and Transformers: Age of Extinction. Nick's first show at Steep Theater was Mark Schultz's A Brief History of Helen of Troy, directed by Steep's own Joanie Schultz.

Peter Moore

Peter is the Artistic Director and a Founding Member of Steep Theatre Company and has appeared in numerous Steep Productions over the years, most recently in The Few by Samuel Hunter. Other credits include Brilliant Adventures, Motortown, In Arabia We'd All Be Kings, Harper Regan, A Brief History of Helen of Troy, Festen, Pornography, and If There is I Haven't Found It Yet. TV/Film Credits include Chicago Fire, Convergence, and the Bollywood blockbuster Dhoom 3. He is a graduate of The School at Steppenwolf and Bowdoin College.

Caroline Neff
Caroline moved to Chicago from South Texas in the fall of 2004 to study theatre at Columbia College. She became a Steep ensemble member in early 2008 and has served as Casting Director since 2010. Caroline was recently named an ensemble member at Steppenwolf Theatre. She received her Equity card in the summer of 2012 thanks to her role as Irina in Tracy Letts' adaptation of Three Sisters, directed by Anna D. Shapiro, and joined SAG-AFTRA in the summer of 2013 thanks to Chicago Fire, on which she is now a series regular. Since graduating from Columbia in 2007, she has had the pleasure of working with storefronts such as Strawdog, Mary-Arrchie, Griffin, Jackalope, and Pinebox Theatres, and mainstays of the Equity world, including Next, Northlight, and Steppenwolf Theatres. She can be seen in independent films such as Older Children and Open Tables, and on stages around Chicago.

Melissa Riemer
Melissa is a proud member of Steep Theatre, where she has appeared in Book of Days, Catch-22, Harper Regan, 2,000 Feet Away, Festen, Moment, A Small Fire, and The Life and Sort of Death of Eric Argyle. Other Chicago credits include With Love And A Major Organ (Strawdog Theatre), Cicada (Route 66 Theatre), Her Naked Skin (Shattered Globe Theatre), Start Fair In The Common Race (What's Up Next Lab at Next Theatre), The Skin Of Our Teeth (BackStage Theatre/Jeff Nomination - Best Supporting Actress), and the Griffin Theatre's productions of The Hostage, Letters Home (Chicago production/National Tour), and Picnic (also Theatre On The Lake). London credits include The Lost Vegas Series (Riverside Studios), An Empty Plate In The Café du Grand Boeuf (New End Theatre) and Time And The Conways (Drayton Court Theatre). Melissa trained at the Drama Studio London.

Kendra Thulin
Born in New Haven, growing up in Springfield, OH and Gettysburg, PA, Kendra has a BA in English from Fordham University, Bronx, NY and an MFA from the Theatre School, DePaul University. She also trained at ACT in San Francisco, where she lived prior to coming to Chicago. Kendra is an Associate Professor in the Theatre Department of Columbia College Chicago, where she teaches acting and voice, vocal and/or dialect coaches school productions (over 57 and counting) and over the past four years, has been creating and coordinating (with Steep artistic associate and artistic wunderkind Chelsea Warren) the curricular beast known as the Theatre Foundation Course. She was elated to bring Columbia College and Steep together to host Simon Stephens for a Juggernaut of Brilliance in March 2012. Her Steep credits include Posh, The Cheats, Martyr, The Vandal, Motortown, Fallow, The Knowledge, Luther, Moment, Love and Money, Pornography, Festen and Harper Regan (Jeff Award - Best Actress in a Featured Role).

Guest Artists

Joel Boyd
Joel Boyd is making his theatrical debut in Chicago with Wastwater. Since completing Second City's Comedy Studies program, he has performed in two of Second City's Urban Twist revues, Second City's production of #DateMe: An OKCupid Experiment, and several shows with Second City's Touring Company. He's also a stand-up, improv and sketch performer having graced such stages as Laugh Factory, Jokes & Notes, Zanies, and the Comedy Bar among others.

C. Richard Costes
Richard Costes has been working consistently throughout Chicago, New York, and Ohio as an actor, director, designer and playwright since his graduation from Kent State University's Theatre Studies program. Since moving to Chicago a little over two years ago, his credits include The Green Bird (Brighella), Glass Menagerie (Tom), Eight Reindeer Monologues (Comet), and The Tempest (Caliban) all with the Cuckoo's Theatre Project as well as the critically acclaimed R+J: the Vineyard (Abram) at Red Theatre - Chicago. Other notable theatrical productions include roles in Amadeus (Mozart), Romeo and Juliet (Mercutio), God of Hell (Welch), Betty's Summer Vacation (Keith), Our Lady of 121st Street (Pinky), and Much Ado About Nothing (Dogberry). He has also directed productions of Kimberly Akimbo, Footfalls and Other Plays by Samuel Beckett, King Stag, Twelfth Night, and As You Like It.

Bernadette Santos Schwegel
Bernadette trained at Acting Studio and Lookingglass Arts Camps. She is also a schola soloist and sings duets with her brother Benedict at churches throughout Chicagoland. Bernadette attends Skinner North Classical. She appeared in Ballet Chicago's The Nutcracker.

Allison Anderson
Allison is a student at Skinner North classical school and has trained at the Rhea Henderson School of Performing Arts and The Green Room.

About the Director
Director Robin Witt, a Steep Company Member, has been at the helm for many of Steep's most successful UK imports, including Simon Stephens' Motortown, Pornography, and Harper Regan; Alistair McDowall's Brilliant Adventures, Dennis Kelly's Love and Money; Jez Butterworth's Parlour Song; and Laura Wade's Breathing Corpses. Her Harper Regan is still the best-selling show in Steep history and was named one of the Top Ten shows of 2010 by both the Chicago Tribune and TimeOut Chicago, and her Breathing Corpses was named one of TimeOut's Top Ten Shows of 2008. In addition to directing numerous productions at Steep, Robin is also an ensemble member of Griffin Theatre Company where she has directed Ferber and Kaufman's Stage Door, Terrence Rattigan's Flare Path, Ena Lamont Stewart's Men Should Weep, and John Van Druten's London Wall. Witt received Jeff Award nominations for Best Director for Flare Path, London Wall, and Men Should Weep, for which she won the 2015 Award. Her productions have been cited as "Best of the Year" by the Chicago Tribune, TimeOut Chicago, and Chicago Reader. She has worked at a variety of Chicago area theatres including The Goodman, A Red Orchid, and Steppenwolf. Robin recently directed Juliet: A Dialogue About Love for Sacred Playground Theatre at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts (BFA) and Northwestern University (MFA). Robin is an Assistant Professor at UNC Charlotte.

About the Playwright
Simon Stephens is an English playwright whose plays have been widely produced in the UK, Europe, Australia and the US. Having taught in the Young Writers' Programme at the Royal Court Theatre for many years, Stephens is now an Artistic Associate at the Lyric Hammersmith and has been an Associate Playwright of Steep Theatre since. Aside from his Olivier and Tony Award for Best New Play in 2015, Stephens has many other critical acclaims to his name. He received The Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2006 for On the Shore of the Wide World, won Best New Play by the Critics' Award for Theatre in Scotland in 2008-9 for Pornography, One Minute won at the Tron Theatre Awards as Best New Play in 2003, and Port won the Pearson Award for Best New Play in 2001. Stephens visited Steep in 2012, during which time he performed a public reading of his piece Sea Wall, and Steep presented the first ever public reading of his play Blindsided, a new work commissioned by the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, England. Stephens' other work includes Bluebird; Herons; Port (Pearson Award for Best New Play); Country Music; Harper Regan; Sea Wall; Pornography; Punk Rock; The Trial of Ubu; A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky, written in collaboration with David Eldridge and Robert Holman; Marine Parade, a play with songs, written with Mark Eitzel; an adaptation of Jon Fosse's I am the Wind; Three Kingdoms; Morning; a new version of A Doll's House; and an adaptation of Mark Haddon's novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

About Steep Theatre

Steep Theatre has become known as a home for hard-hitting, finely tuned ensemble work. With each production, the company has shepherded a growing community of audiences and artists into bold new territories of story and performance. Over the years, Steep productions have been named in TimeOut Chicago's Top Ten Shows of the Year list five times, the Tribune's Top Ten List twice, the Tribune's Best of the Fringe list twice, the Sun Times' best of the year list twice, and WBEZ's Top Ten Shows of the Decade. Steep has received 27 Jeff Nominations and has won the 2009 Jeff Award for Best Ensemble, the 2010 Jeff Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, the 2011 Jeff Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and the 2015 Jeff Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Steep was named the 2010 Broadway in Chicago Emerging Theatre Award Winner.

Wastwater runs Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at 8pm from July 7th through August 13th. Sunday matinee performances are scheduled for July 17th, 24th, 31st and August 7th at 3pm. Preview performances are scheduled between July 2nd and July 6th. Tickets range from $10 to $35. Reservations can be made by calling (773) 649-3186 or by visiting www.steeptheatre.com. Steep Theatre is conveniently located by the Berwyn Red Line stop and is within blocks of the #92, #36, #146, #147, and #151 buses.

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