A DePaul graduate and Oscar winning playwright is back in Chicago with a new play at Steppenwolf.
"It's great to be back in Chicago. It's my second home. Ever since I graduated, I come back all the time, " said Tarell Alvin McCraney, actor, playwright.
McCraney has had quite the decade. In 2017, he won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Moonlight and has become a creative force across theater and film.
"I produced two new plays just in the last 12 months, certainly am writing for television and film. You dive in fully, and you bring your full self to your art and you dedicate yourself to your community. That's been the past ten years for me using the platforms I've been given to really engage the people around me," he smiled.
Now he's premiering his newest work, Windfall, which explores grief, justice, and the financial impact of police violence..
"It's about a parent who loses their child to police violence and is offered a reward or a settlement,"
When a Chicago father is offered a cash settlement for the loss of his child, everyone is entitled to an opinion: the ghosts of his past, the strangers on his porch and the in-the-round audience who envelops him. Through memory, music and a little magic, he finds himself torn: Should he take the money? Who is to blame? What is his child’s life worth? Offering a communal and uplifting experience, this is a vital and soul-stirring look at the undying spirit of family and activism
McCraney credits much of his success to the Chicago Theater Community and his time at the theater School at DePaul.
"Much of my foundation has been built in Chicago. My first job out side of school was at Northlight, then I worked at Steppenwolf and then continued to do workshops at the Goodman, worked at Impact Theater, danced at Muntu Theater on the South Side." he said.
McCraney says his newest work, making its world premiere at Steppenwolf, is a reunion of sorts and features some of his DePaul classmates and earlier theater and Broadway friends.
The cast of "Windfall" at the Steppenwolf Ensemble Theater in the Round
Photo by Michael Brosilow
"These are my day ones, as I call them. These are the people who have been with me, who I've been friends with and collaborators for over twenty years. We hopefully bring that add, that ethos in the ensemble. It's been exciting to be reunited with them," he said.
McCraney graduated from the Theater School at DePaul in 2003. He was only 32 when he received the McArthur Foundation genius grant, he won the Oscar for Moonlight at 36.
Windfall is there through May 31st and features several cast members who are also deeply connected to Chicago Theater include his fellow DePaul Alumni like Artistic Director Glenn Davis.
The world premiere runs through May 31, 2026, at Steppenwolf's Ensemble Theater.
The play follows a father who loses his child due to police violence and must grapple with a large cash settlement from the government, questioning the true cost of justice. Directed by Awoye Timpo, the play features Steppenwolf ensemble members Alana Arenas, Glenn Davis, Jon Michael Hill, and Namir Smallwood.
Buy tickets here.
"Windfall" on stage at the Steppenwolf Theater
Photo by Michael Brosilow
