Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble member Tracy Letts won a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize for August: Osage County; his follow-up, Superior Donuts, is being adapted as a television series for CBS. Letts's newest play, Mary Page Marlowe, is now on Steppenwolf's stage—directed, like August: Osage County, by Anna D. Shapiro. The play depicts 11 defining moments in the life of the title character, who's portrayed by six different actors; in my four-star review, I called Mary Page Marlowe “a captivating portrait of an ordinary life.” In this new video trailer, Letts describes how the play was partially inspired by (though not based on) his mother's life and death. Mary Page Marlowe runs through May 29.
