Caroline Nep, a native Texan, first came to Chicago to study acting at Columbia College in 2004. After graduation, she became one of the most intense and respected actors in the city, serving as a member of a busy artist contingent in the acclaimed steep theater of Chicago and Vijay Garden, Griffin, Northlight and Jacquelop Like the theater companies appeared in the show. In 2010, Nep became a member of an artist contingent with Steepenwolf Theater Company, where he worked on productions such as “airline highway” and “The Minute”, both transferred to broadway.
On Saturday, Nep opens in Steepenwolf in the role of a iconic and very on-brand: Sam Shepard’s thorough 1983 drama of warning lovers in the Mojave desert in 1983, “Flowers for fool.” She plays as AD opposite Nick Gehlfus (known for TV work including “Chicago Made”). Steepenwolf first staged the drama in 1984 with Terry Kinny in the lead roles with Rondi Reid and William Peterson. May is now widely associated with actress Kim Basinger, who appeared in the 1985 film edition.
15 years after living and working in Chicago, Nep, who moved to New York in 2020, spoke during a break in rehearsal; Our conversation is edited for clarity and length.
Question: When I saw you on stage after seeing you so many times for so many years, it has been some time since.
A: 2024 was a very foggy year.
Question: But now we are here. A iconic role.
A: We are here. I love our board of directors, I say uninterrupted, but their memories are very good. After being cast, I received two text messages, stating that he would never forget Rondi’s performance in this role in 1984. Cool! It will be different! It cannot be repeated! This is the first Sam Shepard Play I have ever done. Perhaps the first in American canon too, given that I have done such a new work and British work.
Question: You must have read the play in college.
A: I don’t think I have raised the drama since then. And the difference between reading the drama and feeling those characters on 20, vs the versus now doing it at 39? The risk is very high for these two people. And the reward is very important. it bothers me. This conversation is going to cry me.
When I read plays in college, my inroads were very clear for the irrational emotional options of these characters because I don’t think I was using a lot of logic at that time in my life. But now as a person who actually thinks about the impact of options that I make, how it affects other people, my partner, my community, my love, my beloved, sweet underpaid doctor, It is very complex. I have the question “Why?” When I was younger, I had experienced a lot of work for many times. Their characters are inspired by their needs; They are not inspired by rational thinking.
I believe that we have the biggest gift because actors have to rationalize the emotional options made by the people. With themselves. So to remove all the stuff and just to do, Takes too much analing. We talk a lot in rehearsing how we talk about mental health, now really different. And we cannot contact these characters as they had access to mental health treatment in any way. It is both fun and scary to play a character powered by its base impulses.
Question: Do you think this is still a shocking drama?
A: I think it is more shocking now because you have to accept that there were two people with knowledge who continued to work on their impulses. The idea of consent is now so prominent how we talk about intimacy.
I believe there were more than one version of the play. We are working with many texts, working with the lines added to the marginalized, including Sam’s own lesson. We are not speaking them but they are very informative.
Question: Your background should help with Shepard.
A: Yes. I was born in New Mexico. This is like my siren song. The way my body feels there. Look at the pictures of Georgia O’Kif. When she painted New York, it was as if she was watching it. When he portrayed New Mexico, it was like an expansion of his arm. I’m like that. I am at home in this drama.
unfortunately. People will say to me, “You are great for this role and I will say, what do you really mean?”
Question: Probably that you are perfect for a drama about wide open American places?
There is a danger in the desert and it is not like anywhere else. It is made up of the remaining people. Plants, insects and humans who live there should be the remaining people. It is cooked in your bones.
You know, I always wonder that it is only 40 pages long. It says that it should be performed continuously. Without brake. If these characters were thinking, they will not do what they are doing.
In Stepenwolf Theater through 23 March, 1650 N. Halstead St. 312-335-1650 and www.steppenwolf.org