Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...

is a play

Play (theatre)

A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...

 by Jeffrey Hatcher

Jeffrey Hatcher

Jeffrey Hatcher is a playwright and screenwriter. He wrote the stage play Compleat Female Stage Beauty, which he later adapted into a screenplay, shortened to just Stage Beauty...

 and Eric Simonson

Eric Simonson

Eric Simonson is an American writer and director in theatre, film and opera. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical in 1993 for The Song of Jacob Zulu.- Personal life :...

. It premiered at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater

Milwaukee Repertory Theater

Milwaukee Repertory Theater, founded by Mary Widrig John in 1954, as the Fred Miller Theatre Company, is now located on the east bank of the Milwaukee River in the Patty and Jay Baker Theater Complex at 108 E Wells St, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is home to an eleven member Resident Acting Company...

 in 2000. The play was commissioned by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Tony Award-winning Chicago theatre company founded in 1974 by Gary Sinise, Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry in the basement of a church in Highland Park, Illinois. It has since relocated to Chicago's Halsted Street, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Its name comes from...

 of Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

.

The play explores the relationship between Wright's personal life and work. The ensemble portrays more than a dozen people who were important in Wright's eventful life. The work is populated by architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 Louis Sullivan

Louis Sullivan

Louis Henri Sullivan was an American architect, and has been called the "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism" He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago School, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an...

, friends Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....

 and Alexander Woolcott, son John Lloyd Wright

John Lloyd Wright

John Lloyd Wright was an American architect and toy inventor. He invented Lincoln Logs in 1916. He was the son of Frank Lloyd Wright and brother of Lloyd Wright.-External links:*...

, wives Catherine and Olgivanna, and paramour Mamah Cheney.