Jonathan Berry still attached to Griffin's Spring Awakening

As reported by the Tribune earlier today, Jonathan Berry will make his New York directing debut this fall staging the Roundabout Underground production of Andrew Hinderaker's Suicide, Incorporated. Berry, who directed the play's world premiere last year at Chicago's Gift Theatre, steps in for Jason Moore (Avenue Q, Speech and Debate), who withdrew from the Roundabout production due to a film commitment.

Given the proximity of Suicide's New York dates—previewing October 14, opening November 2—to Berry's previously announced fall gig, staging the first Chicago production of the Duncan Sheik–Stephen Sater musical Spring Awakening for Griffin Theatre Company, with previews scheduled to begin November 27, the timing may seem near-impossible. But Berry and Griffin artistic director William Massolia say they're making it work by moving up the start of Spring Awakening's rehearsal process. Berry will have three weeks with the cast in September before handing it off to an associate "to help integrate the music and choreography, communicating in the evenings via the interweb," he says. "Then I'm back in town with two weeks before we go into tech to put it totally together. Not my ideal process, but I've got a lot of faith in the team."

Berry is holding Spring Awakening auditions this weekend. Massolia says Griffin received upwards of 500 submissions seeking to fill the cast's 11 young roles. Berry's forceful, long-running production of Festen closes this Sunday at Steep Theatre; his next project, a revival of Naomi Wallace's The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek for Eclipse Theatre Company, opens July 24.