Laurie Metcalf, back in Chicago, talks about what she misses from Steppenwolf — and being an ‘inveterate creature of the stage’

CHICAGO — Laurie Metcalf, an early ensemble member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and, at age 69, among the most famous and beloved of American stage actresses, is currently starring in Samuel L. Hunter’s play “Little Bear Ridge Road” at the theater through Aug. 4.

We recently spoke at Steppenwolf about the world premiere play directed by Joe Mantello and her career. The following conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

Q: Take me through what you have been doing since I saw you on Broadway in “Grey House.”

A: I was going straight back to “The Conners” (ABC television series), but there was the strike. So we ended up only doing half a season. They told us recently we are going to do six more episodes and then call it quits. We got a nice seven-year run out of it. So after this play, I’ll go back and do those six. Then I will be a free agent for the first time in a long time. It has been a long time since that was true. If you add in “Roseanne,” it has been 16 years. Those shows eat up most of the year.

Q: Are you Jonesing, not that I care for that term, to go back to the theater more?

A: I always have been. That’s never gone away. Thank god. I do have peers who say that theater has become difficult.

Q: Always was.

A: Yes. The need for stamina, combined with memorization and the commitment of a run. This run is short; I am used to being asked to do five or six months. But the live theater is still where I find all my creativity. The rehearsal room is the one place I love to be and where I feel most at home. I feel like I know the craft so much better. I’ve never gotten used to cameras, nor do I want to learn the technical side of acting for cameras. I’m not interested in regulating the size of my performance and things like that.

Q: You are an inveterate creature of the stage.

A: Your headline just wrote itself.

Q: You’ve not been back to a Chicago in a while.

A: It was been a long time. I think my last mainstage show might have been 13 years ago, “Detroit.”

Q: Might we now see more of you?

A: I hope so.

Q: What’s your take on Steppenwolf and this city? Some of your generation in the ensemble are less involved now.

A: Including me. It was a natural evolution. As we got bigger and individual actors became more popular, it pulled us all apart. That was hard to accept but was always going to happen. It was very gradual so I am able to feel proud of the place and know the part I have played in its history, but also come back and experience it freshly. I don’t know the staff now. I didn’t know the new round space that’s right over there. We never had a bar and I don’t know why it goddamn took us 50 years to get one. Now we have three.

Still, it’s not like I came back expecting things to be the same; I’ve had many years to accept it’s very different. But what hasn’t changed is the audience, and that’s the real reason I came back. For the people who supported us all those years ago. The people who gave us all our start.

Q: Many are still in the Steppenwolf audience. I hear from them sometimes. You have a real theater fan base here. What is it about the work, though, that brought you back?

A: I am a huge fan of Sam’s work. Joe (Mantello) and I started talking about doing a slot here over a year ago with him directing. We and the staff couldn’t all agree on a published play…

Q: Classic.

A: … for many different reasons. So (artistic directors) Glenn (Davis) and Audrey (Francis) suggested we do a commission. Sam seemed a natural fit. Three months later, he turned in this play, and Joe and I said yes and Steppenwolf said yes.

Q: So he wrote it for you?

A: He did. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that before. His dialogue is so comfortable for an actor. The language just sits really nicely in your mouth.

Q: I remember you did David Mamet’s “November” with Joe and Nathan Lane on Broadway.

A: That would be interesting to do here, too. It was prescient. About a buffoon in the Oval Office. I think “Little Bear Ridge” is the seventh time Joe and I have worked together. We have great communication.

Q: What themes in this work are most resonant for you?

A: I am bad with themes.

Q: What ideas, I mean?

A: I am bad with ideas.

Q: I mean, what is the point of coming to the theater?

A: Kill a couple of hours? There is a lot of comedy.

Q: If this were to go to New York, you’d be up for that?

A: It wasn’t the reason we came here at all. I wanted to make people from New York come here. I wanted to do something just for Chicago audiences.

Q: Thinking of “Roseanne,” you got in at the end of the network glory days. Shows never get such a big swath of America anymore, all watching as the show first airs.

A: People still mostly know me from “Roseanne” for that reason. You can’t reach so many people in any other form and you can’t even do that anymore. I don’t know what networks are doing now. I know they are not really making pilots. I don’t know what they will program now or how long they have, really.

Q: But you look back on those years happily?

A: I do. I had to learn on the job. The TV world was really new to me. And there is something really specific about sitcom acting; it’s heightened, all about timing and something you have to learn.

I had only ever done theater.

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“Little Bear Ridge Road” continues through Aug. 4 at Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St.; tickets $20-$168 at 312-335-1650 and www.steppenwolf.org.

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