Steppenwolf wunderkind Hill spreads wings in 'Kafka'
PROFILE | Steppenwolf wunderkind Hill spreads wings in 'Kafka'
Jon Michael Hill first came into public focus during the summer of 2006 as audiences were settling into their seats for the start of the Steppenwolf Theatre production of Bruce Norris' play "The Unmentionables," a tale of corruption, decadence and brutality in contemporary Africa.
Amid the genteel calm, a rather scraggly looking black adolescent with a backpack and headphones came sauntering down the aisle in search of a seat -- stirring up just enough low-level disruption to create a feeling of discomfort. Gradually, he began to speak, slyly chiding the audience, and it became clear he was an agent of provocation (and ultimately the tragic victim) in Norris' play. It also became clear that Hill -- who was making his professional debut in the role and was about to enter his senior year in the undergraduate theater program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign -- was an actor to watch.
Within a year, Hill became the youngest addition to the Steppenwolf ensemble. His career had already taken off like a rocket, with his first role after graduation the plum part of Puck in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." And oh yes, it just happened to be the high-profile Public Theater production in New York's fabled Shakespeare Festival in Central Park. Gigs at Yale Rep, Atlanta's Alliance Theater and Seattle Repertory would follow.
This past summer, Hill returned to Steppenwolf for the premiere of Tracy Letts' "Superior Donuts," in which he played Franco Wicks, a college dropout who had penned the great American novel and was being hunted by loan sharks.
Now he is featured as Crow, the alter ago of the adolescent Japanese boy in "Kafka on the Shore," Frank Galati's world premiere Steppenwolf production adapted from a novel by Haruki Murakami. ("Kafka," it should be noted, is the Czech word for "crow.")
"I started off writing," said Hill, 23, who possesses a wonderful way of making even the most difficult, poetic language spring to life with absolute naturalness. "As a kid I wrote a story about my brother getting lost at the zoo, and my teacher turned it into a play. Seeing that inspired me to act."
As a sophomore at Waukegan High School, Hill began performing in musicals and a few one-act plays. But the turning point came when he spent the summer after his high school junior year as part of the Cherubs program at Northwestern University. One of his teachers there, Jonathan Becker, told him he had what it took to pursue acting for real.
"That was when I first took it to heart," confessed Hill, who had seen very little professional theater until then. "I only saw my first Broadway show, 'Rent,' when I went to New York with my school band to play for the firefighters after Sept. 11." (Hill's dad has played bass in several bands over the years, and Hill himself has studied clarinet and alto and tenor saxophone, though he now is focused on his guitar and songwriting.)
So how did Hill arrive at Steppenwolf ?
"In my junior year at the U. of I., my history teacher, Peter Davis, who also worked in Chicago theater, was asked if he knew any young black kids who might be right for 'The Unmentionables,' " Hill recalled. "Peter liked my work in some school productions and suggested me. I prepared for the audition for quite a long time, working on a West African accent with dialect coach Jill Zager.
"When I got the part my friends went nuts, but I had never even seen a show at Steppenwolf. It was pretty intimidating at the start, but Anna [Tony Award-winning director Anna D. Shapiro] just treated me like everyone else in the cast. And I kept remembering the advice of a teacher who said, 'Be coachable; always attempt the changes suggested to you.' "
"Jon just 'had it' from the moment I first saw him in that initial audition," said Martha Lavey, artistic director of Steppenwolf. "Right from the start you could sense his intelligence and his way with language, but he also has a real emotional accessibility and a tremendous kindness. I will always remember that when we held a press conference to announce the six new members of the ensemble -- of which he was one -- he brought his mom to the event."
Hill will make his opera debut this winter -- in a speaking role as Puck in the Houston Grand Opera production of Benjamin Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Then it's back to Steppenwolf to play Ariel in "The Tempest," the company's first production of Shakespeare -- to be directed by Tina Landau. Galati will star as Prospero.
"It was such a pleasure to be in the rehearsal room with Frank [Galati] when he was directing 'Kafka,' " Hill said. "His knowledge is staggering, and it was a joy to just listen to him. I can't wait to play his henchman in 'The Tempest.' "