Leigh Steiner is a director and actor in the Springfield theater community. She recently reflected on how plays and musicals can whisk us away to fantastical places, but it can also be a space to for us to reflect on our lives and experiences.
Steiner directed Our Town by Thornton Wilder, a successful production April 28-30 at Springfield’s Hoogland Center for the Arts. It is a play about Americana and the common lives of the inhabitants of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, in the early 1900s. Despite being set in this time, it is a drama with timeless themes that still resonate in our modern era. Thornton Wilder’s play is traditionally performed with all white actors as representative of the time and the small town. However, it is not quite a reflection of “our” town, which is rich with diversity. Steiner’s vision was a production of Wilder’s play with a cast that is representative of the Springfield community by casting Blacks, Asian, Hispanic and Latino actors and actresses along with white actors to create a more inclusive and relatable play. “How do these things begin?” asks the Stage Manager in Act 2 of Our Town.
“Bidden or Not, God is Present.” This inscription is engraved in Latin in the central beam of Leigh Steiner’s home and if you look closely at her photograph on page 10 you can see it. Leigh recalls being bidden (or called) as a 9-year-old when she and her sister created their own play and sold tickets for 25 cents apiece in the neighborhood. It was about creating a unique experience and she understood the value of that, even at that young age (though their mother made them return the money collected). The spark had flared and continued to be fueled by her high school drama teacher in Jefferson City, Missouri. She loved everything about drama, debate, production and direction in the theater. Her dream was to go to college in New York City with hopes of becoming a director there.
Certain events occurred in high school (Or was it a calling?) which detoured those Broadway aspirations, and she ended up attending Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in the Speech Communications department while also focusing on the administration of justice. She volunteered with a ministry in the local prison. There she began to see the value of art and drama in creating a space for empathy and sympathy within a community which had experienced little to none of either of these before or during incarceration.
This ministry eventually became the core of her future work as she obtained her Ph.D. in Speech Communications, Psychology and Rehabilitation in 1979. Her dissertation focused on the impact of a creative community within the prison system. “The ability to find your own voice while also learning to listen to other voices,” Leigh explains, is essential to rehabilitation and can be done through the arts. Steiner also recognized that the prisoners were also not reflective of the “free” community, as the majority were men of color. Yet, they still had life and family experiences similar to those portrayed in Our Town’s Grover’s Corners.
Now a longtime resident of Springfield, Steiner has directed and acted in numerous productions over the years. She consistently teamed up with her longtime friend, Dave Shaw, who was also a fervent supporter of local theater. The two were planning their vision for Our Town as they discussed the palette of color for the lighting and the wardrobe, along with other intricate details. But it was also their vision to “carefully curate the cast to truly reflect the diverse community of Springfield.” Typically the Stage Manager role would be cast as a white male, along with white families and their children. Shaw and Steiner envisioned this from previous productions and decided to find a Black woman to take on the role, along with other roles being cast with diverse actors and actresses. The theme of ordinary days and relationships with this modernized representation would be a way for all to see themselves and relate to the experiences portrayed.
“This relatability would not be possible to all within our community with an all-white cast,” she explains. The two also discussed even casting those without theater experience, because to portray these roles requires the experience of living life more so than previous performances. Leigh hoped it would create more interest, and give others courage to take the leap in future local productions, to continue to diversify and include a wider range of performers. She explained with fondness her synchronicity with Shaw in this vision and their hope to execute this production. But, there is also sadness and grief as Dave Shaw passed last year and would not see the project to fruition. Leigh officiated his celebration of life.
Leigh hoped that those who may not have otherwise entered the theater would do so for this play. The universal experiences of life, love and loss, despite differences, were echoed in this unique production of Our Town. When asked what she hoped people would feel as the curtain call ends and the house lights brighten, she says, “Gratitude for the sacredness of everyday.” Steiner hoped that those who attend would feel as though they had been given a gift of appreciation for the value of “just another day.”
As the Black woman chosen to be Stage Manager for this production of Our Town, I see the gifts I have been given – my first theater experience, Steiner’s direction and Wilder’s themes in this play. The gifts remind me that “There is something way down deep that’s eternal in every human being” (Stage Manager, Act 3, Our Town).
Nicole Florence is a longtime resident of Springfield and co-medical director of Memorial Wellness Center. She has recently begun exploring her creative side at the Hoogland, Springfield Art Association, and as co-owner of LongShot Productions with photographer Maria Ansley.
This article appears in Summer 2023.
