The Ensemble
Jon Steinhagen
Member Since: 2009
Jon Steinhagen has been a Signal ensemble member since 2009, after appearing as John Dickinson
in 1776 and as Flan in Six Degrees of Separation. During the 2010-11 season, he appeared as Birdboot
in The Real Inspector Hound, and will appear as Jack in his own play, Aces, which was written expressly
for the Signal ensemble members. Jon is an author, actor, composer/lyricist, and pianist, as well as a
Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and finalist for the first Noël Coward Award (2010). In 2009,
he received the national Julie Harris Playwriting Award (first prize) for his comedy The Analytical Engine,
which received its world premiere at Circle Theatre in 2010. He wrote the book, music, and lyrics for the
musical The Teapot Scandals, which was produced by Porchlight Music Theatre in Chicago and went on
to receive a Jeff Award nomination for Best New Work (and was a featured question on Jeopardy!).
After the premier of Aces, Jon will have two further premieres of his plays during the 2011-12 season:
Blizzard ’67 (Chicago Dramatists) and Dating Walter Dante (Raven Theatre). His plays have been
produced nationally, and include The Applewood Pistols (an “original Chekhov comedy” based on
Chekhov’s notebooks), Vexations (2010 New York International Fringe Festival), Something More
Comfortable (Syracuse University), Ponzi on Sunday (Chameleon Theatre Circle), and Boats Against the
Current (a “prequel” to The Great Gatsby). A collection of his shorter plays, Typical Abnormal Behavior,
premiered at the Midtown International Theatre Festival in 2009. Plays in development include Running
with the Pack, Deb and Debra, and The Hundred Acres.
As a songwriter, Jon has a long history of productions, writing the music and lyrics for the musicals The
Arresting Dilemma of Mr. K (based on Kafka’s The Trial) (Theatre Building Chicago; TRU); The Circus
of Dr. Lao; Emma & Company (Wings Theatre – NYC; North Shore Musical Theatre); and the Jeff and
After Dark Award-winning Inferno Beach (Bailiwick; Circle Theatre) and People Like Us (Circle Theatre).
Current projects include the book, music, and lyrics of Valentino Overnight and the music and lyrics of a
musical adaptation of Booth Tarkington’s The Magnificent Ambersons.
Jon is also an award-winning musical director, arranger and actor who has received four Jeff Awards,
six After Darks Awards, and four Jeff nominations for his work in Chicago Theatre. His long career as
a musical director includes productions at Light Opera Works, Porchlight, BoHo, Pegasus Players, the
former Theatre Building Chicago, and Circle Theatre, as well as the world premieres of the William Finn-
James Lapine musical Muscle and Sherman Yellen & Wally Harper’s Josephine Tonight (for which he
also composed additional music). He composed original music for productions of Millfire, Yerma, Edward
II, My Sister in This House and After the Fall. His acting credits include The Chairman in The Mystery
of Edwin Drood (Jeff Award-Best Actor), J.J. Hunsecker in Sweet Smell of Success, Mack Sennett in
Mack & Mabel, Roy Hubley in Plaza Suite (Jeff nomination-Best Supporting Actor), Judge Brack in Hedda
Gabler, Senator Raitcliffe in Romulus Linney’s Democracy, Felix Unger in The Odd Couple, Big Daddy in
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came to Dinner.
His film essays have been published in Playbills to Photoplays (New England Vintage Film Society). He is
a member of The Dramatist’s Guild and the Chicago Federation of Musicians, and an artistic associate of
Porchlight Music Theatre.