Steppenwolf ensemble member Robert Breuler will head a cast including Keith Davis, Matt DeCaro, Kevin Christopher Fox, Ricardo Gutierrez, Eddie Martinez, Sammy A. Publes, Krissy Shields, Rebecca Spence, Marisabel Suarez, E. Milton Wheeler, and Shané Williams. The play is directed by Will Frears, a former Steppenwolf intern whose star recently rose with the Off-Broadway premiere of Omnium-Gatherum.

The high-voltage, fragmentary urban drama, which features a dozen troubled characters all affected by the murder of Sister Rose, a Catholic nun at a school in Harlem, will begin previews Feb. 5, 2004, at Steppenwolf's larger Downstairs Theatre (formerly called the Mainstage). It will run through March 28.

The booking continues Steppenwolf's commitment to Guirgis' work. The company previously staged the Chicago premiere of Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train.

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Tracy Letts, a Chicago-based playwright who saw his violent and willfully vulgar Killer Joe become an Off-Broadway hit several seasons back, premiered his new Man from Nebraska in Steppenwolf's Nov. 20-Jan. 18, 2004, slot. Anna D. Shapiro directs Rondi Reed and Rick Snyder in the tale of a middle-aged man set in his ways who wakes up one morning to suddenly discover he no longer believes in God.