CHICAGO--Steppenwolf Theatre Company has anounced 3/5 of its 1998-99 mainstage season, the Chicago landmark's 23rd annual offering. Opening in late September is Charles L. Mee's The Berlin Circle, a variant on the legend behind Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle. It will be staged by Mee's artistic partner Tina Landau who directed Steppenwolf's 1997 Time to Burn. February ushers in Three Days of Rain by Richard Greenberg. Starring Chicago favorite Amy Morton, it's the story of a famous architect whose will forces his children to probe their family's dark history.

Finally, Morning Star, opening in mid-April, is Sylvia Regan's 1940 drama about a widow and her extended family who find themselves caught up in the horror of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, World War I and the Great Depression; Steppenwolf ensemble member Frank Galati (who staged Livent's Ragtime) directs. Two remaining slots have yet to be filled.

-- By Lawrence Bommer
Chicago Correspondent