The to-do list of eminent Steppenwolf Theatre alum Anna D. Shapiro continues to expand with the news Thursday that she’s working on a TV series with Chris Rock as well as a new Broadway play.
Word of the projects came in the announcement of a production company, Highwire Media, that Shapiro has formed with her husband, actor-writer Ian Barford, along with actor-producer Leelai Demoz and entrepreneur Brad Keywell.
The company already has several projects in the works, including “Bury the Lede,” which was announced last year as Shapiro’s big-screen directing debut. Now being shaped as a TV series, it’s about the longest-serving White House press correspondent, Connie Lawn. Lookingglass Theatre co-founder Joy Gregory wrote the series, and Shapiro still intends to direct.
Also on the way from Highwire:
- Shapiro also will be at the helm of “Kara,” a comedy series featuring Chris Rock, who starred in Shapiro’s Broadway production of “The Motherf- - - - - With the Hat.” Matthew-Lee Erlbach is writing the show.
- On Broadway, the company will co-produce Erlbach’s play “Revelations,” set at a Big Sur luxury getaway where two State Department employees accidentally reveal a sex scandal. Shapiro will direct.
- Emmy winner and former Chicago actor Jane Lynch (“Glee,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) is set to star in “Animals,” an ensemble comedy series written by Barford and “Ted Lasso” co-creator Brendan Hunt.
- Barford’s limited series “This Land of Blood” deals with the bond between abolitionists Frederick Douglass and John Brown.
- A feature film called “The Oath” surveys the life of Khassan Baiev, a Chechen doctor who treated both his countrymen and the enemy Russians during the wars in Chechnya, and was branded a traitor by both sides.
Shapiro served as Steppenwolf’s artistic director for six years, stepping down in 2021. She won a Tony Award in 2008 for directing the Broadway production of “August: Osage County” and recently directed the musical adaptation of “The Devil Wears Prada,” which had its world premiere over the summer in Chicago but has no timetable to open on Broadway or the West End.
