‘Superior Donuts’ comes home in Mary-arrchie show

Tracy Letts’ play “Superior Donuts” is set in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood, not far from Mary-arrchie Theatre. So it’s a nice bit of serendipity that the first non-equity staging of the drama will be at this 50-seat theater, one of the mainstays of the storefront scene.

It’s also fitting because artistic director Richard Cotovsky has a long history with the play. He took part in the original development workshops at Steppenwolf Theatre, understudied Michael Mckean in the 2008 Steppenwolf production and later went on to play the role at the Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C.

“I think our production will be a lot more intimate,” Cotovsky says. “It will put the audience right in the middle of a donut shop, and the dialogue will hit a lot harder.”

In the Mary-arrchie production, Cotovsky steps into the role he knows so well — Arthur Przybyszewski, an anti-war activist (circa Vietnam) and the proprietor of a rundown donut shop in Uptown. When he hires Francowicks (Preston Tate Jr.), a fast-talking AfricanAmerican kid with big dreams and bigger troubles, Arthur’s world quickly changes— quite possibly for