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Sinise's proudest achievement is having co-founded and built the Steppenwolf Theatre of Chicago

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[image caption] Sinise greets Buried Child's author Sam Shepard on opening night

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in the guts will make you think about it, but a play that has you just thinking on an intellectual level won't necessarily hit you in the guts. The cardinal sin for me is boredom."
    Sinise "found" theatre like some folks find religion. A rebellious high school sophomore, he was close to being kicked out of Highland Park High School when, as a lark, auditioned for the school production of [West Side Story [italicised]]. His part as Pepe the Shark only had two lines, but those two lines became a life-changing experience for Sinise, so much so that he burst into tears on closing night. During the curtain call, the actor who played Bernardo went to the back row, grabbed him and brought him up to the front row to take a bow with the leads. "I was still crying," Sinise remembered. "All of them had seen my life change during the course of that one show, and they were rewarding me. I'll never forget that moment. I knew I was hooked for life."
    In 1974, when he was 18, Sinise co-founded the Steppenwolf Theatre with two of his friends, Jeff Perry and Terry Kinney. Most of the early support came from friends and family. The company sometimes played to audiences of for, and when there were no audiences, they honed their skills. From the Steppenwolf stage the founding members began to make their way into mainstream television, film and theatre. The illustrious Steppenwolf alumni include Sinise, John Malkovich, Laurie Metcalf, Joan Allen, John Mahoney, Glenne Headley, Alan Wilder and Moira Harris, who Sinise married in 1981.
    "We worked in such a closed environment," Sinise says, "that we just kept learning and getting better. I think we had this envelope of security because we were all together, that it just allowed us to be totally uninhibited and develop our skills." 
    Sinise served as Steppenwolf's artistic director from 1980 until 1987. He has directed numerous other Steppenwolf productions, most notably [True West [italicised]], in which he co-starred and for which he received an Obie for directing, and [Orphans[italicised]], which subsequently played Off-Broadway and in London, and for which he received Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Award for his direction. His Steppenwolf acting credits include the Tony Award-winning production of John Steinbeck's [The Grapes of Wrath [italicised]], for which he was nominated for a Drama Desk and a Tony.
    In terms of his goals, fame and fortune were not what motivated Sinise. "No, I didn't think about any of that; otherwise I would't have been broke and un-famous so long," he chuckled. "I've never [never [italicised]] had money as my primary focus. I've never been able to make a decision based on money because I work from my guts. The way I direct is the way I act, from a visceral connection to it. Can I make it emotional? Can I make it humorous? Can I make it live truthfully? Is this something that people will care about?"
    Sinise made his feature film directing debut with [Miles from Home [italicised]], and he also directed and produced the critically acclaimed [Of Mice and Men [italicised]], in which he co-starred with John Malkovich. His other film acting credits include [Apollo 13, My Name is Bill W., A Midnight Clear [italicised]] and the forthcoming Ron Howard film, [Ransom[italicised]].
    "Once I did [Of Mice and Men[italicised]]," Sinise says, "that cracked something for me in the movie business. I was now somebody who could act, direct and put his own movie together. Auditions weren't quite as hard because people said, 'Well, we've got to take this guy seriously. He made his own movie.' But with all the movie work I've done--and I've worked with some fine people--I can't say I'm more proud of that than of having built a theatre for Steppenwolf. We were just kids, but we were able to stay together and put the right people together who could work together over a long period of time and who would build a building--a lasting thing."

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The King requests the Honor of Your Presence
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A 40th Anniversary Celebration!

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RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN'S
The King and I

40th Anniversary Laserdisc
Special Collector's Edition

Digital film-to-tape widescreen transfer (2.55:11 from original CinemaScope 55mm interpositive.

AC-3 discreet audio transferred from original 4-track magnetic stereo elements.

Second audio track featuring back ground score and running commentary.

Theatrical Previews. Newsreels. Historical Footage

Interviews with Mary Rodgers, Mary Rodgers, James Hammerstein, Ernest Lehman, Yuriko, Carlos Rivas, Marni Nixon and John Mauceri

Color guide to laserdisc contents

24K Gold compact disc of the original soundtrack featuring never-before-released material: a full 76 minutes!

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©1956 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. ©Renewed 1984 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Rodgers and Hammerstein® and the R&H logo™ logo are registered trademarks used under license from The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization on behalf of the Trusts and Estates of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.