It’s the rare theater company that doesn’t have a mission statement. But how many theater artists have one? Director Eric Hoff does. He’s committed, he says, to exploring “works that are at the intersection of social justice and beautiful art.”
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“Eric Hoff, who guides the show with a strong hand, insures that the actors are supported by [Holter’s] language, rather than overwhelmed by it,” wrote the New Yorker‘s Hilton Als of the production, presented by the Inconvenience as part of Steppenwolf Theatre’s annual Garage Rep. “I can’t remember an ensemble that has danced through space as proudly and movingly as this one.” Hoff, Als added, “makes us feel the vibrancy of this universe, in which some of the characters are brutalized by a policeman and fight back, giving as good as they get.”
He’s apparently tried to do something similar with his life. The California-born son of a Presbyterian minister who earned a master’s in theater along with his divinity degree, Hoff spent the years immediately after college toiling in the “equality, peace, progress, and justice” sector. His resumé includes work for the Human Rights Campaign and Americorps; he also did environmental PR and helped get Arizona Democrat Gabby Giffords elected to Congress in 2006.
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