A director returns to Writers Theatre to work her magic on ‘Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812’

Spelman says her new Writers production of “Natasha,” which opens Sept. 13 as part of a busy fall weekend in Chicago theater (with three major openings in the area), will aim to evoke the glamor of the Russian setting with the intimacy that is the Writers calling card. Designer Courtney O’Neill will evoke an opera house in Versailles and “create a really beautiful playground for us,” Spelman says. “But at the same time, most of the scenes in this show are composed of a chair, a chaise, a thing. I just keep falling in love with this piece more and more as we rehearse.”