Fish Records, while becoming his producer and touring partner. Smith recorded Michael Smith (1986) and Love Stories (1987.) Both albums have been reissued as a single CD, which is among Acoustic Guitar's list of essential singer-songwriter albums. Hills recorded her own album of Smith songs called October Child (1993). In the winter of 1987, Claudia Schmidt introduced Smith to theatrical director Frank Galati. It was Galati who asked Smith to write the music for Steppenwolf Theatre Company's production of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. The Steppenwolf Theatre, founded by Gary Sinise and John Malkovich, has a glowing reputation in Chicago and nationally, and The Grapes of Wrath became a huge success, playing in Chicago, London, San Diego, and on Broadway where it received Tony Awards for Best Play and Best Director. The success of The Grapes of Wrath allowed Smith to quit his job as a clerk at Time, and his work in theater brought both new dimensions to his writing and his performances. Smith recommenced performing regularly, both as a solo act and in a duet with Hills. He recorded his third album for Flying Fish, Time (1994), and recorded a duet album with Hills called Paradise Lost and Found (1999). He also continued to write music for theatre, including for a Colorado Children's Theatre production of The Snow Queen. Most notably though, in 1993 Chicago's Victory Gardens Theatre premiered his autobiographical play Michael, Margaret, Pat and Kate. The play won four Jeff Awards (the Chicago Theater Union's equivalent of the Tony), for Best Original Music, Best Production, Best Actor in a Revue, and Best New Work. February 2000 saw the official release of the music from Michael, Margaret, Pat and Kate by Wind River Records. Smith performed at dozens of major folk festivals including the Kerrville Folk Festival, Black Mountain Festival, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Owen Sound, Gamble Rogers Folk Festival, and Winnipeg Folk Festivals. He has also appeared on a number of radio programs including WUMB's Circle in the Stream, interviews with Studs Terkel on WFMT, a series of interviews on All Things Considered and Good Evening on NPR as well as interviews for the BBC in London for All Things Considered. He continued to write songs, tour regularly, do songwriting workshops as well as perform frequently with Hills. In 1999, Michael recorded the CD, Two Man Band Two, a duet CD with James Lee Stanley