directed by Richard Shavzin
Richard Shavzin (Director) is a veteran director, actor and casting director who has worked in Chicago since 1981. He was the Artistic Director of Strawdog Theatre Company from 1993-1998, and has received two Jeffs – in 1996 for Direction of Strawdog’s production of Burn This, and a special Jeff in 1999. Also at Strawdog, Shavzin directed the world premiere production of Race, and the Jeff nominated productions of Criminal Hearts, Cat’s Paw, The Big Funk, A Mother, A Daughter and A Gun, Skeletons, and Hurlyburly, which won Jeffs for Ensemble, Best Actor, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress. Recent credits include the world premiere musical Any Someone at All at The Second City Skybox , Vick’s Boy at the American Theater Company, and Todd Logan’s Tops or Bottoms and Persistence of Vision at Chicago Dramatists. Acting credits include the Royal Alexandra (Toronto), Northlight, National Jewish Theater, Victory Gardens, Organic, Madison Rep, Lifeline, Pegasus and Annoyance.
Gary Slezak (Playwright, Producer) grew up in Beverly and began writing plays as an undergraduate at Western Illinois University. There his first play was produced, a political satire entitled Every Fourth November. Sketcher in the Wry, an evening of short plays, followed at Body Politic. Malek’s Dependents, a play set in a Southside liquor store, was developed at Victory Gardens and produced by The People’s Light and Theatre Company, where it received excellent reviews in The Baltimore Sun and Philadelphia Daily News. Other full length plays are One if by Land, Two if by Sea; The Measure of All Things; Rational Man; A Night at the Century; and Entering Paris. Recent short plays include The Five Stages of Drunkenness, Paindude, Leonard Bernstein’s Birthday; A Kinder, Gentler War; and Stanek’s Stomach. The author is currently finishing two plays: Laughing Academy, a comedy of manners, and North Woods South, a radio play. Gary Slezak is also the author of published non-fiction and a Chicago Dramatists Network Playwright.
Joey Wade (Scenic Designer) – A professional scenic designer in Chicago, Joey's credits include Uncle Vanya and The Dazzle (Steppenwolf Studio), Ivanov, Stars in the Morning Sky, Madame DeSade, Woyzeck and The Duel (European Rep), Heat and Blue Moon (Chicago Dramatists), Translations, Chekhov in Yalta and Calamity Meat (Seanachai), Quills and Nana (Trapdoor), The Grey Zone (A Red Orchid), Marat/Sade (The Hypocrites), A Human Interest Story, Kingdom of Earth and Offspring of the Cold War (Walkabout Theatre), The Cairn Stones and A Month in the Country (Jeff Citation, the Bailiwick) Thanatos, Rhinoceros and The Possessed (National Pastime), Bent (Gilead), Suicide in B Flat (Center Theatre); Fool for Love (Playhouse), and Of Mice and Men, The Crucible, The Seagull and Dancing at Lughnasa (as former Resident Designer for the Bog Theatre). Joey also teaches Drama Tech and Design to high school students at the Francis Parker School in Lincoln Park.
Benjamin L. White (Lighting Designer) – principal consultant for White Light Design, Inc., has amassed nearly thirty years of lighting design experience. His expertise is varied and includes Architectural Consulting, Industrial Theatre, Exhibits, Theatre, Dance and Television Production. Recent projects include lobby and façade designs for 10 S. LaSalle St., the 1 S. Wacker building, and 112 S. Michigan Ave.; Willow Creek Community Church; Crawdaddy Bayou restaurant, Ravinia – orchestra pavilion, new buildings and landscape illumination; Museum of Science and Industry’s permanent “Take Flight” exhibit for which Mr. White received international, national, and regional design awards; and numerous high-end residences. Mr. White’s versatile design expertise ranges from the scenic and lighting design for B.F. Goodrich’s dealers convention in Hong Kong to an international live teleconference from Broadway, London, and Boston, for NCR. Mr. White’s other varied design and production credits include original musical theatre productions for Off-Broadway, the acclaimed Broadway-based dance company The American Dance Machine, and numerous popular entertainment productions.
Brahm Fetterman (Sound Design) – Originally from Philadelphia, Brahm Fetterman studied drumming and composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and multi-media visual art at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. He has performed with such artists as the Church of St. John Coltrane, Sun RA’s Arkestra, Grooved Pavement, DJ Soulslinger, the Wintermute Society, and Thin-X. Currently residing in Chicago, Brahm performs regularly with the Nerves, Pocket, The Devil Love Orchestra, and Doctor Brahms Traveling Medicine Show as well as being involved with various Chicago-based theatre and performance art productions.
Karin McKie (Media Relations, Tree Falls Productions), has been working in public relations and marketing since 1987. After moving to Chicago, she has run her own firm, Tree Falls Productions, which provides many services, primarily for Chicago-based theatres and arts organizations. She was honored as one of Today’s Chicago Woman magazine’s “100 Women Making a Difference” for her HIV/AIDS education promotional work, and has received a PBS Advertising and Promotion Award and a Capital Region Emmy Award. As an actor, director and fight choreographer, she has worked with Stage Left (where she’s an ensemble member), Famous Door, WBEZ’s Stories on Stage, Collaboraction, Footsteps, ComedySportz and Boom Chicago in Amsterdam, to name a few. She tours the US with Wavelength, and is workshopping her solo show, Touch Me Where My Bathing Suit Covers via Downstage Left. She’ll be understudying The Fall to Earth at Steppenwolf this spring. No se vende lo que no se enseña – www.treefalls.com.