Loopshop 8: Pity & Guilt

To get you in the mood for Loopshop 8 — which happens next week at The Charnel House in Logan Square — we'll be sharing some short teasers about all five of our featured plays here and on Facebook. (Like us if you haven't already.)

 Pity & Guilt, written by Los Angeles-based writer L.M. Frank.

Set in London during the 1970s, Pity & Guilt tells the story of a couple with a tumultuous relationship still haunted by their previous marriages. Their lives are further complicated by the arrival of a letter.

Directed by Maria Burnham, Pity & Guilt stars Justin Fill as Harry and Caitlin Jackson as Viviana.

Loopshop is Chicago-based Strangeloop Theatre's annual short play and new works series. This year's production features original short plays on topics ranging from Swedish furniture to time travel. 

Performances for Loopshop 8 will be at 8 p.m. on Monday, July 27, and Tuesday, July 28, 2015, at The Charnel House, 3421 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago. Tickets for the show are $10 and are available at the door or online at Brown Paper Tickets. 

Loopshop 8 Bio: Caitlin Jackson

Caitlin Jackson (Viviana) can't say no when Strangeloop asks her to do something. They can pretty much boss her around as much as they want. Previously, she played Queen of the Fairies in last summer's Midsummer and then a homeless ukulele playing bartender in Christmas Clue-seau with them. Her voice may or may not have been heard in the last Loopshop and you might have seen her for a split second during Thinking Caps. She's a founding member of New American Folk Theatre, an artistic associate with Wayward Productions and an ensemble member with Hell in a Handbag where she can currently be seen playing Bette Midler in Bette, LIVE at the Continental Baths until August 21st. Thanks to Maria. You know what you did. Love to MDKS.

Casting announced for Loopshop 8

Casting is complete for Loopshop 8 and we've packed a lot of amazing talent into these bit-sized plays.

Check back next week for a more detailed look at each piece, but in the meantime let this wet your appetite.

• All the World’s An Ikea, written by Maria Burnham and directed by John Morrison,  crams massive relationship issues into a tiny "Living In 377 Sq. Ft." display space.  
• Birthday, written by Jeff Bouthiette and directed by Emmi Hilger, shows us the unexpected struggles of a lesbian couple trying to adopt. 
• Get Back, written by Keith Gatchel and directed by Spenser Davis, tells the story of two boys determined to make a potato-powered time machine that will let them right a playground wrong.
• Here’s My Card, written by Paul Tinsley and directed by Breahan Pautsch, warns us not to talk to strangers at bus stops.
• Pity & Guilt, written by L.M. Frank and directed by Maria Burnham, follows a married couple struggling to leave their past marriages behind.

Actors for these pieces include: Jean E. Burr, Alison Dornheggen, Linsey Falls, Justin Fill, Joe Giovannetti, Caitlin Jackson, Mark Lancaster, Christopher Paul Mueller, Taylor Raye and Gage Wallace.

Performances for Loopshop 8 will be at 8 p.m. on Monday, July 27, and Tuesday, July 28, 2015, at The Charnel House, 3421 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago. Tickets for the show are $10 at the door or online at Brown Paper Tickets.

From Queen of the Amazons to Queen of the Fairies, Jackson shows herstrength in

As an actress who has been on stage since she was 5, Avondale/North Center resident Caitlin Jackson has played everyone from Abigail in “The Crucible” to Bette Davis in Hell in a Handbag's production “Christmas Dearest.”

But for her latest turn on stage, she has stepped into not just one, but two roles from out of mythology. In her third production of William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Jackson has taken on Hippolyta, the famed Amazon Queen who lost a war and her heart to Theseus, as well as the Fairy Queen Titania, whose eternal battle for love and supremacy with her Fairy King, Oberon, puts them in the path of four young lovers lost in the woods outside of Athens.

Read more about Caitlin, including her work in Strangeloop's A Midsummer Night's Dream in the NorthCenter-RoscoeVillage Patch.