Hack/Slash Bio: Mel Gill

Mel Gill (Prop and Blood Designer) is an associate member with TUTA and was last seen working with Jacqueline Stone and Joni Arredia on the world premiere of Stoop Time. She has recently worked with TUTA as assistant stage manager for The Jewels at the DCASE theatre, as well as, properties designer with Strangeloop Theatre Company on A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Jackalope Theatre Company on The Peacock and Exit Strategy. Some of her previous work includes: assistant stage managing TUTA's The Dumb Waiter and The Silent Language; special FX for the Soft Cage Film debut YELLOW; and assistant stage managing New Leaf’s Lighthousekeeping. She has worked with such companies as The Pavement Group, Melncolly Theatre Company, Saint Sebastian Players and The House Theatre of Chicago. She is forever in debt to her close friends and family for their love and support (especially her father, 1944-2011). 

Hack/Slash Bio: Barbara Charlene

Barbara Charlene (Violence Director) is a Chicago-based Fight Director and Actor, a Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors, and an Artist-in-Residence with Halcyon Theatre Company. Recent Fight Directing credits include Twelfth Night with Gary Shakespeare Company, The Warzone is my Bed with Halcyon Theatre Company and The Nightmare Room with Towle Theatre. She worked on the first Broadway touring production of Spring Awakening, and was the Assistant Fight Director at Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Crimes of the Heart, directed by Kathleen Turner. She was nominated for a New York Innovative Theatre Award for Best Choreography on The Accidental Patriot with Stolen Chair Theatre Company, and has also worked at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, The Cherokee Historical Association, The Lost Colony and the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. She is the Audience Designer at Theater Wit and performs with Room Escape Adventures in Trapped in a Room with a Zombie. She will be performing next in Accidental Shakespeare Company's production of Macbeth, opening October 16th. www.barbaracharlene.com

Hack/Slash Bio: Christopher DeNardo

Christopher DeNardo (Assistant Violence Director/Choreographer) This is Chris' first production with Strangeloop Theatre. He is proud of all the hard work the cast has put in to make the fights as exciting as possible. Obsessing over the best angles for stabs and other violence has been a dream come true for him. He should probably talk to a professional about that.

Hack/Slash Bio: Maria Burnham

Maria Burnham (Marketing) is an actress, writer, sometimes stage manager, full-time theater monkey and all around jack-of-all-trades. Storefront theater, ho! She studied creative writing and theater at Louisiana State University and has worked in Chicago with such companies as Appetite Theatre Co., Stockyards Theatre Project, New Millennium Theatre Co. and Red Theater. Maria is thrilled to be a member of Strangeloop. She loves pursuing the undiscovered, though mostly she’s just in it for the chicken.

Hack/Slash Bio: Holly Robison

Holly Robison (Marketing/Events) has been living and working in Chicago for several years, and she is proud to be a Company Member and Development Manager with Strangeloop Theatre. In addition to acting and directing with Strangeloop, she has worked with Citadel Theatre Company, Greenman Theatre Troupe, Genesis Theatrical Productions and Sheil Park Theatre. She has also studied with TUTA Theatre, Victory Gardens Theatre and Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. To pay those pesky bills, Holly spends her days working in grants at a non-profit. She has a B.A. in English and Political Science from the University of Illinois. When not at her job, rehearsals or performances, Holly enjoys several varied and interesting hobbies, including reading and traveling. She wishes she had time for them.

Hack/Slash Bio: Allison McCorkle

Allison McCorkle (Marketing/Events) is an actor who also really enjoys seeing theatre, dancing Bollywood and getting caught up in the latest story or classic that she missed as a child. A performer since the age of 8, she studied theatre at Texas Wesleyan University and stuck around the Fort Worth/Dallas theatre scene for awhile. Then the allure of public transit and beautiful weather beckoned her to Chicago, where her credits include Piccolo Theatre, Black Ensemble Theatre, Halcyon, Chicago dell’Arte, Polarity, Red Tape and GreatWorks Theatre. Allison was thrilled to work on The Robbers, Loopshop and Nutcracker Nightmare with Strangelop and looks forward to the next great adventure! During the day, she is an administrative assistant for a meat marketing company. That’s right, that’s what it says.

Get a sneak peak at Hack/Slash: Preview performances are Friday,Saturday

Two preview performance of Strangeloop Theatre and CIC Theater co-production Hack/Slash are set for Friday, Sept. 5 and Saturday, Sept. 6 at 8 p.m. Discount tickets are available now at Brown Paper Tickets.

Hack/Slash is the story of horror victim survivor Cassie Hack who, together with her disfigured sidekick Vlad, travels the country (and sometimes the underworld) fighting evil slashers who refuse to just lay down and die even after being burned, impaled and shot 20 times.

The performaces are at CIC Theater, 1422 W. Irving Park Road in Chicago.