Krampus! isn't done yet!

You still have two more chances to see Krampus! beginning tonight, December 14, at Underground Wonder Bar in River North. But seating is limited at this location and tickets are going fast, so buy in advance and get there early!

Krampus! is a "hilarious" tongue-in-cheek Christmas horror story (that "amassed riotous laughs from the crowd"...but don't take our word for it. Click the link for a review...) about what happens when family bickers too much and holidays too little while a Christmas demon is on the prowl.

The original story, written for the stage by Jaclyn Jensen and Mike Wozniak, follows the the Murray family as they get together for one last Midwestern cabin Christmas before the eldest daughter and her boyfriend move to New York. But it isn't enough they have to deal with the usual drama that comes with Christmas. The Murray family has to do it in the isolation of a cabin in the woods, during a snow storm, with a holiday devil running amok and only some peppermint schnaps to get them through it.

Directed by Maria Burnham, the full cast includes: Jean E. Burr, Justin Fill, Sean Harklerode, Stefanie Johnsen, Allison McCorkle, Christopher Paul Mueller, Paul Tinsley, Michael Wagman and Chad Wise.

Who is Krampus? In European folklore, Krampus is the hell-bound companion of Saint Nicholas. With cloven hooves, a long tongue and goat-like horns, Krampus (also known as Black Peter) punishes the naughty children while Saint Nicholas rewards the good.

Thanks to everyone who attended Krampus! at Mary's Attic last week, and to everyone who came out to Christkindlmarket Chicago earlier this month, as part of the League of Chicago Theatres' Theatre Tag.

The final two performances of Krampus! take place tonight, December 14, and Tuesday, December 15, at Underground Wonder Bar in River North (710 N. Clark St., Chicago 60654). Performances begin at 7:30 p.m. More information is available on our website.

Tickets are $10 in advance via Brown Paper Tickets or $12 at the door.

And a happy opening was had by alll....Merry Krampus! from the Murray Family

Thanks to everyone who came out to opening night for Krampus! last night. We had a packed house and shared many laughs and had fun. Everything that the holidays should be.

Here's the Murray Family Photo from last night's show:

If you missed it, don't worry. We have three more opportunities for you to catch Krampus! starting tonight at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance via Brown Paper Tickets or $12 at the door. 

All performances begin at 7:30 p.m. On Tuesday, December 8, you can find Krampus! at Mary's Attic in Andersonville (5400 N. Clark St., Chicago, 60640). And on Monday, December 14, and Tuesday, December 15, Krampus! will be at Underground Wonder Bar in River North (710 N. Clark St., Chicago 60654). 

Krampus! featured in The Columbia Chronicle

If you've been eager to read more on our production of Krampus! you can find an interview with one of the playwrights, the director and members of the cast in this article in The Columbia Chronicle.

Instead of receiving coal, naughty kids this Christmas season will face being terrorized by the monster Krampus, thanks to a holiday production the Strangeloop Theatre is scheduled to run Dec. 7–8 and Dec. 14–15.

Read the entire article here. 

Krampus!: Cast and Crew Bios

Cast:

Jack/Older Priest                     Paul Tinsley+
Chase/Younger Priest              Michael Wagman*
Anne                                        Allison McCorkle+
Ralph                                       Sean Harklerode
Lauren                                     Jean E. Burr+
Nicole                                      Stefanie Johnsen
Kyle                                         Christopher Paul Mueller
Chet                                         Chad Wise
Krampus                                  Justin Fill+
Radio Newscaster                   Alan Goulding

Production Team:

Playwrights                             Jaclyn Jensen*
                                                Mike Wozniak
Director                                   Maria Burnham*
Stage Manager                       Keith Gatchel*
Props                                      Maria Burnham*, Letitia Guillaud*, Holly Robison*,
                                               Chad Wise
Krampus/Ugly Christmas
  Sweater Costume Design     Stefanie Johnsen
Fight Choreographer               Justin Fill+
Fight Captain                           Christopher Paul Mueller
Sound                                      Maria Burnham*, Mike Wozniak
Graphic Design                       Mike Wozniak
Marketing                                Maria Burnham*, Jean E. Burr+

*Denotes a Strangeloop Company Member
+Denotes a Strangeloop Associate Company Member 

Krampus! Bio: Allison McCorkle

Allison McCorkle (Anne) studied theatre at Texas Wesleyan University and stuck around the Fort Worth/Dallas theatre scene for a years before being lured to Chicago in 2007. Her credits include Piccolo Theatre, Black Ensemble Theatre, Polarity, Red Tape and GreatWorks Theatre, among others. Having just completed her first year as an associate company member, Allison has joined Strangeloop onstage for The Robbers, Loopshop, Nutcracker Nightmare and Christmas Clue-seau.

Krampus! Bio: Sean Harklerode

Sean Harklerode (Ralph) is happy to be working with Strangeloop Theatre for the first time. He most recently appeared in The Artistic Home's The Time of Your Life, and is also currently appearing in their Miracle on 34th Street: A Radio Play. He is a former member of New Millennium Theatre Company, where he most recently appeared as Mario in The Princess Peach Conspiracy, and also wrote and directed Silent Night of the Living Dead and Plans One Through Eight from Outer Space. Favorite roles include Max in Lend Me a Tenor, Asa in Our American Cousin and Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey. Hedy Weiss also once said nice things about his Lumbergh in Cubicle!: An Office Space Musical. So he's got that goin' for him. Which is nice. Merry Christmas, Bedford Falls!

Krampus! Bio: Jean E. Burr

 

Jean E. Burr (Lauren) is very excited to be a part of this wonderful show! She moved to Chicago in the midst of the 2014 Polar Vortex after graduating from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where she studied Film and Japanese. Since her arrival, she has performed with Nothing Special Productions, Gorilla Tango Burlesque, Vaudezilla Burlesque, Plan 9 Burlesque, Indie Boots Theatre, Open Door Rep, and, of course, Strangeloop Theatre, where she is an Artistic Associate. Love to her friends, family, co-workers, her cat, and the awesome cast & crew! Check out her upcoming projects at www.jeaneburr.com.

Krampus! Bio: Stefanie Johnsen

Stefanie Johnsen (Nicole) Not only does Stefanie believe in Krampus, Krampus believes in her. She is currently interning to be the newest Krampus minion and looks forward to punishing little boys and girls around the world. So so naughty... Stefanie was Queen Aggravain in Once Upon a Mattress this past summer at the Wallace Bowl, has helped with various readings (staged and not) and costumed a few shows and peoples. Be NICE!

Krampus! Bio: Christopher Paul Mueller

Christopher Paul Mueller (Kyle) is honored to working with Strangeloop again after appearing in this summer's Loopshop series. He graduated from Roosevelt's Theater Conservatory and has been seen all over town working with companies like Red Theater, Collaboraction, Red Tape, Red Moon, Scooty and JoJo, and many more. Chris also co-founded the former clown troupe Les Enfants Terribles.

Krampus! Bio: Justin Fill

Justin Fill (Krampus/Fight Choreographer) is excited to be possessed/cast as Krampus this Holiday Season. Justin is an Associate Company Member of Strangeloop Theatre and an Actor Combatant in the Society of American Fight Directors. He knows when you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness' sake, and support Chicago Theatre! Justin has worked with Strangeloop Theatre, Theatre-Hikes, Forget-me-not Theatre Co., and the Chicago Swordplay Guild. His Fight Choreography has been featured in Strangeloop's French With Me, and Nothing Special's Fight Night. Enjoy the show!

Krampus! Bio: Michael Wagman

Michael Wagman (Chase/Younger Priest) is very excited to once more act with Strangeloop where he has been a company member since 2010. Previous Strangeloop acting credits include The Millionaire Farmer, The Maid of Orleans, As You Like It and his personal favorite, Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other favorite acting credits include Cash on Delivery (Saint Sebastian Players), Some Air (Nothing Without a Company) and The Contract (Janus Theatre Company). In addition to Michael’s acting credits, he has also written Santa Claus vs. the Easter Bunny for both Strangeloop and Donny’s Skybox Theatre (also director), Shadows and Lust for Strangeloop at the 2012 Chicago Fringe Festival, and Crisco vs. Olive Oil for Loopshop3. Big thanks to Maria, Lisa, and all my wonderful Strangeloop peeps.

Krampus Bio: Maria Burnham

Maria Burnham (Director) is a director, 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., New Millennium Theatre Co., Stockyards Theatre Project, TUTA and Red Theater, where she is also a company member. Maria is thrilled to be a member of Strangeloop. She loves pursuing the undiscovered, though mostly she’s just in it for the chicken. She wishes she could stuff this cast in a basket and keep them with her forever because they make her laugh every day.

Krampus! Bio: Keith Gatchel

Keith Gatchel (Stage Manager) comes to us from Rockford, IL, by way of Southern Illinois University (with a few stops in Florida). Since 2005, Keith has worked tech at a number of theatres, including The Goodman Theatre, Collaboraction, Teatro Vista, Victory Gardens, Pegasus Players and — most recently — Blue Man Group. He was also a writer for Big News at IO and Second City, and contributor to several Loopshop productions, as well as Strangeloop's Our Perfect Holiday 2012 with the cast, and just recently, Thinking Caps. Along with being the co-literary manager for Strangeloop, he is a stage manager for The Kiss Kiss Cabaret, Brass Chuckles Comedy, Uptown Live with James VanOsdol and other shows at the Uptown Underground.

New trailer for Krampus!

Ready to be spooked? Here's a little bit of scary to start your day:

This holiday season Strangeloop Theatre presents Krampus! written by Company Member Jacyln Jensen and Mike Wozniak and directed by Company Member Maria Burnham.

Krampus! is a Christmas horror stage production (with nothing, but the eponymous Christmas demon, in common with the movie of the same name). The plot follows the Murray family as they get together for a final Midwestern cabin Christmas before the eldest daughter and her boyfriend move to New York. But it isn't enough that they have to deal with the usual drama that comes with Christmas. The Murray family has to do it in the isolation of a cabin in the woods, during a snow storm with a holiday devil running amok and only some peppermint schnaps to get them through it. 

The Krampus! schedule is below. All performances begin at 7:30 p.m.:

• Monday, December 7, at Mary's Attic in Andersonville
• Tuesday, December 8, at Mary's Attic in Andersonville 
• Monday, December 14, at Underground Wonder Bar in River North
• Tuesday, December 15, at Underground Wonder Bar in River North

Mary's Attic is located at 5400 N. Clark St. in Chicago. The Underground Wonder Bar is located at 710 N. Clark St. in Chicago.
 
Tickets are $10 in advance via Brown Paper Tickets or $12 at the door. There's also a secret discount code available via WelcomeToTannenWald over on Instagram...if you're brave enough to face Krampus and win.

Danke schön!

Thanks to everyone who came out Tuesday to the Christkindlmarket, as part of the League of Chicago Theatres' Theatre Tag! We loved being there and having you with us!

If you missed our excerpt from Krampus!, you can check out these photos of our audience with Krampus and these from our performance. Catch the real thing beginning Monday at Mary's Attic in Andersonville.

Krampus! at Christkindlmarket

Strangeloop Theatre will be one of eight companies performing throughout the day at Christkindlmarket, as part of the League of Chicago Theatres' Theatre Tag.

Grab a warm beverage and join us after work at 5:30 p.m. with a scene from our upcoming holiday production, Krampus!.

Krampus! is a tongue-in-cheek Christmas horror stage production (with nothing, but the eponymous Christmas demon, in common with the movie of the same name). The plot follows the Murray family as they get together for a final Midwestern cabin Christmas before the eldest daughter and her boyfriend move to New York. But it isn't enough that they have to deal with the usual drama that comes with Christmas. The Murray family has to do it in the isolation of a cabin in the woods, during a snow storm with a holiday devil running amok and only some peppermint schnaps to get them through it. 

For a full list of Theatre Tag performances and more information visit the event page.

Krampus! is already creeping out Chicago...

Krampus! is featured in The Chicago Creepout on Chicago Now. 

Strangeloop Theatre presents a delightfully frightful way to start out December properly with four nights of KRAMPUS! While based on the darker side of history, this play will ensure enough humor to keep any fears of Christmas devils at bay. As long as children are good, the cloven-hoofed, long-tongued, horned Krampus won't make an appearance to beat them with a stick, stuff them inside his bag, and kidnap them.

 Read the whole article here. And then get your tickets here!

Come a little closer...The Krampus is waiting for you

October is a spooky time of year. Ghouls and goblins come out to play. Cold winds blow in. Drunk football fans spill out of bars. And Strangeloop is deep into planning for our upcoming production, Krampus! But this devil isn't meant for Halloween. Oh no. This Christmas demon is as old as Saint Nick himself.

Strangeloop recently sat down with playwrights Jaclyn Jensen and Mike Wozniak to learn a little more about Krampus — the tradition and the script.

Who is Krampus?

Mike: Krampus is the bad cop to St. Nicholas' good cop. He began as an Austrian-German folk tale to frighten children into being good.

Jaclyn: As far as being Santa’s counterpart - You don’t get coal in your stocking if you’ve been naughty. Krampus comes for you if you’ve been naughty. From the lore, he would chain up the naughty children and beat them with reeds. Or put them in a burlap sack to toss in a river and drown them. It’s pretty dark.

Why Krampus and why now?

M: It started with the Christmas song It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. A few years ago I noticed the lyric: “There'll be scary ghost stories, and tales of the glories of the Christmases long, long ago”. Since we love ghost stories, I wanted to know where that came from, and how we could incorporate it into our holidays. Turns out it was a Victorian tradition to tell ghost stories. But when looking for that, I rediscovered Krampus.

J: I seriously didn’t know that until now. That’s awesome.

Where did you get the idea for this script?

J: Mike is the one who introduced me to Krampus. He’s a natural storyteller and always has ideas for great stories. He actually had several other possible Krampus plotlines in mind, including some really complicated period pieces. But we decided we wanted to explore the idea of Krampus terrorizing one family that could be just like ours.

M: We combined a lot of ideas. A story my third grade teacher Sister Clarissa told me, and a lot of campy horror movies, like the Evil Dead series.

Tell us about your love of horror?

J: Some of my earliest movie memories are horror movies. I was raised on it. And I actually find that the older I get, the more horror movies scare me. I love being scared. Haunted places, ghost stories, all of it.

M: I’ve always watched horror movies on Halloween as far back as I can remember. And much to my mother’s chagrin, my grandmother told me ghost stories growing up.

What was the most difficult part about writing this script?

M: For me, it was paring down ideas. I kept bombarding Jackie with ideas, and she’d have to edit me so that we could have a manageable number of things happening.

J: There were lots of difficult parts. But I would say writing actual scary moments was the hardest part. We had a lot of funny ideas, but we hope to actually scare people.

What other writing have you done? 

J: I had a few random projects from when I was a student in high school and college. And I did a bit of sketch writing when I first moved out to Chicago, to try to bring some of my own ideas in to a troupe I was performing with. But my writing projects prior to Krampus! were always “assignments”, and not something I wanted to do for me. I really enjoyed writing this, and Mike was a great writing partner. 

M: Other than helping out a bit on TV and web spots for work, I haven’t done much.

Is this a play that non-horror fans would enjoy?

J: I think so! There is a lot of humor as well, and I think everyone will be able to find characters and moments to identify with.

M: It has something from everyone. To paraphrase Bill Murray, it’s a meatloaf of a play.

What can people do to support this production?

J: So many things – We’ve got a fundraiser party coming up at Matilda’s on October 17th, and a Kickstarter campaign going on right now. Helping fund this project would be a huge help to make sure we can afford to give audiences a proper scare.

M: Come see it as many times as you can, and tell your friends.

What else would you like people to know about this play?

J: There is so much more to know about Krampus than can fit in one play. There is SO much lore that is very interesting. So learn more about Krampus. There are tons of Krampus stories, books, and movies – and every story will be unique.

M: It’s the dark side of Christmas, and we want you to discover it.

Help support Krampus! and all of the unique and original programming that will make up Strangeloop's 8th Season. Come party with us at our Seventh Anniversary Party and Fundraiser, 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, October 17, at babyATLAS (Matilda’s downstairs room), located at 3101 N. Sheffield Ave., Chicago, IL 60657. Admission is $10. OR, consider a donation of any amount here, and take home some sweet or scary gifts.

Hack/Slash: Cast and Crew bios

Cast

Cassie Hack:                             Jean E. Burr
Vlad:                                          Tim Lee±
Emily Cristy:                              Miona Lee±

Ensemble:
Erika Napoletano, Christopher Prchal, Pete Navis, Richard John McLain, J. Rohr, Melissa Nelson, Kara Charlton and Renee Lynn Jackson

Production team

Director                                       Brad Gunter*
Production Manager                    Letitia Guillaud*
Stage Manager                           John Wefler
Costume Designer                      Carrie Campana*
Sound Designer                          Keith Gatchel*
Lighting Designer                        Chris Corwin
Projection Designer                    Jay Gish
Props and Blood Designer          Mel Gill
Violence Director                        Barbara Charlene
Assistant Violence Director        Christopher DeNardo
Fight Captain                              Pete Navi
Graphic Designer                       Mike Wozniak
Marketing                                   Maria Burnham*
                                                   Holly Robison*
                                                   Allison McCorkle±

Based on the comic book series Hack/Slash by Tim Seeley.

* Denotes a Strangeloop Theatre Company Member
± Denotes a Strangeloop Theatre Associate Member

Hack/Slash: Get to know Emily Cristy

She's not just a pretty face! Emily Cristy, the disgraced former Miss American, is a geneticist and a leader in the anti-aging cosmetics industry. Add her to your Hack/Slash card collection.