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.

Thinking Caps Recap

We had a great reception for Thinking Caps at the Greenhouse Theater Center on Tuesday evening. Thank you to everyone who came out and gave their feedback. We're looking forward to the next step in the development process for this script by Company Member Keith Gatchel.

Thinking Caps explores the upsides and downsides of virtual reality technology in the near future as seen through the lives of Charles and Maggie Cusick. The play is set in the near future in places both real and imaginary, in a time when the internet is all but dead and people communicate via telepathy and interact socially in a type of virtual reality known as the Headnet.

The staged reading was directed by Co-Artistic Director Letitia Guillaud. The cast was as follows:

• Charles                   Michael Houghton Wagman
• Maggie                    Maria Burnham
• Kim Ayers               Holly Robison
• David Scrab            Justin Cornwell
• Actor                       Nick Vidal
• Actress                    Patricia Tinsley
• Headnet Voice        Letitia Guillaud

The staged reading was produced as part of the Trellis reading series, Greenhouse's artist development program that showcases plays from playwrights who aren’t otherwise able to find a space for their work to be seen.

Put on your Thinking Caps and join us at the Greenhouse Theater Center

The near future. Websites and the internet are dead. Telepathy and Headsites are the new reality. Everyone who is anyone has a Thinking Cap and they live in a semi-virtual, semi-real world where imagination is the key to success.

But how far is too far when it comes to technology?

Thinking Caps, an original play by Strangeloop Company Member Keith Gatchel, explores the upsides and downsides of virtual reality technology in the near future.

The play will be presented tonight, September 2, as part of the Greenhouse Theater Center's Trellis staged reading series. The reading is free and open to the public. Thinking Caps starts at 7 p.m. at the Greenhouse Theater Complex, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. The theater is located near the Fullerton red line el stop and the #8 bus stop at the Halsted Street, Lincoln Avenue and Fullerton Avenue intersection. Free parking is available in the garage at 2316 N. Lincoln Ave.

The play was originally part of Strangeloop Theatre's short play and development series Loopshop.

The staged reading is directed by Strangeloop Co-Artistic Director Letitia Guillaud. The cast includes Michael Houghton Wagman, Maria Burnham, Justin Cornwell, Holly Robison, Nick Vidal and Patricia Tinsley.

The Trellis reading series is Greenhouse's artist development program that showcases plays from playwrights that aren’t otherwise able to find a space for their work to be seen.

Come enjoy half price drinks at the Greenhouse bar, and help support new works by coming to the readings and giving your feedback!

Production team announced for Hack/Slash

Blood, violence, that crazy bat with the nails — it doesn't all just make itself. To get a show like Hack/Slash ready for the stage takes an immense amount of behind the scenes work.

To do so, production manager Letitia Guillaud* has gathered together her own team of monster slayers AND monster makers. The production team for Hack/Slash is:

Director:                                 Brad Gunter*
Stage Manager:                     John Wefler
Violence Designer:                Barbara Seifert
Violence Assistant:                Christopher DeNardo
Costume Designer:                Carrie Campana*
Sound Designer:                    Keith Gatchel*
Lighting Designer:                  Chris Corwin
Projection Designer:              Jay Gish
Props and Blood Designer:    Mel Gill
Graphic Designer:                  Mike Wozniak
Marketing:                              Maria Burnham*

* Denotes a Strangeloop Theatre Company Member.

Hack/Slash is a co-production of Strangeloop Theatre and CIC Theater. The adaptation of the cult horror comic book series by Tim Seeley follows 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.

Hack/Slash opens Friday, September 12, and runs through Saturday, November 1, on Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m. Please note, there is no performance on Friday, September 19. The performances will be held at CIC Theater (1422 W. Irving Park Road, Chicago, IL 60613). Tickets are $15 and are available in advance through Brown Paper Tickets or at the door.

More information about the cast and show are available here.

More details are also available at strangelooptheatre.org and at cictheater.com