Ann James is a Sideshow ensemble member and has appeared in its productions Caught, Antigonick, Maria/Stuart and Idomeneus. Among the companies with whom she has also worked are Chicago Shakespeare, 16th Street, Goodman, Jackalope, Organic, Pivot Arts, Provision, Shattered Globe and Stage Left. She is the founding director of Chicspeare Production Company, which has brought Shakespeare alive for more than 100,000 Chicago area residents in the past 20 years.

Bob Kruse is grateful to be working with Seth and Sideshow for the first time. Around town, Bob has had the pleasure to work with Vintage Theatre Collective, Strange Tree Group, Eclipse Theatre, Victory Gardens, WildClaw, Backroom Shakespeare Project, Gift Theatre, House Theatre, Griffin Theatre and A Red Orchid Theatre.

Helen Young is very excited to be "inside the box" with the smart and sassy folks at Sideshow on such an "outside the box" kind of work! Other theatre credits: Ha-Chi-Nook (Erasing the Distance), Hamlet (Muse of Fire) King Lear, Andromache (Cave Painting), Macbeth (Polarity Ensemble), Cherry Orchard (Raven), Concerning Strange Devices From The Distant West u/s (TimeLine), Marvin’s Room (Triton), As You Like It (Harper), Skin of Our Teeth (Artistic Home), Silk u/s (Goodman), Kafka on the Shore u/s (Steppenwolf). Film credits: Stranger Than Fiction and Just like a Woman. Helen's love for story-telling has also more recently landed her work in directing and dramaturgy (Silk Road, Prologue, A Squared, TimeLine). Here's to a journey of stories!

Seth Bockley

director

Seth Bockley is a Chicago-based director and playwright. His work has been seen from Bogotá Colombia to rural northwestern Ireland, and is rooted in highly collaborative artmaking practices and an inventive visual style. His directing credits include co-direction of 2666 with Robert Falls at the Goodman in the winter of 2016; the multimedia military documentary production Basetrack Live, created with En Garde Arts; large scale site-specific work with Chicago’s Redmoon Theater, including The Picture Book, centerpiece of the Donegal Arts Festival in Ireland. Other credits include Samsara by Lauren Yee; The Ugly One by Marius von Mayenburg (with Sideshow Theatre); Ewald Palmetshofer's hamlet is dead. no gravity; Philip Dawkins’ Failure: A Love Story; Jason Grote’s Civilization (all you can eat); Jon and Jason Grote’s 1001; numerous events and spectacles with Chicago’s Redmoon; and the clown play Guerra, developed with Devon de Mayo and Mexico City-based troupe La Piara (toured Mexico, Colombia, and the U.S.) As a playwright his works include 2666, adapted with Robert Falls from the novel by Roberto Bolaño; February House, a collaboration with lyricist and composer Gabriel Kahane, which premiered at The Public Theater in the spring of 2012; Ask Aunt Susan (premiered at Goodman Theatre); The Elephant & The Whale (with Redmoon and Chicago Children’s Theatre); adaptations of George Saunders’ short stories CommComm (commissioned by the Goodman and further developed by New York’s Page 73 Productions) and Jon, which won an Jeff Award for  new adaptation.

Kurtis Boetcher

scenic designer

Regional: Elevada (Yale Rep), House of Gold (EST/LA), The Bacchae (Edinburgh Fringe), Heavier Than, The Pain and the Itch, Courting Vampires (Theatre@Boston Court), The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, Blithe Spirit (A Noise Within), Hunter Gatherers, boom (Furious Theatre), Extinction, Greedy (Red Dog Squadron), Broadsword: a Heavy Metal Play, Forgiveness (Black Dahlia), The Temperamentals, The Jazz Age, Dusk Rings a Bell, The Cradle Will Rock (The Blank), Stupid Kids, Take Me Out (Celebration Theatre). Chicago: Never the Sinner (Victory Gardens), Haymarket: The Anarchist's Songbook (Underscore Theatre Co.), The Cousin from Nowhere (Upcoming, Chicago Folks Operetta), Street Scene, Natural Affection (Artistic Home), Meaningless (Bailiwick). MFA Design Yale School of Drama.

Izumi Inaba

costume designer

Izumi Inaba is excited to be working again with Sideshow after designing No More Sad Things and The Ugly One. Her recent credits include Learning Curve 3.0 (Albany Park Theater Project and Third Rail Projects), Comedical Tragedy for Mister Punch (House), You on the Moors Now (The Hypocrites), and Thumbelina (Lifeline). Izumi is thankful for all Chicago companies for their supports and opportunities to work on new plays. A recipient of 2014 Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award, and MFA in stage design, Northwestern University.

Claire Chrzan

lighting designer

Claire is thrilled to be designing with Sideshow for the first time after previously serving as master electrician on Antigonick. Other design credits include The Distance (Haven), The Mutilated (A Red Orchid Theatre), After Miss Julie, The Pied Piper and The Just So Stories (Strawdog), The Other Place and Reasons to Be Happy (Profiles Theatre), The Terrible (New Colony), The Guardians (Mary-Arrchie), and A Doll's House (Definition Theatre). Claire is an artistic associate with Interrobang Theatre Project (Owners, Really Really, Terminus, Hot 'N Throbbing). She also serves as production stage manager for Hubbard Street's HS2.

clairechrzandesigns.com.

Christopher M. LaPorte

sound designer

Christopher's recent design and composition collaborations include Life Sucks, Mr. and Mrs. Pennyworth (Lookingglass Theatre Company), and Roof of the World (Kansas City Repertory). Chris has collaborated on projects with many local Chicago companies such as Steppenwolf, Victory Gardens, 17 productions with Sideshow Theatre Company, Timeline, Porchlight, InFusion, Raven, University of Illinois Chicago, Interrobang, Emerald City. Regional collaborations include Kansas City Repertory, Dallas Theatre Center, The Old Globe (San Diego), Center Stage (Baltimore), Arena Stage (Washington D.C.), Arsht Theatre Center (Miami), Denver Center for the Performing Arts, NY United Solo Festival.

Holly McCauley

properties designer

Holly McCauley is grateful to collaborate for the first time with Sideshow on such a wonderful production. She moved to Chicago six years ago after studying theatre in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. She has designed props with Metropolis Theatre, the Ruckus, First Floor Theatre, The Inconvenience, 20% Theatre and many shows with the side project, including Mike & Seth and Push Button Murder. Holly served as the assistant props designer for The Marriott Theatre’s world premiere of October Sky and TimeLine Theatre’s Chimerica. She is a proud member of Tympanic Theatre Company.

Colleen Layton

stage manager

Colleen is excited to be working with Sideshow Theatre again after stage managing Mai Dang Lao, Caught, and Give It All Back. Colleen's other stage management credits in Chicago include Troll (Fraud and Phony Theatre Collective), The Lisbon Traviata (Eclipse Theatre Company), and Feathers and Teeth (Goodman Theatre). She has also had the pleasure to work the Repertory Theatre of St Louis, the Byre Opera, and the Royal Ballet.

Aaron Shapiro

production manager

Aaron Shapiro is a Chicago based freelance production manager. His recent credits include Disenchanted and Unspeakable at the Broadway Playhouse, Jeff-nominated productions of Heathers with Kokandy Productions, The Rainmaker with American Blues Theatre, Stupid Fucking Bird with Sideshow Theatre, Dreamgirls, Far from Heaven, Sweeney Todd, A Funny Thing Happened, Side Show, and Jeff Award-winning productions of Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Sondheim on Sondheim with Porchlight Music Theatre where he is an artistic associate. Aaron was the founding artistic director for Oracle where he served for 4 years. He is also the co-founder of Studio BE/MCL Chicago in Lakeview where served as executive director for 5 years. Aaron has worked for over 80 different theatre and production companies, and educational institutions as an electrician, carpenter, sound engineer, designer, tech director, director, production manager, and producer.

Gina M. Di Salvo

dramaturg

Gina is a proud artistic associate of Sideshow, where her credits for dramaturgy include Caught, The Burden of Not Having a Tail, The Ugly One, and Theories of the Sun. Other Chicago-area credits include Mine (The Gift), The Petrified Forest (Strawdog), and Dangerous Beauty (AMTP/Northwestern University). When not dramaturging new works in the theatre, she can be found researching in the archive. She teaches about the theatrical past and present at the University of Tennessee, where she is an assistant professor of theatre.

Paul Hopkin

gallerist

Paul purchased a building in Pilsen in 2009 with the intent of making it his home and opening a gallery. Since then, he has curated more than 30 exhibitions at slow. He has also curated exhibitions for Heaven Gallery, the Averill and Bernard Leviton A & D Gallery, Daly 208 Projects, and Clutch Gallery. He has written catalog essays for exhibitions at the Chicago Artists Coalition and the Robert V. Fullerton Museum, and articles published in New City. He was a preparator for the De Jong Gallery at the Harris Fine Arts Center, Brigham Young University and oversaw the installation of many end-of-the-year exhibitions of freshman artwork at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his BFA from Brigham Young University. He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He is also an artist and educator. He was trained as a ceramics sculptor, but his artwork also includes watercolor and ephemeral sculptural materials like bread, margarine, and sugar.

Larry Lee

featured artist

Larry Lee is a Chicago-based multimedia artist who “remakes” his personal history in specific and the Asian American experience in general into stylized multimedia objects and images he facetiously terms “orientalia.” Come see his midcareer retrospective called “The Reports Of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated” at the Beverly Arts Center in early June.