Actress:  It’s a Wonderful Life: Live at the Biograph!, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, Big Shoulders Festivals, It’s a Wonderful Life, A Lie of the Mind, Catch-22, A Stone Carver, On the Waterfront, and Monsters III: The El Ride.
Composer: The Hairy Ape, Two Rooms, Medea, Scapin, Toys in the Attic, and The Homage That Follows.
Other:  Big Shoulders Festival (writer, director), Strictly Dishonorable (sound designer), and Don’t Disappoint Captain January (sound designer).

Dawn Bach has worked as an actress, musician, designer, and composer at Goodman Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, Northlight Theatre, Next Theatre, Lifeline Theatre, Touchstone Theatre, Bailiwick Theatre, and Strawdog Theatre Company.  She was awarded an After Dark Award for Outstanding Original Music (Toys in the Attic at ABT).  She sang the Mozart Requiem with the Leningrad Philharmonic.

Co-Founder of American Blues Theater.

Actor:  Tobacco Road, Topdog/Underdog, True West, Oklahoma!, Heritage, Kid-Simple, A View From the Bridge, Angel City, Quake, The Hairy Ape, Flung, Working, Catch-22, and Below the Belt.

A two-time Equity Jeff Award nominee, Matthew Brumlow’s Chicago credits include:  Frost/Nixon (TimeLine Theatre), Carousel, Titus Andronicus (Court Theatre), Another Part of the Forest, Loot (Writers’ Theatre) She Stoops to Conquer (Northlight Theatre), The Winning Streak (Apple Tree Theatre), Mary Zimmerman’s Eleven Rooms of Proust (About Face Theatre), five productions with Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, and work with Shakespeare on the Green, PROP, Organic/Touchstone, Azusa Productions, and Poetry Onstage.  Regional credits include: six productions with Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, Montana Repertory Theatre’s national tour of A Streetcar Named Desire in which he played “Stanley”, The Borderland (Kansas City Repertory), Carousel (Long Wharf Theatre), A Christmas Carol, and the title role in Hamlet (Indiana Repertory Theatre).

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She served as Co-Artistic Director with Carmen Roman from 1993-1994.
Actress:  Rantoul and Die, Tobacco Road, Augusta, Quake, The Minneola Twins, Toys in the Attic, Keely and Du, Peacekeeper, and Bad Moon.
Director: Ripped the Living Newspaper Project and Monsters II: Visiting Hours

Kate Buddeke last appeared on Broadway in Tracy Letts’ Superior Donuts.  Other Broadway credits include: Gypsy, A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, and Carousel.  Off-Broadway credits include:  Paris Commune, Bug, and Mill Fire.  She won an “Audience Choice Award” for Frankie & Johnny in the Clare du Lune (Arena Stage, D.C.).  In Chicago, she’s worked at the Goodman Theatre, A Red Orchid Theatre, Apple Tree Theatre, Marriott Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, and Bailiwick Theatre.  In Film & TV, she appeared in “Choking Man,” “Payback,” “Straight Talk,” “The Northern Kingdom,” “The Last New Yorker,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “The Sopranos,” and “Flight of the Conchords.  She is the recipient of 4 Joseph Jefferson Awards (David’s Mother, Dancing at Lughnasa, Ourselves Alone, Gypsy).  She also received two Joseph Jefferson Award nominations for Actress (Bug, Keely & Du).  In addition, she received a Helen Hayes nomination for Supporting Actress (Dancing at Lughnasa).  Her greatest moments have been singing the National Anthem, solo, twice, at Wrigley Field.

She is the Production Manager of American Blues Theater.
Designer: Rantoul and Die (props)
Technical Director: It's a Wonderful Life: Live at the Biograph!, Tobacco Road.
Actress: American Blues-Collected One Acts

Sarah recently moved to Chicago in 2009.  Aside from Production Management, she also works as a scenic and props designer and actress.  Her work includes properties design for Steep Theater, Theater Seven of Chicago, and SiNNERMAN Ensemble.  Sarah has also worked as a carpenter for Peninsula Players in Door County, WI.  She was last seen on stage in Quest Theater Ensemble's Blue Nativity.

Actor:  It’s a Wonderful Life, Oklahoma!

Casey Campbell has performed at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Drury Lane Oakbrook, Drury Lane Watertower, Chicago Dramatists, Remy Bumppo, Victory Gardens Theater, iO Chicago, Theatre Building Chicago, and with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City.  He trained extensively with the late Paul Sills, founder of Chicago’s Second City and creator of “Story Theatre.”  His independent pilot “Reality Check” was an official selection/finalist in both the Chicago Comedy Pilot competition and the Los Angeles Independent Television Festival.  His script “The Adventures of Brad and Chet” received a first look deal with FOX Network and was a finalist in the FOX-Proctor Gamble Comedy Script Competition.  He received a Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor (Oklahoma! at ABT).

He is the Master Electrician for American Blues Theater.
Lighting Designer:  Rantoul and Die, American Blues-Collected One Acts.

Brian was recently the Assistant Technical Director for Profiles Theatre's Jailbait at the Second Stage; he served as the Technical Director for Killer Joe (Jeff Award for Best Production), Killer Joe at the Royal George, and Body Awareness.  He was also the Master Electrician for the last 4 seasons at Peninsula Players which included such shows as Around the World in 80 Days, Doubt, and The Little Shop of Horrors.

Co-Founder of American Blues Theater.
Playwright:  Ripped: the Living Newspaper Project, Tom and Jerry, Bad Moon, and Dogman’s Last Stand.
Actor: Keith Reddin’s Peacekeeper

Rick Cleveland is an Emmy winning writer/producer whose television credits include “The West Wing,” “Six Feet Under,” “Mad Men,” and most recently “Nurse Jackie.”  His screenplay credits include “Runaway Jury” starring John Cusack and Sam Rockwell.  “Jerry and Tom” was an official selection at both the Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals.  Rick performed his one-man show My Buddy Bill at the Berkshire Theatre Festival (where he is a playwright in residence), the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, and won the Outstanding Solo Performance Award at the HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen in 2006.  He also performed the piece at the 92nd Street Y in New York City for a one-hour Comedy Central special in 2007.  As a playwright, Rick has earned playwriting grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Kennedy Center’s Fund for New American Plays.  He received his MFA from the University of Iowa’s Playwriting Workshop.

Actor:  Tobacco Road, On the Waterfront, Desire Under the Elms, and Bad Moon.
Writer:  Ripped: the Living Newspaper Project

Dennis Cockrum appeared on Broadway in Frost/Nixon.  His Regional credits include:  Dead End (Ahmanson Theater, L.A.), Nighthawks, Of Equal Measure (Kirk Douglas Theater, L.A.), Crimes of the Heart, Amadeus, Private Lives (Snowmass Repertory).  In Chicago, he performed in Our Town (Steppenwolf Theater), God of Isaac, Mr. 80%, The Stick Wife, The Fifth Sun, Hard Feelings (Victory Gardens Theater), Talking to Myself, What the Butler Saw (Northlight Theatre).  He’s appeared in over 100 films and television shows.  Favorite films include: “Uncle Buck,” “Murder by Numbers,” “Code of Silence,” “Glimmer Man,” “Shaking the Tree,” and “Inherit the Wind.”  He was a recurring character on “West Wing,” “Firefly,” “Uncle Buck,” “American Dreams,” “Cop Rock,” “It’s All Relative,” “Boston Legal,” and “Malcolm in the Middle.”  Recent credits include: “Southland,” “Prison Break,” “Men of a Certain Age,” “Desperate Housewives,” and “Eagleheart.”  He received a Joseph Jefferson Citation for Actor in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead (Court Theatre) and an Artisan Award for Mr. 80% (Victory Gardens Theater).

Actress: Tobacco Road, Ripped: the Living Newspaper Project

Laura Coover's Chicago credits include Writers' Theater (The Lion in Winter, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead), Remy Bumppo (The Marriage of Figaro), Eclipse Theatre (Blue Surge, Six Degrees of Separation) and the Goodman Theatre (A Christmas Carol).  Regionally, Laura enjoyed two summers with The Great River Shakespeare Festival, the highlight of which was playing Juliet in Romeo and Juliet.  Film credits include "Another Happy Day" (2011 Sundance competitor) and "The House of Purgatory".  Laura was awarded a Non-Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for Actress in a Principle Role -Play (Blue Surge at Eclipse).

For over 15 years, she has stage-managed and served as a dramaturg for numerous productions.

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Fight Choreographer:  Rantoul and Die, Tobacco Road

Regional credits include playing multiple roles in Around the World in 80 Days with the Cleveland Play House, playing Hamlet at Nevermore Theatre; six productions with Milwaukee Shakespeare; Kabuki Achilles, People's Light and Theatre Company; The Winter's Tale, Missouri Repertory Theatre; Romeo and Juliet, River Styx, London; and twelve seasons acting and directing with Peninsula Players.  Chicago acting credits include What the Butler Saw and Endgame, Court Theatre, The Beard of Avon, Goodman Theatre, Mother Courage and Her Children, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Kabuki Medea, Wisdom Bridge Arts Project; the Seagull and Major Barbara, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company; Next Theatre Company, Theatre Wit; fourteen productions with Chicago Shakespeare Theatre.  Mr. Foust was a founding member of Defiant Theatre, where his credits included directing and co-writing Action Movie: the Play and Ubu Raw.

Actor:  It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, The Trip to Bountiful, Working, The Threepenny Opera, Bus Stop, Stalag 17, Pledge of Allegiance, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Flight of the Phoenix, The Hairy Ape, Geography of a Horse Dreamer, and Hawk Moon

Tom Geraty received a Joseph Jefferson Citation for Ensemble (Stalag 17) and two After Dark Awards for Best Ensemble (Bus Stop, Stalag 17).  He also worked with Court Theater, Bailiwick Theater, Rivendell, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and StageWest.  He founded Big Field Productions and completed his first feature film “Ash” as screenwriter, director, actor, and producer.  He is currently in development with his second feature “Behind From Where We Came.”

Actress:  Rantoul and Die, People’s Temple, Speech & Debate, Half of Plenty, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, St. Scarlet, Orpheus Descending, Living Out, Quake, Two Rooms, Flung, A Lie of the Mind, and Vick’s Boy.

Cheryl Graeff appeared in Body Awareness, Mercy Seat, and Graceland (Profiles Theatre), Love Person, Rain River Ice Steam (Victory Gardens), The Fall to Earth (Steppenwolf Theatre), The Front Page, Living Out, Room Service (Kansas City Repertory), The Cherry Orchard, An Ideal Husband, School for Wives (Court Theatre), Picnic (Nebraska Repertory), Collected Stories (Piven Theatre), and The Tavern, Goodnight Desdemona (Milwaukee Repertory).  She is Mrs. Wrightnow in the Netflix commercials.  She’s appeared in the films “Stranger Than Fiction,” “Alleyball,” and on Lifetime Network’s “Family Practice.”  She was called “a must-see Star of Chicago stage” in an Chicago Sun-Times article.

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She is a Resident Stage Manager of American Blues Theater.
Stage Manager: It's a Wonderful Life (4 years), Tobacco Road, Augusta, Half of Plenty, St. Scarlet.
Other: Big Shoulders Festival (director), It's a Wonderful Life (Foley Production Manager).

Jaclyn Holsey has worked professionally in the Chicago area for 9 years.  Other credits include work with Teatro Vista (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner; The Sins of Sor Juana), Victory Gardens (Living Green; 2008 Ignition Festival), Rivendell Theatre Ensemble/Teatro Vista (26 Miles), Collaboraction (Jon; Gift), and Irish Repertory of Chicago (Bailegangaire, A Dublin Bloom, Making History) and Laura Schellhardt's solo show, the k of d: an urban legend.

Sound design:  Rantoul and Die, Tobacco Road, Speech & Debate, Augusta, 365 Days/365 Plays, Half of Plenty, Kid Simple, Quake, The Trip to Bountiful, Flung, Lie of the Mind, Catch-22, Vick’s Boy, Working, The Mineola Twins, Medea, American Buffalo, The Skin of Our Teeth, Below the Belt, Pledge Of Allegiance, One Day Only, and The Flight of the Phoenix.

Lindsay Jones’ Off-Broadway credits include: The Brother/Sister Plays (Public Theater), The Burnt Part Boys (Playwrights Horizons), Through the Night (Union Square), Top Secret (NYTW), The God of Hell (Actors Studio), In The Continuum (Primary Stages), 1001 (Page 73), The Glass Cage (Mint), Beautiful Thing (Cherry Lane) and many others. He’s worked regionally at: McCarter, Arena Stage, Goodman, Old Globe, Steppenwolf, Hartford Stage, Guthrie, Chicago Shakespeare, Steppenwolf, South Coast Repertory, Centerstage, ACT, Seattle Repertory, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Northlight, Milwaukee Repertory and many others. He’s designed for International productions in Austria, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Scotland and with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England. He’s received a Drama Desk Award nomination, five Joseph Jefferson Awards & 14 Joseph Jefferson Award nominations, an Ovation Award & two Ovation nominations, LA and SD Drama Critics Circle Awards, and was the first sound designer to win the Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award. Recent TV/Film scoring work: “Family Practice” for Sony Pictures/Lifetime Television, and “A Note of Triumph” (2006 Academy Award winner, Best Documentary, Short Subject) for HBO Films.

Costume Designer:  Rantoul and Die, It's a Wonderful Life: Live at the Biograph!
Assistant Costume Designer:  People's Temple

Samantha's work has been seen around Chicago at 16th Street Theatre (Menorca, Fires in the Mirror, Unveiled, and The End of the Tour), Chicago Dramatists (Hickorydickory, Jade Heart), Remy Bumppo Theatre Company (American Ethnic, Heroes, Night and Day), Congo Square Theatre (Brothers of the Dust, A Colored Museum), Regional credits include Peninsula Players Theatre (A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, Wait Until Dark, Around the World in 80 Days, Heroes, Over the Tavern), ACTCO, Washington, D.C. (The Old Settler), and Florida Studio Theater (Playmakers).  She was nominated for a Black Theater Alliance Award for Best Costume Design for A Colored Museum.

Actress:  American Blues--Collected One Acts, Million Bells of Ocean
Playwright:  Ripped: the Living Newspaper Project ("The Year of the Tiger" produced May 2010, "Rivers-Blood" produced August 2010)

Nambi E. Kelley most recently returned to the role of Harriet Jacobs at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, which she originated at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. Representative regional credits include: The Good Negro (Goodman Theatre/Hattie McDaniel Black Theatre Alliance Award nomination), The Lost Boys of Sudan (Victory Gardens), The Glass Menagerie (Steppenwolf Theatre), Ifa Bayeza's The Ballad of Emmett Till (Goodman Theatre), Harriet Jacobs (Steppenwolf Theatre), Crumbs from the Table of Joy (Goodman Theatre/Joseph Jefferson Award Nomination: Principle Actress, Ruby Dee Award Nomination Best Lead Actress), Drowning Crow (Goodman Theatre) Mirror of the Invisible World (Goodman Theatre U/S) Nikki Giovanni:  New Songs for a New Day (Steppenwolf Theatre)  Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, (Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles), and Antigone (South Coast Repertory Theatre, Los Angeles).  Stage work also includes working internationally touring Asia and Africa.  Ms. Kelley also has national voice over television campaigns currently on air for Pop Tarts and Flintstones Vitamins.  Television credits include: The Beast (A&E) guest starring opposite Patrick Swayze, L.A. Dragnet (ABC), City of Angels (CBS) recurring as Dr. Keisha Simmons, Early Edition (CBS), Cupid (ABC), Close to Home (WB Pilot) recurring, and Strong Medicine (Lifetime). 

 Ms. Kelley is also an award winning and published playwright, including projects for the Steppenwolf and Goodman Theatre in Chicago and Lincoln Center in New York. Recent awards/nominations: The Friends Fellowship (Ragdale Foundation), two 3 Arts Fellowship nominations, TCG Candidate for Playwriting: Goodman Theatre, the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference nomination and honors at the Black Ensemble Theatre for playwriting.  Kelley holds a B.F.A. from The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, and an M.F.A. from Goddard College in Vermont. www.nambikelley.com

Actor:  It’s a Wonderful Life: Live at the Biograph!, St. Scarlet, The Skin of Our Teeth, One Day Only, Scapin, Stalag 17, The Flight of the Phoenix, On the Waterfront, and Monsters III.

Kevin R. Kelly has appeared in over 30 stage productions in both Chicago and Los Angeles, including Emma’s Child (Odyssey Theater) Farm Under the Lake, Can’t Quit You Baby (City Lit Theater), Bedroom Farce (Buffalo Theater Ensemble) and Haunted Man (Bailiwick Theatre).  His film credits include:  “CA$H,” “The Express,” “Bad News Bears,” “Of Boys and Men,” “The Promotion,” “American Dreamz,” “A Lot Like Love,” “Light it Up,” and many independent films.  His television credits include: “Prison Break,” “Reality Check,” “Charmed,” “The Inside,” “Boston Legal,” “7th Heaven,” “Clubhouse,” “Early Edition,” and “Spin City.”  He received a Joseph Jefferson Citation for Ensemble and After Dark Award for Best Ensemble (Stalag 17 at ABT).

He is the Director of Graphic Design of American Blues Theater.
Actor:  American Blues-Collected One Acts, Orpheus Descending
Other:  Prosthetic Design-Tobacco Road

Steve has acted with A Red Orchid, About Face Theater, Famous Door, Goodman Theater, Lookingglass Theater, Next Theater, Northlight Theater, Remy Bumppo Theater, Shattered Globe Theater, Steppenwolf Theater Company, and Victory Gardens Biograph Theater.  Outside of Chicago, he's worked with The Town Hall Theatre in Galway Ireland, The Tectonic Theatre Project, The Geva Theatre, and The Public Theatre in NY.  He played "Little Charles" in the original Broadway tour of August: Osage County.  Steve worked on premiere productions by playwrights such as Frank Galati, Larry Gelbart, Rebecca Gillman, Noah Haidle, Joel Drake Johnson, Moises Kaufman, Jim McDermott, Heidi Stillman, Jeffrey Sweet, and Craig Wright.  His film credits include 1,000 Acres, Blackmail, Public Enemies, Salvaging, and Three Days; his television credits include Chicago Code, Law & Order-SVU, and Family Practice. 

Steve has been a designer, actor, and co-artistic director with Chicago's Shattered Globe Theatre with whom he continues to be affiliated.  He has worked with many theaters as a set designer, prosthetics and makeup designer, and graphic designer.

Steve has received 5 Joseph Jefferson Awards and 5 nominations for Principal and Supporting Actor and Ensemble (Equity and non-Equity).

Actor:  It’s a Wonderful Life: Live at the Biograph!, Augusta, A Lie of the Mind, Below the Belt, The Threepenny Opera, Scapin, and Stalag 17.

Ed Kross has worked extensively in Chicago.  His credits include Animal Crackers at The Goodman Theatre, The Devil in Damn Yankees at the Carousel Dinner Theater, Transference at the Mercury, A Funny Thing Happened… at Pheasant Run, Do Black Patent Leather Shoes…, Some Like it Hot, Moon Over Buffalo, and Hello Dolly at Theatre at the Center, Enter the Guardsman at Northlight, The Princess and the Pea and The Wizard of Oz at Chicago Shakespeare, Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors at Peninsula Players, and 3 years in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change at the Royal George. He hosted The Sing A-long Wizard of Oz at the Oriental Theater in Chicago and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. On camera he’s appeared in over 60 commercials, and shares one on one scenes with Tom Hanks in Road to Perdition and George Clooney in Ocean’s 12.  He received a Joseph Jefferson Citation for Ensemble (Stalag 17 at ABT), Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for Ensemble (Animal Crackers at The Goodman Theatre), and two After Dark Awards for Best Ensembles (Stalag 17 & Below the Belt at ABT).

Co-Founder of American Blues Theater.
Actor:  Tobacco Road, It’s a Wonderful Life, 365 Days/365 Plays, American Dead, The Hairy Ape, Two Rooms, A Lie of the Mind, Catch-22, Working, The Skin of Our Teeth, Pledge of Allegiance, The Threepenny Opera, The Million Bells of Ocean, Stalag 17, The Flight of the Phoenix, Keely & Du, On the Waterfront, Peacekeeper, Desire Under the Elms, Bad Moon, Summer Brave, Geography of a Horse Dreamer, and Hawk Moon.
Designer:  Tobacco Road, Don’t Disappoint Captain January, Keely & Du, Tom & Jerry, The Homage That Follows, Food From Trash, Monsters II: Visiting Hours, Monsters: Glimpses of Urban Lunacy, Summer Brave, The Hairy Ape, Geography of a Horse Dreamer, Hawk Moon, and Dogman’s Last Stand.

Jim Leaming was invited twice to the William Inge Festival in Independence, KS.  Last seen as Anatole/Uncle Tom in Jeeves in Bloom (First Folio, Chicago) and everybody in the one-man This Wonderful Life (Cleveland Playhouse, Ohio 2010, Syracuse Stage, NY 2009, Asolo Rep, FL 2008) and Is He Dead and Wait Until Dark (Peninsula Players, WI).  Other Chicago credits include: Steppenwolf, Northlight, Victory Gardens, Goodman, Fox Theatricals, and Canamac Productions as Jake in Botanic Garden with his wife Carmen Roman, directed by Olympia Dukakis.  He received training from American Conservatory Theatre (San Francisco).  He received a Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for Scenic Design (Tobacco Road) and an After Dark Award for Best Actor (The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon), named Sarasota Magazine’s Best Actor and Best Show for This Wonderful Life.  He can be seen on “Prison Break,” “Early Edition,” “Running Scared,” “Code of Silence,” and numerous commercials, both on-camera and voice-over.

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She is the Literary Manager of American Blues Theater.
Director:  Ripped: the Living Newspaper Project, 365 Days/365 Plays, Big Shoulders Festival, Relatives Reading Series, 20th Anniversary Monsters Festival, and Billy the Kid.
Stage managed:  The Hairy Ape, Where Have You Gone Jimmy Stewart, Quake, Flung, A Lie of the Mind, Catch 22, Vick’s Boy, Medea, One Day Only, Bus Stop, Pledge of Allegiance, A Stone Carver, Scapin, Don’t Disappoint Captain January, Stalag 17, and The Flight of the Phoenix.

Heather Meyers has directed at the Abbie Hoffman Festival (Mary-Arrchie Theatre) and 365 Days/365 Plays Festival—Mid-Way Celebration (Chicago Cultural Center).  She was the production stage manager for over 10 shows at Theatre at the Center in Indiana.

Actor:  Ripped: the Living Newspaper Project, It’s a Wonderful Life: Live at the Biograph!, People’s Temple, Half of Plenty, 365 Days/365 Plays, It’s a Wonderful Life, A View from the Bridge, Strictly Dishonorable, American Dead, The Hairy Ape, A Lie of the Mind, Endgame, American Buffalo, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Threepenny Opera, and A Stone Carver.
Director:  Catch-22

John Mohrlein’s Chicago credits include: The Glass House (The Art Institute of Chicago), nine productions at Goodman Theatre, Williamstown Theater, Cripple of Inishmaan, Heart of a Dog, and Murder of Cardinal Tosca (Northlight Theatre).  His extensive television and film work includes “Golden Boy,” “Good Night Sweet Wife,” “Dillinger,” “Killing Floor,” “Early Edition,” “Untouchables,” “Devil’s Dominoes,” “Stranger Than Fiction,” “Hellcab,” “Cold Justice,” and a recurring role on “Crime Story.”  He received a Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for Actor and an After Dark Award for Outstanding Performance (A Stone Carver at ABT).

Actor: Scapin and Train of Thought.

Jim Ortlieb’s Broadway credits include: Guys & Dolls, The Farnsworth Invention, and Billy Elliot (tour).  He’s worked extensively in regional theater in the U.S. as well.  His many television credits include:  “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Unit,” “The Closer,” “Boston Legal,” “CSI: Miami,” “Bones,” “CSI: New York,” “The Young and the Restless,” “Without a Trace,” “Six Feet Under,” “Gilmore Girls,” “Felicity,” “The Shield,” “West Wing,” and “Will & Grace.”  Feature films include: “Running Scared,” “Flatliners,” “Home Alone,” “The Babe,” “Magnolia,” and “A Mighty Wind."

Co-Founder of American Blues Theater.
Director:  Half of Plenty, Quake, The Skin of Our Teeth, A Stone Carver, Food From Trash, Bad Moon, Desire Under the Elms, The Hairy Ape, Summer Brave, Geography of a Horse Dreamer, and Dogman’s Last Stand.

William Payne is a Professor of Theater at University of Minnesota at Duluth.  Directing credits at the University include:  South Pacific, Urinetown: the Musical, Sausage!, Lloyd’s Prayer, Blur, Prometheus Bound, and Julius Caesar.  Elsewhere, he’s directed: I Can Get it for You Wholesale (National Jewish Theater), Catastrophe/Rough for Theatre II (Victory Gardens Theater), My Buddy Bill (Berkshire Theatre Festival), The Ice Fishing Play, Arsenic & Old Lace, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Nerd, The Odd Couple (Minnesota Repertory Theatre), and Othello (Chicago Shakespeare Company).

Actress:  Ripped: The Living Newspaper Project, Tobacco Road, True West, People’s Temple, Oklahoma!, Kid-Simple, The Hairy Ape, Two Rooms, A Lie of the Mind, The Threepenny Opera, One Day Only, CabarATC, and Big Shoulders Festival.

Suzanne Petri has worked at The Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, Next Theatre, Apple Tree Theatre, Chicago Cultural Center, Drury Lane, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Blackstone Theatre, and many more.  Regionally, she’s worked with the Guthrie Theatre, Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, and Jazz at Lincoln Center.  Her film and TV work includes “Just Visiting,” “Milwaukee, Minnesota,” “Early Edition,” and “Evil Has a Face.”  She was honored with the Gold Coast Award for Cabaret Excellence.  She received an After Dark Award for Outstanding Cabaret Artist.  She earned a Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for Zorba at Apple Tree Theater.  She is the President of Chicago Cabaret Professionals. www.suzannepetri.com

She served as Artistic Director of American Blues Theater from 1994-1997.
She served as co-Artistic Director with Kate Buddeke from 1993-1994.
Actress:  Tobacco Road, Orpheus Descending, 365 Days/365 Plays, Medea, Toys in the Attic, The Homage that Follows, and Summer Brave.
Director:  Monsters II: The El Ride, Monsters: Glimpses of Urban Lunacy.
Co-Adaptor:  The Flight of the Phoenix

Carmen Roman appeared in the National Tour of Angels in America.  She performed Off-Broadway in The Iphigenia Cycle (Theater for a New Audience from The Court Theatre, Chicago), The Mysteries (Classic Stage Company) and Paradise (Gary Allen productions).  Her Regional credits include: The Price (Syracuse Stage, Geva), The Importance of Being Earnest (Centerstage Baltimore), Lost in Yonkers (Coconut Grove, Walnut Street Theater) Sonia Flew (The Huntington Theatre), According to Goldman (Philadelphia Theater Company) Electra (Hartford Stage Company), Big Love (The Wilma), Side Man (Steppenwolf, The Galway Festival, Galway, Ireland, The Melbourne Arts Festival, Australia) Wit, Black Snow, Brutality of Fact (The Goodman Theatre), Master Class (Northlight Theater, Columbia Artists Tour), Shadowlands (The Alliance Theater), and 11 seasons at Peninsula Players in Fish Creek Wisconsin.  Her film and television credits include: “Savages,” “The Falcon,” “All My Children,” “Early Edition,” “Law and Order SVU” and “Criminal Intent”, and plays a recurring role—Judge Einhorn on “Law and Order.”

She’s a member of Circling the Drain (New York).  She’s the recipient of a 2002 Fox Fellow, Sarah Siddons Award, Florence Herscher Award, two Joseph Jefferson Awards for Actress (Master Class, Wit), Joseph Jefferson Citation for Adaptation (The Flight of the Phoenix at ABT), Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for Actress (Medea at ABT), and an After Dark Award for Outstanding Performance (Orpheus Descending at ABT).

Actress:  People’s Temple, It’s a Wonderful Life, Quake, The Hairy Ape, Working, and Catch-22.

Editha Rosario has performed with Teatro Luna, Teatro Vista, The Journeyman, and many others.  She wrote and directed Every Man: a Morality Play which played at the Red Room (NY).  She graduated from Northwestern University, NYU, and attends law school at Tulane.

Scenic Designer:  Rantoul and Die
Costume Designer:  Tobacco Road
Properties Designer:  It's a Wonderful Life: Live at the Biograph!, Tobacco Road

Chicago credits include scenic designer for The Second City's 99th Mainstage Revue; properties designer for The Old Settler (Writers' Theatre) and Spin (Theater Wit).  Regional scenic design credits include Turn of the Screw, Talley's Folly, The Last 5 Years (Summer Studio Theater Company, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts) and My Antonia (reading produced by NEA and Peninsula Players Theater.)  Sarah was the properties designer at Peninsula Players Theater for three season and was the residents designing technical director at Helen Hocker Theater in Topeka, KS where she designed scenery and lights for over 30 productions.  She received a Joseph Jefferson Award (along with Kristin DeiTos) for Mid-Size Production Costume Design.

She is the Producing Artistic Director of American Blues Theater.
Actress:  Waiting for Lefty, It's a Wonderful Life: Live at the Biograph!, American Blues-Collected One Acts, Tobacco Road, Augusta, St. Scarlet, 365 Days/365 Plays, Kid Simple, Big Shoulders Festival, and Bus Stop.
Writer:  Big Shoulders (2003-2008)

Gwendolyn Whiteside’s other credits include:  Mary's Wedding, Our Town, A Christmas Carol, Rabbit Hole (Indiana Repertory Theatre), solo-show On the House at L.A.’s Lankershim Arts Center, solo-show the k of d: an urban legend, Metamorphoses (Lookingglass Theatre Company), Dream Boy (About Face Theatre), and work with Northlight Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago Dramatists, Chicago Humanities Festival, and Defiant Theater.  Some of her film and television credits include “Cold Case,” “Six Feet Under,” “Dawson’s Creek,” “Jack & Jill,” “Cupid,” and a recurring role on “The Education of Max Bickford.”

She graduated cum laude from Northwestern University (Chicago, IL).  Following graduation, she lived in Los Angeles, California.  She returned to the midwest to earn her MFA, attending University of Iowa Writers’ Fiction Workshop summer session and The School of the Art Institute in Chicago.

She was a finalist for short fiction prizes (Glimmertrain Press, Bomb Magazine).  She’s received numerous Joseph Jefferson Award & Citation nominations and awards (the k of d: an urban legend, St. Scarlet at ABT, Metamorphoses, Dream Boy).  She received two After Dark Awards (Dream Boy and Bus Stop at ABT). www.gwendolynwhiteside.com