What is WildClaw Theatre?

WildClaw Theatre will bring the world of horror to the stage. We intend to attract a new kind of audience which does not usually go to the theatre, an audience craving strange journeys of dread, suspense, terror and wonder. In other words - Horror Theatre.

We will also encourage the development of creative writing within the horror genre by producing DEATHSCRIBE, our Annual International Festival of Radio Horror Plays, which is perfomed live, and is recorded for podcasting on our website.

So all the thrills that our imagination, heart and intellect derive from the greatest horror fiction, art, film, games, and poetry - all these thrills, we will provoke alive, in the flesh, breathing and bleeding from the stage, and right in your face. Horror Theatre.

Detail from Francisco de Goya's
Saturn Devouring His Son (1824)

Why "WildClaw"?

The name WildClaw pays homage to the late, great Chicago actor, writer, and raconteur – the much loved and missed Ray Wild, otherwise known as "The Claw."

The WildClaw Blog

Check out what company members are talking about in the world of horror and theater at BLOOD RADIO (our blog and podcasts). We'll have events, interviews and insights into horror that only WildClaw can give you.

WildClaw Company Members

For The European Repertory Company in Chicago, Sherman directed the blood soaked productions of Beaumont and Fletcher's The Maid's Tragedy and Calderon de la Barca's The Mayor of Zalamea. He spent several years directing in England, before returning to Chicago, and subsequently directing Lord Byron's Cain for Tinfish Theatre. After the formation of WildClaw Theatre in 2007, he adapted and directed Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan and H.P. Lovecraft's The Dreams in the Witch House, and he recently adapted William Peter Blatty's Legion.

Sherman has been expressing visions of horror since he was seven years old, when his headmaster at school had to ask his parents if everything was alright with the child, due to his stories of spike wending demons, psychotic mutants and homicidal animal ghosts. Through WildClaw Theatre – a name he created in homage to the inspirational memory of a longtime dead but never forgotten friend, Ray Wild - such imaginative leanings can now be brought to life.

Anne Adams

• Casting Director

Anne Adams is a graduate of Emerson College and The School at Steppenwolf. Directing credits include Hot N Throbbing (Pine Box Theatre), The Revenants, Legion (WildClaw Theatre), 2nd Story (Serendipity Theatre Collective), and Hot Georgia Sunday (ATC). Chicago Acting Credits: Mauritius (Northlight), Cherry Orchard and Carter's Way (Steppenwolf), Imagining Brad, This Is Our Youth, Life and Limb (Pine Box Theatre), Orange Lemon Egg Canary (Uma Productions), The House of Bernarda Alba (Greasy Joan), BottleCanDraft and Can You Spot Me? (Sandbox Theatre Project). Anne is a proud company member of both WildClaw Theatre and Pine Box Theatre, and serves as an acting instructor at Black Box Acting Studio.

Brian Amidei

• Managing Director

Brian Amidei is very excited for the opportunity to scare people. After years spent in the non-equity theatre world, performing with such noted companies as Strawdog, Lifeline, European Rep, National Pastime, Lakeside Shakespeare, Crew of Patches, Hypocrites, and Powertap to name a few (not to mention a couple of lost fuzzy years in the Improv Ghetto), he should know better than to get involved with a brand new theatre company as an ensemble member. But one mention of bloody entrails and bloodsucking monsters and sign him up.

He absolutely blames his current predicament on Charley Sherman and would appreciate it if you all would call Mr. Sherman "Mitch" from here on out. He excels at taking direction and is a newcomer to this whole "worrying about the details" stuff. In his spare time, Brian likes to sleep and drink. Ha. Spare time. There is a thing of the past.

Charlie Athanas

• Graphic Design
• Marketing Manager
• Set Design
• Webmaster

Charlie is the Creative Director and Owner of The Devil's Candy Store, Inc. He has been creating graphics for Chicago theater since 1981 for such plays as Clive Barker's In The Flesh and William Gibson's Burning Chrome. For WildClaw Theatre he has created the posters for The Great God Pan, The Dreams in the Witch House, The Revenants, Legion, and DEATHSCRIBE. He also designed the sets for The Dreams in the Witch House and The Revenants.

Highlights from his other careers include:
• Concept design work for the band U2's interactive project U2-i
• Artist on the first computer generated comic book, SHATTER
• Animated John Madden Football II
• Co-designed Shadow President, the first computer game to be reviewed by The Economist
• Built an exact replica of Jimi Hendrix's Stratocaster
• And consulted with Paul Allen's Silicon Valley thinktank, Interval Research Corporation.

Only one of these is not true.

Scott T. Barsotti

• Literary Manager
• Writer

Scott T. Barsotti is a playwright originally from Pittsburgh, PA. Scott’s play The Revenants was directed by Anne Adams for WildClaw in 2009, and was subsequently optioned by Term of Art Productions for feature film development; his radio play The Skinny Man was featured in DEATHSCRIBE 2009. His other plays include McMeekin Finds Out, Jet Black Chevrolet, Coydog and Brewed, and have played in Chicago, New York, New Orleans, and Pittsburgh; his work has been seen at the New York International Fringe Festival, the Rhinoceros Theater Festival, and Collaboraction’s Sketchbook, and has been produced and/or developed by WildClaw, Curious Theatre Branch, Dramatis Personae, Chicago Dramatists, and The Route 66 Theatre Company among many others.

Scott came to town in 2004 to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s MFA in Writing Program, where there was no shortage of drama, but sadly, not much horror. While there, he began screenwriting and novelwriting in addition to playwriting, and also began playacting and playdirecting. He’s performed with many marvelous Chicago companies, and was part of the No Danger of the…Spiritual Thing: 100 Years of Beckett ensemble that performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art and won a 2006 ORGIE award for original theatre. For WildClaw, he appeared as Sunlight/Damien Karras in William Peter Blatty's Legion.

Scott is a long-time defender of horror (it influences most of what he writes), and he is thrilled to be counted among WildClaw’s demented denizens. In addition to WildClaw, Scott is also a member of the Curious Theatre Branch ensemble, as well as an Artistic Associate of Illegal Drama and Collaboraction. He and his work can be found in the e-realm at http://scottbarsotti.wordpress.com. He usually wears a hat.

Aaron Christensen

• Ambassador of Horror
• Director of Audience Development
• Fight Choreography

Aaron Christensen (aka “Dr. AC”) served as Master of Ceremonies for WildClaw’s DEATHSCRIBE 2008 and choreographed the zombie violence for The Revenants. He is the editor of the Rondo Award-nominated film guidebook, HORROR 101, published in 2007 to unanimous critical acclaim and available wherever tomes of ill repute are sold. One of the Midwest’s rising enthusiasts of horror films/monster movies, Aaron has seen over 1800 individual fright flick titles (and counting), scouring the mainstream, foreign markets and fringe indies for that next big thrill. Fellow genre aficionados are welcome to join in the fun on MySpace (horror101withdrac) or on the official Dr. AC website,
www.horror101withdrac.com.

A member of the Chicago theatre community since 1990, Aaron’s Windy City acting credits include The Philadelphia Story, Power, Some Americans Abroad, and Holiday with Remy Bumppo, The Quiet Man Tales (Smock Alley at the Chicago Theatre), The Taming of the Shrew (First Folio), Stories of Carl Sandburg (Steppenwolf), Anna Christie (Apple Tree), Among the Thugs (Next, Goodman), King Lear (Chicago Shakespeare), True West (Bailiwick), and Not About Nightingales (Timeline). Regional credits include God’s Man in Texas with Greenbrier Valley Theatre in West Virginia, three years touring with Boston’s Chamber Theatre Productions, and a summer with Nebraska Repertory. He has been a member of two Jeff Award-winning ensembles, as well as receiving an After Dark Award for Outstanding Performance (Broken Spokes, Bailiwick).

As an Associate Artist at Chicago Dramatists, he has participated in oodles of staged readings of new works and is also an active stage combatant/choreographer around town, serving as fight captain and/or designer for productions at Apple Tree, Bailiwick, C.A.S.T., Chicago Shakespeare, Terrapin, First Folio, and others.

Paul Foster

• Technical Director
• Production Manager
• Company Morlock
• Graphic Design
• Mailing Daemon

Paul lifts, carries, stores, builds, destroys, drives, designs and occasionally strings words into constructive sentences. He has designed lights for every WildClaw show thus far and designed the set of The Great God Pan. He has worked with many other theatre companies over the years, including Organic, Powertap, Lifeline, Hypocrites, Strawdog, Redmoon and Adventure Stage as either a technical director, a lighting designer, or a musician. Paul is a graduate of Amherst College, a professional web developer, and the bass guitarist in the WildClaw DEATHSCRIBE house band, Seeking Wonderland.

Allison Greaves

• Costume & Makeup Mistress
• Podcast Queen
• Grantwriting Guru

At a young age, Aly Renee Greaves decided that she was, indeed, the Incredible Hulk and decided to fingerpaint herself green to fight crime and smash things. Sadly she only got as far as one arm before she was caught, but a lifelong love of comics was born. This love for comics and genre fiction lead a suggestible teenage Aly to get into all things Clive Barker. The very first Chicago play she ever saw was, coincidently, In The Flesh, and it left a lasting impression. Aly got her bachelor's degree in Theatre from Knox College in 1997 and went on to get her MFA in Costume Design from Carnegie Mellon in 2000. She then moved back to Chicago and found employment as the costume designer for the College of Dupage and an ensemble member at Strawdog Theatre. She has designed for Seanachai, Piven Theatre Workshop, Uma, House Theatre, Artistic Home, Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, Lakeside Shakespeare, Collaboraction, and Teatro Vista. Aly also writes audio dramas, knits like crazy, and has a blog and podcast called Alyrenee's Copious Spare Time (http://alyrenee.blogspot.com) as well as a Buffy podcast called Undead America: Adventures in the Whedon Verse.

Danielle McKenzie

• Stage Manager

Danielle was born and bred in the northern 'burbs of Chicago, more specifically Waukegan, IL. Past WildClaw productions she has been involved with are The Great God Pan (Stage Manager), Dreams in the Witch House (Asst. Stage Manager) and most recently Legion (Stage Manager). Prior to Legion, Danielle stage-managed The Sugar Syndrome at Chicago Dramatist.

She has also worked with the College of Lake County doing many productions such as West Side Story, Jesus Christ Superstar, American Buffalo, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She works for the James Lumber Center of the Performing Arts as a technical assistant and has worked on shows such as, Momix and The Golden Dragon Acrobats. She is currently the resident stage manager for the Valerie Alpert Dance Company based in Chicago.

Danielle is a Halloween baby, which adds to her newfound love of horror theatre!

Karen Tarjan

Karen is semi-retired from a long and checkered career on the stage. She received her Bachelors in Theatre Arts from Mount Holyoke College in 1981 and spent the next ten years in Boston, mostly goofing around with the fellow founding members of the Beau Jest Moving Theatre, a sort-of improv dance comedy company. Life was not horrifying. It was rowdy and there were hijinks and high spirits. She and her fellow Jestian, Steve, had enough of the good life and moved to Chicago to pursue more “serious” endeavors in 1992. Steve was cast by Charley Sherman in In the Flesh. He promptly quit theatre when it was over. Karen became a founding member of the Seanachai Theatre Company and spent 8 years making heartfelt speeches in an Irish dialect and wearing nubbly sweaters. Not horrifying at all. Sweat and tears, sure, but no blood.

She also did a few side projects as a movement director and an adaptor. The very adventurous Lifeline Theatre produced her versions of The Overcoat, The Two Towers, The Return of the King and The Killer Angels. Things were dicey, but when there was mayhem, the puppets got the worst of it.

Steve decided to get back onto the boards and Charley was kind enough to cast him in The Great God Pan. Perhaps Charley remembered Karen’s work as movement designer for Next Theatre’s The History of the Devil, because when a director needs someone to stage the seduction of a naïf gamine by a satanic entity, corporeal or otherwise, Karen’s the go-to. Charley also hired her for Pan, and then later for The Dreams in the Witch House, what with the human rats and 4th Dimensions. Karen also collaborated with Ms. Anne Adams for the insane dream sequences in Legion. A natural fit. Now, for Karen with WildClaw, there’s lot of blood (and some dementia) but no sweat or tears. Life is still sweet.

Scott Tallarida

Scott is not much of a theater type - but he is a 17-year-vet of the Chicago music scene. Along the way he has played with many a successful Chicago band, toured the country and produced a big stack of records for all sorts of artists. These days, he's likely locked up in his basement project studio "Binge" working on remixes, writing, production and sound design. Legion is the first full length Chicago theater production he's worked on unless you count Rhinoceros at Weber High School in 1993. Oh, you should-a been there. He first caught the WildClaw bug by working live digital foley for DEATHSCRIBE in 2008 & 2009. He just can't seem to get enough of these horror people...

© 2008 WildClaw Theatre

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WildClaw Theatre is dedicated to bringing horror, science fiction, and fantasy works to the live stage.
We believe the fantastique holds intimate power in the realm of live theater and we aim to put it there.