WILDCLAW IN THE WILD: STORIES BY THE FIRE - PART 1: Dr. Seward's Dracula

Join WildClaw in the great outdoors this summer as we gather by the fire at 3031 to hear three chilling new plays.  Sip on a beer, have a snack, and hear a scary story as the sun goes down and the firepit crackles...what better way to spend a Sunday night?

The series features plays by Joseph Zettelmaier, Brian Watkins, and Sarah Saltwick.  Each selection represents a different flavor of Horror than what WildClaw has done in the past.  We invite you to join us (and bring a minion!) to hear these exciting new plays read aloud by some of Chicago’s finest actors, and then stick around, have another beer, enjoy some haunting melodies and talk to us about Horror Theatre.  Did we mention there’s a fire?  There’s a FIRE.

The WILDCLAW IN THE WILD series will take place on the first Sunday evening of the months of July, August, and September.  (For you calendar-deprived souls and ghouls, that's July 7, August 4, and September 1).

Each reading will begin at 7:30pm at 3031 (3031 N. Honore); doors open at 7:00pm and there will be a special musical guest each month performing before and after the reading.  Suggested donation $5.

July 7
DR. SEWARD’S DRACULA
by Joseph Zettelmaier
directed by Matt Engle
Featuring Amanda Drinkall, John Ferrick, LaQuin Groves, John Henry Roberts, Dave Skvarla, and Greg Wenz
Dr. Seward has cut himself off from the rest of the world after losing his lover and friends to Dracula. He has been contacted by author Bram Stoker, who wishes to tell his story. Soon, a series of murders occur, very similar to the ones Seward fought to stop. The doctor must face demons both real and imagined to find the answers, at the risk of his sanity and his life.
Musical guest Mallory Nees!

JOSEPH ZETTELMAIER is a Michigan-based playwright whose radio play Fish Story won WildClaw's 2012 Deathscribe Bloody Axe Award.  He is a four-time nominee for the Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association Award for best new play, first in 2006 for All Childish Things, then in 2007 for Language Lessons, in 2010 for It Came From Mars and in 2012 for Dead Man’s Shoes. Other plays include Ebenezer, And The Creek Don’t Rise, The All Childish Things Trilogy, Christmas Carol’d, Dr. Seward’s Dracula, Snow Angels, Blackwater Ballad, Night Blooming, Point of Origin, and The Stillness Between Breaths. The Stillness Between Breaths and It Came From Mars were selected to appear in the National New Play Network’s Festival of New Plays. It Came From Mars was a recipient of 2009’s Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award. Dead Man’s Shoes received the same award in 2011. In the 2013-14 season, he will see All Childish Things performed at the Aurora Theatre in Georgia, Salvage at First Folio Theatre in Illinois, The Scullery Maid at the Jewish Ensemble Theatre and The Renaissance Man at the Performance Network (both in Michigan).  Joseph is an Associate Artist at Performance Network, an Artistic Ambassador to the National New Play Network and an adjunct lecturer at Eastern Michigan University, where he teaches Dramatic Composition. He was profiled in the March 2012 issue of American Theatre Magazine.