WildClaw's Kickstarter Campaign...KEEP THE BLOOD FLOWING!

So we announced our kickass Deathscribe lineup.  We just had an awesome time at our benefit.  And now we are just a week out from loading into the theatre for Life of Death tech rehearsals.  Opening looms and we are psyched.  We are also doing a little fundraiser.  We need your help to keep the blood flowing.  So if you can toss a few bucks (or a lot of bucks)...we will be eternally grateful!  Also, tell everyone you know to toss a couple of bucks into the pot.  And hold onto to your hats for another awesome fall and winter of scary good times with WildClaw Theatre....

DEATHSCRIBE 2012 LINEUP!

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!  GHOULS AND GHOSTS!  OUTER GODS AND ELDER THINGS!  CENOBITES AND LYCANTHROPES!  YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE!!

We are thrilled to announce the lineup for DEATHSCRIBE 2012:

Comparing Notes at the End of the World by Christopher M. Walsh
Directed by Rob Kauzlaric

An Abstract Thought With Sinister Intentions by Brandon Zachary
Directed by Damon Kiely

Fish Story by Joseph Zettelmaier
Directed Kevin Theis

El Grito de Rose by Jessica Wright Buha
Directed by Carolyn Hoerdemann

The Wall by Travis Williams
Directed by Brandon Bruce

We got nearly 100 submissions and these five wonderful nightmares rose to the top, ready to thrill and chill.  A Lovecraftian apocalypse, a mischievous demon, a gory Arctic creature, an ode to murder ballads, and a dose of modern terror.  It all will make a one-of-a-kind evening of live horror radio.

And you may have noticed...our 2011 Bloody Axe winning playwright/director pair, Jessica Wright Buha and Carolyn Hoerdemann, who brought you ALABAMA MERMAID last year, are teaming up once again.  We daemons squeal with delight.

More info will be posted here in the coming weeks about our finalists (and the directors who love them), and we hope to see YOU at the Mayne Stage on December 3.

Silent Auction at the Clockwork Nightmare Benefit

Seriously...this stuff is amazing.  If you guys don't show up and bid on this stuff...I will be buying ALL OF IT myself.

Here are a few of the wonderful items or vendors who have been so generous!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/54784310/patient-spider-cutout-dark-matter

http://www.etsy.com/shop/poppyandfern

http://www.wildeimagination.com/default.aspx?skinid=5

http://www.etsy.com/shop/isette

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AbbotsHollowStudios

Let CLOCKWORK NIGHTMARE be your ANTIBODY

Check out this trailer for the upcoming short film "Antibody."



Our friend Ivan Diaz over at Eye Sprocket Productions made this film, and will be screening it soon.  One such screening is coming up on October 30, and what do you know?  If you come to our Clockwork Nightmare benefit tomorrow night, you can bid on tickets to that screening, which is paired with a 'Scary Wine Tasting.'

Sounds like our kind of date night.

But that's only one of many many wonderful items you could walk away with at Clockwork Nightmare. There's lots of tantalizing stuff to bid on, we will have an original, unreleased, signed Tony Fitzpatrick print, an original hand drawn signed Tim Burton "Nightmare Before Christmas" sketch, a mini JAWS movie poster signed by Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Steven Spielberg, Peter Benchley and John Williams, VIP passes and a guest role at FEAR City Haunted House, a Zombie jacket, jewelry, theatre tickets, photography packages, and much much more. Go to our Clockwork Nightmare page to see all of the wonderful merchants who have donated to the WildClaw cause.

Advance tickets are only $40, and includes food, drink, music, entertainment, and dark revelry.  And who couldn't use more dark revelry?

Hope to see YOU on Saturday night!!

Confessions of a Foley Girl! And A Special Invitation

When I was nine, my eleven-year-old sister came home, full of news from her field trip to the county courthouse. Her favorite part had been the withered, creaky-drawled judge entrusted as their guide through the judicial system, or what passed for it in Texas.

Yes, Texan Justices float. We all float down here.

When asked about the weirdest experience of his career, he related one trial where the defendant had become so enraged by the testimony of the key witness, that he jumped up from his seat, tackled her in the witness box, and bit off her nose. In his words, my sister gleefully reported, “it sounded exactly like he had taken a bite out of an apple.”

I was already no stranger to the importance of sound in telling a good story: while seven, reading to my indulgent grandmother, I had asked for a glass of water not because I was parched, as she suspected, but to speak through it during  one crucial passage. I also had a passing understanding of Foley work, and knew the Golden Age of Radio had both its triumphs and its liabilities.

It wasn’t until I moved to Chicago, however, that I saw Foley work employed in a theatrical production. Repeatedly. Well. With clarity, cleverness, and cohesion, augmenting the storytelling in a delightful way that would stay with the audience not only while living their own kitchen sink dramas, but while making lunch in those same kitchens.

So imagine my own delight when I was invited to play with WildClaw for the first time last year, as the third member of their Foley team on Deathscribe 2011.

Which paled in comparison to my excitement this year, as a new company member, reading our semifinalist submissions and preparing for a knock-down, drag-out, Thunderdome debate amongst my awesome peers to decide, of the 25 that entered, which 5 may leave. It was great to learn about my co-company members’ tastes, defend my own, and explore together not only what we find scary, but funny, sexy, and to what end.

It took nearly three hours, four filibusters and lots of snacks, but we ultimately winnowed down nearly one hundred contenders to an evening of 5 deliciously unique tales of terror, helmed by 5 of Chicago’s best and bravest directors.  We will reveal this year’s selection of scary scribes this Saturday, September 15^th, at our Clockwork Nightmare Benefit.

BE HERE NOW!

Our benefit? Why yes, it’s this Saturday! And not only are we revealing the dark delights that will make up Deathscribe 2012, but we’ll have great music, awesome entertainment, sinfully good food, and a silent auction featuring one-of-a-kind adventures, local events, and art and jewelry from talented artisans from across the country.

I hope you will join us for this unique evening of scaring and sharing, benefiting the only theatre company in Chicago dedicated to bringing horror to the stage!

Because one of you may get inspired to write a script featuring a nose-biter. I have just the thing.

this V/H/S movie looks damn good.

Yup.  Mr. and Lady Morlock are hot to see this one.  Now where to park the baby monster while her parents get their scare on?