FISH STORY WINS DEATHSCRIBE 2012!

All of us here at WildClaw wish to extend our most sincere congratulations to Joseph Zettelmaier, whose radio play FISH STORY took home the coveted Deathscribe Bloody Axe last night!

Three desperate men and a prehistoric, many legged fish with necrosis-inducing bites made for a kickass piece of radio horror.  Many thanks to the director Kevin Theis, and the cast of Joe Bianco, Chris Rickett, and Dave Skvarla.

We will have photos from the evening soon, courtesy of Joe Mazza at Brave Lux, which if you haven't seen Joe's work, go check him out.  If you've seen photos from our Clockwork Nightmare benefit back in September then you know how awesome he is.

Coming soon we will have podcasts of DEATHSCRIBE 2011, and we'll be working on getting last night's recordings on the blog as soon as possible.

Thank you to all of this year's directors, actors, musicians, foleyists, and artists.  Thank you to our sponsors, our friends, and you, the show-going horror-loving public for sharing your evening and your enthusiasm with us!

And as always, thank you to the Deathscribes.  DEATHSCRIBE could not exist without all of the delectably demented writers who bravely venture into the dark, carving out their stories in text and sound, grappling with their nightmares so that we too, can enjoy the thrill of a well told scary story.  Last night, we got five of them.

Submissions for DEATHSCRIBE 2013 will open up in the spring of 2013.  Be you playwright, horror writer, novelist, professional, hobbyist, student, teacher, doctor, engineer, taxidermist, nice nurse, creepy nurse, evil barber, firefighter, firestarter, or outer god.  We don't care who you are or where you live.  If you've got a horror radio play you've been wanting to write, get to it.  What are you waiting for?  2013 may be your year, just as 2012 was the Year of the Fish.

Congrats, Joe!

MEET THE DEATHSCRIBE 2012 FINALISTS (part 3 of 5)

So, how do you feel about isolated houses in the woods?

Pretty cool?  You're on board with that?  How about the basement?  You feel like headin' down there?

Yeah ok, it's not so bad, just a little spooky, nothing to worry about.  But wait...what's...down...um...there?

Our next 2012 Deathscribe, Travis Williams, wants you to know.  Go ahead, hold his hand.  Seriously, he's a very nice-looking guy, very gentlemanly.  Follow him, it's easy.  Look, no tricks.  He's not gonna show you anything in particular.  It's no big deal, what's back here.  It's just your worst nightmare.  Love makes you do crazy things, and two lovers and would-be criminals confront each other, themselves, and their horrifying future when faced with THE WALL.  Christy Arington directs this plunge into modern terror.

THE WALL
Written by Travis Williams

Directed by Christy Arington

Travis Williams is very excited to join the amazing writers of Deathscribe! Hailing from Ohio, Travis has been active in the Chicago arts community for several years, and is a proud company member with Theatre Seven of Chicago. He has been writing stories and plays from a very young age, and has always been a fan of the strange and scary. Thanks to my wife Elizabeth for her love and support, and thanks to WildClaw for creating this horrorific event!

COME HEAR 'THE WALL' PERFORMED LIVE AT DEATHSCRIBE 2012

MONDAY DECEMBER 3RD AT THE MAYNE STAGE!

MEET THE DEATHSCRIBE 2012 FINALISTS (part 2 of 5)

Fish are scary.

We can just agree on that.  Everything that lives underwater is terrifying.

Here in Chicago, we just know something, someday, many-tentacled, many-eyed, and flesh-hungry is going to crawl out of that big ol' lake.  Someday.

Our next 2012 Deathscribe is an award-winning dramatist who hails from the wind-chapped apocalyptic wasteland once known as "Michigan."  (Or as WildClaw founding artistic director called it, "Mitch-igan.")  Joseph has treated us to a dark tale of greed, deception, and the wickedness of nature itself.  Three men find themselves alone in a snowstorm, with only each other for company (or competition), and what may be an unknown species in the bathtub.  You're heard about the one that got away, and about the catch that was this big!, but this here ain't no ordinary FISH STORY.  This delicious creature feature is directed by Kevin Theis.

FISH STORY
Written by Joseph Zettelmaier

Directed by Kevin Theis

Joseph Zettelmaier is a Michigan-based playwright and three-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 and in 2010 for It Came From Mars. Other plays include Dead Man’s Shoes, And The Creek Don’t Rise, The All Childish Things Trilogy, Dr. Seward’s Dracula, First Snow, Blackwater Ballad, Night Blooming, Point of Origin, and The Stillness Between Breaths. The Stillness Between Breaths won Best New Play 2005 from the Oakland Press and was selected (as was It Came From Mars) to appear in the National New Play Network’s Festival of New Plays. He also co-authored Flyover, USA: Voices From Men of the Midwest at the Williamston Theatre (Winner of the 2009 Thespie Award for Best New Script). It Came From Mars was a recipient of 2009’s Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award, and won Best New Script 2010 from the Lansing State Journal. Dead Man’s Shoes won the Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award in 2011, and won both a Lansing Pulsar Award and Wilde Award for Best New Script. His newest script, Ebenezer, will be performed this winter at Williamston Theatre. He is an Associate Artist at Performance Network, and an adjunct lecturer at Eastern Michigan University, where he teaches Dramatic Composition. Joseph was recently profiled in the March 2012 issue of American Theatre Magazine, and can be reached at www.jzettelmaier.com.

COME HEAR 'FISH STORY' PERFORMED LIVE AT DEATHSCRIBE 2012

MONDAY DECEMBER 3RD AT THE MAYNE STAGE!

MEET THE DEATHSCRIBE 2012 FINALISTS (part 1 of 5)

Alright kids.  DEATHSCRIBE 2012 is right around the corner, ready to haunt your dreams and make you think of things like this:
 

And this:

But see the thing is, all that shit's IN YOUR MIND.  Our intrepid crews of actors, musicians, and foley artists aren't gonna show you any of this, they're going to make you see it in your own dark, lonely, twisted, terrifying imagination (we love you) through the wonders of sound.

But before any of those insane artists dive into creating such sonic scares, some asylum escapee has to think that stuff up and write it down using...I'm gonna say ichor.  Just like every year, this year's DEATHSCRIBE features the work of five sagely psychos, five tormented souls who know all too well what the world is, what it was, and what it is certain to become.  And they want to share.

Our first Deathscribe of 2012 is a fella name Brandon Zachary.  Brandon invites us to a poker game at the table of Hell, where nothing is as it seems and no one truly wins.  Is this game hosted by a demon?  Is it an insane billionaire?  Or is it AN ABSTRACT THOUGHT WITH SINISTER INTENTIONS?  Damon Kiely directs this five-card mindfuck.

I'd also like to note that Brandon is the youngest Deathscribe finalist to date.  Hear that, college students across the world?  Get to writing.  We want your nightmares.

AN ABSTRACT THOUGHT WITH SINISTER INTENTIONS
Written by Brandon Zachary

Directed by Damon Kiely

Brandon Zachary is a student at Columbia College in Chicago, currently working on a screenwriting concentration. He is a graduate of the Second City sketch writing program, and a staff writer for Ain't It Cool News. All these things combine to form a twenty one year old slacker who watches too many films.

I never got a headshot from Brandon, so I can only assume he looks like this:

COME HEAR 'AN ABSTRACT THOUGHT' PERFORMED LIVE AT DEATHSCRIBE 2012

MONDAY DECEMBER 3RD AT THE MAYNE STAGE!

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.

Deathscribe 2012 Directors Announced!

We here are WildClaw are very pleased to announce our lineup of Deathscribe 2012 Directors.  While we are still wading through multitudes of serial killers, demonic possessions, and loads and loads of dead babies, we are super excited to know that when we get to the final five, Deathscribe 2012 will be in fine hands with these amazing directors.  Here is the lineup.

Carolyn Hoerdemann

Brandon Bruce

Damon Kiely

Robert Kauzlaric

Kevin Theis


Alright directors, we will see you in December!  Now, back to reading these scripts.

WildClaw Fall Preview: Steampunk Benefit, Life of Death, Deathscribe 2012

So this thing is happening...and we are jazzed.  Tickets have gone live.  There is lots of chatter and excitement. Beer sponsored by the boys over at DryHop Chicago!  KBH Media is making the Fear Box even more fearier.  Have you started picking out your outfit yet?  Do you have no idea what Dark Steampunk is?  Well fear not...soon you will be bombarded with posts and information.  Get your goggles on kids...it is going to be a swell fall for the fiends and friends of WildClaw!

Invite everyone you know.

Ms. Michaela (that is Ms. Lulu Boilermaker to you) and I checked out the most recent event thrown by the fine fellows and ladies over at Steampunk Chicago.  Great fun was had by all.  We played lawn tennis America....or maybe it was croquet?  Something with mallets.  Of course we both noticed what fine bludgeoning weapons they would make...le sigh.  I highly recommend attending their upcoming events.  You will find many like-minded souls as we did.  Their Clockwork Vaudeville evening is happening on September 14th...it seems a splendid steampunk double-feature weekend to me?

Rehearsals and design meetings are well underway for The Life of Death opening in early October.  Get your tickets now.  It is going to be crazy good. 

Then the greatest gift of all comes in December....the Fifth Annual Deathscribe Festival of Horror Radio Plays at the Mayne Stage on December 3rd.  We are reading your creepy weird submissions right now and once again, we thank you from the bottoms of our filthy hearts for sharing your creative weirdness with us.