Kill Me...Final Two Weekends! Talk Back on Sunday March 11th!

You don't want to miss it. Here's what the Critics are saying...

"This play is a lot of fun. Nobody else in town does what WildClaw does." Alex Huntsberger - Centerstage

"Kill Me is a genuinely creepy 70-minute show from the only Chicago theater company to specialize in this particular genre" Chris Jones - Chicago Tribune

"a phantasmagorical tale. At the heart of it is love."
Katy Walsh - Chicago Theater Beat

"What's there is, well, killer ... " Tony Adler - Reader

"... an ultimate feast for the senses."
Brian Kirst - Sheridan Road

"Play(s) out like a cross between 'Hellraiser' and 'In My Skin" Zach Freeman - New City

"KILL ME- Scott T. Barsotti’s effectively creepy new work."
Kris Vire - Timeout Chicago  
"KILL ME is a freakishly fun time."
Venus Zarris- Chicago Stage Review

Also, this Sunday, March 11th, we will be having a discussion with some of the cast, crew, and design team immediately following the show!

Get your tickets!

So eleven more chances to Kill Me...Talk-Back on Sunday March 11th!

This is not a show to miss and I recommend that you do not wait.  Every show we have done has seen some sad faces on closing weekend...sad procrastinating faces...who could not get in.  We even have some tickets available on Hottix!  So you can get scared at a discount!

Also, on Sunday March 11th, following the show we will have a post show discussion with some of the cast, crew, author, designers, etc...it will be interesting.  You will learn things.  Last night our director, Jeff Christian, proved himself to be the coolest teacher at Columbia by bringing a bunch of film students to see the show.  Their minds were blown. 

They're Trying to Kill Me: A Shu-izmz Interview with Scott T. Barsotti

The most excellent Bryan "Shu-izmz" Schuessler delves deep into the mind of KILL ME's scribe Scott T. Barsotti to hear about his influences, how he got started in writing, and nudity on stage... read on HERE.

Big Gay Horror Fan Interview's Kill Me Author Scott T Barsotti!

They're Trying to Kill Me... the shape of things

Lookin' good, KILL ME word cloud, lookin' good...

They're Trying to Kill Me...oh the things we do for theatre...

I just wrote this in an email to our director for Kill Me...

"I can wrap her up in lots of dirty dirty bandages....maybe we think of her less like a flayed fresh body and more like a flayed decomposing body..."

Yup.  You heard me.

Presenting...The Kill Me Poster....

I think that our intrepid graphic designer, Charlie Athanas, has turned out our most amazing and disturbing...visually arresting poster yet.  I love the way he has combined our central character (Sasha Gioppo playing Cam) and brought in the elements of isolation, nightmare, insanity, and the monstrous.  This will haunt you I swear...and hopefully haunt you so much you will come see our play...which will haunt you some more and then you will send us a big donation.

See how it works...I love it when a plan comes together.

Now on with the scary times. Tickets are on sale now!  Get em while they are hot and drippy with blood...get it?  Cause we're a horror theatre company?   Spooky boots yall.

I Saw a Man Pursuing the Horizon...

Months ago the clan of deviants known as Wildclaw Theatre Company assembled in an apartment on the northside. We read a play. A play about 3 women, one of whom was unable to die. Or something...

After lots of discussion, brain jammery & revisions we're now in rehearsals for that play.

Kill Me is already one of the most enigmatic processes I've ever been a part of. The options are seemingly limitless and the room is full of beautiful brains challenging the playwright (who's sitting right over there...). Where, when, and how these people are is as fluid as the ink in your pen, and as shifty as that guy standing on the corner of Broadway and Sheridan at 2am. The imagery concocted by the dialogue is following me home at night, and has already worked its way into my dreams. It nags me and posits rusty whispers in my ears.

So it's no surprise that standard prose is proving unsatisfying.

Stephen Crane has been one of my favorite poets ever since I discovered this poem. He's dark, his words growl and 9 times out of 10 I feel uneasy after a stanza or two. Lately, I find myself muttering this particular poem under my breath and thinking, "That poor soul." However, everyone's journey for their universal truth is their own. So, who am I to judge? To question? No one. I'm just as lost & found as my neighbor.

No better.

So, if your neighbor, or your lover says "I can't die." And you deny them their pursuit, they'll just keep running towards the horizon.

Trust me.

I know.

- Michaela Petro, WildClaw company member and KILL ME cast member

"I saw a man pursuing the horizon"
by Stephen Crane

I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped.
I was disturbed at this;

I accosted the man.
"It is futile," I said,
"You can never --"

"You lie," he cried,
And ran on.

They're Trying To Kill Me - Poster Design 1

This will be a first. Charlie Athanas here. I design the posters for WildClaw's play productions. Normally, if I think there is enough interesting going on in the design process, I put that process up on our website after we have performed the run of the show (The Great God Pan poster and The Dreams in the Witch House poster).

For KILL ME we have decided to lay bare more of our process before you see the show, so possible SPOILERS ahead.

For KILL ME, we have changed the poster design process by including more people in on the decision process. I typically work with just the director to get their vision of the production they are mounting. Sometimes, not even that, because some directors want nothing to do with the marketing of their show. In this instance I am working with the director (Jeff Christian),  WildClaw's Artistic Director (Aly Renee Amidei), and the play's author (Scott T. Barsotti). As you will see later, this often leads to hilarious decision processes, but it also brings in a lot of collaborative viewpoints and some clarity on what it is we are trying to sell you.

THE TOP THREE IMAGES
When I first started looking at ideas, I was way off the mark. The idea I wanted to convey was a central character whose suicidal impulses were splattering over into the other character's lives. We also have three very attractive women in our leads (left to right: Casey Cunningham, Sasha Gioppo, and Michaela Petro) and it would be nice to have them on the poster. Plus, the play's title, KILL ME, is powerful in and of itself.

In the fourth image, I was looking to convey the duality of the lead character's dilemma in the script.

But, after meeting with the Jeff, KILL ME's director, I realized I was missing a lot of the subtleties of the production Jeff was putting together. My favorite part of the process is sitting with the director to explore with them what they are trying to communicate with their version of the script. I think it is also helpful to the directors to have to actually verbalize to someone else the absolute essence of the message. It often raises questions that haven't been looked at before in the design and rehearsal process.

THE SKETCHES

After my talk with Jeff, I went away and looked over the notes from our discussion and came away with three sketches to present to Jeff, Aly, and Scott. Here is where we come to the part of the collaborative process that you can either laugh or cry about. They liked all the sketches.

Aly liked #1 the best.

Scott liked #2 the best.

Jeff liked #3 the best.

My preference was #4.



Ah ...

So, now I am at the process of taking in their feedback to produce the final image. It will incorporate something from all of the sketches I suspect and then will be simplified to create a strong. powerful image that can be read from across the street. That's the goal any way.

More to come this week.

P.S. I always find it amusing to here from theatre companies that tell me they are surprised that WildClaw and the director have any input  on the poster image. Typically, they get an artist and take whatever they get back and hope it's the right image for their play.

They're Trying to Kill Me-First Rehearsal Tonight

Artistic Director Log....star date January 2nd, 2012.  We have our first official rehearsal for our next play tonight: Kill Me by company member Scott T. Barsotti.  Exciting times.  I am also doing the costumes and I can tell you that the production/design meetings have been extremely exciting.  This is a different show for us....more lyrical...less tangible...more monsters...and blood of course.  I am most excited by the emphasis and movement and creating a live sound scape for the show.  Big things happening.  As for my jobs, as the costume designer  I need to get my fanny in gear to get several of the costumes done early to help the actors with the movement.  A monster needs to know what sort of monster it is before it can move like a monster evidently.  As Artistic Director...well I am still not entirely sure what I am doing...just trying to get the tanks filled and the crab to cannery basically.

The whole team will be keeping the blog filled with behind the curtain peaks of the show as we bring it to the Atheneaum Studio Theatre for its opening on February 13th, 2012.  Mark your calendars...preferably with a bloody fingerprint.