Scott T. Barsotti Writes for the Storefront Playwright Project

This month, passersby of Expo 72 (72 E. Randolph St.) will see a different kind of holiday window display... Through the Storefront Playwright Project, a creation of the League of Chicago Theatres, the public will be able to watch emerging and established Chicago playwrights at work, and read their play-in-progress as it's being written in real time.  This Friday, WildClaw's literary manager and playwright Scott T. Barsotti joins in the fun, working on his adaptation of THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH, based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft, which will receive its premiere production in 2013 with WildClaw Theatre!!

Join Scott this Friday, December 7th from 2:00-6:00pm!  Come by and see, stare, point, take pictures, and keep his wife company!  We guarantee he'll be the only playwright writing about a cult of fish people...

Looking Back...Dreams in the Witch House in J. David's Eyes.

I came across these old blog posts while searching for pictures.  It was written by our dear departed friend, J. David Moeller.  J. David was in The Great God Pan and Dreams in the Witch House...and had he not left this world too soon...I am sure he would have been in just about every Lovecraft play we would have ever produced because he was perfect for our plays.

Well, I had no idea that he was taking these photos and writing these blog entries.  They are a wonderful look back on our second show and a tribute to a wonderful weirdo who we miss, J. David...RIP

10/16/08 Dreams in the Witch House-It Begins..
10/23/08 Dreams in the Witch House- the Accents...
10/26/08 Dreams in the Witch House- The 4th Dimension
11/2/08 Dreams in the Witch House- Rehearsal Cast Shots
11/5/08 Dreams in the Witch House- Fights
11/26/08 Dreams in the Witch House - Learning the Lines
12/15/08 Dreams in the Witch House - The Two Kesian Masons
12/25/08 Dreams in the Witch House- Biological Effects



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Honor Awards...Vote for Wildclaw!

So Katy Walsh has put up a best of 2011 survey and Wildclaw is very pleased to be on it! So show us the love by voting for your favorite horror theatre company!  Also so the love for our friends at Lifeline Theatre and it's productions of Monte Cristo and Watership Down which was positively filthy with clawvians.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/honorawards2011

We Bleed for You...Donate Today!

So if you are like me, your inbox and mailbox has been flooded with last minute requests to donate the pathetic remains of your fatigued post-holiday life-savings.  I caved last night and sent a sad little amount to the Anti-Cruelty Society of Chicago and the Chicago Greater Food Bank.  Worthy causes indeed.  But I also looked back and made sure I gave a little money over the year to the theaters in town whose art makes my life worth living.  It can be easy to overlook how important your charitable contribution to theater can be...we don't have heart-breaking photos of abandoned animals with the sad eyes...we are not saving starving people.  We are a horror theatre company...which seems silly when compared with the big world issues.

But what WildClaw brings to the table does make a difference.  Entertainment.  Imagination.  Creation.  Metamorphosis.  All wrapped up in a spooky, possibly oozing package.

We bring you a thrill that you cannot get in a movie theatre.  We bring you talented artists joining together in a crazed zombie Voltron to deliver something unique:  Horror on the Stage.

Now here's the ask....we desperately need you to make that happen.  Donate a little or a lot today.  It is easy.  I promise...an in return, WildClaw will bleed for you.  How many charities can make that promise?

In 2012, we will be doing monstrous things:  Kill Me opening February and a Spring Benefit Party. We plan to do some damage at C2E2 as well. Our Masque of the Red Death event will be back followed by  an epic world premiere in the Fall.  Then we start off the holidays with our Fifth Annual Deathscribe Event on the first monday of December.  Bigger. Badder.  Bloodier.  Bring it on.

So give a little or a lot.  $10 buys makeup for one actor.  $75 pays for some postcards.  $150 buys five gallons of stage blood.  $600 pays for a designer.  $1000 covers our rehearsal space for a month.  Every bit helps.

So shake your penny jar and check the couch cushions for your missing pocket change.  We will take it.  And thanks for making our 2011 an amazing year for Wildclaw.  

WildClaw Theatre.  Storytelling is in our Blood.

-Aly Amidei
Artistic Director...  

Wishing you a Horror-ible Holiday

If you're like me, you might go crazy this time of year remembering which of your friends you should wish a "Merry Christmas," and which get "Happy Hanukkah," and is it Merry Kwanzaa or Happy Kwanzaa?

Now that Repeal Day 2011 is over, there's only one celebration that really matters: don't neglect the Elder Gods or you'll piss them off.

This elegant holiday card, designed by WildClaw's own Mr. Charlie Athanas, will appease the gods if you send it to all your friends and family. You can get them here, and don't forget to take a peek at the other WildClaw designs. Great stocking-stuffers, yall. Wait, do tentacles wear stockings?

HheeEELLPPP MMEEEEE!!!
I'm one of Wildclaw's newest members, and there's still a lot for me to learn about horror. Case in point: I know who Fay Wray is because of my life-long love of -ahem- Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Next week I'm going to start a little self-education. And I need your help! What are the Five Essential Horror Films you think I need to watch asap?

LEGION is closing...I cry a single psychotic tear...

Some thoughts on the closing of LEGION:

1. This cast has been one of the best groups I myself have ever worked with. I think many in the group would echo that statement. I've looked forward to seeing these folks every week, and the fact that we're doing a play about murdered priests and the problem of evil has brought us that much closer.

2. Doing a play about murdered priests and the problem of evil is a great way to meet people.

3. I will be eternally thankful to Anne Adams for giving me a chance at playing Sunlight. It's the most fun (and most challenging) role I've ever had the pleasure of playing. I'm also completely physically wasted by the end of every show. She also wanted to punch me in the face several times during the process and didn't. So thanks for that, Anne.

4. WildClaw has the best designers in Chicago storefront theatre.

5. I sincerely wish Mr. Blatty could have seen the production because I think he'd be very pleased. It's hugely ironic to me (and also indicative of the Hollywood process) that Charley Sherman's adaptation of LEGION was actually truer to Blatty's book than Blatty's own screenplay which he then himself directed. Hard to believe thinking on The Exorcist 3 that Amfortas isn't present. Love Amfortas. Love Matt Engle as Amfortas. And the EVP! Oh the EVP!! Such great stuff, not to mention the whole discussion of duality, two souls, The Double. Regardless...wish he could have been here. Be a thrill to meet the man...one hell of a writer.

6. That if someone wasn't already crazy when they put them in a straightjacket, the straightjacket would DRIVE THEM INSANE. No question.

7. Aly Greaves' concept for my makeup amazes me every night. After every show I come backstage, get out of my costume, and sit down to remove my makeup, and as soon as I look in the mirror I think, "Oh, fuck..."

8. Speaking of makeup, back in the dressing room after one of our Friday night shows, just before we announced it wide, Casey and I announced to our castmates that we were engaged. It wasn't until later that I realized I still had my mangled face on when I told everyone "Casey and I are getting married." Apropos to my life.

9. I was surprised by my own ability to crow like a rooster and bray like a donkey. Neighing like a horse however, is impossible for humans to replicate I've decided (eh, I'm sure someone can do it...)

10. I love WildClaw. I could not be happier to be a part of this company. Horse blanket.

Scott T. Barsotti
(Sunlight/Damien Karras)

Horror Style: Rosemary's Baby $5000 Haircut

Horror films deliver gore, scares, and screams...but fashion? Never say never. Perhaps one of the most influential haircuts of all time came from the 1968 film Rosemary's Baby. Director Roman Polanski had Vidal Sassoon flown to the LA set to give Miss Mia Farrow a haircut for a grand total of $5000! (Though Mr. Sassoon recently revealed that the short pixie cut was actually less a stroke of genius and more about a botched scissor job that occurred from a fight Mia had with a someone involving some scissors! Possibly her husband at the time Mr. Frank Sinatra...mysterious, no?). It was a marvelous publicity stunt for the film and was much copied after the fact.

Will Wildclaw have the same success as a fashion trendsetter? That remains to be seen, although Wildclaw's own Brian Amidei is definitely testing the fashionable nerves of a certain costume designer with his ridiculous mustache configuration and hugely puffy hair. Perhaps it will be the next big thing in Chicago among horror fans? You be the judge gentle theatre goers.

Legion - interview with director of the film, not the play

The folks over at shocktillyoudrop.com have interviewed the director of the film "Legion", which is released today. Which is naturally nothing to do with William Peter Blatty's "Legion", or the stage adaptation of his novel that WildClaw Theatre are producing. Click here for the interview.