DEATHSCRIBE 2010 Author - David Schmidt interview

We thought you would like to hear from our DEATHSCRIBE 2010 Festival selections authors. First up - David Schmidt, whose piece in the show will be The Change in Buckett County, directed by Carolyn Klein.

DAVID SCHMIDT

1) Where horror is concerned, what does radio give us that visual media cannot?

Radio give us a big and damn-dark old closet for our minds to throw our worst imaginings into, and then invites them to come crawling out.  A movie can hope to engage the audience's imagination through suggestion, but radio demands it.  In listening, you start to actively imagine the scene, and once you're imagining - you've engaged a part of yourself in the story.

2) "The Change in Buckett County" creeped us out. What is it about "The Change in Buckett County" that creeps you out?

The first thing I thought of when I wrote this script was the *setting*.  Desolate farm fields in winter.  Feet crunching through the snow at night.  Skeletal tree creaking.  Wind blowing the drifting snow.  I used to visit my Grandparents' farm as a kid, and that barren landscape seems like a really bleak place to be when something terribly wrong is happening... 

3) What's the sound cue in your piece that you're excited to hear in foley?

There's a part in the story where something is making a leathery flapping sound in the trees.  I'm really curious how they'll interpret that, and what they'll use to make that noise! 

4) What actor, from any time, has the best voice for horror? 

I love so many - Karloff, Welles, Cushing, Lee, etc.  But the best has to be Vincent Price.  He has such a rich texture, and a fun way of rolling words around.  He could make anything sound exotic and sinister.  Plus, he always seemed to take such great delight in making it good ghoulish fun.

  

5) What difficulties does a 10-minute constraint present when writing, especially where horror and/or radio are concerned? 

I don't think I'm particularly good at short stories.  I have a tendency to want to embroider things and expand them into larger arcs.  (Sometimes to my own detriment.)  But something about writing short-form for radio seems to really inspire me.  Maybe it's that dark closet door creaking open inside my head...  :D
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The DEATHSCRIBE 2010 Jury will be dining at the Morseland. 

WildClaw Theatre and the Chicago DCA present CARMILLA

WildClaw Theatre presents a terror-filled vampire thriller

at the Chicago DCA Storefront Theater

January 13 – February 20, 2011

WildClaw Theatre, in association with Chicago DCA Theater, presents the world premiere stage adaptation of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla. Female vampires unleash upon the stage in this Victorian horror story, adapted by Aly Renee Greaves. The production comes to Chicago DCA’s Storefront Theater at 66 E. Randolph Street, from January 13 to February 20, 2011.

A young English woman living in a remote castle in Eastern Europe becomes intrigued by a mysterious house guest, the enigmatic Carmilla. As the neighboring countryside and villages fall victim to a series of unexplained grisly murders, young Laura finds herself swept up in a whirlwind of forbidden desire quite extraordinary for a 19th-century woman. Before Edward, before Lestat, before Dracula, there was Carmilla.

Performances of Carmilla are on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 7:30 pm. and Sunday afternoons at 3 pm. There is no performance on Friday, February 11, due to the holiday, but a special Valentine’s Day performance will take place on Monday, February 14, at 7:30 pm. A post-show discussion with the cast and crew will follow the performances on Thursday, February 3.

Tickets are $20 for general admission and $10 for students and seniors with ID. The preview performance on January 13 also costs $10. Discounts are available for Chicago Cultural Center Mosaic Members, theater industry affiliates, military personnel, ADA companions, and large groups. All tickets are available by calling 312.742.TIXS (8497), visiting www.dcatheater.org, or stopping by the DCA Box Office in the Chicago Cultural Center at 78 E. Washington Street, open Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 6 pm and Sundays, noon to 4 pm. When available, tickets go on sale one hour before each performance at the Storefront Theater.

Cast and Production Team

The cast features WildClaw Company members Brian Amidei, Scott T. Barsotti, and Charley Sherman, with guest artists Brittany Burch, Sarah Gorsky, Steven Herson, Allie Kunkler, Erin Myers, Michaela Petro, Moira B. Smith, Mandy Walsh, and Josh Zagoren.

Scott Cummins directs the performance. The show’s set design is by Alan Donohue, with lighting by Paul Foster and Dani McKenzie, sound design by Scott Tallarida and Mikhail Fiksel, and costumes and makeup by Aly Renee Greaves. Stage Manager is Anna M. K. Brenner. Dialect Coach is Barbara Zahora. Fight Designers are Scott Cummins and David Chrzanowski., and Movement Coach is Karen Tarjan. Jason Piskcher is Technical Director, and Charlie Athanas is Special Effect Director.

Special Events

In association with the production, WildClaw Theatre and Chicago DCA Theater present the following FREE programs:

Film Screening of Let’s Scare Jessica to Death

Wednesday, January 19, at 6:30 pm, Claudia Cassidy Theater in the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington Street.

This eerie low-budget chiller from 1971 has recently released mental patient Jessica (Zohra Lampert) moving to a Connecticut farm with her husband and some friends. But a strange girl named Emily is at the farm too, and it soon becomes obvious that she is somehow related to a young woman who drowned on her wedding day in the 1800s. This screening will feature an Introduction and Q & A with the film’s director, John D. Hancock.

Panel Discussion: Women in Horror, Monday, February 7, at 7 pm, Claudia Cassidy Theater in the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington Street

Best-selling author Leslie Banks, Carmilla playwright Aly Renee Greaves, WildClaw board member Sabine Cummins, Sourcebooks editor Marie Macaisa, actress Michaela Petro, and writer/ editor/game designer Kenneth Hite discuss representations of women in the horror genre.

For more information about WildClaw Theatre’s Carmilla and Chicago DCA Theater, call 312.742.TIXS (8497) or visit www.dcatheater.org. The enhanced website features more about DCA Theater performances and programs, including a blog, photo galleries, and visitor information. More information on WildClaw Theatre is available at www.wildclawtheatre.com.

The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs is dedicated to promoting an ongoing celebration of the arts and supporting the people who create and sustain them.

Musings on Foley for Deathscribe

So Deathscribe is coming...FAST.  Seriously buy your tickets because these scripts are amazing.  At the moment, I am going over them very closely trying to figure out how to make sounds like "claws rending flesh" and "1,000 mouths opening". 

So that got me thinking, what was your favorite foley effect from previous Deathscribes?  Listen to the podcasts and respond!  And come to see this year's spooky offerings on December 6th. 

Or you could stay at home and watch a crappy holiday movie...a nightmare in and of itself.

MORSELAND sponsors DEATHSCRIBE!

WildClaw Theatre is very pleased to announce that Morseland is generously sponsoring DEATHSCRIBE 2010.

This restaurant, bar, and music venue located in Rogers Park is one of the best places in town to check out a local band, get an after work cocktail, or relax with a game of pool. Located right down the street from The Mayne stage at 1218 W. Morse Ave, we highly recommend that everyone attending DEATHSCRIBE stop in for a bite beforehand, and a drink after.

They have great daily food and drink specials, and fabulous menu served until 10:30 daily, a late night menu served till close, brunch on Sundays, and a super friendly staff.

It is one of the best intimate live music venues on the North side, with styles range from jazz to hip-hop to latin to rock and everything in between.

WildClaw recommends that everyone check out this jewel of a nightclub on Chicago's northside. It would be a horror if you missed out. And, in particular, if you want to check out this great place before DEATHSCRIBE, check out the band BIG TIME, Chicago's premier Tom Waits tribute band, on November 30th. And don't forget to tell them WildClaw sent you.

One more reason why Team Carmilla rulez...

...and Team Edward is toolz.

Full Body of Horror's MONSTER DRAW #3

Come on down to Lucky Number Grill on BLACK FRIDAY for MONSTER DRAW #3! Stuff your face full of turkey, smack the rude members of your family, then escape to Lucky Number to drink and draw monsters and the people who love/fight them.

November 26th they'll start at 8:30PM and draw until around 11PM. There's a $5 cover ($1 of each cover goes to the charity, Women For Women, and the rest pays the models.)

Artist who have attended MONSTER DRAW include: Dave Dorman, Tony Akins, Pat Loboyko, J Anthony Kosar, the folks from Chateau Grrr and many others. You'll never know who'll you will meet.

Zombie Memoirs

Just in time for your holiday gift giving, "My Death in Pictures: A Zombie's Eye-Socket View of Hollywood."

http://www.slate.com/id/2274299/

Happy Birthday Robert Louis Stevenson!

Born on this day in 1850, Robert Louis Stevenson was a literary celebrity in his day, and is one of the most translated authors in the world today. Author of such classics as Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and of course, the horror classic Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was an huge success and is to this day one of Stevenson's best-selling works. Stage adaptations followed its publication almost immediately and it has gone on to inspire multitudes of major film and stage performances. It has been called:

• Emblematic of the western cultures inner conflict of humanity's sense of good and evil.
• An example of the Freudian Theory that the thoughts and desires banished to the unconscious mind motivate the behavior of the conscious mind.
• A Victorian morality tale of unleashed sexual depravity, or an allegory for the necessarily double life of the Victorian homosexual.
• A representation of Scotland and the Scottish character, with the duality representing the national and linguistic dualities inherent in Scotland's relationship with the wider Britain and the English language respectively, and also the repressive effects of the Calvinistic church on the Scottish character.

Keep an eye out this spring, for another interpretation of the literary classic, as our dear friends at The Mammals stage The Dream Journal of Dr. Jekyll, featuring our very own Scott Barsotti.

DEATHSCRIBE 2010 at the Mayne Stage - Dec. 6th!

Hero Complex Interviews Guillermo Del Toro

The LA Times HERO COMPLEX has a cool interview with filmmaker, Guillermo del Toro.