Scottie Caldwell is honored to be a part of this production! She is an artist-in-residence with The Ruckus. She was most recently seen in The Reckless Ruthless Brutal Charge of It, or The Train Play with Will Act for Food and Common Hatred with The Ruckus. She has also worked with Teatro Vista, Redmoon Theater, New Leaf Theatre, and The Gift Theatre Company, among others. She received her BA from the University of Virginia, where she was awarded the T. Braxton Woody award for French and the William Demoville Pettway Prize for Drama, and she appears in the web series The Scarlet Line.

Matt proudly serves as producing artistic director of Sideshow Theatre Company, where he was last seen in Mai Dang Lao and both iterations of Stupid Fucking Bird. Other performance credits include Idomeneus (Jeff Award for ensemble), The Golden Dragon, Tyrant, Heddatron, Theories of the Sun, Dante Dies!! (and then things get weird), and others (Sideshow Theatre Company); The Killer Angels (Lifeline Theatre); Failure: A Love Story (Victory Gardens); Common Hatred (The Ruckus); As Told by the Vivian Girls (Dog & Pony); Chicago Fire (NBC) and two seasons with The Lost Colony on Roanoke Island, NC. Matt received his BA in drama at the University of Virginia.

Katie is thrilled to continue working with Sideshow on Strangerland after joining the cast for the DCA workshop in October. She graduated with a BA in drama from The Catholic University of America in Washington DC, where she appeared in As It Is in Heaven, Radium Girls, The Women, Trojan Women and Twelve Angry Men, among others. Additionally, Katie has performed many roles throughout the DC region including staged readings for The Kennedy Center and Woolly Mammoth. In Chicago she has worked with companies including Twenty Percent, Rogue Theatre and Sandhill Theatre Company. Katie has also had the privilege of studying at The Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland.

Nicole is incredibly honored and excited to work with Sideshow. She hails from the good old Bluegrass state, Kentucky. After graduation from Northern Illinois she made her way to the Windy City. Her previous credits include The Dressing Room with Organic Theatre Company, Unsung Stars with Moving Dock, Teatime at Golgatha with New Found Objects, Salome with Ludicrous Theatre Company, A Midsummer Night's Dream with Artslane. She has been lucky enough to travel and study at the Moscow Art Theatre and the Romanian Theatre with Andras Visky. She wants to thank her family for their constant love and support.

Nate has worked in Chicago with Sideshow (Antigonick, Stupid Fucking Bird, Maria/Stuart, Idomeneus, Strangerland at Chicago Fringe Fest 2011, and Heddatron), the Goodman (Carlyle, New Stages Festival 2014), 16th Street Theatre (Pinoklandia), Jackalope Theatre Company (The Peacock), and The Ruckus (Common Hatred at RhinoFest). He has worked with Ensemble Studio Theatre (NYC) and in 2007 at the Hangar Theatre (Ithaca) as a member of the Lab Company. Nate graduated in 2008 from the University of Virginia with a degree in Drama and a minor in Afro American studies. He graduated high school in Guatemala City and grew up in Latin America. He is proud to be an ensemble member with Sideshow where he treads the boards as Charlie No Pants for the Chicago League of Lady Arm Wrestlers and helms Sideshow's new play development program, The Freshness Initiative. Nate sends love to his family, the gutter, the dirt, the youth of America and to Elizabeth Anne.

Matt Fletcher

co-writer

Matt proudly serves as producing artistic director of Sideshow Theatre Company, where he was last seen in Mai Dang Lao and both iterations of Stupid Fucking Bird. Other performance credits include Idomeneus (Jeff Award for ensemble), The Golden Dragon, Tyrant, Heddatron, Theories of the Sun, Dante Dies!! (and then things get weird), and others (Sideshow Theatre Company); The Killer Angels (Lifeline Theatre); Failure: A Love Story (Victory Gardens); Common Hatred (The Ruckus); As Told by the Vivian Girls (Dog & Pony); Chicago Fire (NBC) and two seasons with The Lost Colony on Roanoke Island, NC. Matt received his BA in drama at the University of Virginia.

Mike Steele

co-writer

Mike was born at a young age. Years later he would earn a BFA from Southern Methodist University. While at SMU, Mike was featured in several plays including Twelfth Night, The Overwhelming, Balm in Gilead, The Seagull, Spring Awakening, Urinetown, and The Good Person of Sezuan. Mike has also written and performed two original solo performances titled Drainmares & gREAMSICLES and Deaf Roars Between Our Ears. Most recently, his full-length play, The Constellations Don’t Have Faces , was produced as part of the New Visions New Voices festival in Dallas, TX. Mike enjoys restoring antique typewriters, walking a mile in another person’s pants, and surfing the outer-net. Sometimes, late at night, when the moon is dark and the wind starts to howl, Mike Steele thinks about you and wishes you were near.

Nate Whelden

co-writer

Nate has worked in Chicago with Sideshow (Antigonick, Stupid Fucking Bird, Maria/Stuart, Idomeneus, Strangerland at Chicago Fringe Fest 2011, and Heddatron), the Goodman (Carlyle, New Stages Festival 2014), 16th Street Theatre (Pinoklandia), Jackalope Theatre Company (The Peacock), and The Ruckus (Common Hatred at RhinoFest). He has worked with Ensemble Studio Theatre (NYC) and in 2007 at the Hangar Theatre (Ithaca) as a member of the Lab Company. Nate graduated in 2008 from the University of Virginia with a degree in drama and a minor in Afro American studies. He graduated high school in Guatemala City and grew up in Latin America. He is proud to be an ensemble member with Sideshow where he treads the boards as Charlie No Pants for the Chicago League of Lady Arm Wrestlers and helms Sideshow's new play development program, The Freshness Initiative. Nate sends love to his family, the gutter, the dirt, the youth of America and to Elizabeth Anne.

Nadia Garofalo

production designer

Nadia is originally from western MA but came to Chicago in 2006 for college. She recently graduated from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago (May 2010) with a BFA focused on interior architecture and set design for stage and screen. She is very happy to be working with Sideshow Theatre Company again as assistant set designer (previously assisted on their production of Theories of the Sun). She is also a professional model maker and miniaturist, making work for commission as well as her personal art practice. Her work has been featured in multiple locally shot independent movies. She is very grateful for the opportunity to work on such an amazing production and hopes to continue to grow her design work in theater and movies.

Kelsey Miller

co-costume designer

Kelsey doesn't usually do this sort of thing but, you know, you contribute to a devised theatre piece from afar, you find a few friends in theatrical situations, and maybe you made a few sock animals along the way (that was another show, sorry). This experience has been nostalgic and illuminating, especially working with family. Kelsey is glad to have applied her art degree and primo thrift shopping skills to such a fantastic project. Keep collaborating, friends!

Joshua P. Burns

co-costume designer

Joshua is a 2008 graduate of the University of Virginia receiving his MFA in costume design, previously receiving his BA in Scenic design from Ball State University. His most recent costume designs include Sideshow's Everything Freezes, Mud, Scapin, Hair, and The Voysey Inheritance. He has also worked professionally with Seaside Music Theater in Daytona, Florida as assistant designer. He currently resides in New York City where he works for Radio City Music Hall and the Metropolitian Opera as a mens tailor.

Brian Ruby

sound designer

Brian is a director and the production manager of The Ruckus, with whom his directing credits include last autumn's All Saints Day, The Instrument Is a Catalyst as part of the TCG 2010 Conference Pop-Up Performances, The Gods Are Crazy Blind and Last Date as part of Tell It & Speak It & Think It & Breathe It, and assistant directing the world premiere of The Gay American. Some of his other directing work includes Phenomenon of Decline (Gorilla Tango), Last Minute: Drowning, 1943 (The MIll's Et Cetera VI), Cleansed and This Is a Chair (Balch Festival Playhouse), as well as No Exit and The Imaginary Invalid (Bay Area Recreational Drama). He will also be assistant directing the upcoming production of Little Triggers for the Ruckus, as well as directing their spring workshop of Perfect Crash.

Joshua Davis

movement coach

Joshua received an MFA in theater performance from Brandeis University. He is the associate artistic director for The Ruckus in Rogers Park. Some of his recent theatre credits include: The Duchess of Malfi (Strawdog), The Red Stuff (Big Shoulders Festival: American Theatre Company), Matawan (Fresh Eyes: Red Tape Theatre), Vivian Matalone’s The Pilgrim Papers (Berkshire Theatre Festival), A Christmas Carol (Berkshire Theatre Festival), The Three Musketeers (Double Edge Theatre Company), and The Threepenny Opera (Brandeis Theatre Company). The Ruckus credits include: Heist Play, Tell It..., The Gay American, and 15 Minutes. During the 9 to 5 hours of the day Joshua is a mild mannered development coordinator for Steppenwolf. From 5pm to 9am Joshua is an obsessive compulsive, living dead dolls collecting, queer with a passion for plain food and adolescent literature.

Naví Afshar

stage manager

Naví is Sideshow's company stage manager. Sideshow credits include production stage manager for Theories of the Sun, Heddatron in the 2011 Steppenwolf Garage Rep, and Strangerland in the 2011 Chi Fringe. Other Chicago credits include Peter and the Wolf with Lookingglass and CSO, Hunting and Gathering with Theatre 7, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Emerald City Theatre Company. His regional credits include The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later at Actors Theatre of Louisville and Wait Until Dark at The Alley Theatre in Houston. Naví holds a BA in theatre from University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. Naví is also an alumni of the Actors Theatre of Louisville Intern Company where he produced/production managed several projects with the Apprentice/Intern Company. Upcoming Sideshow projects include assistant production manager for The Ugly One.