Spring Virtual Workshop Series (2020)
Theater and Performance Studies is committed to progressing the practice of performance with a new virtual workshop series. Join TAPS professional staff along with industry elites in trainings, discussions, and interviews all from the comfort of your home.
These workshops are for all levels of experience and interest and free to the University of Chicago community and public.
Realizing your design in CAD with Ben Caracello
TAPS technical director Ben Caracello helps designers take their design skills digital. Starting with the specific projects of shows for next quarter, Ben works with you weekly to translate your design into CAD. While those projects are the focus, anyone who would like to learn is welcome.
Props and…Floor Management with Caitie Noller | hosted by Jenny Pinson
Caitie Noller is graduated from Ball State University and has been working as a Stage Manager in Chicago for 7 years. She started her career as an Assistant Stage Manager for Emerald City Theatre and is currently the Floor Manager at Victory Gardens. When not bossing people around backstage Caitie enjoys watching Star Trek and singing karaoke.
Q&A with Beth Nistler Uber, Costume Artisan & Owner of Threadline Studios | hosted by Nathan Rohrer
Beth Nistler Uber is a freelance draper and owner of ThreadLine Studios and Uber Costume. Graduating with a BFA in Costume Production from the Professional Theatre Training Program at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Beth began her professional career in the Minneapolis and Seattle areas. She moved to Chicago and began working at Chicago Shakespeare Theater in 2010. Beth draped on more than 25 productions at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, including Follies, School for Lies, Elizabeth Rex, and Sunday in the Park with George. Having made many professional connections in her 5 years at Chicago Shakespeare, Beth left the company to start two businesses: ThreadLine Studios, a shared costume workspace available to rent, and Uber Costume, an independent shop which creates costumes for theater, opera, and dance.
Discussion with Lighting & Costume Designer, Sarah Riffle | hosted by Heather Sparling
Sarah Riffle is a Chicago based theatrical lighting and costume designer with over ten years of experience in the industry. Sarah’s work spans opera, theater, dance, and industrials from the classics to new works. For 5 years, Sarah has held the position of Lighting Supervisor at Tribeca Performing Arts Center in Manhattan and now has the honor of adding a full-time ALD position with Lyric Opera of Chicago to my credits. Riffle had the privilege of working with such companies as BalletMet Columbus, Chautauqua Opera, North Carolina Dance Theater, Studio Theater D.C., Indiana Repertory Theater, Des Moines Metro Opera, and New York City Opera.
Conversation with Production Manager & Stage Manager, Jennifer Grutza | hosted by Brian Maschka
Jennifer Grutza has had a long career as a Producer, Production Manager, and Stage Manager in disciplines including opera, theatre, events, jazz, theme parks, and dance. Working for companies such as Brooklyn Academy of Music, The New School, Trinity Repertory Company, Signature Theater Company, New York Theater Workshop, International Center of Photography, the New-York Historical Society, and Production Glue. Some highlights include Project Director for “Once” the nighttime spectacular Vinpearl Land Phu Quoc Vietnam, Production Manager for Anna Nicole the Opera US premier, and Production Stage Manager for Bill Irwin’s Mr. Fox a Rumination.
Sound Design with Kevin O’Donnell | hosted by Joyce Ciesil
Kevin O’Donnell is a drummer, composer, and sound designer. As a composer and designer for theatre, Kevin has worked all over the US. In Chicago, where he is based, he has worked at Steppenwolf Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare, Victory Gardens Theater, Northlight Theatre, Court Theater, Redmoon, The Building Stage, The Hypocrites, and The House Theatre (where he is a company member), amongst many others. His work in Chicago theatre has earned him 23 Jeff Award nominations, and 10 Awards; in New Orleans, he has been nominated for 2 Big Easy Awards. Outside of Chicago, his work has been heard at numerous regional theaters; and in New York at St. Anne's Warehouse, 59E59, The Cherry Lane, and The Signature Theatre.
Props and…Fight Choreography with Zev Steinrock | hosted by Jenny Pinson
Zev Steinrock is a professional actor, fight director, and intimacy director. He recently completed four years as a professor of stage combat, acting, and movement at the University of Illinois. Zev is now based in Los Angeles and works professionally as a freelance artist, choreographing professionally and teaching stage combat and intimacy. Zev specializes in working with University faculties to help them create and implement safe protocols for intimate work both in the classroom and in performance. Additionally, Zev works at professional theatres all over the United States. He completed his MFA in Acting from Michigan State University, along with certifications in yoga and college teaching. Steinrock is also a Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors. As an enthusiastic supporter of Intimacy Direction, he is humbled to have the opportunity to advocate for Intimacy Direction as an emerging field.
Realizing your design in CAD with Ben Caracello
TAPS technical director Ben Caracello helps designers take their design skills digital. Starting with the specific projects of shows for next quarter, Ben works with you weekly to translate your design into CAD. While those projects are the focus, anyone who would like to learn is welcome.
Props and…Production Management with Jennifer McClendon | hosted by Jenny Pinson
Jennifer McClendon is a native Chicago theatre artist who received her BFA in Stage Management from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A former Steppenwolf Multicultural Fellow and Production Management Apprentice, Jennifer has worked as a freelance Production Manager and Stage Manager in Chicago since 2012. She has worked with companies such as Steppenwolf, Remy Bumppo, Theatre Seven, The Hypocrites, Mary Arrchie, and Definition Theatre. For Prologue Theatre Company, she served as their Managing Director during their seventh and final season. Jennifer is grateful to have found a home at Lifeline Theatre Company and has been their resident Production Manager since 2016.
Q&A with Branimira Ivanova, Costume & Fashion Artisan/Master Draper | hosted by Nathan Rohrer
Branimira Ivanova is a graduate of both the University of Connecticut (MFA, Costume Design) and of the International Academy of Design and Technology (BFA, Fashion Design). In 2009 and 2010, Ivanova received Jeff Award nominations for her work for Lifeline Theatre’s productions of Treasure Island and Wuthering Heights; her work for the Gift Theatre’s Cloud 9 received a Jeff Award for Best Costume Design (Equity Wing) in 2012. In 2007, Ivanova received a Certificate for Excellence in Theatre Design from the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, and her designs were included in the United States’ National Exhibit at the Prague Quadrennial World Stage Expo. In 2002, she received Fashion Group International’s “Design Your Future Award,” and the Driehaus Award for Fashion Excellence. Ivanova is also the founder of House of Idolatry Clothing.
Discussion with Sound Designer, Composer & Video Engineer, Robert Hornbostel | hosted by Heather Sparling
Robert Hornbostel is a Sound Designer, Composer, Video Engineer, Hacker based out of Chicago Illinois, where he works with a variety of companies and projects to create challenging and inspiring art with other collaborators. Robert enjoys the creative problem solving necessary for large video projects, and anything that helps facilitate the creation of visually powerful gestures.
Building on a Budget with Technical Director, Jason Pikscher | hosted by Ben Caracello
Jason Pikscher is currently in his ninth season as Technical Director at Paramount Theatre. Jason’s fabrications have been seen across the country including work for Houston Grand Opera, The Kennedy Center, Florida Grand Opera, Ford's Theatre, and Michigan Opera Theatre. Corporate displays: TLC, Animal Planet, Walgreens, and Microsoft. Before joining Paramount Theatre, at the inception of their Broadway Series, Jason opened over 150 productions in and around Chicagoland. Jason is a proud Bradley University Alumni and an overjoyed Daddy to Annabelle and Elliott.
Conversation with Chicago Stage Manager, Katrina Herrmann | hosted by Brian Maschka
Katrina Herrmann is a proud alum of DePaul University’s The Theatre School, Katrina has worked at Lookingglass Theatre Company, Drury Lane Theatre, Chicago Children’s Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Court Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, and La Jolla Playhouse, among others. She stage-managed both Off-Broadway runs of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Flick. She is a proud member of Actors’ Equity. For nine years during the holidays, she used to work for Santa Claus at Macy's in New York City.
Sound Design with a Broadway Associate, with Beth Lake | hosted by Joyce Ciesil
Beth Lake is a freelance Sound Designer and theater practitioner based in New York City. Beth is also a lecturer of Sound Design at Yale University. Recent credits include American Girl, Live!, The Play That Goes Wrong, The Revolutionists, An Iliad. Broadway Associate design includes My Fair Lady, The Sound Inside, Natasha, Pierre …, Misery, Velocity of Autumn. Beth received her M.F.A. UC-Irvine; Member USA829.
Props and…Director, Heather Currie | hosted by Jenny Pinson
Heather Currie is an ensemble member of Lifeline Theatre in Chicago. As a member of the ensemble, she has supported the development of literary adaptations for 20+ productions and will direct the upcoming world premiere rock musical Loki The End of The World Tour. Other Lifeline directing credits include: Time Warp Trio, Fabulous!, Lester’s Dreadful Sweaters and You Think It’s Easy Being The Tooth Fairy? which she also co-adapted. Other recent directing credits: Spamalot (Wilmette Summer Theatre), Steel Magnolias (Big Noise Theatre), Don Quixote (Mudlark Theater), Madagascar: A Musical Adventure, and Junie B. Jones The Musical (Magik Theatre, San Antonio). As an actor, she most recently played Sarah Jane Moore in Assassins at The Studio Theatre Tierra Del Sol. She has appeared in numerous productions with Lifeline Theatre. As an actor Heather is known in Chicago for playing the Wicked Witch in WOZ: A Wizard of Oz Rock Cabaret with Andre DeShields (Victory Gardens Theatre), and Robin Black in the long-running Sexy Baby (Hell in a Handbag Productions). Heather is a professor of screenwriting in the Department of Cinema Arts and Television at Columbia College Chicago.
Props and…Puppet Design, Mark Blashford | hosted by Jenny Pinson
Mark Blashford is an actor, puppeteer, musician, and licensed teacher in Illinois. He specializes in traditional puppet performance, including marionette, shadow, rod, and hand puppetry. As a trained puppet builder, Blashford has studied in Germany, Iceland, Great Britain, and the Czech Republic. He received his MFA in puppetry from the University of Connecticut in 2017. While in Chicago, Blashford has worked with several theaters including Lookingglass, Lifeline, Hell in a Handbag, Rough House, The Annoyance, Blair Thomas & Co., and The Chicago International Puppetry Festival. He is currently touring his one-man show, Jack & Jill as Rootstock Puppet Co.
Q&A with Emily Arnold, Costume Shop Manager, Marriott Theatre | hosted by Nathan Rohrer
Emily Arnold is the Costume Shop Manager at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire. She has been there for three years, managing shows such as Something Rotten, Million Dollar Quartet, and Holiday Inn. She is also the Costume Director at Evanston Township High School and is a costume designer at New Trier High School. Before working her current positions, Emily freelanced as a Draper, Costume Manager, Assistant Designer, Wardrobe Supervisor, and Stitcher. She has worked at many theatres in the region, including TimeLine, the Goodman, The House, Chicago Shakes, and Indiana Repertory Theatre. She graduated from Loyola University with a degree in Theatre.
Discussion with Live Video & Performance Artist, Sid Branca | hosted by Heather Sparling
Sid Branca is an artist working around the haunted crossroads of digital video, performance, and poetry, creating mediated performances, video works, texts, and multimedia projects influenced by contemporary technology, classical tragedy, and the queerness of genre fiction. Branca's collaborative roles in mediated performance have included projection designer, live camera choreographer, VJ, video producer, digital production designer, and video editor. They are a company member with First Floor Theater, where they focus on the role of digital media in theatrical productions. Recent projection design credits include Floor Show, The Grelley Duvall Show III (Alex Grelle) and Hooded; or Being Black for Dummies, Refrigerator (First Floor Theater). Branca holds degrees from the University of Chicago and Columbia College Chicago and teaches in the department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Conversation with Broadway Stage Manager, John M. Atherlay | hosted by Brian Maschka
John M. Atherlay is presently the production stage manager for the tour of The Band’s Visit. Other tours include Cabaret, Blithe Spirit with Angela Lansbury, Porgy and Bess, Anything Goes, Fela, Young Frankenstein, The 101 Dalmatians Musical, Fiddler On the Roof with Topol, and the Pre-Broadway tour of Stardust with Betty Buckley. Broadway: Xanadu, The Seagull with Tyne Daly and Jon Voight, A Small Family Business, Fela, Prelude To A Kiss, and the Original Company of Disney’s Beauty and The Beast. Many Off-Broadway productions. Regional and Summer Stock: The Long Wharf Theatre, George Street Playhouse, The Barter Theatre, The MUNY, Maine State Musical Theatre, and Syracuse Stage.
Sound Design with Sarah Espinoza | hosted by Joyce Ciesil
Sarah Espinoza is an award-winning Chicago-based sound designer. In 2015 she won the Non-Equity Jeff award for sound design for The Arsonists (Strawdog) and in 2018 she won the ALTA Award for Outstanding Sound Design for The Displaced (Haven). Some of the productions she worked on include Borealis (The House Theatre), The Displaced (Haven), Damascus (Strawdog), Future Echoes (WildClaw), Another Jungle (Cloudgate), Dontrell Who Kissed the Sea (First Floor Theatre), Epic Tale of Scale (Chicago Children's), Fear and Misery in the 3rd Reich (Haven), Little Red Cyrano (Red Theatre), Two Mile Hollow (First Floor Theatre), The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Red Theatre), Going to a Place You Already Are (Red Twist), Night In Alachua County (WildClaw), The Woman in Black (WildClaw), Romeo and Juliet (Loyola University Chicago), and Firebirds (Rivendell), Diamond Dogs (The House Theatre), Thumbelina (Lifeline), You On the Moors Now (The Hypocrites), Farewell My Friend ((re)-discover), Douglass (American Vicarious), Dating and Dragons (The Factory), Midnight Cowboy (Lifeline), Mr. Popper’s Penguins (Lifeline), The Revel (The House Theatre), Motel 666 (WildClaw), Midsummer Night’s Dream (Two Pence), and The Last Defender (The House).
Props and…Scenic Design with Sotirios Livaditis | hosted by Jenny Pinson
Sotirios Livaditis is a scenic designer, visual artist, and storyteller based in Chicago. Recent projects include Teenage Dick (Theatre Wit), Mosquitoes (Steep Theatre), Out of Love (Interrobang Theatre Project), Hans Christian Andersen, When She Had Wings (Northwestern University), For Services Rendered, The Harvest (Griffin Theatre), Small World, Fun Harmless WarMachine (The New Colony), Language Rooms (Broken Nose Theatre) Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies (First Floor Theatre), The Light Fantastic, 1980 or Why I’m Voting for John Anderson (Jackalope Theatre). He has worked as an associate designer with Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, The House Theatre of Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre, The Alliance Theatre, and The Irish National Opera. He received his MFA from Northwestern University and was the winner of the 2017 Michael Merrit Award for Best Design Exhibition. Experience more of his work at sotiriosdesigns.com
Props and…Production Management, Erica Sandvig | hosted by Jenny Pinson
Erica Sandvig is the Director of Production for Victory Gardens Theater. With 20 years of experience, she has worked with many Chicago theatres including tenures at the Lookingglass Theatre Company and Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and is a steering committee member for The Michael Merritt Awards for Excellence in Design and Collaboration. Erica lives with her husband, Ben Carcaello - Technical Director at the University of Chicago, their seven-year-old son, Odin Ford, and his dog Bolt. When she’s not building legos or reading Harry Potter with Odin, Erica can be found taking on culinary challenges in one of her two kitchens or getting muddy in her garden.
Q&A with Darcy Elora Hofer, Costume Manager & Designer | hosted by Nathan Rohrer
Darcy Elora Hofer has been working in theatre and costumes for over 15 years. She has designed for theatre, opera, and dance and her designs have most recently been seen onstage at Music Theatre Works, Chautauqua Opera, and Deeply Rooted Dance Company. Her technical work has been onstage at Chicago Shakespeare and Lookingglass, among others. In 2015 she combined an early love of costumes and stage management and became the Costume Shop Manager for Arizona Theatre Company for four seasons. She recently came back home to Chicago, where she is currently the Costume Coordinator for Northlight Theatre Company.
Q&A with Christine Pascual, Costume Designer | hosted by Nathan Rohrer
Christine Pascual is a costume designer based in Chicago since 1994. She was born in New York City and grew up on Long Island in Dix Hills, New York. She is the oldest of seven children whose parents immigrated to the US from the Philippines. She graduated from SUNY at Stony Brook with a Bachelor of Arts degree and earned a Master of Fine Arts in costume design from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Christine began her career in costume design with daring, innovative storefront theaters, including Defiant and Onyx. Since then she has been working with storefront, mid-size, and large theaters. Recent productions in Chicago include The Displaced at Haven Theatre; Fade at Victory Gardens Theater; East Texas Hot Links at Writers Theatre; The Light Fantastic at Jackalope Theatre; and Traitor at A Red Orchid Theatre; in addition to Simpatico at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, NJ and The Royale at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis.
Discussion with Production Manager, Kristof Janezic | hosted by Heather Sparling
Kristof Janezic is in his 7th year in Chicago, after moving to the windy city post-undergrad in Upstate NY and moving from Boston Mass. Over the past several years he has immersed himself in more ambitious productions and art, from The Polar Express Train Ride to Creede Repertory Theatre's resident Lighting Designer and Lighting Supervisor, and Nevermore Parks Production Manager and Systems Director (since January 2020). He focuses on design, management, and technology all at once as often as possible in his work, to bring them together in final products that are efficient, inspiring and tell the stories we go to see. While in the quarantine he has worked harder towards databases, specifically in the FileMaker platform, to start his endeavors in organizing and building inventories, workflows, and business solutions for education and non-profit organizations.