Meighan Gerachis

Dean Wreen

Meighan Gerachis (Dean Wreen) is delighted to be at Theater Wit. She was last in Solstice at A Red Orchid Theater. She is a member of Rivendell Theatre Ensemble where she was previously seen in The Electric Baby, Precious Little, The Walls, Elliot: A Soldier’s Fugue, Indulgences at the Louisville Harem, Factory Girls, My Simple City, Wrens, and Ten Tiny Fingers, Nine Tiny Toes. Other Chicago credits include Our Town and The House on Mango St. at Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Measure for Measure at Chicago Shakespeare: Cloud Nine at About Face; Cigarettes and Moby Dick and Che Che Che at Latino Chicago; The Underpants at Noble Fool; and The Road to Graceland At Lifeline Theatre: Regional credits include Elliot; A Soldier’s Fugue (Stageworks/Hudson); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Contact Theatre-Manchester,UK), Don Juan Comes Back From The Wars and VAP 2x2 (24th St Theatre, Los Angeles): Film: At Any Price (dir. Ramin Bahrani)Virginia (dir. Dustin Lance Black) Television: “Crisis” (NBC), “Sirens” (USA), “Battleground” (Hulu).

Laura T. Fisher

Greer

Laura T. Fisher (Greer) is thrilled to make her Theater Wit debut. Goodman Theatre: THE SEAGULL, HOME, THE SHAWL and FINISHING THE PICTURE; Chicago Shakespeare: KABUKI LADY MACBETH, CYMBELINE; Court: CYRANO; Victory Gardens: RELATIVELY CLOSE, HALF AND HALF, BIG BLUE NAIL; Next Theatre: IPHIGENIA 2.0, METAL CHILDREN, FROZEN, DEFIANCE; Remy Bumppo: THE SECRET RAPTURE; Collaboraction: THE INTELLIGENT DESIGN OF JENNY CHOW; Famous Door Theatre: EARLY AND OFTEN, HUSHABYE MOUNTAIN, REMEMBRANCE, THE LIVING, HELLCAB.

Laura is a recipient of the Joseph Jefferson Award (and 3 additional nominations) for Best Supporting Actress as well as the After Dark Award. Laura has performed in Indiana, New York, Scottland, Singapore and Saudi Arabia, and can be seen anywhere in “Chicago Fire”, Contagion and the upcoming feature Jessica. A former ensemble member with Famous Door, Plastiscene and Cardiff Giant, Laura is currently an Artistic Associate with The Next Theatre. Laura is a proud member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA and is represented by Grossman Jack Talent.

Kristen Magee

Andromeda

Kristen Magee (Andromeda) is thrilled to be making her Theater Wit debut. In February she closed Breach with Dog and Pony Theatre Co., with whom she is a member. She was recently seen in Horse Girls (Independently produced), Girls Night (Chicago premiere from an off-Broadway run) and The Whole World is Watching (Dog and Pony). In Chicago she has worked with Collaboraction, About Face Theatre, New Leaf, Red Tape, The New Colony, The Agency and Nothing Without a Company, with whom she is an artistic associate. She is a card carrying member of AFTRA/SAG and holds a BFA from Ithaca College. Although Kristen is a Scorpio, she has the utmost respect for Capricorns, in particular, Adria Lee.

Steve Herson

Caretaker

Steve Herson (Caretaker) a Chicago actor for over twenty years, has been fortunate to work with many of this city’s fine theatre companies, including WildClaw (as a company member), Lakeside Shakespeare, Mary-Archie, Organic, Powertap, European Rep., Raven and others. He has performed in many shows including Henry V, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Tis’ Pity She’s A Whore, 12 Angry Men, The Hot L Baltimore, Edmond, and most recently WildClaw’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth. He can be seen in the films Colombiana, Deadweight, and The Drunk as well as the TV programs, “Chicago PD” and “The Playboy Club”. He is very happy to be working with Theater Wit for the first time and dedicates his performance to Rich Cotovsky.

Susaan Jamshidi

Early Man 1

Susaan Jamshidi (Early Man 1) recently revisited the role of Yasmina in the reading of Rohina Malik’s Yasmina’s Necklace, with Silk Road Rising. She has also performed the role in readings at Goodman, Chicago Dramatists (where she is Artistic Associate), and the Den in association with Teatro Vista. Chicago credits include: Idomeneus (Sideshow, Jeff Award-Ensemble), Deadpan Melodrama and performing u/s in 1001 (Collaboraction), Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (u/s, Lookingglass), The Small Dark Room (Erasing the Distance), The Count of Monte Cristo and The Blue Shadow (Lifeline), Spare Change and Skin in Flames (Stage Left), Terman Vox Machina (Oracle), The Mecca Tales (workshop/reading-Goodman), The Arab-Israeli Cookbook (Theatre Mir), and several festivals with The Inconvenience amongst others. Regional credits include The Michigan Shakespeare Festival; Much Ado (Hero) THE WINTER”S TALE (Hermione), and TARTUFFE (Elmire); The Arabian Nights (Sympathy the Learned) at Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep, and Lookingglass, directed by Mary Zimmerman; and The Crucible with Pittsburgh Public Theater’s Young Company, directed by Timothy Douglas. Susaan is currently filming the web series “Muslim in the City”. Select film credits include Cicero in Winter with Daniel J. Travanti and A Cadaver Christmas (Available on iTunes, Amazon, and Netflix). Susaan received her MFA in acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University

Casey Searles

Early Man 2

Casey Searles (Early Man 2) understudied and performed in Tigers Be Still with Theater Wit and she is delighted to be back and working on this wonderful play. Since moving to Chicago, she has worked with Collaboraction, Remy Bumppo, Strange Tree Group, Quest Theatre Ensemble, Grey Ghost Theatre, and The State Theatre. Some of her favorite credits include The Memory of Water, Wit, Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), Hair, and Urinetown. Casey is a graduate of Indiana University.

James Munson

Understudy

James Munson (Understudy) has appeared in TimeLine Theatre’s Enron, The Agency Theatre Collective’s I Wish to Apologize to the People of Illinois, Athenaeum Theatre’s The Clean House, Oakton’s Footlik Theatre’s Tartuffe and Guantanomo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, and u/s in Steep Theatre’s Strangers, Babies. He was in the indie film Flost that was in the 2013 Chicago International Film Festival, and has been in TV shows and commercials, industrial films, and print ads. He has studied at Victory Gardens, Acting Studio Chicago, Green Shirt Studio, and Cerny/American. James has a BA from Yale and a JD from Wisconsin. He is represented by Gray Talent Group.

Carin Silkaitis

Understudy

Carin Silkaitis (Understudy) is thrilled to make her Theater Wit debut in this fantastic play. Recent Chicago credits include: Doctor Manor/Ensemble in SONS OF THE PROPHET (American Theatre Company), Mama/Sherry/Vera in DISTRACTED (u/s American Theatre Company), Queen Margaret in RICHARD III (Oak Park Festival Theatre) and Izzy in RABBIT HOLE (u/s Goodman Theatre). Her favorite regional credits include: LOVE LETTERS, DANGEROUS LIAISONS, AND A COMEDY OF ERRORS. Carin received her MFA in acting from the Theatre Conservatory at Roosevelt University; and she is the department chair of theatre at North Central College. This summer, Carin will be directing The Ballad of Baby Doe for Music By The Lake; where she previously directed La Traviata, Madama Butterfly, and La Boheme. Carin is proud to be represented by Paonessa Talent, and she would like to thank Chrissy, Jake and Max for their love and support.

Christine Vrem-Ydstie

Understudy

Christine Vrem-Ydstie (Understudy) is thrilled to be working with the Theater Wit team on SEVEN HOMELESS MAMMOTHS WANDER NEW ENGLAND. Christine is a non-union film, TV and theatre actress represented by Grossman & Jack Talent. Since moving to Chicago in 2011, she has worked with Profiles Theatre, Red Tape Theatre Co. and Pride Films and Plays, among others. Christine was most recently seen on stage in The Ruckus Theatre Company’s Jeff Recommended FACING ANGELA and HEIST PLAY.

Madeleine George

Playwright

Madeleine George (Playwright) has written several plays, including The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence, Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England, Precious Little, and The Zero Hour. They’ve been produced and developed by 13P, Clubbed Thumb, Soho Rep, New York Theatre Workshop, Manhattan Theatre Club, Berkeley Rep and Shotgun Players in Berkeley, City Theatre in Pittsburgh, About Face Theatre and Rivendell Theatre Ensemble in Chicago, and Two River Theater Company in New Jersey, among other places. She has received a MacDowell Fellowship, the Princess Grace Playwriting Award, and the Jane Chambers Award, as well as commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, and Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis. SEVEN HOMELESS MAMMOTHS... was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award; The Zero Hour was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Madeleine is a resident playwright at New Dramatists and a founding member of the Obie-Award-winning playwrights’ collective 13P.

Jeremy Wechsler

Director

Jeremy Wechsler (Director) is the artistic director of Theater Wit where he has directed COMPLETENESS (Itamar Moses), TIGERS BE STILL (Kim Rosenstock), THIS (Melissa James Gibson), THE FOUR OF US (Itamar Moses), SPIN (Penny Penniston), FEYDEAU-SI-DEAU (Georges Feydeau), MEN OF STEEL (Qui Nguyen), THOM PAIN (BASED ON NOTHING) (Will Eno), TWO FOR THE SHOW (James Fitzpatrick and Will Clinger) and THE SANTALAND DIARIES (David Sedaris and Joe Mantello). He has directed over fifty shows in the last twenty years at various theaters, including: This is not a CURE FOR Cancer (Moseley/Illanovitch-Goldman), THE FLU SEASON (Will Eno), A TASTE OF HONEY (Shelagh Delaney – best show of 2007, The Wall Street Journal), THE PLAY ABOUT THE SQUIRREL (Mia McCullough), THE WHITE DEVIL (John Webster), THE REAL THING (Tom Stoppard), SZINHAZ (Itamar Moses), TITUS ANDRONICUS (Shakespeare), THE ROARING GIRL (Thomas Middleton), THIS IS THE RILL SPEAKING (Lanford Wilson), HAY FEVER (Noel Coward) NOW THEN AGAIN (Penny Penniston), A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY (Brian Friel), EUROPE (David Grieg), HENRY VI: BLOOD OF A NATION (Shakespeare), THE PROMISE (Jose Rivera), LIFE IS A DREAM (Calderon), THE PRISONER’S DILEMMA (David Edgar), CABARET (Masteroff/Kander/Ebb) and THE THREEPENNY OPERA (Brecht/Weill). He has taught at several universities, is an artistic associate at Collaboraction and currently serves on the board of the League of Chicago Theatres. His productions have been nominated for and won multiple awards for design, performance, adaptation and best new work.

Joe Schermoly

Scenic Design

Joe Schermoly (Scenic Design) is excited to be back at Theater Wit where he designed COMPLETENESS last year. Joe is a set designer and a proud Griffin Theatre company member where he has designed and built sets for many shows including Spelling Bee, Flare Path, Punk Rock, No More Dead Dogs, Port, and Constant Wife. Elsewhere in Chicago Joe’s set design work has been seen at Lifeline Theatre (Tale of Two Cities, The Count of Monte Cristo, The City and The City), Sideshow Theatre (Idomeneus, The Ugly One), Strawdog Theatre (Duchess of Malfi, Master and Margarita, Richard III), Eclipse (Beyond the Horizon, The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek) and more. Joe studied set design at Northwestern University and is the Technical Director at Lifeline Theatre. He has received two After Dark Awards and two Jeff Nominations. See more of his work at www.joeschermoly.com

Scott Pillsbury

Lighting Design

Scott Pillsbury (Lighting Design) arrived in Chicago in 2000. He’s designed, Master Electrician or assisted designed for several theaters and dance companies: Albany Park Theater Project, Ballet Chicago, Beverly Theater Guild and Arts Center, BoHo theater, Colaboraction, Five Star Productions, GI Alliance, Gift Theatre, Mad Kap, National Pastime Theatre, Neo Futurist, Prevail Dance Company, Prologue Theater, Pure Renditionz, Shapeshifters, Strange Tree, Theatre of Western Springs and Theater Wit. Films: Dead in the Water, Lac Du Flambeau, Something to Eat, Tapioca and Measure. www.scottlights.com

Christopher Kriz

Original Music and Sound Design

Christopher Kriz (Original Music and Sound Design) works nationally as a composer and sound designer and is pleased to return to Theater Wit having previously designed sound for Tigers Be Still, This and Spin. In Chicago, Chris has designed for companies including Writers Theatre, Northlight, Steppenwolf, Goodman, Victory Gardens, Remy Bumppo, First Folio, The Gift and Timeline. Some current and upcoming designs include Hedda Gabler (Writers Theatre), Salvage (First Folio), The Great God Pan (Next Theatre), Miss Marx (Strawdog Theatre) and Cicada (Route 66 Theatre). Chris has received 9 Joseph Jefferson nominations and 2 awards, most recently the Equity Jeff Award for Turn Of The Screw (First Folio). Chris is a proud member of United Scenic Artists Local 829. To hear more of his work, please visit www.christopherkriz.com

Christine Pascual

Costume Design

Christine Pascual (Costume Design) most recently worked with Jeremy and Theater Wit on Tigers Be Still. Recently she designed Seven Guitars at Court Theatre, Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money, the workshop productions of New Stages 2013 and 2012 at the Goodman, Other Goodman credits include world premiere of The Happiest Song Plays Last, Fish Men, El Nogalar; Massacre (Sing to Your Children) (co-production with Teatro Vista); Congo Square Theatre Company’s Black Nativity and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (co-production with Congo Square Theatre Company). Other Chicago credits include Disconnect, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Relatively Close, The Romance of Magno Rubio, Hambone, Blackbird and We are Proud to Present a Presentation....,at Victory Gardens Theater; Bud, Not Buddy at Chicago Children’s Theatre; Trevor, Simpatico, Megacosm at A Red Orchid Theatre; Four of Us at Theater Wit; Burn This at Shattered Globe Theatre; Wrens with Rivendell Theatre Ensemble; Madagascar at Next Theatre Company; White Tie Ball, Freedom, NY at Teatro Vista; 26 Miles at Teatro Vista and Rivendell Theatre Ensemble; Sizwe Banzi is Dead, The Piano Lesson, The First Breeze of Summer and Flyin’ West at Court Theatre; Our Lady of the Underpass at 16th Street Theater and Teatro Vista; The House on Mango Street at Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Welcome to Arroyo’s, It’s a Wonderful Life, True West, Topdog/Underdog, The People’s Temple and Living Out at American Theater Company; Sanctified, St. James Infirmary, Seven Guitars, Elmina’s Kitchen, From the Mississippi Delta and A Soldier’s Play at Congo Square Theatre Company; Ten Cent Night at Chicago Dramatists and Elliot, a Soldier’s Fugue with Rivendell Theatre Ensemble and Teatro Vista at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Regional credits include The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity at Second Stage Theatre, NY, Fences at Virginia Stage and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at Centerstate, Baltimore . Ms. Pascual was a 2010 Henry Hewes Design Award nominee and an exhibitor at the 2011 Prague Quadrennial and the 2012 United States Institute for Theatre Technology conference.

Cassy Schillo

Properties Design

Cassy Schillo (Properties Designer) is delighted to join Wit for this talented production. Since graduating with a theatrical BFA from UWWhitewater, Cassy has worked in various theaters throughout the Midwest including Light Opera Works, Red Tape, Milwaukee Chamber, Florentine Opera, Theatre Wit, Marriott at Lincolnshire, Remy Bummpo, Stage Left, Drury Lane, (re)discovre & Piccolo. Catch more of her work currently on BoHo’s Amadeus.

Katie Klemme

Stage Manager

Katie Klemme (Stage Manager) has stage manager for Theater Wit before, for THE SANTALAND DIARIES (2013, 2012) & SPIN. Other recent credits include COLUMBINUS (American Theater Company, ArtsEmerson, Boston), THE PRIDE (About Face Theatre), DOUBT, AGNES OF GOD, RENT, DISGRACED (2013 Pulitzer Prize Winner),ESCAPE, THE AMISH PROJECT, THE BIG MEAL, THE ORIGINAL GREASE, SPEED-THE-PLOW & OLEANNA (in rotating rep), DISTRACTED, YEAST NATION (the triumph of life), HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, TOPDOG/UNDERDOG & TRUE WEST (in rotating rep), THE PEOPLE’S TEMPLE at American Theater Company, and MOMMA’S BOYZ (Replacement) for Teatro Vista. She is on faculty at Loyola University Chicago where she teaches stage management.

Patsy Radford

Assistant Stage Manager

Patsy Radford (Assistant Stage Manager) is thrilled to be involved with Theater Wit this spring. An import to Chicago from Louisiana via Tennessee, she’s an anniversaried stage manager for Teatro Luna and Artistic Affiliate with the company. Other notable Chicago credits include THE EYE INSIDE (Biophiliac Productions), THE ORIGINAL GREASE (ATC), BECHDEL FEST (Broken Nose Theatre) and EL STORIES XI (Waltzing Mechanics). Around Chicago, she can be seen lending all of her skills to the storefront theatre scene wherever they are needed. She loves an aged Cabernet with a good book or movie but runs on coffee and laughter. Pour mes amis, ma famille, mes amants, mes verres de vin, mes tasses de café .. Je te rends grâce.

Clare Cooney

Assistant Director

Clare Cooney (Asssistant Director) is thrilled to be working as an assistant director for Theater Wit, a company that has become her Chicago home. Originally hailing from Detroit, Clare moved to Chicago to pursue acting and directing a year and a half ago. She is currently performing in the ensemble of 44 WAYS at Redtwist Theatre. She has performed with Chicago companies such as Waltzing Mechanics, Circle Theatre, Citadel Theatre, Cold Basement Dramatics, and trip, and performed regionally with the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame with degrees in Theatre and Psychology.

Majel Cuza

Production Manager

Majel Cuza (Production Manager) has directed, production managed, and stage managed in Chicago since 2005. She has worked with many companies, most recently Collaboraction, Griffin, and Theater Wit for whom she is the resident production manager. Majel has also worked in a handful of film projects as a producer, director, and crew.

John Kelly

Master Electrician

John Kelly (Master Electrician) is very excited to be working with Theater Wit again! This summer he was the lighting designer for Thom Pain (based on nothing). Elsewhere he has been master electrician for Strawdog Theatre, Chicago Children’s Theatre, American Theatre Company, Haven Theatre Company, The New Colony, Strange Tree Theatre, Sideshow Theatre and Wildclaw Theatre. He is an ensemble member at Strawdog Theatre where he will be designing their upcoming production Charles Ives Take Me Home.

Highly Recommended. Hilarious and profound!

Jeremy Wechsler’s sublimely realized production is a hilarious satire on present-day academia and the current generation of college students, a playfully irreverent depiction of lesbian relationships, a profound meditation on selfishness, spirituality and mortality, and one of the wackier variations on that Thornton Wilder classic, “Our Town,” you might ever encounter. And that’s just for starters.

Dean Wreen (Meighan Gerachis as a spot-on narcissist), is a middle-aged scholar-turned-administrator at the college whose long-term relationship with a philosophy professor, Greer (the marvelous Laura T. Fisher, in an award-worthy turn that embraces every emotional color), has been over for some time. The Dean is now happily frolicking with a former student, the self-named Andromeda (Kristen Magee, a stunning young actress with great comic and dramatic instincts), a yoga instructor who proclaims her “love of alternative kinship structures.” The girl will be put to the test when Wreen learns that Greer has had a recurrence of cancer and insists she moves back into the house they once shared.

Along with Greer’s cancer, the crisis at hand is the college’s controversial decision to turn the museum into a posh dorm, meaning that the seven mammoths that are its chief claim to “fame” will be evicted, and perhaps sold to local businesses to become something akin to those cows that populated Chicago in 1999. And supplying the unintentionally drollest “commentary” about the proposed changes is the “Caretaker” (Steve Herson), who plays the editor of the small town’s newspaper, the museum curator who is to lose his job after decades, and others. Herson’s recap of a wildly contentious town hall meeting is a tour de force by way of both playwright and actor.

The bristling satire in “Seven Mammoths” (which has been superbly designed by Joe Schermoly, Scott Pillsbury and Christine Pascual) is alone worth the price of admission. The fact that there also is a great, pulsating heart at work in this story gives it a crucial added dimension.

— Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times

★★★ An exceedingly funny play.

The amusements therein are subtle, dry, quirky and very much based in character — if you like “Seinfeld” or “Parks and Recreation,” this affair at Theater Wit on Belmont Avenue might well be your thing. Issues of style aside, though, the writer, Madeleine George, just happens to have a clear talent for mining the fun from those earnest and well-educated folk who populate small college towns. I snickered and chortled all night long.

The performance of the night here comes from Fisher, whose sardonic character has a kind of Nora Ephron quality, which is to say she is both moving and bone-dry funny. It has been a while since this capable actress has snagged such a role — she grabs on to this character, which clearly is in her wheelhouse, and yet she never overplays. Similarly, Kristen Magee, who plays Andromeda, keeps her wacky young lady just on the right side of credible. This, too, is a very skilled comic performance.

The laughs don’t just come from the central characters. The dioramas, whose fate is a good chunk of the story, are brought to life, very vividly, by Susaan Jamshidi and Casey Searles, each playing an immobile Early Man, staring out at these latter-day unstuffed creatures in wry amusement. Only their lips move, but that’s enough.

A show with this many laughs, not to mention quite lovable characters, certainly deserves not to be out on the street.

— Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

Recommended. Intelligent, erudite and sharply humorous.

George’s smart, snappy dialogue deftly satirizes the pompous self-interest the academic community is famous for, while plumbing the melancholia and fear that comes with facing the end: of life, of a relationship or an era that one’s nostalgia refuses to let go. The ensemble effortlessly captures the quick emotional changes the script requires: Fisher’s deadpan delivery and intellectual sparring with Magee is a highlight. Magee invests her character with enough heart and sincerity that you feel guilty for dismissing her new age leanings. Gerachis effectively negotiates her steam-rolling dean’s take-down; she successfully transitions from the woman in charge to a woman looking hopefully to others for direction.

— New City