We are so excited to announce that 10 new Artistic Associates have officially joined the T7 family! These ten artists have made outstanding contributions to the work on our stages, and we’ll officially welcome them after this Saturday’s 4pm performance of BlackTop Sky. Here’s a sneak peek at this diverse group of talented artists:
Joe Zarrow
Joe is a playwright and actor. In addition to T7, he has performed in Chicago with Pavement Group, Adventure Stage, Congo Square, Collaboraction, Walkabout Theatre Company, Vintage Theatre Collective, and New Leaf Theatre. His new play PRINCIPAL PRINCIPLE, originally seen in a T7 Shikaakwa reading, was recently featured at the Brown/Trinity Playwright’s Repertory in Providence, and Walkabout premiered his site-specific farce THE PIGEONS. Joe is proud to serve as the Literary Director of Pavement Group. You can learn more about Joe’s projects at joezarrow.com.
Next Project: Joe will be performing in Pavement Group’s Amuse Bouche 2013, April 8-10 at The Den.
Top T7 Memory: The sumptuous mustache I got to cultivate for The Chicago Landmark Project.
Cody Proctor
Cody worked with T7 on The Water Engine and We Live Here. Other Chicago credits include: The Iceman Cometh (Goodman); Idomeneus (Sideshow); Brand (Red Tape); The Moonstone (Lifeline); The Crucible (Infamous Commonwealth); . Cody also occasionally performs and travels with Alithea Mime Theatre, based out of Wichita State University, where he also received a BFA in Theatre Performance. Cody is from Overland Park, Kansas, but now considers Chicago his home.
Next Project: Cody is currently in rehearsals for Bertholt Brecht’s The Mother at Oracle Theatre, directed by Max Truax. The show opens on April 19th. This summer, Cody will be spending his third season with the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, with roles in Macbeth, The Comedy of Errors, and Failure: A Love Story.
Top T7 Memory: Our barbershop quartet warm ups before The Water Engine. Or, George breaking his arm during the run of We Live Here and having Nick Ward step in to play George. Then, George returning with a giant wrap around his immobilized arm.
Greg Williams
Greg is a Waukegan native, who received his BFA from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. He has also worked with Steppenwolf, Lookingglass, and Remy Bumppo Theatre.
Top T7 Memory: I like how the stories are all always meant to touch someone, or tell someone’s story. It’s rarely like, “Come see our art!” as much as it is, “Come see yourself in this art.”
Desmond Gray
Desmond’s T7 credits include The Chicago Landmark Project (Elijah) and We Live Here (Scott). Other Chicago credits include Hit The Wall (Mika) with The Inconvenience, a part of the Steppenwolf Garage series; Hellcab (Architect) at Profiles Theatre; Aida (Ensemble) with Bailiwick Chicago; Sketchbook ’12 with Collaboraction; In Darfur with TimeLine as an understudy. In addition to film and commercial work, Desmond is also the denim specialist and stylist at the Guess store on Michigan Ave, come visit! Many thanks and love to the awesome folks at T7, mom & dad and Gray Talent Group!
Next Project: Sketchbook ’13 with Collaboraction, LeapFest X with Stage Left
Top T7 Memory: Not only is everyone uber talented, T7 folks support each other and the artists they’ve collaborated with. They’re a solid community I’m proud to be apart of.
Caitlin O’Rourke
Caitlin O’Rourke is a freelance stage manager and recent Chicago transplant. She first worked with Theatre Seven on American Storm and is excited for many collaborations to come. Other Chicago credits include Counterfeiters (Dog & Pony), The Mistakes Madeline Made (LiveWire), and Gruesome Playground Injuries (Rasaka Theatre Company). Her regional theatre credits include How We Got On, The End – both part of the Humana Festival of New American Plays – The Christmas Story, The Mystery of Irma Vep, and The Kite Runner at Actors Theatre of Louisville.
Next Project: A Permanent Image with LiveWire. At the DCA Storefront, April 4-May 5. Come see it. It will be awesome.
Favorite T7 Thing: I love being a part of a community of such passionate and talented artists – they challenge and inspire me every time we work together.
Chris Tabor
Chris is part of Chicago’s theatre community thanks, in whole, to Theatre Seven. He studied Film (not theatre) at Columbia College Chicago so he’s just happy to be given the opportunity to work with such cool cats, smooth operators and genuinely talented artists. Chris’s Theatre Seven credits include Exit, Pursued by a Bear and American Storm.
Next Project: Chris just edited and directed selected episodes of a web series, Kiss Like Big Dogs. You can see it at kisslikebigdogs.com or at vimeo.com under his name.
Top T7 Memory: I get to be myself. In certain professional situations there’s a pressure to change or hide something about yourself in order to be accepted. What I like most about Theatre Seven is that I get to be a dork.
Behzad Dabu
Behzad is really thrilled to be an artistic associate with T7. He grew up in Syracuse, NY, made Chicago his home in 2005 and has since been performing on various stages all over town; most recently, in Disconnect at Victory Gardens and Disgraced at American Theater Company. Other credits include, TheatreSeven’s We Live Here, First Folio’s Twelfth Night, The Goodman’s Christmas Carol, Holes at AdventureStage, and the original cast of The History Boys at TimeLine Theatre, where he will return this summer performing in Blood and Gifts. Behzad attended Columbia College Chicago, where he now works full-time in addition to acting and is represented by Paonessa Talent.
Next Project: Blood and Gifts at Timeline Theatre
T7 Big Thoughts: If it is true – that artists are the authors of the culture of our time – then T7 are the artists I want to read.
Isabel Ellison
Raised in the mountains of Colorado, Isabel left Boulder at the age of 18 and moved to London to study acting at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. After graduating, Isabel got her first job in Brett Neveu’s Red Bud which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London. She then appeared in The Children’s Hour on the West End, which was directed by Ian Rickson and starred Keira Knightly, Elizabeth Moss, Ellen Burstyn and Carol Kane. Last fall, Isabel relocated to Chicago. She has worked as an understudy for Ophelia in Hamlet at Writers’ Theatre, and interned for both Next Theatre and Theatre Seven. Isabel is currently in the ensemble of Measure for Measure at the Goodman Theatre, and she has just joined the Theatre Seven staff as a Literary Associate and Company Dramaturg.
Next Project: I am eager to start researching the history of incredible Chicagoan women in prep for Unwilling & Hostile Instruments!
Jessica London-Shields
Jess started her relationship with T7 while performing in We Live Here, and has been giving them monster hugs ever since. Other shows she has done that she likes very much are MilkMilkLemonade with Pavement Group (where she is also an artistic associate), CherrySmoke with the Side Project, and Spring Awakening with Promethean Theatre. She’s sure she did some other plays but forgot what they were… You can also see her face a lot, in the lezzie rom-com: Jamie and Jessie Are Not Together, available on Amazon.com. Jess is a graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University.
Next Project: Right now you can catch her in She Kills Monsters with Buzz22, alongside BlackTop Sky, as part of the Steppenwolf Garage Rep. Woot!
Top T7 Memory: Everyone is GREAT at the monster hug. I have also had the super fantastic opportunity to work with Cassy Sanders and Taylor Fenderbosch not once but TWICE. I cannot think of people that I trust more in the rehearsal room, or any room really… I’m not sure about camping though… I think there has to be a room involved.
Lizzie Bracken
Lizzie has designed Theatre Seven scenery for BlackTop Sky and In The Heart of America. Other design credits include The Book Thief (Steppenwolf Theater Company); Six Characters in Search of an Author (The Hypocrites); 60 Miles to Silver Lake (Collaboraction); 44 Plays for 44 Presidents and costumes for Burning Bluebeard (The Neo-Futurists). Lizzie received her MFA in Scenic Design from the University of Texas at Austin and is an ensemble member with Barrel of Monkeys.
Next Project: Working on a project with the Hypocrites and Halena Kayes and Maggie Fullilove Nugent that is going to be so cool! It is called Ivywild and it opens in May.
Top T7 Memory: I love the T7 community. I love the joy and dedication that the members of this company bring to each project. It inspires me.
