Thank You For Your Support

WildClaw Theatre: Charley Sherman; Paul Foster; Catie Foster; Anne Adams; Aly Greaves; Brian Amidei; Charlie Athanas; and Aaron Christensen (kneeling)

The shot above was taken at 4AM immediately after our blowout Wicked Winter Carnival Benefit. A tired, but hardworking and grateful crew.

Thank you to everyone who came and had fun, gave us money, performed or just said, "Go kick some horror ass, WildClaw." I would like to thank some of them here. Please support them, too. You won't be disappointed.

The Friends of Arthur Machen Society
We appreciate the tremendous support and encouragement we have gotten from the Arthur Machen Society for this adaptation of The Great God Pan and for providing materials on Arthur Machen for the benefit.

The Bands:
Ingenious Whittler featuring Jeff Christian
The Pat Smillie Band
The Jujubes
The Hormones (Ramones Tribute)

The Performers:
James Anthony Zoccoli
Steve Pickering of Shanghai Low Theatricals
Andy Lawfer, Esteban Cruz, and the Game Show Show Girls of the Game Show Show

The Venue:
Strawdog Theatre of Chicago

The Food:
Chalkboard (Mac and Cheese with smoked gouda...mmm...)
Cy's Steak and Chop House

Silent Auction Donors:
Clive Barker
Kevin Anderson
Dave Dorman
Stuart Gordon
Comix Revolution
Maia Rosenfeld Photography
Improv Olympic, otherwise known as IO

Raffle Prize Donors:
Cinequest
Comix Revolution
Sourcebooks

Publicity:
Denise Dorman of WriteBrain Media

And to the beautiful Maria Bortell and our friends who helped us all night long!!!

For those unable to attend who would like to make a donation, a check or money order can be made out to WildClaw Theatre, 312 N. May #3L, Chicago, Il 60607, or send via PayPal at http://www.wildclawtheatre.com.

Clive Barker Donation

Mr. Barker has been kind enough to donate a signed copy (with a one of a kind sketch) of his new demonic sampling, Mister B. Gone, to our upcoming silent auction at Wicked Winter Carnival 2007. This is our big benefit for WildClaw Theatre's inaugural production of Arthur Machen's classic, The Great God Pan.

If you can make it, come join us on Saturday, December 8th at Strawdog Theatre (3829 N. Broadway, Chicago). Starting at 8PM until the wee hours of the morning we will have many bands (4 at the last count), stage readings, B-Movie Queen Scream Contests, 50-50 raffles, a kick-ass Silent Auction, and more! Multiple rooms so you can pick your entertainment or just catch up with old friends (or, heaven forbid, make new ones.) See you there!

Wicked Winter Carnival

Okay, this is the big one I want all of you to attend. If you can't attend, send us a $10 or more donation via PayPal at WildClawTheater.com. I'm not kidding.

This is our BIG benefit for The WildClaw Theatre. It's our version of entrepreneurial "friends and family" bootstrapping in the grand tradition of Chicago theater companies.

The Wicked Winter Carnival will help fund our theater company dedicated to tales of the fantastique. Scary theater with a capital "S". The company was born out of the mind of director Charley Sherman who brought Chicago Clive Barker's "In The Flesh". To quote Clive on that particular production - "This show kicks ass!"

So please come out on Saturday, December 8th to Strawdog Theater at 3829 N. Broadway. If you attend one cultural event this year, this is the one. And if you haven't attended one yet this year, get up off your ass and get some culture.



Then next year come see our first production, The Great God Pan. It is an adaptation of Arthur Machen's seminal horror story that influenced generations of writers.

FTF/TIC Anniversary Party Action Shots

One decade, two decades. A long time for any venture, much less two that were both sort of an afterthought to bigger plans.

FTF started in 1996 as a way to get fellow tortured souls together to discuss the joys of the hell known as entrepreneurship. The bait was free beer and chips. It worked.

TIC (Technology Innovation Center) started as a minor, not-for-profit portion of a huge Research Park project designed to alter the landscape of Evanston and the Midwest. Well, that Research Park is now a Hilton Garden Inn, a Borders, a Chili's, etc. and TIC aka The Incubator is still kicking twenty years later. It has won numerous awards for excellence, housed over 300 companies, and built relationships with Japan and others to teach them how to do this odd thing call entrepreneurship. Happy Birthday TIC and FTF!







The two poster designs I put together for the event are seen in action above.





Ann Reed (IBIO Institute) and John Conrad (IBIO) discover and utilize the free beer.



Mark Achler (serial successful entrepreneur), Thomas Parkinson (Peapod co-founder), and Dennis Director (found Apollo 17 moon rocket when it got lost) still trying to figure out if Mark or Dennis was the first TIC tenant.



The party was held at First Bank and Trust in Evanston, because they too were once a small startup in the Incubator. Who woulda thunk it ten years ago? Our party in a bank. Soo many suits.

Halloween Party Invite Part Two

That's done and it didn't end up anywhere near where I expected. Lotsa surprises and getting use to a Wacom tablet again after many years. Much to learn and practice. Now for the insides of the beast.

Halloween Party Invite Part One

Okay, some drawings. Not from The First Fear, but drawings none-the-less, damn it. We're having a small gathering of an odd assortment of friends that are connected in a weird sort of way and I thought I would throw together a Halloween related invite.



I wanted to include Julienne in the piece and so here is an initial sketch of her sweet face. I was gonna be in the damn thing too, but realized there is only so much my friends can take.



This is a piecing together of several sketch ideas to get the foundation of the illustration going. I quickly draw these out on paper, scan them in and then manipulate details in Photoshop. I'm going to set up the Wacom tablet tomorrow and I may just continue working directly in the computer from this point or I may go over this sketch collage again in pencil. Once I feel good about it, I'll attack it in Photoshop for the final piece.