Mission

The whole wide world in a little black box.

Strawdog Theatre Company is committed to ensemble acting and an immersive design approach, offering Chicago the premiere storefront theatre experience. Strawdog develops new work, re-imagines classic plays, explores new fusions of music and theatre, asks provocative questions and delivers the unexpected to our audience. Strawdog provides a home for our celebrated ensemble to work and play with the most sought after artists in Chicago theatre along with the best new talents in the city.

Current Seasonhttp://newcitystage.com/2009/05/21/strawdog-theatre-company-2009-2010-season-announcement/

• St. Crispin's Day
  • by Matt Pepper
  • directed by Kevin Christopher Fox

• Uncle Vanya
  • by Anton Chekhov
    Anton Chekhov
    Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
    
    
  • directed by Kimberly Senior

• The Good Soul of Szechuan
  • by Bertold Brecht
  • directed by: Shade Murray

History

Lawrence Novikoff and Paul Engelhardt founded Strawdog Theatre Company in 1988 after performing together in a production of Euripides’s Helen. Strawdog was intended to be a home for a company of actors drawn to a gritty, realistic theater style. The group took their name from Sam Peckinpah’s movie “Straw Dogs” and was founded with the commitment to the ensemble approach, which remains the backbone of Strawdog today http://newcitystage.com/2009/05/21/strawdog-theatre-company-2009-2010-season-announcement/. From its inaugural production of Five of Us by Len Jenkin to the most recent production of St. Crispin's Day, Strawdog Theatre has not only survived, it has flourished.

In 2000, the Company went through a period of restructuring. Many ensemble members left the Company and new members were recruited. This personnel change led to a shift in leadership and focus for the ensemble. Jennifer Avery and Michael Dailey took over as Co-Artistic Directors. They added many new ensemble members of varying disciplines, restructured the administration of the Company and gradually moved its focus from gritty kitchen sink dramas to a wider range of styles that embraced a true commitment to ensemble - based productions.

In August 2003, the Company hired Nic Dimond, a former ensemble member, to helm the Company as Artistic Director. Dimond has refined the way the Company runs and strengthened the Board of Directors. He has continued to push the ensemble in new and challenging artistic directions, including the creation of original material, the use of live music and elevating the design elements to match the acting sophistication inside the ensemble.

Strawdog first garnered national attention when Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout is a critic, biographer and blogger. He is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal, the chief culture critic of Commentary, and the author of "Sightings," a column about the arts in America that appears biweekly in the Friday Wall Street Journal...

 ("America's Theatre Critic") of The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....

 named Aristocrats one of the best shows of 2007 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119880714002554595.html. Last season, Mr. Teachout once again lauded Strawdog for their production of RUR, a rarely seen parable about robots and technology http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122298264817299611.html.

2003-2004 - Season 16

• Julius Caesar
  Julius Caesar (play)
  The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, also known simply as Julius Caesar, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against...
  
  
  • by William Shakespeare
    William Shakespeare
    William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
    
    
  • directed by Nic Dimond
  • (remount at Theatre on the Lake)

• Detective Story
  • by Sidney Kingsley
    Sidney Kingsley
    Sidney Kingsley was an American dramatist. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Men in White in 1934.- Biography :...
    
    
  • directed by Shade Murray

• Wireless: Programme One
  • by Gregor Mortis
  • directed by Gregor Mortis

• Merchant of Venice
  • by William Shakespeare
    William Shakespeare
    William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
    
    
  • directed by George Cederquist

• Fuddy Meers
  Fuddy Meers
  Fuddy Meers is an American play by David Lindsay-Abaire. It tells the story of an amnesiac, Claire, who awakens each morning as a blank slate on which her husband and teenage son must imprint the facts of her life. One morning Claire is abducted by a limping, lisping man who claims her husband...
  
  
  • by David Lindsay-Abaire
    David Lindsay-Abaire
    David Lindsay-Abaire is an American playwright and lyricist. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2007 for his play Rabbit Hole, which also earned several Tony Award nominations.-Early life and education:...
    
    
  • directed by Kimberly Senior

2004-2005 - Season 17

• Wireless 2
  • directed by Gregor Mortis

• Puntila and His Man Matti
  • by Bertold Brecht
  • directed by Nathan Allan

• Wireless 3
  • directed by James Anthony Zoccoli

• Impossible Marriage
  • by Beth Henley
    Beth Henley
    Elizabeth Becker "Beth" Henley is an American dramatist and actress. She writes primarily about women's issues and family in the Southern United States. She is also a screenwriter who has written many film adaptations of her plays...
    
    
  • directed by Eric Wegener

• The True Ballad of Fall's Blessings
  • by Hank Boland
  • directed by Nic Dimond

2005-2006 - Season 18

• Detective Story
  • Sidney Kingsley
    Sidney Kingsley
    Sidney Kingsley was an American dramatist. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Men in White in 1934.- Biography :...
    
    
  • directed by Shade Murray
  • remount at Theatre on the Lake

• Wireless 4
  • directed by Nic Dimond

• Three Sisters
  Three Sisters (play)
  Three Sisters is a play by Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov, perhaps partially inspired by the situation of the three Brontë sisters, but most probably by the three Zimmermann sisters in Perm...
  
  
  • by Anton Chekhov
    Anton Chekhov
    Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
    
    
  • directed by Kimberly Senior

• Wireless 5

• The Tooth of Crime
  The Tooth of Crime
  The Tooth of Crime is a musical play written by Sam Shepard which made its premiere in London's Open Space Theatre on July 17, 1972. It tells the story of aging rock singer Hoss, doing battle with rival Crow.-Plot:...
  
   (2nd Dance)
  • by Sam Shepard
    Sam Shepard
    Sam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, and television and film director. He is the author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child...
    
    
  • directed by Nic Dimond

2006-2007 - Season 19

• Three Sisters
  Three Sisters (play)
  Three Sisters is a play by Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov, perhaps partially inspired by the situation of the three Brontë sisters, but most probably by the three Zimmermann sisters in Perm...
  
  
  • by Anton Chekhov
    Anton Chekhov
    Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
    
    
  • directed by Kimberly Senior
  • remount at Theatre on the Lake

• Marathon '33
  • by June Havoc
    June Havoc
    June Havoc was a Canadian-born American actress, dancer, writer, and theater director. Havoc was a child Vaudeville performer under the tutelage of her mother. She later acted on Broadway and in Hollywood and stage directed . She last appeared on television in 1990 on General Hospital...
    
    
  • directed by Shade Murray

• Radio Theatre 6
  • by Hank Boland
  • directed by Jennifer Avery

• A Lie of the Mind
  A Lie of the Mind
  A Lie of the Mind is a play written by Sam Shepard, first staged at the off-Broadway Promenade Theater on 5 December 1985. The play was directed by Shepard himself with stars Harvey Keitel as Jake, Amanda Plummer as Beth, Aidan Quinn as Frankie, Geraldine Page as Lorraine, and Will Patton as Mike...
  
  
  • by Sam Shepard
    Sam Shepard
    Sam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, and television and film director. He is the author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child...
    
    
  • directed by Nic Dimond

• Radio Theatre 7
  • by Michael Dailey
  • directed by Amanda Delheimer

2007-2008 - Season 20

• Aristocrats
  • by Brian Friel
    Brian Friel
    Brian Friel is an Irish dramatist, author and director of the Field Day Theatre Company. He is considered to be the greatest living English-language dramatist, hailed by the English-speaking world as an "Irish Chekhov" and "the universally accented voice of Ireland"...
    
    
  • directed by Rick Snyder

• Richard III
  Richard III (play)
  Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
  
  
  • by William Shakespeare
    William Shakespeare
    William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
    
    
  • directed by Nic Dimond

• Old Town
  • by Brett Nevue
  • directed by Kyle Hamman

2008-2009 - Season 21

• RUR
  • by Karel Capek
    Karel Capek
    Karel Čapek was Czech writer of the 20th century.-Biography:Born in 1890 in the Bohemian mountain village of Malé Svatoňovice to an overbearing, emotional mother and a distant yet adored father, Čapek was the youngest of three siblings...
    
    
  • directed by Shade Murray

• Cherry Orchard
  • by Anton Chekhov
    Anton Chekhov
    Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
    
    
  • directed by Kimberly Senior

• Red Noses
  • by Peter Barnes
  • directed by Matt Hawkins

2008

Old Town

After Dark Awards

• Outstanding Musical
• Outstanding Original Song/Score
  • Misha Fiksel
• Outstanding Performance in a Musical or Review
  • Kat McDonnell

Lie of the Mind

Joseph Jefferson Awards, Non-Equity Wing

• Incidental Music
  • Misha Fiksel & Gregor Mortis

2007

Marathon '33

Joseph Jefferson Awards, Non-Equity Wing

• Outstanding Ensemble

2005

Three Sisters

Joseph Jefferson Awards, Non-Equity Wing

• Best Adaptation
  • Curt Colombus
• Best Scenic Design
  • Bryan Sydney Bembridge

After Dark Awards

• Best Overall Technical
• Best Production

Board of directors

• Altman, Gregory (Board President)
• Hobart, Jim
• Rickard, Seth
• Stapleton, Nora (Board Treasurer)
• Zingelman, Tim

Artistic Associates

• Apodaca, Dan
• Caplan, Michelle
• Crowther, Elea
• Hawkins, Matt
• Murray, Shade
• Richey, Kevin
• Senior, Kimberly
• Vince, Evil
• Zematis, Scott

Members

• Avery, Jennifer
• Boland, Hank
• Boucher, Abigail
• Cardiff, Donald
• Carlson, Erin
• Dailey, Michael
• Deely, Anita
• Dimond, Nic (Artistic Director)
• Ferrick, John
• Fiksel, Mikhail “Misha”
• Greeves, Aly Renee
• Grisola, Carmine
• Hainsworth, Chris
• Hamman, Kyle
• Hickey, Tom
• Hoag, Shannon
• Lawfer, Anderson
• Mallary, Sean
• McDonnell, Kat
• Mortis, Gregor
• Parker, Stacy
• Petro, Michaela
• Roberts, John Henry
• Vann, Jamie
• Zoccoli, James Anthony