Stage Left Theatre Ensemble

Usman Ally - Scott Bishop - Kate Black - Cat Dean - Melanie Derleth - Jason Fleece - Christine Gatto - Kevin Heckman - John Kohn III- Cory Krebsbach - M.E.H. Lewis - Drew Martin - Ian Maxwell - David Alan Moore - Brian Plocharczyk - Mark Pracht - David Rush - David M. Schmitz - Adam Smith - Chris Thompson - Zev Valancy - Chelsey Wagemaker - Greg Werstler

Ensemble Emeritus
Leigh Barrett - Larry Dahlke - Marguerite Hammersley - Jessi D. Hill - Mia McCullough - John Sanders - Jack Short - Jacki Singleton - Jack Tippett - Sandra Verthein

Jason A. Fleece is originally from Pittsburgh, PA, where he received his B.A. in Theatre Arts from Point Park University in 2000. In 2004, Jason moved to Chicago to earn his M.F.A. in Directing from the Theatre School at DePaul University, which he received in June 2007. Jason has directed over thirty-five productions in the past ten years, all over the country. As a director, Jason has a particular interest in musicals and in new play development. Jason directed world premiere productions of Pound and Rain in the Hollows by Sean O’Leary, Touch and Go by Douglas Harmsen (winner, Outstanding Production and Outstanding Direction, Pittsburgh New Works Festival 2003), The Story of Francis and Wild Gil (A Francis and Wild Gil Story) by Shane Portman and Kirk Mason, Love in the Middle Ages by Scott Urban and Bob Solone and many many more. Other favorite productions include The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown (thesis production, The Theatre School at DePaul University), Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Clovenhoof Productions, Pittsburgh, PA), Anna is Saved by Jessica Cluess (Stage Left/LeapFest 6, Chicago, IL) and Jesus Hopped the A Train by Stephen Adly Guirgis (Village Players Performing Arts Center, Oak Park, IL) In January of 2009, Jason had the honor of directing plays written by children at the famed Westport Country Playhouse in Westport, CT. Jason is proud to be an ensemble member with Stage Left Theatre. In Chicago, Jason has directed productions, workshops and readings, as well as served as assistant director, for Stage Left Theatre, Victory Gardens Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, Second City, Village Players Performing Arts Center, n.u.f.a.n. ensemble, PEOPLE*S Theatre of Chicago and Wooden Rocket Productions.

Christine was most recently seen as at Stage Left as Sophia in the LeapFest 2 presentation of Fellow Travellers, and in The Vow. Elsewhere, she was seen in Mary Arrchie's production of Shakespeare Kung Fu, and this past summer as Ariel in The Tempest at Talisman Theatre. She has worked with many theatres around Chicago, including Stage Left, Circle Theatre, Chicago Jewish Theatre, First Folio Shakespeare, Breadline, and Trapdoor. Favorite roles include Bailey in the world premiere of Strange Light at the Bailiwick Pride Series and Jackie in Kinder, Gentler. She holds an MFA in acting from Penn State University, a BFA from Northern Illinois University, and is a Stage Left Ensemble member.

Kevin Heckman has directed several of Stage Left's most memorable shows from the past five seasons, including the Midwest Premiere of Echoes of Another Man (Jeff Recommended), Chagrin Falls (Jeff Nomination - Best Production; Jeff Citation - Best New Work), Burying the Bones (Jeff Nomination - Best New Work), The Vow (Jeff Nomination - Set Design), The Memorandum (Jeff Recommended) and Cyber Serenade. Additionally, he's directed numerous readings for Stage Left and Chicago Dramatists along with the Jeff Recommended Feathers In The Wind at Chicago Jewish Theatre; Macbeth (April, 2009) and The Girl in the Iron Mask for Babes With Blades; and The Tempest and Two Gentlemen of Verona for Talisman Theatre. As an actor he's appeared in Spare Change, The (W)hole Thing, Good Woman of Setzuan and Sing For Your Supper at Stage Left along with appearances at Chicago Shakespeare, Apple Tree, Illinois Theatre Center, The Aardvark and Shakespeare's Motley Crew. He has designed lights for Stage Left's productions of Prairie Lights, Empty and Julius Caesar and won an After Dark Award for light design for his work on Bailiwick Repertory's production of Rope. He served as Artistic Director or Managing director of Stage Left from 2000 to 2008 and presently is the Managing Director at Next Theatre Company. Originally he hails from New England, growing up in Maine and attending school at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Presently he lives in Evanston with his wife Christine, and their twin daughters, born in May of 2009.

Stage Left Theatre’s critically acclaimed Chicago production of Margaret Lewis’s play Burying the Bones (Spring 2004) received an Equity Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for Best New Work. Her play Perfect World was produced in December at Chicago’s Infamous Commonwealth Theatre. Fellow Travellers won the Dayton Playhouse’s 2004 FutureFest competition , and received an April workshop production in Stage Left’s LeapFest and was a finalist in the Playwrights First Competition. Lewis’s first play, Charms for Protection, won the 1998 Julie Harris Playwriting Competition, and her second play, Float, opened the 2000 season at Melbourne’s renown New Theatre. Creole was a finalist in the 2004 SWTA New Play Contest. Ms. Lewis’s work has also been staged in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. She received a 2004 Artists Fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council, and past awards from the Tremain Foundation and PEN. She is a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists, an ensemble member of Stage Left Theatre, an American Theatre Company Relative, and a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Women’s Theatre Alliance, the Director/Playwrights Association of Chicago and The Playwrights Collective. Ms. Lewis is pleased to share Stage Left’s season with Mia McCullough’s beautiful play Echoes of Another Man.

Drew has worked for over 20 years in professional theatre as a director, producer, finance manager, designer, technician and educator. Shows he has directed in Chicago have been nominated for nine Joseph Jefferson Awards, winning five, including Outstanding Director for Leander Stillwell. His work includes the World Premieres of Prairie Lights, Police Deaf Near Far, Sing For Your Supper, Watchdog, Tasters Choice, Dapples and Grays, Rage of the Ages, Arthur’s Dream and Maxwell Street. Other directing work includes, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, Out Of Spite: Tales of Survival in Sarajevo, Escape From Happiness, In White America, Theatre II, Bocon, We The People and Kid Dinosaur. He has also managed finances for several commercial and non-profit producers, including Court Theatre, Performing Arts Chicago and Perkins Productions/Royal George Theatre (including the Broadway production of I Hate Hamlet). He was Producer of two episodes of Magic Door Television Theatre and has taught theatre routinely in high schools and colleges. Drew was Artistic Director of Stage Left until 2000 and remains an active Ensemble Member. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College, where he also studied in London with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Brian joined Stage Left after performing in LeapFests 1 & 3, playing Dirk in Somebody Foriegn, and Franz in The Human Capacity. Brian has since been seen on Stage Left's boards as Justin Hammond in After Ashley and George Ellis in Omniscience. His voice also made a cameo appearance in Leapfest 5 as a radio baseball announcer in The Fisherman. Some of Brian's favorite roles include Edward Hyde in City Lit's Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Eddie in Over the Tavern, at Theatre at the Center, Proteus in Two Gentlemen of Verona, at the Talisman Theatre, Mr. Mell in The Play's the Thing at the Theatre Building Chicago, and Hugo in the Goodman's staged reading of B.F.E. Brian has also been seen at Chicago Shakespeare-Short Shakes MacBeth and Romeo and Juliet, Lifeline-Velveteen Rabbit and Long Way from Chicago, Mary Archie -Richard II, The Royal George- Verbatim Verboten, and Chicago Jewish Theatre- Stroop Report and The Speaking Head. Brian is also a voice over and film actor in and around Chicago. In addition to his acting credits, Brian also teaches karate and choreographs violence for the stage and occasionally screen. Brian is an apprentice member of the United Stuntmens Association. For more information go to www.brianplo.com.

Mark Pracht was raised in the mountains near Colorado Springs, Colorado. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Nebraska, Kearney, and was a company member of the Sheleterbelt Theatre in Omaha, Nebraska. During that time, he worked on seven world premiere productions, including his own play, Neon. He has also toured nationally as the ghost of Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol for The Nebraska Theatre Caravan. Since 2001, he has worked in the Chicago community, including Trap Door, Lifeline, and The Side Project. He also served as the Artistic Director of Brown Couch Theatre Company. Past productions include Stage Left’s The Day of Knowledge, Dashiell Hamlet at City Lit Theatre, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest with Open Eye Productions.

David has won several major awards, including the Los Angeles DramaLogue, several Jeffs and Emmys, and three After Dark Awards. Among his award-winning works are four produced by Stage Left – “Cuttings”, “Prairie Lights,” “Police Deaf Near Far,” “Leander Stillwell,” and “Dapples and Grays.” He is a resident playwright with Chicago Dramatists as well as an ensemble member of Stage Left.  He currently heads the Playwriting Program at Southern Illinois University and was named Playwrighting Teacher of the Year, 2002-2003.

David is an accomplished director and theatre administrator and has been an ensemble member at Stage Left since 2002. During his tenure, he has directed Skin in Flames, Fellow Travellers, The Good Woman of Setzuan, and the musical Prairie Lights. Other directing credits include The Cherry Orchard, Our Town and The Diary of Anne Frank (Village Players Theatre), Buried Child, The Measures Taken and Trinkets (Roosevelt University), The Philadelphia and English Made Simple (The Brick Theatre Company), subUrbia and Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss (This Isn't Brain Surgery Theatre Company (TIBS) - Greeley, CO), and the world premiere of Hamlet Crucified (1999 Bailiwick Director's Festival). The former Artistic Director of the This Isn’t Brain Surgery Theatre Company (TIBS) in Greely, CO, David has also been on the Board of Directors for Katharsis Theatre Company, the Uptown Theatre Consortium, and was a member of the Finance Committee of the Village Players Theatre. David served as the General Manager for the Lookingglass Theatre Company, and presently is the General Manager at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Mr. Schmitz holds a BA in Theatre from the University of Northern Colorado, and an MFA in Directing from the Theatre Conservatory at the Chicago College of Performing Arts, Roosevelt University.

Adam has designed sound at Stage Left for LeapFest 6 and The Day of Knowledge. His other recent credits include sound design for The Giver and Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry (T.Y.A. Series), Haywire! (Hell in a Handbag), 2006-2008 Ten Minutes, The Gathering Note, and Madwoman of Chaillot (A/I Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville); and assistant sound design for The Autumn Garden (Eclipse Theatre Co.). Adam is a founding member of LBK Productions and Off Target Productions.

Chelsey is very pleased to be a part of the Stage Left Ensemble. Since moving to Chicago in 2005, Chelsey stage managed Chicago Jewish Theatre’s World Premiere production of “Feathers in the Wind”, with fellow ensemble members David Rush (writer) and Kevin Heckman (director). She also stage managed for Stage Left’s production of “In Times of War”, written by fellow new ensemble member David Alan Moore. In addition to full-length performances, Chelsey has also worked as the technical director for Donny's Skybox Theatre at The Second City. She currently resides in Lakeview and owes her success to the support she receives from her parents, friends and inspirational boyfriend, John Steeno.

Greg's Stage Left directing credits include After Ashley and Ruby Vector in LeapFest 6. Greg has worked as a theater administrator and director in Chicago for more than 10 years. He is the Managing Director of ComedySportz Theatre and recently completed a build-out of their beautiful new theater in Lakeview. Other directing credits include Rumors and Loveliest Afternoon for Eclipse Theatre Company, Voice of the Prairie and The Eight for Dolphinback Theatre (of which he was a founding member), A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Equity Library Theatre and Angels in America at Lake Forest College.