YOB: Share New Song "The Screen" via Rolling Stone; Our Raw Heart is Due Out June 8

YOB: Share New Song "The Screen" 

via Rolling Stone

Our Raw Heart is due out June 8 on CD/2xLP/Deluxe 2xLP Boxset/CS/Digital

Photo Credit: Jimmy Hubbard

Listen to "The Screen" via Rolling Stone HERE

YOB, who recently announced the release of their eighth album, Our Raw Heart, on June 8 via Relapse Records, share “The Screen” on Rolling Stone HERE as the Oregon trio reveal the album artwork and pre-orders are made available.



“There was no guarantee that I was going to live long enough to record the album," said singer/guitar player Mike Scheidt in an accompanying interview about the 7-track release. 

Physical pre-orders are available via Relapse.com HERE with various physical bundles including a super deluxe 2XLP boxset (limited to 100 copies), a white/gold splattered deluxe version (limited to 300 copies), various merchandise and other formats including cassette and CD. Digital downloads can be found at the AT THIS LOCATION and include an instant download of “The Screen.”

Our Raw Heart was co-produced by the band and Billy Barnett at Gung Ho Studio in Eugene, Ore., with mastering handled by Heba Kadry (The Mars Volta, Diamanda Galas, Slowdive). Decibel Magazine and Stereogum named the release as one of their most anticipated albums of 2018.


Our Raw Heart tracklist:

Ablaze
The Screen
In Reverie
Lung Reach
Beauty in Falling Leaves
Original Face
Our Raw Heart

YOB’s most recent release, Clearing the Path to Ascend, was one of 2014’s most heralded releases, with Rolling Stone saying the music “makes perfect bedfellows of volume and beauty, pain and transcendence.” Stereogum said the four-track album offers “a universe unto itself” while Decibel said the songs were “as riveting as you could ever hope for them to be.”



YOB Tour Dates:

May 25 Vancouver, BC @ Modified Ghost Festival

--- All Dates Jun 14 - Jul 14 w/ Bell Witch ---

June 14 Oklahoma City, OK @ 89th Street
June 15 Austin, TX @ Austin Terror Fest
June 16 Little Rock, AR @ Mutants of the Monster 2018
June 17 Memphis, TN @ Hi Tone
June 19 Birmingham, AL @ Saturn
June 20 Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
June 22 Orlando, FL @ SoundBar
June 23 Wilmington, NC @ Reggies
June 24 Asheville, NC @ Mothlight
June 25 Raleigh, NC @ King’s
June 27 Baltimore, MD @ Metro
June 28 New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge
June 29 Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
June 30 Boston, MA @ Middle East
July 02 Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rosa
July 03 Ottawa, ON @ Mavericks
July 04 Toronto, ON @ Mod Club
July 06 Pittsburgh, PA @ Rex Theatre
July 07 Detroit, MI @ El Club
July 08 Chicago, IL @ Reggies
July 09 Chicago, IL  @Reggies
July 10 St. Paul, MN @ Club
July 11 Omaha, NE @ Lookout Lounge
July 12 Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theatre
July 13 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
July 14 Boise, ID @ Neurolux

OFFICIAL YOB LINKS:
www.yobislove.com
www.facebook.com/quantumyob
www.twitter.com/quantumyob
www.instagram/com/quantumyob






Gruesome
Twisted Prayers
Available June 01

Skinless
Savagery
Available May 11

Control Denied
The Fragile Art of Existence (Vinyl)
Available June 01

The Gift Theatre's giftLit Resumes at Community Tavern at 8pm May 1, 2018

The Gift Theatre Presents 

giftLit

Tuesday, May 1, 2018 at Community Tavern

(left to right) Katherine Bourne, Sherman Edwards and Shaina Warfield are among the writers featured in The Gift Theatre’s May 2018 giftLit.

Join The Gift Theatre for a line-up of local writers, actors and musicians at giftLit, an evening of stories, wine and entertainment in the grand tradition of a Parisian salon on Tuesday, May 1, 2018 at 8 pm at Community Tavern, 4038 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago’s Jefferson Park neighborhood. May giftLit writers include Maggie Andersen, Katherine Bourne, Sherman Edwards and Shaina Warfield. Tickets, priced at $10, are currently available at thegifttheatre.org. Advance reservations are highly recommended.

About giftLit
The giftLIT salons happen several times a year at Community Tavern. A salon has historically been defined as “a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of participants through conversation.” What does that mean to the Gift? It means we round up a diverse group of writers and performers – some experienced, some rookies, some comedians, some poets. We give them all the same prompt and ask them to tell their stories while we drink good wine and eat good food. In between stories, we enjoy live music. At the Gift, we strongly believe that these story-sharing experiences create meaningful connections among individuals and within our community.

About the Writers
Katherine Bourne makes her giftLit debut In Chicago, she has worked with The House Theater of Chicago, Raven Theatre, The Gift Theatre, The Women's Theatre Alliance and brings Shakespeare plays to high school students with A Crew of Patches. She is on staff as an instructor with Black Box Acting, and spent her summer on faculty in the Meisner classroom at The School at Steppenwolf. While living in in Dallas TX, her work as a producer and co-founder for Shakespeare in the Bar and The Tribe contributed towards awards such as Best of Big D, and The Dallas Observer Mastermind Award. She performed with Dallas Theater Center, Stage West, Watertower Theater, Dallas Actor’s Lab, and is an ensemble member at Undermain Theatre. Katherine graduated from The School at Steppenwolf Theatre in 2014 and is represented by Actor's Talent Group. www.Katherine-Bourne.com.

Sherman Edwards was named 2012’s ‘Best Stand Up Comic in Chicago’ by the Chicago Reader and has been lucky enough to perform at the TBS Just for Laughs Festival in Chicago, The Del Close Marathon in New York, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland and a few other notable places which has given him his cool, comfortable, laid-back style. Born and raised in Virginia but currently residing in Chicago, he can be found doing stand up, plays, improv, eating brunch with Brittany and can be seen on HBO GO's Single Long and FOX’s Empire.

Shaina Warfield is a 20-year-old sophomore from Dominican University. This is her first reading in the Chicago community and she's hoping it won’t be her last.  She gets half her personality from the protagonist of whatever novel she' s currently reading. The other half is written in a notecard in her wallet so she doesn’t forget it. She lives with her parents in Westchester.

About The Gift Theatre
The Gift’s 17th season consists of Stacy Osei-Kuffour’s world premiere of Hang Man, directed by Jess McLeod (March 2 – April 29, 2018); Shakespeare’s Hamlet, directed by Monty Cole (June 1 – July 29, 2018); and the Midwest premiere of Tony Award-winning playwright and ensemble member David Rabe’s Cosmologies, directed by Artistic Director Michael Patrick Thornton (October 12 –December 9, 2018). The Gift subscribers ("Gifters") receive admission to three shows, free parking at Gale Street Inn, free admission to all Wednesday night “Natural Gas” improv shows and invitations to special subscriber-only special events. Subscribe at thegifttheatre.org or by calling (773) 283-7071. 

NEW RELEASES: SONS OF AN ILLUSTRIOUS FATHER Announce new album Deus Sex Machina: Or, Moving Slowly Beyond Nikola Tesla Out June 1st, 2018

SONS OF AN ILLUSTRIOUS FATHER

Announce new album 

Deus Sex Machina: Or, Moving Slowly Beyond Nikola Tesla

Out June 1st, 2018

"When Things Fall Apart"

Listen Here

(Photo credit:  Ebru Yildiz)

New York City's Sons Of An Illustrious Father - comprised of Josh Aubin, Lilah Larson, and Ezra Miller - are proud to announce their brand new album, Deus Sex Machina:  Or, Moving Slowly Beyond Nikola Tesla, which will be released on June 1st, 2018.  Following a brilliant video for the song "Extraordinary Rendition," which came out earlier this spring, the band today share another taste of the album with the song "When Things Fall Apart," which premiered today via Clash.  Click HERE to listen to it. 

Sons Of An Illustrious Father were born from an inherent need to represent Otherness within personal identity, continuing the astounding lineage of punk rock icons before them who pushed the boundaries of popular culture via explorations of gender definition and sexual fluidity.  Theirs is a sound that leans back towards the outsiderdom and recklessness in music that paved the way for the likes of David Bowie, Iggy Pop, X-Ray Spex, Bikini Kill, and so many more. 

It is from this path that Deus Sex Machina: Or, Moving Slowly Beyond Nikola Tesla has sprung -- a daring record stuffed to the brim with socio-political ideas and sprawling gender theory which also just happens to be their most epic, most infectious to date.  The album is a distinctively literate statement of intent, an act of resistance from the outsiders and the fighters, aimed at the cerebral cortex even as it inexorably moves your hips. It's a specific direction they have charted ever since they first emerged a few years ago, before finally coalescing into a glorious, head spinning whole on this triumphal record. 

Casting a critical eye over a society rotting from the inside out - in their own words, "it's a funeral march for our world we have lost" - the music is anything but bleak and morose. Instead, it sounds enormous, weaving in sepulchral folk, punk, electronica, rock, and much more to dizzying effect. They define their undefinable sound as "genre queer," which sounds idiosyncratic to say the least, but self-analysis is not a preoccupation of this band.  And why should it be? Their obsession with the wholly immersive and visceral experience of music makes them wilfully flippant where particulars and details are concerned, and this record makes good use of their heart-and-gut-wrenching reactions to the dismal current state of affairs.  Indeed, Sons of An Illustrious Father have a miraculous way of turning the atmospheric anger, confusion, and turmoil into chest-bursting anthems meant to bring people together during disparate times.

Over the 9-song span of Deus Sex Machina:  Or, Moving Slowly Beyond Nikola Tesla, Sons Of An Illustrious Father's particular vision is celebrated fully and without cliché. Like all the seminal oddballs and aliens that came before them, they are looking at the chaos and disorder in the world right now with resourceful, refined eyes, and they see the glorious opportunity and enormous responsibility that affords. These songs are the end result; listen on and marvel. 

Sons Of An Illustrious Father will be touring America this spring; tour dates are below.

Tracklisting:
US Gay
Crystal Tomes
History
Extraordinary Rendition
Narcissus
Unarmed
When Things Fall Apart
E.G.
Samscars

 TOUR DATES
6/11 - Washington, DC @ DC9
6/12 - Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere - Hall
6/13 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's
6/15 - Boston, MA @ Great Scott
6/18 - Chicago, IL @ Schuba's
6/19 - Detroit, MI @ El Club
6/20 - Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
6/22 - San Francisco, CA  @ The Chapel
6/23 - Los Angeles, CA @ Echo

Sons Of An Illustrious Father:
Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram

The Hypocrites' 5 Hour ARISTOPHANESATHON Plays CHOPIN THEATER THROUGH MAY 27, 2018

Chi IL Live Shows On Our Radar:

The Hypocrites'

ARISTOPHANESATHON

CHOPIN THEATER, APRIL 6 – MAY 27, 2018

The eleven comedies of Aristophanes adapted into a five-hour marathon event, complete with food and a cash bar. The Hypocrites’ Lead Artist, Sean Graney will direct this script he adapted as a stand alone follow-up to the critically acclaimed All Our Tragic.





Aristophanesathon Tickets

THE ARISTOPHANESATHON: The eleven comedies of Aristophanes adapted into a four hour event, complete with food and a cash bar. Artistic Director will direct this script he adapted as a follow-up to the critically acclaimed All Our Tragic. Six actors perform twenty-drive actors in this energetic exploration of connection, failure, government, humor, and death.  (By the way, can you name the eleven Aristophanes plays? The Acharnians, The Knights, The Clouds, The Wasps, Peace, The Birds, Lysistrata, Thesmophoriazusae, The Frogs, Ecclesiazusae, Wealth.)

Tickets are moving fast, buy them early!

Tickets are $60, includes a light meal and snacks. Click any of the dates below to order your tickets.

Friday, April 20, 6:30pm

Saturday, April 21, 6:30pm

Sunday, April 22, 4:00pm

Friday, April 27, 6:30pm

Saturday, April 28, 6:30pm

Sunday, April 29, 4:00pm

Friday, May 4, 6:30pm

Saturday, May 5, 6:30pm

Sunday, May 6, 4:00pm

Friday, May 11, 6:30pm

Saturday, May 12, 6:30pm

Sunday, May 13, 4:00pm

Friday, May 18, 6:30pm

Saturday, May 19, 6:30pm

Sunday, May 20, 4:00pm

Friday, May 25, 6:30pm

Saturday, May 26, 6:30pm

Sunday, May 27, 4:00pm

For the first production under the Ticket Pledge system, the Hypocrites will perform The Aristophanesathon, Sean Graney’s follow-up to All Our Tragic, a four-and-a-half-hour adaptation that combines the eleven surviving plays of the Old Comedy Greek Playwright Aristophanes. This play exists in the same universe as All Our Tragic, but also acts as a stand-alone piece. The cast of six will feature Hypocrites Ensemble members Breon Arzell, Sasha Smith and Tien Doman.

The Hypocrites are working off of a new non-profit business model after the company was forced to cancel a portion of their 20th anniversary season. Instead of a traditional season of shows, The Hypocrites will operate on a project-by-project basis and secure all production expenses before each individual show is programmed. The company says “the capital for our productions will be obtained mostly through negotiated contracts with partner organizations but we are also creating a new system for funding self-produced show while testing audience viability, called Ticket Pledges.”

The company has invited thirty actors to join the ensemble, who will collaborate with Sean Graney to develop new material for the company. Dropping the title of Artistic Director, Sean Graney will become the Lead Artist. Kelli Strickland, the former Executive Director, will continue as a contracted advisor. The Hypocrites Board of Directors remains.

When the Hypocrites have a project for consideration, they will post the description of the proposed show online and ask for a set number of ticket pledges that will cover all production costs. Patrons may either Purchase a ticket or Pledge to Purchase a ticket. The Ticket-Pledge window will remain open for ten weeks. When a patron makes a Pledge to purchase a ticket, they will collect the patron’s name and email, but no credit card information. They will also be accepting tax-deductible donations that will be go toward covering the cost of the production.

Once a show reaches its “Critical-Interest” number of ticket pledges, the company will officially program the show and the patrons will be contacted to make purchasing arrangements. If a proposed show does not reach its minimum amount of ticket pledges, the company will not pursue that project.

The company will also continue touring their popular Gilbert & Sullivan adaptations featuring many Ensemble members and longtime artistic collaborators.

“We are extremely excited to announce these changes to our organization that will lead to stronger, more successful art being brought into the world. We want to make theater for audiences. Therefore, we are making the audiences a central part of the dialogue for programming each show,” said Graney.

“This decision just makes good business sense. This way, the business side of the company will always be operating in the black without reliance on surpluses in sales goals or fundraising to plug any revenue holes,” said Strickland.

In December, financial constraints forced the well-respected company to cancel the final two shows of their season and cut short the run of their well-received production of WIT. David Cromer and many of the cast members from they original blockbuster production of OUR TOWN returned for a benefit performance the help right the ship in January.

The Hypocrites Ensemble ensemble is now comprised of Aja Wiltshire, Amanda Raquel Martinez, Breon Arzell, BrittneyLove Smith, Dana Omar, Deanna Myers, Doug Pawlik, Eduardo Xavier Curley-Carrillo, Elle Walker, Emjoy Gavino, Erin Barlow, Geoff Button, Greg Hardigan, Isa Arciniegas, Janelle Villas, Jennifer Grace, Joel Rodriguez, John Taflan, Kate Carson-Groner, Kurt Ehrman, Lauren Vogel, Leslie Ann Sheppard, Matt Kahler, Maximillian Lapine, Mechelle Moe, Rob McLean, Sasha Smith, Shawn Pfautsch, Tien Doman and Tina Muñoz Pandya. The Ensemble is managed by Justine Palmisano and Miranda Anderson.

"Festival" Documentary Following Fans at Chicago Music Festivals Gets Distribution

What We're Watching:

Festival A Documentary 

The film was shot, crewed and produced solely by Chicagoans.

Festival, a documentary following five fans as they prepare, attend, and reflect on their music festival experience, is now available on Amazon Prime, YouTube Red, Vimeo On Demand  & iTunes. The film can be streamed online and on all major streaming devices including Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, and several XBox and Playstation consoles.

The documentary examines these individuals’ personal experiences and motivations against the backdrop of the festival industry’s much-discussed evolution from the late-60s to today.   
“It aims to be an honest and detailed look at why our generation attends massive events, what is sacrificed, what is gained, and why it matters,” says the film’s director and executive producer Michael Raspatello. “This is a collection of stories from real individuals, a snapshot of what happens when 100,000 people descend on a festival weekend.

Alongside footage of the FESTIVAL’s protagonists — a group of men and women whose ages range from 20 to 40 — the documentary promises a never-before-seen performance from Benny Benassi and in-depth interview with Bonnaroo and Outside Lands co-founder Rick Farman.  Somewhat inspired by the time-capsule appeal of cult-classic Heavy Metal Parking Lot (1986), FESTIVAL entwines historic footage of unnamed fans at Newport Folk, Monterrey Pop, Isle of Wight, and Woodstock ’99 throughout.

Festival simultaneously debuted last summer at both Bonnaroo and the Rhode Island International Film Festival, later appearing as an “Official Selection” at Noise Pop Festival in San Francisco and Hip Hop Film Festival in NYC.  

“Music festival culture hasn’t been in the film and television limelight much, our film provides a look into that world, without over-sensationalizing it,” notes Brent Kado the film's assistant director and co-producer. 




Check it out:

• Trailer: https://www.cowlampfilms.com/festival-a-documentary
• Link to Amazon Prime Video Listing: https://www.amazon.com/v/cowlampfilms
• Link to YouTube Red Listing: https://www.youtube.com/c/CowLampFilms
• Link to Vimeo Listing: https://vimeo.com/cowlampfilms
For details on FESTIVAL go to www.festivalthefilm.com

LINK WRAY’S “RUMBLE” INDUCTED INTO FIRST CLASS OF ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME’S SINGLES & NEVER BEFORE HEARD TRACK OUT NOW

New Releases On Our Radar:

 “SON OF RUMBLE,” A NEVER BEFORE HEARD TRACK FROM THE LINK WRAY ARCHIVES,  OUT NOW ON 7” VINYL VIA EASY EYE SOUND  

 The story of Link Wray sounds like something straight out of a Hollywood movie. In 1937, a boy from the Shawnee Indian tribe was taught guitar by an African American traveling carny named Hambone in the segregated south.  

“He’s the king.  If it hadn’t been for Link Wray and Rumble, I’d have never picked up a guitar.” - Pete Townshend

“Rumble had the power to help me say ‘fuck it,’ I’m going to be a musician.” – Iggy Pop

“Link Wray was a huge influence on all modern rock guitar players.  If they say he didn’t influence (them), they’re lying!” - Wayne Kramer, MC5

60 years ago, legendary guitarist Link Wray released his influential instrumental song “Rumble,” and changed the face and sound of rock and roll forever. The song has now been inducted into the very first class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Singles. This marks the first time The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has honored songs in addition to artists, and Link Wray’s “Rumble” was immortalized alongside five other singles. “Very happy to see Link Wray’s “Rumble” get its much deserved recognition by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” said Dan Auerbach about “Rumble’s” induction. “It’s a song that changed everything and influenced all that came after it. It's now time for that impact to be fully recognized and for Link to be inducted to the Rock Hall as an artist, where he always belonged.” Read the full details about the song’s induction via Billboard.

Dan Auerbach’s label, Easy Eye Sound has released “Son of Rumble,” Link’s intended, but never released follow-up to the song that introduced the world to power chords and intentional distortion. “Son of Rumble” is a never before released or heard track from the Link Wray archives, and the song, along with b-side “Whole Lotta Talking,” is now available as 7” vinyl here.

Link Wray’s “Rumble” became a flash point for countless musicians including Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Pete Townshend, Iggy Pop, Steven Van Zandt, Jeff Beck and Elvis Costello. The song was banned in New York, Boston, and Detroit, for fear it would incite juvenile violence, making Wray the only artist in history to have a banned instrumental.

In 1953, that boy became a Western Swing musician who played the wake of Hank Williams.  By 1957, he was a Korean War Veteran who lost a lung to TB and was told he’d never sing again. Yet, Link Wray spent the next half-century as the only one-lung singer in rock and roll, and lay the foundations for what the genre would become. The impact of Link Wray, one of Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Guitarists of All Time, can be heard in generations of American and British metal, punk, grunge, thrash, and psychobilly rockers, all of whom have claimed him and “Rumble” (and follow-ups “Raw-Hide” and “Jack The Ripper”) as their own. 

Tracklisting
“Son of Rumble”
”Whole Lotta Talking”

HELP OUT: CHRIS’ 4th Annual BIRTHDAY BELT FEST Is Raising Funds for Howard Brown Health 5/15/18

Help Out:

CHRIS’ BIRTHDAY BELT FEST CELEBRATES 

4TH ANNIVERSARY, MONDAY, MAY 14 AT UPTOWN UNDERGROUND

The 2018 Chris’ Birthday Belt Fest is “CO-ED,” and Features, For the First Time, Male Soloists Joining Chicago’s Top Music Theater Performers 

Raising Funds for Howard Brown Health

Jeff Award-nominee and HIV+ director/producer Christopher Pazdernik is pleased to announce the 4th annual Chris’s Birthday Belt Fest, a benefit concert for Howard Brown Health, Monday, May 14 at 8 p.m. at Uptown Underground, 4707 N. Broadway. Tickets are $30, in advance; $40, at the door on the night of the performance, and are available at uptownunderground.net or by calling 773.867.1946. Uptown Underground is a 21 years old and older venue and advance reservations are strongly recommended.

Pazdernik’s journey with Howard Brown Health began in 2009, when he was diagnosed HIV+. He has been receiving his treatments at Chicago’s health and wellness center ever since and has even become the Community Advisory board chairperson. In 2015, Pazdernik was looking for a way to give back to Howard Brown Health and raise much needed funds for the organization. As a popular and respected member of Chicago’s theater community, Pazdernik asked his friends - who happen to be many of Chicago’s leading talents – to donate their time and celebrate his birthday singing high-energy songs from musicals with 100% of the ticket proceeds going directly to Howard Brown Health and Chris’ Birthday Belt Fest was born. Since its inception four years ago, Belt Fest has raised more than $5,000 for Howard Brown and each year the concert’s audience and amount raised has increased. 

This year, Aaron Benham returns as music director and pianist for the evening and, for the first time, Belt Fest goes “CO-ED” featuring male soloists joining the “who’s who” of performers including Missy Aguilar (Porchlight Music Theatre’s In The Heights); Stephen Allen, Jr. (Porchlight Music Theatre’s Memphis); Justin Brill (original Broadway cast member of High Fidelity); Aaron Choi (Marriott Lincolnshire’s Honeymoon in Vegas); Nathan Cooper (Paramount Theatre’s Sweeney Todd); Max DeTogne (Jeff Award-nominee, Refuge Theatre Project’s High Fidelity); Nick Dryzbanski (Jeff Award-nominee, Refuge Theatre Project’s High Fidelity); Billy Dwyer (Pride Films & Play’s Yank!); Amanda Falls (Wisconsin actor and director and Pazdernik’s childhood friend); Nicole Michelle Haskins (Refuge Theatre Project’s The Spitfire Grill); Angela Ingersoll (Jeff Award, Porchlight Music Theatre’s End of the Rainbow); Callie Johnson (Jeff Award, Porchlight Music Theatre’s Pal Joey); Molly Kral (Boho Theatre’s Urinetown); Ryan Lanning (Haven’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch);  Michelle Lauto (Jeff Award, Chicago cast Spamilton); Eric Lewis (Jeff Award, Porchlight Music Theatre’s Dreamgirls); Yando Lopez (Jeff Award-nominee, Chicago cast Spamilton); Donica Lynn (Jeff Award, Porchlight Music Theatre’s Dreamgirls); Adam Michaels (Paramount Theatre’s Rent); Lauren Paris (Refuge Theatre Project’s The Spitfire Grill); Samantha Pauly (Marriott Lincolnshire’s Honeymoon in Vegas);  Laura Savage (Jeff Award-nominee, BoHo Theatre’s The Spitfire Grill); Andrew Sickel (Kokandy Production’s Heathers) with additional performers to be announced. 

About Howard Brown Health
Founded in 1974, Howard Brown Health is one of the nation's largest health care and research organizations, primarily serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) community and its allies. It is the largest such organization in the Midwest and serves adults youth and children throughout the region. An innovative and patient-centered health home, Howard Brown provides primary medical care, behavioral health services, and specialty chronic and infectious disease services, and conducts nationally renowned clinical and behavioral research.

About Christopher Pazdernik
Christopher Pazdernik is a director/choreographer with "a near encyclopedic knowledge of musicals" (Newcity). He is best known for the critically acclaimed production of High Fidelity (Jeff Awards for Best Director and Best Production of a Musical) at Refuge Theatre Project, where he also serves as artistic director. Recent credits include Carrie (Ohio Northern University), Wicked City (Chicago Theatre Workshop), Planted (Chicago Musical Theatre Festival), Make Me a Song (Eclectic Theatre Co.) and Story of A Story (The Untold Story) (Underscore Theater Co.). He is also a frequent cabaret director and curator including Broadway's Cult Classics at Davenport's Piano Bar and the His & His series at Pride Films & Plays.  At Porchlight Music Theatre, Pazdernik is a proud artistic associate, and serves as company manager and casting associate and has directed, choreographed and assistant directed many productions. An openly HIV+ artist, Pazdernik was a 2016 Windy City Times 30-Under-30 honoree for his contributions to Chicago's LGBTQ community and he currently serves on the Ambassador Committee for the AIDS Run/Walk Chicago and as chairperson on the Community Advisory Board for Howard Brown Health, one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ organizations.

Photo by Matt Percy