DANTE DIES!! (AND THEN THINGS GET WEIRD)
Content (c) 2023 Sideshow Theatre Company
"Lying, incidentally, is not a sin when done creatively."
Seven hundred years ago, Dante Alighieri began writing one of the world's most compelling and imaginative texts. This June, we respectfully screw it all up.
Sideshow Theatre proudly presents the world premiere of Dante Dies!! (and then things get weird), a new play by Walt McGough oh-so-loosely based on Mr. Alighieri's Inferno. Partway along the journey of his life, Dante finds himself mourning a lost love, feeling morose and, for some reason, in Hell. Trying to find his way home, he encounters incredible suffering, infernal bureaucracy, some sins of his own, and the aggressive attention of a competitive hot dog eater. Each step downward brings him closer to a personal reckoning with his own story, and maybe a chance to find an answer or two. Enacting the story single-handedly, versatile performer Matt Fletcher brings over fifteen different characters to life as he tracks Dante's progress through the nine circles of Hell in this unexpected and epic adventure.
Approximate run time: 85 minutes, without intermission
June 5 - July 13, 2008
Chicago Dramatists
1105 West Chicago Avenue
CAST
Matt proudly serves as producing artistic director of Sideshow Theatre Company, where he was last seen in Mai Dang Lao and both iterations of Stupid Fucking Bird. Other performance credits include Idomeneus (Jeff Award for ensemble), The Golden Dragon, Tyrant, Heddatron, Theories of the Sun, Dante Dies!! (and then things get weird), and others (Sideshow Theatre Company); The Killer Angels (Lifeline Theatre); Failure: A Love Story (Victory Gardens); Common Hatred (The Ruckus); As Told by the Vivian Girls (Dog & Pony); Chicago Fire (NBC) and two seasons with The Lost Colony on Roanoke Island, NC. Matt received his BA in drama at the University of Virginia.
Matt Fletcher
Dante and others
PRODUCTION TEAM
Walt McGough
Jonathan L. Green
Lisi Stoessel
Kevin Cannon
Ben Warner
Stephen Frost
Jim Ehrhardt
Walt McGough
playwright
Walt McGough is a Boston-based playwright (by way of Pittsburgh and Chicago). In Boston, he has held fellowships with both the Huntington and New Repertory Theatre Companies, and was a finalist for the 2016 Dramatists Guild Lanford Wilson Award. His plays include Pattern of Life, which was named Best New Play by the Independent Reviewers of New England, and The Farm, Priscilla Dreams the Answer, and Paper City Phoenix, all of which received Best New Play IRNE nominations. Other plays include Non-Player Character, Brawler, Chalk, Dante Dies!! (and then things get weird), and The Haberdasher!. He has worked around the country with companies such as San Francisco Playhouse, The Lark, the Huntington, New Rep, NNPN, Boston Playwrights, Fresh Ink, Sideshow, Orfeo Group, Nu Sass Productions, Chicago Dramatists, and Argos. In 2015, his play Advice for Astronauts was selected as the winner of the Milken Playwriting Prize. He has served on the staff at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston and Chicago Dramatists, and is a founding ensemble member of Chicago’s Sideshow Theatre Company. He holds a BA from the University of Virginia, and an MFA in playwriting from Boston University. He co-hosts the bi-weekly pop culture/comedy podcast Crossover Appeal.
Jonathan L. Green
director
Jonathan has been the artistic director of Sideshow Theatre since its founding in 2007. He has directed and assisted for Sideshow, Greenhouse Theater Center, Lookingglass, Steppenwolf, Goodman, Diversionary Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, Theatre Seven of Chicago, Pavement Group and the Earl Hamner, Jr. Theatre. Recent projects include truth and reconciliation, The Happiest Place on Earth, Antigonick, Stupid Fucking Bird, Idomeneus (Jeff Award for ensemble), and others. Recent dramaturgy credits include Blind Date, Objects in the Mirror, Gloria, War Paint, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, and Disgraced, all at Goodman Theatre. Jonathan is a graduate of the University of Virginia, currently serves on the board of directors of the League of Chicago Theatres, and is the literary manager for Goodman Theatre.
Lisi Stoessel
scenic designer
Lisi Stoessel is a scenic designer, visual artist, and puppeteer. She has studied painting, drawing, sculpture, and print making at the Maryland Institute, College of Art and at the University of Virginia's McIntire Department of Art. She also holds her MFA in scenic design from the University of Virginia. Lisi is currently based in Washington DC, designing locally and abroad. She has had the pleasure of working with many talented artists, including Pig Iron Theatre Company, Swim Pony Performing Arts, The Berserker Residents, Forum Theatre Company, Johnny Showcase, The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, and Inis Nua Theatre Company.
Kevin Cannon
lighting designer
Kevin is thrilled to return to Chicago after his first year as a Cinematography Fellow at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. He graduated from Northwestern university in 2006, where he studied radio/TV/film and designed for many stage productions, including True West and Romeo and Juliet. Kevin is currently preparing for "Unrest", a short film to be shot in Los Angeles next winter.
Ben Warner
sound designer
Ben is a sound designer. He has designed in New York, Illinois, Vermont and Virginia, most recently Sideshow's production of Dante Dies!! (and then things get weird) and the UVA Drama Department's production of Hedda Gabler. He graduated from UVA in 2006, which is when and where he met these Sideshow folks. He is also a proud, card-carrying NYC Local No. 1 stagehand.
Stephen Frost
composer
Stephen first transferred his pop sensibility to theater in 2008 when he composed and recorded the original music for Sideshow's production of Dante Dies!! In 2009 he went on to do the same for Sideshow's Everything Freezes, and for Firebelly Productions' Hamlet (in Arlington, Virginia). Stephen is currently a protege of Rick Baitz in BMI's screen-composition mentorship program. His music can be found in all the online stores you can come up with offhand, and his current indie-pop music can be found on his website as he finishes up his new album.
Jim Erhardt
stage manager
Jim is pleased to be working with Sideshow Theatre Company. He is a graduate of Catholic University of America with a BA in drama and is pursuing various interests in the city of Chicago and surrounding areas. Jim has both worked and volunteered at various theatres in Chicago including Steppenwolf, Court, Timeline, and iO.
PHOTOS
PRESS
"Recommended! Very funny, smart and touching... a truly wonderful performance!"
Valerie Jean Johnson, New City
"An amazing theatrical feat... hilarious!"
Scott C. Morgan, Windy City Times
"Vivid, intimate, visually arresting... Sideshow impresses!"
Barbara Vitello, Daily Herald
"A wonder--funny, touching, inventive, beautifully realized and utterly captivating."
Jack Hafferkamp, Edge Chicago
"Lively, poignant... Fletcher is most compelling."
Zach Thompson, Chicago Reader
"Impressive young talent at play."
Christopher Piatt, Time Out Chicago
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