Cringe and grovel, all ye unworthy minions! Wallow in terror beneath the terrifying gaze of…
YOUR DEATHSCRIBE JUDGES:
Martin Atkins
Since appearing on the scene in 1980, Englishborn Martin Atkins has become one of the leading lights of the world of industrial metal. His label, Invisible Records, has been home to some of the most important acts of the genre. Born on August 3, 1959, in Coventry, England, Atkins took up drumming at an early age and soon displayed a notable proficiency. His first break came when he joined John Lydon’s post-Sex Pistols band, Public Image Ltd. Atkins left P.I.L. to concentrate on his new venture, the industrial collective Pigface. Throughout the ’80s and early ’90s, Atkins played with a large number of bands, including Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, and Killing Joke. After leaving the latter in 1992, he formed Murder Inc., inviting members of Killing Joke and Ministry to join him. As usual, Murder Inc. proved to be a shortlived affair, producing just a single album and a handful of live shows before folding. Since then, Atkins has put most of his efforts into maintaining Pigface and Invisible Records, occasionally joining other bands on a temporary basis. His most significant recent project, the Damage Manual, involved contributions from Jah Wobble, Killing Joke’s Geordie, and Chris Connelly. An EP and an eponymous album were released to critical acclaim, but the individual members returned to other things soon afterwards.
Deanna Dunagan
Deanna Dunagan began her acting career performing in regional theaters such as the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida, and the Actors Theatre of Louisville before trying her luck in New York City. She made her Broadway debut in the 1979 production of George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman at Circle in the Square as an understudy for Ann Sachs. In 1981, Dunagan performed in the first national tour of Children of a Lesser God. After the end of the tour, Dunagan moved to Chicago and has lived there ever since, performing in more than 30 theaters in the Chicago area. Her work on the Chicago stage has garnered her three Joseph Jefferson Awards and three After Dark Awards. She has worked in films including The Naked Face, Running Scared, Men Don’t Leave, Losing Isaiah, and Dimension. She has also appeared in more than ten made-for-television movies, in the TV miniseries A Will of Their Own and Amerika, and as a guest star on the television shows Prison Break, What About Joan, and Missing Persons. In 2007-2008, Dunagan returned to Broadway in Steppenwolf Theatre’s transplant production of Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County. For her performance, Dunagan won a Tony Award, Theatre World Award and a Drama Desk Award. She went on to portray Violet Weston in productions in London’s West End in 2009 and in Sydney, Australia in 2010. She can currently be seen as Nana in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit.
Ike Holter
Ike Holter’s work has been produced at The Steppenwolf Garage, A Red Orchid, The New Colony and The Inconvenience, where he is a founding member and resident writer. He’s received fellowships and commissions from The Goodman Theater, The Kennedy Center and The Playwrights Center. His show Hit The Wall played at Steppenwolf Garage and Off-Broadway at The Barrow Street Theater in New York. Jackalope Theater premiered his new play Exit Strategy, which played to sold out houses and transferred to Michigan at 3oaks Theater. It is being produced at Philadelphia Stages and will transfer Off Broadway to Primary Stages this spring. He was named the “Chicagoan of the Year in Theater 2014” by The Chicago Tribune, and his monologues have been published in The New Yorker and several editions of Applause Books. Holter was recently named one of Victory Gardens newest ensemble playwrights.
Brian Pinkerton
Brian Pinkerton is the author of novels and short stories in the horror and thriller genres. His books include Anatomy of Evil, Rough Cut, Killer’s Diary, Abducted, Vengeance and Bender. His series, How I Started the Apocalypse, follows the adventures of a smart zombie battling for survival against a hostile humanity. Select titles have also been released as audio books and in foreign languages. His writings have been published in PULP!, Chicago Blues, The Horror Zine, Zombie Zoology and Horror 201: The Silver Scream. Brian’s screenplays have finished in the top 100 of Project Greenlight and top two percent of the Nicholl Fellowship of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association. Brian lives in the Chicago area with his family. Find him online at www.brianpinkerton.com.
Marisa Ross
Marisa Ross is a Casting Director working in both Chicago and Los Angeles. Currently, she is casting the series Chicago Med for NBC. She is also the Casting Director Consultant for The Onion and all of it’s subdivisions (Clickhole.com, Onion Labs, Onion Studios, Onion News Network), and together with her casting partner, Christal Karge, just finished casting the pilot The Chicago Project for Showtime. In 2015, she was contracted to do all the pilot searches in Chicago for both NBC and CBS Studios and will do the same for the 2016 pilot season. Last year, Marisa was the Chicago casting director on Love is A Four Letter Word, a drama pilot for NBC. She is best known for her work casting How I Met Your Mother. Marisa has been the casting director on numerous television series including How I Met Your Mother, GREEK, The Goodwin Games, Tracey Ullman’s State of Union, Romantically Challenged, The Winner, We Got Next, Hollywood Residential, American Body Shop, The Showbiz Show with David Spade and Campus Ladies. Some of her pilots include How I Met Your Dad (CBS), Iceland (FOX), The Gabriels (FOX), Adam Carolla’s Ace in the Hole (CBS), Single White Millionaire (CBS), Drive (FOX), and Mindy Kaling’s Mindy & Brenda (WB). Some of her feature credits include The Virginity Hit, Snow Globe, and Nic and Tristan. Some of her Associate Feature Casting Director credits include The Amityville Horror, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and Hellboy. To launch her Chicago office, Marisa, led several casting searches in Chicago for 2014 pilots for CBS, ABC, 20th Century Fox and Sony. Marisa is the cofounder of the SCOUT Chicago Festival which is an annual comedy festival highlighting Chicago’s new talent. It is attended by casting executives from all the major studios and networks (including NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC, Dreamworks, Showtime, USA and Comedy Central) along with independent Casting Directors and agents from NYC and LA for a weekend in June. Marisa is an active member of both the Casting Society of America and the Television Academy which she has served for several years on the Casting Director peer group committee. Marisa Ross has been nominated three times and was the recipient of the Television Casting Director of the Year award in 2009 given by the Talent Manager Association.
Brett Sechrist
Brett Sechrist has been with Naked Voices since 2011. A powerhouse in animation and interactive media, Sechrist was previously employed at AVO Talent in Hollywood, where he represented such notable talent as Kath Soucie (Rugrats), Marcia Wallace (The Simpsons), and Bill Farmer (Goofy), to name just a few. Sechrist also worked with producer Mario Kassar (Terminator, Rambo) and various producers at Paramount Pictures before moving into the agency side of filmmaking. Mr. Sechrist is a Seattle native and graduated from the University of Redlands in California with a degree in Creative Writing and Film Production.
Kevin Theis
Kevin has been a director, actor and writer in Chicago for the past twenty-eight years. An ensemble member with the Irish Theatre of Chicago and an Artistic Associate with the Oak Park Festival Theatre, Kevin has directed for City Lit, CT20 Ensemble, Lifeline, greasy joan and others and has received three Jeff nominations for his directing work. As an actor, he has performed at the Goodman, Next, Festival Theatre, Seanachai, Lifeline and many others and received a nomination for his performance in Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me in 2013. Favorite recent shows include directing Lifeline’s Monstrous Regiment and performing in Seanchai Theatre’s The Seafarer. He is a three-time Deathscribe director, and twice directed the winner of the coveted Bloody Axe Award (Joseph Zettelemaier’s “Fish Story” and Chelsea Paice’s “We Apologize for the Inconvenience”).
WildClaw Theatre presents DEATHSCRIBE 2015 on Monday, December 7th, at the Mayne Stage on Morse Ave. in Chicago. Click here for more information.