The Chicago Theater-Makers Podcast

Catch As Catch Can with guest Audrey Francis!

I am so excited to bring you this episode with today’s guest, who is currently the Co-Artistic director for Chicago’s famed Steppenwolf Theatre. Part of the company’s ensemble since 2017, she has directed their productions of You Will Get Sick during the 2024/25 season and POTUS in their 2023/24 season. On stage there she has been seen in Noises Off, The Thanksgiving Play, The Herd, Between Riverside and Crazy, The Fundamentals, The Doppelgänger, and Dance Nation. TV and film credits include Justified: City Primeval, Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, Empire, Perpetrator, Knives and Skin and Later Days. She is an acting coach for NBC, Fox, Showtime and Amazon and finally, she is also the co-founder of Black Box Acting and the co-creator of Steppenwolf's corporate training program, Steppenwolf IMPACT. She currently plays the dual roles of Lon & Daniela Lavecchia in Steppenwolf’s current run of Catch As Catch Can, also starring fellow ensemble members Gary Cole and Tim Hopper and directed by ensemble member, Amy Morton. Catch As Catch Can Runs through July 12th at Steppenwolf’s downstairs theatre. For more info and tickets for the show, you can visit Steppenwolf.org [http://Steppenwolf.org] or simply click the link in our show notes. I’m so honored to chat with none other than Audrey Francis. Now let’s go, to the top of the show!

Our Pride Month Finale!

Our pride month concludes with clips of guests within the LGBTQ community, whom we were honored to have on the podcast during our first season.  We’re including these clips of previous guests because when we launched the podcast last July, we had just missed Pride Month and therefore they weren’t included in such an acknowledgement. And with that, let’s go, to the top of the show and our first look back to our conversation with fellow podcaster Broadway Bob Bullen! In this next clip with Paramount Artistic Director, Jim Corti, we get a glimpse into his training and his time with A Chorus Line, Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ and  Ragtime. Next up, we chat with scenic designer, Spencer Donovan on his process when starting a new project. Before our final clip, we want to thank you for your support of our Pride Month series. As always, it was an extreme honor to amplify these voices and that they chose to share their stories with us here on the Chicago Theater-Makers podcast. And now, here’s our final conversation with Femme Trans Artist, Sawyer Smith!

The Revolutionists with guests Iris Sowlat and Leslie SR Beebe

Our pride month celebration continues with today’s guests the director and a one of the cast members of the current local tour of ‘The Revolutionists’. Iris Sowlat holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from University of Massachusetts Amherst. In 2018, Iris was named one of Windy City Times’ “30 Under 30" LGBT Chicagoans making a difference, and in 2019 founded Violet Surprise Theatre, with Allison Fradkin. In 2025, she directed Amy Crider’s "Buddha’s Birthday" at Lucid Theatre, Lauren Gunderson’s “The Book of Will” for Triton College, and “Come Along for the Ride” for Eco Logic. Some of her favorite Chicago directing credits include “Romeo and Juliet” (with Accidental Shakespeare Company), “The Days Are Shorter” (for PrideArts), and “ABCD” at Piven Theatre. She is the director of Violet Surprise’s current tour of “The Revolutionists”. Leslie SR Beebe formally began at Second City in 2016, completing the writing and improv programs, with several of her written sketches performed on the stages there, as well as featured in Sketch Fest 2020 at Stage773. Drawing inspiration from Lucille Ball, Moms Mabley, Robin Williams and other classic comics who made physical comedy and character work into an art-form, she has appeared in the independent short film "Who's Waldo", and is an active member of the Theater of Western Springs where her performances include “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “Birthday Candles,” “Doubt” and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”. She is also member of the group’s playwright’s ensemble. She has performed solo and group improv shows for many private functions, has also toured with Violet Surprise Theatre’s production of “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche" and currently “The Revolutionists”. Tickets for The Revolutionists can be found using this link [https://docs.google.com/document/d/10bVF0Q0K6dcIzhtRDTR34gp4DG5uacjM/edit]. I hope you enjoy my conversation with today’s guests, Iris Sowlat and Leslie SR Beebe. Now let’s go, to the top of the show!

Breaking Bread with guest Nick Sanchez!

Today’s episode continues our Pride Month Celebration with today’s guest known here in the Chicagoland area as a cast member and understudy to the title role of Alexander Hamilton in the Chicago production of Hamilton, which he toured with for six years.  Born in Long Island, New York he received his BFA in acting from Marymount Manhattan College and shortly thereafter, made his Broadway debut as Angel in Rent and from there toured in the Off-Broadway hit Altar Boyz.  Since then, he’s been seen on Broadway and National tours such as Tarzan, Mary Poppins, Escape to Margaritaville, and in the Broadway company of Hamilton.  His creativity eventually led him to the Fashion Institute Technology, where he received his degree in interior design, a profession he enjoyed for many years in between his Broadway pursuits.  When he returned to performing and landed the tour of Hamilton like many others during the pandemic, he honed the skills of his third love: baking sourdough bread which be continued  on tour! I hope you enjoy my conversation where we talk about all this and more with today’s guest, Nick Sanchez. Now let’s go, to the top of the show!

Loki and the End of the World Tour with guest Mack Alexander!

Today episode continues our Celebration of Pride Month and today’s guest is a trans actor from the southwest suburbs of Chicago, now living in the Edgewater neighborhood.  He has been working professionally in Chicago and the surrounding areas ever since graduating with a degree in Musical Theatre from Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University in 2021. He was recently seen in "Fiddler on the Roof”, “Guys & Dolls" and "The Little Mermaid" (at Drury Lane) and was also a part of Flint Repertory Theatre's New Works Festival in "Laughing, Flexing, Dying" (Jayden). He is also a proud ensemble member of Sing to Cycle, a charity show benefitting the AIDS Lifecycle fundraiser in California, which ran annually for four years before the fundraiser ended. They are currently understudying the title role in “LOKI: The End of the World Tour" at LifeLine Theatre, now running through June 14th.  For tickets to “LOKI: The End of the World Tour”, please visit this link. [https://ci.ovationtix.com/36647/production/1246526] I hope you enjoy my conversation with Mack Alexander. Now let’s go, to the top of the show!