LatinXcellence with guest Lillian Castillo!

It Takes Two with guests Devin DeSantis and Stephen Schellhardt!

Todays’ guests kick off our series celebrating Pride Month. They are a couple here in town who have been part of the Chicagoland theater scene for over 10 years. Devin DeSantis is a Jeff Award nominated artist who is regarded as one of Chicago’s leading theatrical vocalists, who has been honored to work with theatre companies and symphonies around the country and the world. A graduate of Northwestern University’s School of Music, and proud member of Actor’s Equity Association, he performs on stages in and around his current home of Chicago, New York, and many other wonderfully essential Equity houses around the country.  Favorite theatre credits include “Kinky Boots”, “The Little Mermaid”, “The Who's Tommy”, “Les Miserables”, “Next to Normal”, and the regional premier of “Dear Evan Hansen” (all at the Paramount Theatre), “Waitress” (at The MUNY), “Parade” (at Writer’s Theatre), “Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein” (at Drury Lane Theatre), “Anyone Can Whistle” starring Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald, and “The Most Happy Fella” starring George Hearn (at Ravinia). He was a singer for 4 years in “The Radio City Christmas Spectacular” starring The Rockettes at the world-renowned Radio City Music Hall and is a regular guest artist with the Colorado Symphony and San Diego Symphony, where you can find him every holiday season. In between concerts and shows, he is a lead singer with the Bluewater Kings Band and a member of The Four C Notes. Devin is the husband of today’s second guest, Stephen Schellhardt. Stephen is a Joseph Jefferson Award-winning actor and director hooked on theatre since the second grade when he organized, cast and put on a performance of “The Wizard of Oz” for his entire grade school. What followed has been a marvelous theatrical journey encompassing a musical theatre degree from Carnegie Mellon University’s acclaimed drama school and a professional career that has taken him all over the world. Stephen has worked as a performer, creative, and educator. He has worked with every Equity theatre company in Chicago as well as with the Lyric Opera Chicago, the Ravinia Festival, and Northwestern, Roosevelt and Rockford University. He was in the first national tour of “Altar Boyz” and performed in Jane Austen’s “Persuasion” at The Royal Winchester Theatre in England and at the Shanklin Theatre on The Isle of Wight.  Stephen also served as Associate Producer and Casting Director at Writers Theatre in Glencoe before becoming a visiting professor at Northwestern University and then Head of Musical Theatre at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt. He also served as artistic director and proud company member of BoHo Theatre in Chicago for six years. Over two decades of performing, directing and teaching professionally, Stephen recognizes that everyone has a story to tell, a song to sing and a distinct perspective to offer. His personal passion for education, social justice and employing his broad experience to help guide and coach aspiring performing artists has become a top priority.  I hope you enjoy my conversation with today’s guests, Devin DeSantis and Stephen Schellhardt. Now let’s go, to the top of the show!

Season 3 Announcement!

Hi everyone! I hope you’re enjoying a restful and reflective Memorial Day Holiday. I just wanted to take a few moments to first thank all of our fans and followers for all of your support over the last 2 seasons!  Next week we Launch Season 3 by celebrating “Pride Month”, where each episode the month we’ll feature members of the LGBTQ Theater-Making community. In July we’re back to our regular weekly programming, featuring new guests and conversations. And then in August we celebrate “National Wellness Month”, where each week we’ll have a theater adjacent practitioner covering the subjects of physical, financial, vocal and mental wellness. Of course, we’ll continue with our ‘Out of Of the Loop Series’ where we feature guests who may or may not have direct ties to Chicago, but whose work has famously been seen on the stages here or is renown on the National or global level. So, while we’re not dropping a new episode today, we hope that you’ll take some time to scroll through the archive of our first two seasons to re-listen to one of your favorites, or discover an episode you’ve yet to enjoy! Finally, if you haven’t already, we’d be so grateful if you would like, subscribe to and share this podcast with your friends and colleagues who you think would appreciate the conversations we’re having. We greatly appreciate your support so we can continue to grow and bring you these stories for many more seasons to come! Thanks again for being here, enjoy the holiday and we’ll see you next week when we launch Season 3 of the Chicago Theater-Makers Podcast. We’ll see you the boards soon!

L.A.'s Loss is Chicago's Gain with guest Joel Gelman!

Today’s guest was born and raised in suburban Detroit where he attended the Creative and performing Arts magnet program at Churchill High School. Moving on from there, he received his BA in Theatre Performance from Western Michigan University, and then his MFA in Acting from UC San Diego.  He spent 13 years in Los Angeles in guest starring roles in such shows as Modern Family, New Girl, Vegas and The Young and the Restless as well as voice over work on The Mighty Ones and Wolfboy and the Everything Factory' In regional theatre, he has been seen at Mason Street Warehouse, South Coast Rep, LaJolla Playhouse and The Hollywood Bowl!  Moving here to Chicago in 2022, he has continued working on stage in such shows as 1776, Frozen and Fiddler On the Roof and on TV in such shows as South Side, The Bear and Chicago Med. He is an outspoken supporter of actor self advocacy, mental health and the free local resource for union actors in downtown Chicago called “The Kaufherr Center.” For more info on the Kaufherr Center please visit their website [https://www.thekaufherrcenter.org]. We chat about all this and more on today’s episode with my good friend, Joel Gelman. Now let’s go to the top of the show!

Podcast For Two with guest Joe Kinosian!

Today’s guest grew up in Milwaukee got his first training in theater and visual art at Milwaukee High School of the Arts. Moving to NYC in 2004, he worked as an art department assistant for TV shows and rehearsal accompanist on the original Broadway production of The Color Purple before getting a taste of writing and composing. Upon joining the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, he met Kellen Blair, and their first professional endeavor got quickly off the ground. Their highly acclaimed hit show Murder For Two won the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Musical in its world premiere production at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and he was nominated for Best Leading Actor. Murder For Two's New York production was also nominated for Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle Awards and has played around the world. He has performed the role(s) of The Suspects over 700 times. His work has been performed at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, and on Broadway at the Theatre World Awards. His show It Came From Outer Space had successful runs at Chicago Shakespeare Theater and TheatreSquared in summer 2022, and Todd vs. the Titanic, and his newest show (with book writer Scott Rothman), had its World Premiere in the summer of 2024. He also wrote two children's musicals for TheaterWorksUSA with Marcus Stevens: Dragons Love Tacos (based on the bestselling book) and Live & Let Spy. In the world of podcasting, he wrote, composed the music, and provided 15 character voices for the acclaimed iHeartMedia history-comedy podcast Let's Start A Coup!; and also wrote the episode Spider-Man's Surreal Adventures on Broadway for iHeart's series Very Special Episodes. For TV, he composed "All Rise," a wacky production number for NBC's Night Court. And as an actor, he has performed in Two Pianos, Four Hands, An Act of God, Dirty Blonde, and (a lifelong dream) the title role in The Nerd.  Finally after 19 years of living in NYC, he has recently moved to Chicago making it now both his creative and permanent home base. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Joe Kinosian! Now let’s go to the top of the show!

LatinXcellence with guest Lillian Castillo!

Today’s guest was born in Puerto Rico and raised in Utah. She caught the love of moving people through song and storytelling after singing a solo at a multicultural assembly in junior high school.  After attending Southern Utah University, she worked for several seasons at the Utah Shakespearean Festival and then moved to Chicago in 2012 to star as Tracy Turnblad in Drury Lane Theatre’s Hairspray, a role she has since reprised multiple times. From there, she has gone on to play leading roles throughout the Chicagoland area such as Daniela in In the Heights at both Marriott Theater AND Milwaukee Rep, Elizabeth in Young Frankenstein at Mercury Theatre and most notably as Constance Blackwood in the original US cast of Ride the Cyclone which premiered at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre in 2015. Her performance as Constance has been captured as a full, live performance video which can be found on YouTube as well as on the original cast album. She went on to recreate the role of Constance both off Broadway and at Seattle’s ACT. We recently had the pleasure of working together in Drury Lane Theatre’s On Your Feet, where we became fast friends and after realizing we lived 6 minutes from one another, occasional car pool mates. For tickets to the Urban Theatre's R.A.W. Series, please visit this link! [https://ci.ovationtix.com/35769/production/1271099] For tickets to Lillian's upcoming production of Ride the Cyclone, please visit Metropolis Arts Centre's Website! [https://www.metropolisarts.com] I hope you enjoy my conversation with dear friend, Lillian Castillo. Now let’s go to the top of the show!