Sideshow Theatre Company Welcomes Ten New Company Members

Sideshow Theatre Company has announced the addition of ten new company members, including Ensemble Members estrellita beatriz, Adelina Feldman-Schultz, Hanna Kime, Tina Muñoz Pandya and Shariba Rivers and Artistic Associates Sam Boeck, Olivia Canaday, Sydney Charles, Micah Figueroa and Mallory Raven-Ellen Backstrom.

Comments Sideshow Artistic Director Regina Victor (they/them), "One of the greatest gifts of being the Artistic Director of Sideshow Theatre Company is the ability to collaborate with the ensemble to cultivate a community that reflects our artists, and our city. This past year we have spent time identifying our values and evaluating our ethics, which lets us be specific about who we are becoming, and who we want on that journey. We are all such huge fans of these artists, fans of their intellect, talent and values. Each of these artists represents the future of Chicago theatre in their own unique way, and I cannot wait for Chicago to get to know them even better through this affiliation."

About the Ensemble Members

estrellita beatriz (starr/e/bea, or anything non-gendered offered gingerly) is a poly-disciplinary artistic facilitator, doula, educator and change shaper. e started stage managing storefront theatres in Albuquerque, New Mexico as a junior in high school. Since then, starr has facilitated over 200 theatrical productions as production manager, stage manager, designer, educator, producer and fellow at theatres across the nation, including The Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, New Orleans Shakespeare Company and Tricklock Theatre Company. bea's work as an artistic facilitator mixed with starr's ancestral healing practice led e to become a death doula and ritual writer. Working at the praxis of grief, ritual and theatre, starr hopes to help guide folks back to their bodies through boundaries, intentional conversations and plant medicine.

Adelina Feldman-Schultz (she/her) is a casting director, actor and PHR certified human resources professional with an emphasis on justice, equity, diversity and Inclusion within organizations. She is the proud Producer of the annual Chicago Theatre Access Auditions (www.ctaauditions.com), and co-Program Manager of anti-racism training and Casting Assistant with The Chicago Inclusion Project (thechicagoinclusionproject.org). Casting credits include projects with Teatro Vista, Sideshow Theatre, UrbanTheater Company, Adventure Stage Chicago, Something Marvelous, Firebrand Theatre and more. Adelina serves as Casting Director and a company member of Firebrand Theatre and is represented by Shirley Hamilton Talent.

Hanna Kime (she/her) is a Chicago-based playwright. Recent works include The Best Damn Thing (2021 O'Neill Finalist, Selected for the Up: Renewal Reading Series), The Targeted (2020 O'Neill Finalist, 2021 BAPF Semifinalist) and Now More Than Ever (Produced by St. Louis Actors Studio, Winner of Oklahoma City Rep's Stage@Home New Voices Contest). Her full-length works have been read or developed with Steep Theatre, UP Theater, Jackalope Theatre, Sideshow Theatre, The New Coordinates, Broken Nose Theatre and First Floor Theater, where she is a company member. Outside of her own writing, Hanna works as a dramaturg and teaching artist. Currently, she is working as a Scriptshare reader with Playwrights Realm in New York. She served as First Floor Theater's Literary Manager from 2018-2020. She graduated from the University of Chicago in 2018 with degrees in English and Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Tina Muñoz Pandya (she/her) is an actor, musician and teaching artist originally from Washington, D.C. You may have seen her onstage at Court Theatre, Theatre Wit, Jackalope Theatre, The Hypocrites, Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago Children's Theatre, Steep Theatre, Shattered Globe Theatre and The House Theatre of Chicago, among others. She also enjoys taking her talents on the road, and has flexed her Shakespeare muscles while touring with the National Players and Montana Shakespeare in the Parks. She's also been fortunate enough to travel to some truly awesome regional theatres in D.C., New York and LA as part of The Hypocrites' wildly popular Gilbert and Sullivan repertory. A cellist and singer by training, so far she has learned to play the accordion, ukulele, spoons and musical saw while doing these shows and is constantly adding to her musical arsenal. She sometimes guests with a few bands around the city on different instruments, and teaches with Chicago Children's Theatre. When she's not running around doing all that, you can find her cooking, watching British crime dramas, experimenting with accents or recording for various different podcasts and radio plays. Check out her voice work, in all its silly glory, in the Chicago-based audio drama The Vanishing Act.

Shariba Rivers (she/her) is a Chicago-based actor who has most recently performed with Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre (in cooperation with Classical Theatre of Harlem) in their Expand the Canon series reading of FORIWA. She has also been seen in four of Sideshow Theatre Company's House Party readings, most recently The Whisperer's Apprentice. In the past year, she has worked at Goodman Theatre, TheatreSquared (Fayetteville, AK), Artemisia Theatre, Street Corner Arts (Austin, TX) and others. Pre-pandemic performances include The Tasters (Rivendell Theatre) and Hoodoo Love (Raven Theatre), for which she earned a Jeff nomination and a BTAA nomination. Shariba voices one of the main characters, Lily Harper, in the audiodrama, Unwell: A Midwestern Gothic Mystery, for which she won an AudioVerse award. Her TV/film credits include Chicago Fire, Empire, Chicago PD, Chicago Med and The Chi; she has just recently filmed her first feature film. Shariba is represented by Gray Talent Group. www.sharibatheactor.com

About the Artistic Associates

Sam Boeck (he/him) Chicago credits: Graveyard Shift (The Goodman) The Tempest (Commission Theatre); Dutch Masters (Jackalope Theatre); Witch (Writers Theatre); Insurrection: Holding History (Stage Left); Grapes of Wrath, Richard III (The Gift). Regional credits: An Enemy of the People (LA Theatre Works) and Gus's Fashions and Shoes (VS. Theatre). TV/Film: Unusual Suspects, August: Osage County, The Veil. Sam is represented by Shirley Hamilton Talent. www.samboeck.com

Olivia Canaday (she/her) is an actor, director and writer, from St Louis, Missouri. Sideshow credits include: Whisperers Apprentice directed by Sydney Charles. She appears in the upcoming short film, A Yellow Circus written by Ashli Rene Funches. Directing credits include: The Quill Reading Series, The October Storm (Raven Theater). Assistant Director credits include: The Last Pair of Earlies (Raven Theatre), Long Time Since Yesterday (The Theatre School DePaul). She is represented by Gray Talent Group and is excited to join the Sideshow Theatre family!

Sydney Charles (she/her) is very grateful to be joining this powerful group of art makers and visionaries as an Artistic Associate with Sideshow Theatre Company. She is also a Company Member with Firebrand Theatre, the world's first equity musical theatre company committed to employing and empowering women. Chicago credits include: Her Honor Jane Byrne (Lookingglass Theatre Company), Duchess! Duchess! Duchess! and Wally World (Steppenwolf Theatre); Theatre for One: Here We Are and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (Court Theatre); I Hate it Here!, Lottery Day and Father Comes Home From the Wars Parts 1, 2 & 3 (Goodman Theatre); The Color Purple (Drury Lane); Nina Simone: Four Women (Northlight Theatre); Flyin' West (American Blues Theater); The Wiz (Kokandy Productions); and Dessa Rose (Bailiwick Chicago). Regional credits include I Hate it Here (Studio Theatre). Television credits include South Side, The Chi, Shameless, The T and The Haven. Her other work includes Assistant Director and Dramaturg for Bug (Steppenwolf Theatre), Associate Director for His Shadow (16th Street Theater); and Associate Director for The Shipment (Red Tape Theatre). She is the recipient of 3Arts "Make a Wave" award, a Black Theater Alliance Award, Chicago Reader's "Best Stage Performer" runner-up, a four-time Jeff Award nominee and has been featured twice as part of NewCity's "50 Players of the Year." Proud member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. Represented by Stewart Talent.

Micah Figueroa (he/him) is Chicago based actor, director, choreographer and teaching artist. As a director, he most recently directed the Zoom recording of Makasha Copeland's Fabuloso! at Sideshow, and was the Assistant Director for Act(s) of God at Lookingglass Theatre. He has been a combination of Fight, Intimacy, Movement and Circus Director variously at Steep, Haven, First Floor, UIC, Texas Christian University, Northbrook and Walkabout Theatres, as well as Dallas Theatre Center and Shakespeare Dallas, among others. As a Chicago actor, he was most recently Bottom and Demetrius in DREAM with Chicago Shakespeare Theater and has performed at Chicago Children's, Writers and Lookingglass Theatres. Regionally, Micah has performed at Arena Stage, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Shakespeare Dallas, Theatre Three, Kitchen Dog, Dallas Theatre Center, Alliance and South Coast Rep Theatres. Micah holds a degree in Theatre Studies (Directing and Playwriting) from Southern Methodist University, and attended the British American Drama Academy in London, England.

Mallory Raven-Ellen Backstrom (she/her) creates Fairy Tales for Sun-Kissed Women, an anthology of short stories and a series of immersive audiobooks. A mixed-media artist, writer and intuitive healer. She is a member of The Goodman Theatre Playwrights Unit and a semi-finalist for The Athena Project Plays in Progress. Mallory's first play, Cephianne's Reflection, was a finalist for the National Playwrights Conference. She is also the recipient of the Tutterow Fellowship through Chicago Dramatists. Her play, A Laying on of Hands, was featured in The Story Theatre's New Play Festival. Mallory's witchy fable about womb magick and breaking generational curses, Once in a Bleu Moon, was showcased by Sideshow Theatre in the House Party Series. The Bright Light of the Soul was workshopped by The New Coordinates Theatre. Mallory is a contributing playwright to The Refracted Theatre Company's podcast, "The Swell." And she was hailed as a "craftsman of the English language" by Windy City Reviews for her debut novel, "Reasons for Being." Mallory has guest lectured at the University of California-Davis and Illinois Humanities. Her artwork has been exhibited at The Freedom and Movement Gallery and The Breathing Room. For more information about this multifaceted artist visit her at www.MalloryBackstrom.com or @FairyTalesForSunKissedWomen.

About Sideshow Theatre Company:

Sideshow Theatre Company is a place for the curious to converge and change the culture. It is the mission of Sideshow to mine The Collective Unconscious of the world we live in with limitless curiosity, drawing inspiration from the familiar stories, memories and images we all share to spark new conversation and bring our audiences together as adventurers in a communal experience of exploration.

Over its 14-year history, Sideshow is proud to have distinguished itself as a vital member of the Chicago theatre community. Sideshow was awarded the 2016 Broadway In Chicago Emerging Theatre Award by the League of Chicago Theatres. Sideshow is a multiple Jeff Award-winning theatre and has been listed on the "Best of" lists in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2018 by the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, Time Out Chicago and the Chicago Sun-Times.

Sideshow is also the producer of Chicago League of Lady Arm Wrestlers (CLLAW), a wildly popular fundraiser held in benefit of Sideshow Theatre Company and other local community organizations. CLLAW has been featured in local and national press, including The Washington Post, Reuters and the Chicago Sun-Times and on WGN Morning News, ABC 7's Windy City Live and CBS 2.

For additional information on Sideshow Theatre Company, visit sideshowtheatre.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.