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YOU HAVE BEEN ACCUSED OF WITCHCRAFT.

The verdict may already be decided.

In Ashi Day’s Waking the Witch, you, the audience, are the accused witch, surrounded by interrogators, animal familiars, and a world where conspiracy, fear, religion, and authority collide.

“The conceit is that it doesn’t matter what the answers to their questions are because they’ve already made up their mind about what’s gonna happen and what’s true.” — Ashi Day, composer & librettist

Darkly theatrical and unsettlingly timely, Waking the Witch examines how conspiracy, religious authority, and collective fear turn suspicion into fact, asking what happens when a society decides who is guilty before anyone has a chance to speak.

The accusation has been made.

Will you confess?

Cast

The Summoner

Angela Born

Angela Born

The Summoner

Earning critical acclaim for her “rich, clear voice” that is “geared towards storytelling” (Chicagoland Musical Theatre), Angela Born is a fach-defying opera theatre artist and she is thrilled to join Chicago Fringe Opera for their production of Fizz and Ginger. 

Particularly prolific in the realm of new music, Angela is a desired interpreter of new opera. Favorite roles include Lucinda in Dark Sisters (Nico Muhly), Patience in Patience and Sarah (Paula Kimper) and Harriet in The Infinite Energy of Ada Lovelace (Kamala Sankaram).(Honorable mention goes to the role of Whiskers in Robin Haigh’s zany The Man Who Woke Up. Can you call yourself a professional artist if you haven’t meowed your way through an opera?)  She is also the recipient of multiple Chicago DCASE grants and is the 2023 songSLAM winner for her premiere performance of Michelle Isaac’s “What Every Woman Must Not Say.” Favorite traditional operatic roles include Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle, Mimì in La Femme Bohème (a queer spin on the traditional opera), the titular role in Princess Ida, and Despina in Così fan tutte. Her most recent work includes the Witch in a touring children’s production of Hansel and Gretel (Humperdinck) with the Lyric Opera of the North and the Alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah with Wheaton College as part of their guest artist series. 

Angela was a company member with Third Eye Theatre Ensemble for a decade, and has performed with the Lyric Opera of the North, Loveland Opera Theatre, Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, Ouroboros Opera, Opera West, Valkyrie Ensemble, Thompson Street Opera Company, and Transgressive Theatre-Opera. As a concert soloist, she has worked with Wheaton College, Morton Community Orchestra, the Peoria Area Civic Chorale, and Artemis Chamber Orchestra. 

When not singing, Angela can be found obsessing over cats, bothering her husband, napping, and attempting to keep plants alive. Learn more at www.angelaborn.com.

The Priest

Caitlin McKechney

Caitlin McKechney

The Priest

Caitlin McKechney is a mezzo-soprano, songwriter and producer.  As a performer, she has been seen as Inez in Andy Vores’s operatic treatment of Sartre’s No Exit (Chicago Opera Vanguard, Florida Grand Opera) and Suzuki in Madama Butterfly (Florida Grand Opera), the title role in Carmen (Pensacola Opera, Opera Memphis, Painted Sky Opera, Tacoma Opera), Ruth in Pirates of Penzance (Opera North, Light Opera of NJ), Woman 4 in Letters That You Will Not Get (American Opera Projects, also Associate Producer), Lilli Vanessi in Kiss Me Kate (Broadway Theater of Pitman, North Street Playhouse, NightBlue Theater) and an actor-musician production of The Irish and How They Got That Way.  Caitlin’s first musical theater composition, Muse: The Women of Picasso, has been workshopped by The Shrill Collective in New York and The Chameleon Theater Company in Washington, DC.  Caitlin is also  guitarist, singer and arranger for the Opera Cowgirls, an all-female alt-country opera fusion band.

The Lawyer

Diana Stoic

Diana Stoic

The Lawyer

Described as “utterly luminous”, soprano Diana Stoic is a versatile performer who has been
seen across the Midwest and Chicago. Ms. Stoic is a member of the Supplementary Chorus of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She performs with many local opera companies and musical
organizations in and around the Chicago-area. In December, she hosts a series of Opera
Nights at the Del Rio Restaurant in Highwood, IL.

Ms. Stoic is passionate about introducing young audiences to opera. She participated in
outreach programs with Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre, Opera Santa Barbara, OPERA Iowa,
Opera for the Young, and was a teaching artist with Chicago Opera Theater’s Education
program, Opera for All.

For the past ten years, Diana has been sharing her voice through the Songs By Heart
Foundation, aiming to improve the quality of life for persons with memory loss through the
language and joy of music. This important work has been among the most rewarding of her
entire performing career.

Ms. Stoic completed her Masters of Music from the Chicago College of Performing Arts and
received her Bachelor of Music from Simpson College. She currently lives in Mount Prospect, IL with her husband, Bass-baritone Dan Richardson, and sons, Max and George.

Covers

Swing
Kimberly Hann

Kimberly Hann

Swing

Hailed as a “strong performer” by The New York Times, Mezzo-Soprano Kimberly Hann is a voice of rare depth and power in the contemporary opera landscape. At home in both Contralto and Mezzo repertoire, Ms. Hann is passionate about reimagining the ways in which operatic stories can be shared with modern audiences.

Kimberly is thrilled to be joining Chicago Fringe Opera as the swing/cover for Waking the Witch. Other Chicagoland appearances include performances with Chicago Opera Theater (The Nose, La Hija de Rappaccini), The Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company (H.M.S. Pinafore), and “Viva la Diva” – a reimagined concert breaking the barriers of what it means to be an opera fan in the 21st century.

Ms. Hann’s favorite roles include Bradamante (Alcina), Cornelia (Giulio Cesare), Countess Charlotte (A Little Night Music), Madame de Croissy (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Isabella (L’Italiana in Algeri), Baba (The Medium), Dalila, and Carmen. She has performed with Sarasota Opera, Chautauqua Opera, St. Petersburg Opera, Opera Baltimore, Quisisana Resort, and Opera MODO. She is a graduate of Northwestern University and the Mannes College of Music.

Originally from DC, Kimberly currently lives in Chicago with her husband. She loves to knit, do crossword puzzles, and play video games.

Instrumentalists

Piano
Otto Vogel
Violin
Tricia Park
Cello
Matthew Lucia
Flute
Kaitlyn Sibre
Clarinet
Michael Thompson
Percussion
Cleo Goldberg

Artistic Team

Composer & Librettist
Ashi Day

Ashi Day

Composer & Librettist

Ashi Day is a composer, librettist, and educator whose vocally-driven works explore unconventional intersections between music and theater, strategic use of humor and absurdity, reimagining operatic roles for performers, and animal songs. Her operas, choral works, and art songs have been commissioned or performed by Renegade Opera, Maryland Opera Studio, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Ithaca, Fresh Squeezed Opera, Hartford Opera Theater, Chants Libre with Paramaribo, Choral Arts Initiative, Whistling Hens, Balance Campaign, Calliope’s Call, Juventas New Music Ensemble, Cappella Clausura, the Arlington Chorale, KC VITAs,  Three Reeds and a Horn, and more. She is a 2022 Opera America Discovery Grant winner, a 2025 Come As You Are Fellow with Lyric Opera of Kansas City and No Divide KC, and a multi-year DC Arts and Humanities Fellow. In addition to composing, she manages education programs for the Washington National Opera and sings as a professional church musician.

Photo credit: Lauren A. Little

Music Director & Conductor
Otto Vogel

Otto Vogel

Music Director & Conductor

Otto Vogel is a Conductor and Pianist based in Chicago. CFO credits: Fizz and Ginger, No One’s Child, On My Mind. Chicago Credits: Falsettos (Court Theatre), Titanic (Marriott Theatre), NFSB: 1976 (Porchlight Theatre). Regional credits: Next To Normal (Trinity Rep). He holds a BM in Vocal Performance from Northwestern University.

Stage Director
George Cederquist

George Cederquist

Stage Director

George is the Producing Artistic Director of Chicago Fringe Opera, (called “the city’s alt-opera company” by the Chicago Tribune), where he most recently created ‘Op*erratic’, a Mozartian opera improvised in real time based on audience suggestions.  Other directing credits for Fringe include ‘The Rosina Project’, the company’s popular hip-hop adaptation of ‘The Barber of Seville’.

In addition, George has directed new productions and scenes with Opera Festival of Chicago, Chicago Dramatists, the Chicago Sinfonietta, Pittsburgh Opera, the Bay View Music Festival, Chicago Folks Operetta, Wolf Trap Opera, and Chautauqua Opera.

Digital opera shorts include ‘Telekinetik’ for Catapult Opera, later screened at the 2025 Prototype Festival, and called “a place where David Lynch would have felt right at home” by the New York Times.

An inspiring mentor, George is the Theatre Department Chair and Artistic Director of Opera at North Park University.  He teaches at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music,  where he was a Fellow of the Searle Center for Advanced Teaching and Learning.  He has also taught at DePaul University and Roosevelt University/CCPA.

Now in its eleventh season, George is the executive producer of ‘Opera Box Score’, America’s Talk Radio Show About Opera, heard on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and WNUR 89.3 FM Chicago.

George is the recipient of a National Opera Association award, a Best Music Video Award at the Aladerri International Film Festival, two American Prizes in Directing, Opera America’s Director-Designer competition award, and the German Chancellor Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

George’s training includes residencies with Pittsburgh Opera, the Merola Opera Program, the Staatstheater Darmstadt, and Wolf Trap Opera, and four improvisation intensives at the Annoyance Theatre.  He holds an MFA in Directing from Northwestern and a BA in Theatre Studies and English from Yale.  George is a member of Steep Theatre Company, and the American Guild of Musical Artists, and is a dual US-UK citizen.

George lives in Chicago with his wife, their two children, their cat, and their five chickens.

He uses a number of social media platforms, and that number is zero.

Scenic/Props Designer
AR Martin

AR Martin

Scenic/Props Designer

AR Martin is a Chicago-based theatre technician who is excited to be joining the Fringe Opera team for the first time on this production! Their recent shows include Peter Pan at DePaul (technical direction) and Mirror of Most Value at DePaul (props artisan). They are going into their final year at The Theatre School at DePaul University.

Costume Designer
Elly Burke

Elly Burke

Costume Designer

Elly Burke (Costume Designer) (she/her) is a chicago based designer and artisan. Previous production credits include; I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire (Refracted Theatre, Prop Design), The Last Five Years (Oil lamp, Prop Design), Spring Awakenings (Lazy Susan, Costume Design), Translations (Writers Theatre, Costume Research), Hamlet (Columbia, Costume Design). Elly serves as Haymarket Opera Company’s wardrobe supervisor, and in the summers she is a designer and teaching artist for NHSI’s theatre program (aka Cherubs). Elly has a BA in Theatre Design and Technology from Columbia College Chicago.

Lighting Designer
Abby Letscher

Abby Letscher

Lighting Designer

Abby Letscher is a Chicago-based lighting designer and theatre artist. Their recent credits include acting as assistant lighting designer for As You Like It at Writers Theatre and Albert Herring at Chicago Opera Theatre. They would like to thank their partner and family for their endless support.

Stage Manager
Chiron Finn
Head Electrician
Scye Piatek

Scye Piatek

Head Electrician

Scye Piatek (Head Electrician, she/they) is a head electrician from West Virginia. Before moving to Chicago, she worked at the Metropolitan Theatre (Morgantown, WV), Jacob’s Pillow (Beckett, MA), and throughout the Pittsburgh area. Since moving to Chicago, she has worked with IATSE Local 2 at a variety of venues throughout Chicago, including Ruth Page Center, Paramount, Ramova, Soldier Field, Harris, Drury Lane, Theatre Wit, and The Raven. Her most recent head electrician credits include: Sister Act, Father of the Bride, On Your Feet!, Nunsense (Drury Lane), True West , Frozen, Spelling Bee (Paramount), Dance Now!, Celebration of Dance (West Virginia University), Under the Covers (ACDA), and Shrek Jr. (Artistic Endeavors). She graduated from West Virginia University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Design and Technology with an emphasis in lighting design and a minor in dance.

Acclaim

Equal parts impressive and profoundly uncomfortable (and that’s a good thing.)

Storefront Opera Chicago

Media

Photography by A.Deran Photography
Supported by The CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture, the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Chicago Fringe Opera is member of Opera America, the nation's advocacy organization for the art form of opera.

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