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A dark, fractured fable about one man's descent into the abyss of madness at the hands of a loveless society.

Desperate for money to support his fledgling family, an army officer submits to medical experimentation for cash. As the experiments drive him to the edge, Georg Büchner’s eponymous play asks “Is there really any difference between man and beast?” This Chicago premiere of Tom Waits’ alt-chamber opera features a new orchestration by acclaimed jazz pianist Carl Kennedy.

Supported by The MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation
Production Design Funding Provided by Clayton & Rachel Mobley 

No Intermission

Based on the Play by Georg Büchner
Music and Lyrics by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan
Original Concept by Robert Wilson
Original Text Version by Anne Christin Rommen and Wolfgang Wiens

Cast

Woyzeck

Jonathan Wilson

Jonathan Wilson

Woyzeck

Jonathan Wilson is grateful to perform again with Chicago Fringe Opera in this meaningful production of Two Remain.  Previously, Jonathan performed with CFO in the title role of their 2019 production of Woyzeck (Waits, Brennan) and as Hannah Before in their 2017 production of As One (Kaminsky, Campbell, Reed).  Praised by the Chicago Classical Review for his “resounding and luxurious” voice, Jonathan is an enthusiast of contemporary opera with other recent roles including Robert Dziekański in I will fly like a bird (Plant, Wainwright), The Poet in When Adonis Calls (Borzoni, de los Santos, Dillard), and John Brooke in Little Women (Adamo).  Later in 2022, Jonathan looks forward to performing in several productions with Lyric Opera Chorus, Grant Park Chorus, and Chicago Symphony Chorus.  Outside of performing, Jonathan is passionate about math and science and their creative overlap with music and the arts to explore the intricacy, complexity, and beauty of the world. He holds degrees in physics, mathematics, and electromagnetics, and has worked as an RF electrical engineer and a lecturer of physics, astronomy, and Earth science.

Andres / Marie

Christina Pecce

Christina Pecce

Andres / Marie

Praised for her “astounding vocal expressivity” and “soaring full voice”, Christina Pecce is a singing-actress who crosses over the genres of opera, musical theatre, jazz, and performance art. She has performed with Lyric Opera of Chicago (Earth To Kenzie, Jesus Christ Superstar), Chicago Fringe Opera (The Great God Pan), Grant Park Orchestra (Broadway’s Lerner and Loewe), Timber Lake Playhouse (Man Of La Mancha), Out Of The Box Opera (Diva Cage Match), Fort Worth Opera (Carmen, Voir Dire), Boston Opera Collaborative (To Hell And Back, Rinaldo), The Company Theatre (Legally Blonde, Mary Poppins), NextDoor Theater (A Little Night Music), and Fiddlehead Theatre (Show Boat) among others.
Her cabaret series Witches, Bitches, and Divas! has been featured at Feintstein’s/54 Below, The Green Room 42, A.R.T.’s Oberon, Club Café, The Den Theatre, Stage 773, and Davenport’s Piano Bar. Deemed “truly spellbinding” by NiteLife Exchange, songs from your favorite standards, musicals, and operas are given a fresh spin to keep you enchanted and bewildered. Check out www.christinapecce.com for more.

Doctor / Margaret

Michelle Jasso

Michelle Jasso

Doctor / Margaret

Michelle Jasso is a versatile, active performer and director with credits encompassing opera, cabaret, theatre, television, commercial, and voiceover. Within her stage repertoire of over 25 leading and supporting roles, favorites include the title role in Puccini’s Suor Angelica, Sally Bowles (Cabaret), The Witch (Into The Woods), The Beggar Woman (Sweeney Todd, Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle award), Ursula (The Little Mermaid), and Elizaveta Grushinskaya in Grand Hotel, a performance which earned her a 2019 Jeff Award. Jasso has worked locally with Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Music Theater Works, Porchlight Music Theatre, Kokandy Productions, Teatro Vista, Lifeline Theatre, and Oil Lamp Theatre, and regionally with the Wyoming Theatre Festival, Opera Grand Rapids, Portland Opera, and The Industry in Los Angeles. Michelle made her network television debut in 2019 on NBC’s Chicago PD, will appear in season three of the Showtime series The Chi, and is currently in production for a new Latinx web series entitled Border’d. A proud member of SAG-AFTRA, AGMA, and the Alliance of Latinx Theater Artists (ALTA), Michelle is represented by the hardworking team at Big Mouth Talent.

Drum Major / Captain

Matthew Peckham

Matthew Peckham

Drum Major / Captain

Matthew Peckham is a multi-disciplinary Chicago-based artist and arts entrepreneur. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (BM 2012), and the Chicago College of Performing Arts (MM 2015), he has performed in operas, musicals, and choruses in numerous venues across the United States. His performances have been described by critics as “facile,” “fresh,” and “inspired.”

As an entrepreneur, Matthew has a special interest in fostering new works and in building sustainable arts institutions. Projects in Chicago have included co-founding the Chicago Vocal Arts Consortium, serving on the inaugural board of Thompson Street Opera Company, and helping to grow the classical music recording company Atlas Arts Media, where he currently works as Director of Operations. Many projects that Matt has helped launch have gone on to receive national recognition. Most recently, Rossa Crean’s opera The Great God Pan received the 2018/19 American Prize in Opera Performance. Matthew assisted both as a performer and recording technician in the pilot recording that led to Chicago Fringe Opera’s world premiere production in 2018.

His award-winning work as a performer, AV designer, and audio engineer has been recognized by organizations including the Roosevelt University Presidential Awards for Social Justice (Considering Matthew Shepard, CCPA 2019), and DCASE: The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (There Always, Something Sings, Midwest and East Coast tour, 2018/19)

As a frequent performer of new music, Matthew has worked with many living composers on projects including the world premieres of Rootabaga Stories, by Yvonne Freckman, and Jonathan Hannau’s Pierrot Songs. Other collaborators include Daron Hagen, Erik Lindsay, Rossa Crean, Paul Winchester, Ezra Donner, and Chappell Kingsland. Last year, as the recipient of a grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), Matthew toured the Midwest and East Coast with the recital There Always, Something Sings, featuring a program of music by living American composers about power of interfaith understanding and the shared core beliefs of Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

Artistic Team

Music Director
Catherine O'Shaughnessy

Catherine O'Shaughnessy

Music Director

Catherine O’Shaughnessy is a rising orchestral and opera conductor in the United States and abroad. Her performances have earned rave reviews from the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Classical Review (“great skill, alertness and sensitivity”), and Vocal Arts Chicago (“resourcefulness…scrappiness and…fierce concentration”). Avidly committed to Chicago’s dynamic musical scene, she is currently the music director of Chicago Fringe Opera, and Principal Conductor of the 5th Wave Collective. In 2020, she proudly helped produce Fringe’s contribution to the Decameron Opera Coalition’s Tales From a Safe Distance—winner of the “Best Collaboration” award from 360° of Opera—which makes innovative use of technology to reimagine this art for challenging new circumstances.

A semi-finalist in the 2016 Spazio Musica International Conducting Competition, Catherine made her New York debut conducting Antonio Salieri’s La Cifra with the dell’Arte Opera Ensemble. She has also music directed Pyramus and Thisbe in Freiberg (Mittelsächsisches Theater) and conducted Don Giovanni and La Traviata in Orvieto (Teatro Mancinelli). In 2013 she conducted the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra at a sold-out performance in Tchaikovsky Hall, and in 2017 she guest-conducted the Piccadilly Symphony Orchestra (Manchester, UK). Catherine holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in orchestral and opera conducting from Arizona State University, where she was a student of William Reber and Timothy Russell.

Orchestrator / Keyboard
Carl Kennedy
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. Recent directing credits for the company include LA JETEÉ and CORSAIR, as well as the company’s long-running hit show THE ROSINA PROJECT, a Hip-Hop adaptation of THE BARBER OF SEVILLE.
In addition, George has directed new productions and workshops of operas, musicals, and plays with Opera Festival of Chicago, Chicago Dramatists, the Chicago Sinfonietta, Pittsburgh Opera, the Bay View Music Festival and Chicago Folks Operetta.
An inspiring mentor, George is the Producing Artistic Director of Opera and Theatre at North Park University.

Now in its ninth season, George hosts OPERA BOX SCORE [America’s Talk Radio Show About Opera] on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and WNUR 89.3 FM Chicago.

To learn more about George, visit gjcederquist.com. He proudly uses zero social media platforms.

Movement Director
Natalja Aicardi
Dramaturg
Kevin Byrne
Production Designer
Brad Caleb Lee

Brad Caleb Lee

Production Designer

Brad Caleb Lee is a UK based visual dramaturge. With CFO he designed Lucrezia, The Long Christmas Dinner, Woyzeck, Corsair and co-conceived A City of Works. Other collaborators include East Riding Theatre, Opera’r Ddraig, Summer Theatre of New Cannon, Richard Burton Theatre Company, Elan Frontoio, Welsh National Opera, Opera Sonic, Music Theatre Wales, Prague Shakespeare Company, Theatre Tuscaloosa, Hell in a Handbag, and Filament Theatre.

Brad curated and designed YOUR VOICE!, an immersive community-driven exhibition reopening the Wales Millennium Centre, was the Curatorial Producer of Prague Quadrennial 2019, was featured in World Stage Design 2017, and co-designed the award-winning British pavilion, MAKE/BELIEVE for PQ2015 / Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Brad is the founding editor of Ascending and has previously edited other publications on theatre design. He holds an MA from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and both a BA and a BS of Commerce from The University of Alabama.

Lighting Designer
Ted Nazarowski

Ted Nazarowski

Lighting Designer

Ted Nazarowski has worked in many facets of theater throughout his career. In addition to his day job as a music and theater teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, Mr. Nazarowski has worked as a director, musician, and designer throughout the Chicago area. Recent lighting design credits include A Fool’s Journey (Misfit Circus), Lucrezia and Songs from the Uproar (Chicago Fringe Opera), The Violet Hour (South Shore Opera) and The Consul (Main Street Opera). He is thrilled to be working with such an amazingly talented cast and crew!

Stage Manager
Jon Ravenscroft
Assistant Costumer
Kristine 'Kat' Anderson
Assistant Costumer
Meagan Beattie

Media

Photography by Wendy Alas
Supported by The MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, & the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Chicago Fringe Opera is an Opera America Partner.

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