Let's G.E.T. Crafty! with a Ghostlight Ensemble Theatre craft beer fundraiser

Let's G.E.T. Crafty! is a Ghostlight Ensemble Theatre craft beer fundraiser at My Buddy's. Join us on Wednesday, March 7 at 7 p.m. to sample five craft beers, then have a pint of your favorite -- all for just $10. The money goes to Ghostlight, the beer goes to your belly!

Featuring the following brews:

• Metropolitan Brewing- Krankshaft Kolsch
• Temperance Brewery- Gatecrasher IPA
• Ravinia Brewing- Four Shore Witbier
• Founder's Brewing- Rubaeus (gluten free)
• Wiseacre Brewing- Gotta Get Up To Get Down Milk Stout

You can RSVP to My Buddy's via their Facebook page here to reserve your spot, or try your luck at the door. Either way, please mention Ghostlight Ensemble when you do!

Auditions Announced for 'The Selfish Giant'

Ghostlight Ensemble announces auditions for our summer show The Selfish Giant, written by Maria Burnham, directed by Maria Burnham and Miona Lee and based on Oscar Wilde’s short story of the same name.

The Selfish Giant is part of our Nightlight young audiences series and illustrates the perils of isolation and the negative consequences of selfishness, but it also teaches us that it is never to late for redemption and for love.

Character Descriptions:
Seeking a strong, ethnically diverse cast of all genders, ages, shapes and sizes, who love a good story and who have an imagination to rival any 5-year-old. Additionally, actors with strong movement backgrounds are encouraged to audition. This production will use a chorus of actors to embody not just the human characters in the story, but the mythical ones, as well as inanimate objects. This is NOT a dance piece. It is physical theater that relies almost completely on the ensemble of actors telling the story with their bodies and voices.

Material To Prepare:
Please submit your headshot and resume to Jean, and she will be in touch with sides and an audition appointment. Dress for movement and bring your sense of play.

Performance Dates:
Saturdays at 1 p.m. & Sundays at 11 a.m., June 7 to June 30 at Otherworld Theatre, 3914 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60613.

Auditions:6-11 p.m. on Wednesday, March 13

***Please indicate your availability during this window in your email.***

Callbacks:
9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 16

You MUST be available for callbacks. If you are not available for callbacks, do not submit to this audition. However, you do not need to be available for this entire time.

Auditions and call backs will be held at Otherworld Theatre.

Rehearsals will be scheduled around cast availability taking place 3 to 4 times a week during weeknights and weekends. However, as this is an ensemble production utilizing the entire chorus to tell the story, all actors will be called for all rehearsals. If you have extremely limited availability during April and May, we kindly ask that you do not submit.

To submit:Send your headshot and resume to Jean at casting@ghostlightensemble.com.

Ghostlight welcomes four new associate members

Actors Caitlin Jackson, Kirk Jackson, Sydney Ray and Emma Jo Schumacher have joined Ghostlight as associate ensemble members. All four have worked extensively with Ghostlight over the past few years.

Caitlin was most recently the host of our Holiday Cabernet and reprised her role as Ginger Spice in Girl Power!: A Spice World Live Reading.

Kirk could also be seen in the Spice World live reading, as well as appearing in Nutcracker Nightmare and The Mountain Giants as part of Ghostlight’s Six Authors in Search of a Character festival.

Sydney appeared as the Queen in last summer’s Nightlight production, The Princess Without Pots, as well as taking part in Must Eat TV 2: A Live Reading of Your Favorite Thanksgiving Episodes and the Holiday Cabernet.

Emma Jo has appeared in a number of our live readings, including most recently in Must Eat TV 2: A Live Reading of Your Favorite Thanksgiving Episodes and Oh My Godddddd!!: A Troll 2 Live Reading.

Full bios of all our artists can be found on the About Us: The Ensemble page of our website.

Up Next: As If!: A Live Reading of Clueless

With the cast of Clueless in town for C2E2, what better time to brush off the 1995 rom-com script and give it a unique, Ghostlight Ensemble treatment?!

So dig out your plaid skirts and knee-high socks and join us at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, March 25 at Carbon Arc Bar & Board (4614 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60625), located in the Davis Theater in North Center.

Clueless is loosely based on the Jane Austen novel Emma and tells the story of a shallow, rich and socially successful girl at the top of her Beverly Hills high school's pecking scale who sees herself as a matchmaker. She takes on a "tragically unhip" new girl at school as a pet project, initiating her into the ways of the popular kids. But things backfire on her when the new girl surpasses her in popularity. Hijinks and love debacles ensue.

After the live reading, Carbon Arc will be playing the movie Clueless, so stick around for a side-by-side comparison!

There is a suggested donation of $5 at the door, which will help Ghostlight fund its upcoming season.

Happy New Year!

We've got lots of fun things planned for 2019, including the next installment of our Nightlight series for young audience, more live movie readings, plus Season 3 announcements.

We'll keep you up-to-date with all our happenings here in the news section of our website, but you can also follow our social media (see bottom of this web page for direct links to all).

We've loved getting to know all of you over the past two and half years and can't wait for you to see what's next for Ghostlight. We've revised our mission statement to better reflect who we are and what you can expect from us. We'll hope you join us for the next leg of this exciting journey.

Up Next: Spice World Returns!

This month we bring back our third annual live reading of the Spice World movie. And unlike the ACTUAL Spice Girls, we’ve got more Poshes than we can handle!

Join Ginger (Caitlin Jackson), Scary (Song Marshall), Sporty (Jean E. Burr), Baby (Carrie Campana) and Posh (Emma Palizza) as they gallivant around England (with a short jaunt to Italy) in advance of their first live concert to be held at London's Royal Albert Hall. 

Spice World turned 21 this year (in America…it was first released in England 21 years ago December), so we’re taking this film out to a bar to celebrate!

Grab a gin and tonic (better make that a double) and join us for this live reading (and singing) that takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 16, at the Celtic Crown, located at the corner of Western Avenue and Cullom Avenue.  

There is a suggested donation of $5 at the door, which will help Ghostlight fund its current season, plus an additional donation of any amount for GirlForward, a Chicago-based non-profit with its own brand of Girl Power!

Ghostlight announces acts for its Holiday Cabernet

The Holiday Cabernet is shaping up to be quite a night of laughing, singing and dancing with acts ranging from clowning to improv to theatre — and just because it’s not weird enough, a live podcast.

Announced acts in our holiday-themed evening of cabaret-style entertainment include: Brad French, Club Asia, Les Enfants Terribles, Carrie Campana, Comedy Dance Chicago, The Holidudes, The Reviewniverse and Ghostlight Ensemble (that’s us!). Learn more about all these artists over on the Holiday Cabernet Facebook page, where we’re featuring a new act each day. And no promise that there won’t spontaneously be other performers who show up. It’s the holidays! Life is a cabernet…or is it cabaret? We’re drunk. Who can remember?!

The evening will be hosted by Chicago actress and personality Caitlin Jackson, along with her sober sidekick Chad. Expect singing and drinking and the unexpected.

The Holiday Cabernet takes place at 10:30 p.m. on December 14, 2018, in the back room at My Buddy’s (4416 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60640). There’s plenty of street parking (though you probably shouldn’t be driving); the Montrose (78) and Clark (22) buses stop a few steps away; if you prefer trains and walking, the Wilson Red Line and Montrose Brown Line stops are a 15 minute walk away; or try ride sharing/cabs — they’ll bring right up to the front door!

Tickets are only $10 and are on sale now!