Splatter Theatre was the first show for The Annoyance Theatre. The show was first performed at the Cabaret Metro, on October 31, 1987 and directed by Mick Napier.[1] Performers involved in the original production included Joe Bill, Marguerite Hammersley, Doug Hartzell, Kim Howard Johnson, Kaluah, Richard Laible, Geoffrey Lantz, David MacNerland, Jill Meyerhoff, Brett Paisel, David Pasquesi, Lyn Pusztai, David Razowsky, Al Rose, Barry Saltzman, Tim Slagle, Faith Soloway, Ellen Stoneking, Elizabeth Trask, Eric Waddel, and Harlan Wallach.
A spoof of gory slasher films, along the lines of Friday the 13th or Halloween, Splatter Theatre features thirteen characters, all clichéd horror movie characters—the high school jock, the virgin, the class jerk, the bimbo, the nerd—killed in various creatively disgusting ways.[2]
The stage itself is freshly painted white, and the actors wear white costumes, allowing the red blood to stand out for the audience.[1]
Remounts
With the reopening of the Annoyance Theatre, the company has begun producing Splatter as a Halloween Tradition.
Mick Napier directed the remount of the show in 2006, with an entirely new cast, adding effects to the show to change some of the deaths.[2]
In 2007, Andrew Hobgood directed a remount of the show, with several members of the 2006 cast returning. On October 31, 2007, the 20th anniversary of the Annoyance Theater, Splatter was given a special performance, which included several of the original cast members from the 1987 production. The returning cast members were Eric Waddel, Joe Bill, Ellen Stoneking, Lynn Pusztai and Margueritte Hammersley.[3]
In 2008 and 2009, Sam Locke directed the show, with a mostly new cast each year.[4] Ray Mees directed in 2010. Charley Carroll directed the next three productions, including the 2014 remount at the theater's newest location at 851 W. Belmont in Chicago IL. Sam Locke returned as bloodmaster.[5]
The 2015 remount is being directed by Jo Scott.
Jonald Jude Reyes directed the 2016 and 2017 editions of Splatter, which included the 30th anniversary of the show.[6]
In 2018 Splatter was directed by Joe McDaniel.
In 2019 Charley Carroll returned as director with Sam Locke on blood.[7]
In 2020, during the global Covid pandemic, with theaters around the world closed, the Annoyance created a virtual splatter experience. The virtual edition was directed by Joe McDaniel [8]
In 2021 Sam Locke directed the first live stage Splatter Theatre since 2019.
A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a generic term for any horror film involving murder, film analysts cite an established set of characteristics which set slasher films apart from other horror subgenres, such as monster movies, splatter films, supernatural and psychological horror films.
The Annoyance Theatre, or Annoyance Productions, is a theatre and associated ensemble based in Chicago, Illinois, that deals mainly in absurd and outrageous humor. Many people who have performed with the ensemble have gone on to become successful stage and screen actors. Popular productions have included Co-Ed Prison Sluts and That Darned Antichrist. Annoyance Productions currently runs classes in improvisation, writing, musical improvisation, acting, and solo work.
The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise. It is the oldest improvisational theater troupe to be continuously based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959, and has become one of the most influential and prolific comedy theatres in the English-speaking world. In February 2021, ZMC, a private equity investment firm based in Manhattan, purchased the Second City.
iO, or iO Chicago, is an improv theater and training center in central Chicago, with a former branch in Los Angeles, called iO West and in Raleigh, North Carolina called iO South. The theater taught and hosted performances of improvisational comedy. It was founded in 1981 by Del Close and Charna Halpern. The theater has many notable alumni, including Amy Poehler and Stephen Colbert.
Exit 57 is a 30-minute sketch comedy series that aired on the American television channel Comedy Central from 1995 to 1996; its cast was composed of comedians Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, Jodi Lennon, Mitch Rouse, and Amy Sedaris, all of whom had previously studied improv at The Second City in Chicago. In 1999 Sedaris, Dinello, Colbert and Rouse also created the Comedy Central show Strangers with Candy.
Mick Napier is an American director and improvisational theater teacher. He is the founder and artistic director of the Annoyance Theatre and a director at The Second City. He has directed Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Horatio Sanz, Nia Vardalos, Andy Richter, Jeff Garlin, and David Sedaris.
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David Pasquesi is an American actor and comedian. His screen credits include Groundhog Day, Strangers with Candy, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Return to Me, The Ice Harvest, Veep, At Home with Amy Sedaris, Lodge 49, and The Book of Boba Fett.
Merrily We Roll Along is a 1981 American musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by George Furth. It is based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.
La Commedia del Sangue: Vampyr Theatre (1992–1997) was a series of plays on the theme of vampires, first performed in New York City. It was started by playwright Tony Sokol as an extension of his 1986 show "I was Thirsty and You Drowned Me," a vampire ritual performance piece Sokol performed at the Anarchist's Switchboard, Centerfold and other clubs. The first Vampyr Theatre performance was at Le Bar Bat in May 1992. Sokol had placed ads in the back pages of New York City newspapers asking, "Are you a vampire?" eventually interviewing hundreds of self-professed vampires. These interviews became the framework for the 13 plays he wrote for La Commedia del Sangue.
Founded in 1988, Strawdog Theater Company is located in North Center at 1802 W Berenice Avenue.
The Factory Theater is a Chicago theatre company founded in 1992. Originally working out of a 50-seat storefront theater in the Rogers Park neighborhood in the northern part of Chicago, the company has produced over 100 shows during its existence. The typical schedule during the first five seasons of the Factory Theater was a Thursday evening show, a Friday/Saturday mainstage show, and a Friday/Saturday late-night show. In 1997, after years of ongoing improvements and renovations to the theater in an unsuccessful attempt to satisfy building-code requirements, the company moved out of its Rogers Park storefront and into the Footsteps Theater's space on Clark Street in the Andersonville neighborhood. They were itinerant from 2000-2003 then took residence at the Prop Thtr in Chicago. As of 2015, they have moved into their new 70-seat space right back in Rogers Park on Howard Street right by the CTA Red Line.
R. Rated was a late 90s American comedy variety TV show executive produced and hosted by comic R. O'Donnell. It aired on Fridays at midnight on WFLD Fox 32, Chicago, and featured sketch comedy troupes, theater companies, musicians, stand-up comics and other independent film and video makers.
Kerri Lee Randles is an American actress, writer and producer.
Co-Ed Prison Sluts is a musical revue that originally opened at the Annoyance Theatre in April 1989, closed in June 2000, and reopened in 2008, making it the longest-running musical in Chicago, Illinois, a title that still holds to this day.
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The Hypocrites is a Chicago storefront theater company founded in 1997 by Sean Graney, Brandon Kruse and Christopher Cintron. The company is currently run by Sean Graney and Kelli Strickland. One of Chicago’s premier off-Loop theater companies, The Hypocrites specializes in mounting bold productions that challenge preconceptions and redefining the role of the audience through unusual staging and direct engagement. The company has a reputation in Chicago for creating exciting, surprising, and deeply engaging theater as it re-interprets well-known works for contemporary audiences, reveling in the absurd while revealing the core of what makes classics classic.
“The Hypocrites, who with each new production, continue to rise not just to the rank of one of our city’s best storefronts but one of Chicago’s best theaters period.” – Newcity Stage
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Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween is a 2018 American horror comedy film directed by Ari Sandel and written by Rob Lieber from a story by Lieber and Darren Lemke. A stand-alone sequel to 2015's Goosebumps, it is based on the children's horror book series of the same name by R. L. Stine. The new cast consists of Wendi McLendon-Covey, Madison Iseman, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Caleel Harris, Chris Parnell, and Ken Jeong. The plot follows two young boys who accidentally release the monsters from the Goosebumps franchise in their town after opening an unpublished Goosebumps manuscript titled Haunted Halloween, causing a wave of destruction on Halloween night.
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