Changing the world.  One imagination at a time.

About: Curious

Founded in 1988 by Jenny Magnus and Beau O'Reilly—as the Curious Theatre “Branch” of the alt-rock cabaret act Maestro Subgum and the Whole—Curious has consistently worked with an ensemble of artists in a non-hierarchical decision-making process, through which the philosophy of collaboration as a social force is explored on every level.

Curious Theatre Branch has produced more than 100 full productions of world-premiere shows in 20 years, amazing audiences year after year in how much can be accomplished for so little. Curious has developed its own recognizable style, using an economy of means and production to make deeper and deeper, rather than larger and larger, work.

In 1995, Beau O'Reilly was named one of the 50 most influential people in Chicago theater by Chicago Magazine. In 1998, Beau O'Reilly and Jenny Magnus were named among the Artists of the Year by the Chicago Tribune, and nearly every year since 1998 Newcity has included them among the 50 most influential people in Chicago theater.

Curious's Waiting for Godot and The Caretaker were named among the top five theater productions of 2006 and 2009, respectively, by Newcity. In 2007, Curious Theatre Branch won an Orgie Award for Original Theater for the year-long Samuel Beckett festival, No Danger of the Spiritual Thing: 100 Years of Beckett (best ensemble), which was lauded at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

If Curious Theatre Branch had been based in New York... this troupe of mature and accomplished performers would be receiving national attention. Graduate students would be writing masters' theses on its intense, collectively conceived work; progressive magazines would be writing laudatory articles; its shows would be appearing on college art series all across the country... this rich, complex, and stylistically daunting work is every bit as fascinating as, say, Mabou Mines...—Chicago Tribune
Going to the Curious Theatre Branch is like visiting the back room of your favorite bar: the place is a dump, the people are friendly, and by the time you leave, your mind will be wonderfully altered.—Chicago Reader
Ensemble
    Scott Barsotti is a writer and performer whose plays, including The Revenants, McMeekin Finds Out, Jet Black Chevrolet, and Brewed, have been produced in Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh, and New Orleans. He has appeared in Curious productions of Round & Round: a sexfarcetragedy, No Danger of the...Spiritual Thing, and The Madelyn Trilogy. He is also a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and a company member of WildClaw Theatre.
    Kristin Basta is a photographer who takes some pretty amazing rehearsal and production photos for Curious. She does the same for Theater Oobleck, too.
    Jayita Bhattacharya is an interdisciplinary writer, director, choreographer and sometimes-performer whose work includes ElvisBride, should we put it out? (the smoke), Make Sweat an Oak, today like a kind of shivering, and Green Science Bloody Done Hate. She has directed or assistant-directed Curious productions of Waiting for Godot, Endgame, The Caretaker, and The Madelyn Trilogy, Part II: The McGuffins Run the 440.
    Jeffrey Bivens is an actor, director, rogue video artist, and resident Web/graphic designer for Curious. He directed Endgame, Jet Black Chevrolet, today like a kind of shivering, and Make Sweat an Oak, appeared in Still in Play, Waiting for Godot, The Caretaker, The Turtle at Play, No Danger of the... Spiritual Thing, ElvisBride and The Madelyn Trilogy, and recently designed the video projections for Jenny Magnus' Still in Play at the MCA and Links Hall. His video work has been shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art and TEDTalks, and he has performed locally with the European Repertory Company, Theater Oobleck, and Northwestern University.
    Stefan Brün began his association with Curious directing the world premier of Careening Is a Skill; often since then, if interruptedly, he has found an inspiring artistic home directing with or being outside eye for and designing along various efforts over the years, including many of Jenny Magnus's solos, Beau O'Reilly's Dorothy Project, plus Brecht and Beckett—notably Waiting for Godot and Brechtdown 2002. As Co-Artistic Director of the Prop Thtr, he has often been a part of giving Curious a context, cooperation, an audience, a stage and a home. Particularly exciting now, the work with Matt Test on I Am In A Small Space For A Reason I Don't Understand and with Jenny Magnus on a current version of Room or the next thing and about daughter Lena, too young, yet, for a bio.
    Paul Leisen is a performer, cellist, and designer of lights and sets. He has taken part in over seventeen productions—probably more, and often simultaneously as an actor/designer/builder. He received a B.S. in Speech from Northwestern and has worked in the fringe theater ever since.
    Bryn Magnus is a writer and performer whose plays include Love Horse, Don't Tell Us We're Here, Natural Hostages, Illustrious Bloodspill, Prayers for the Undoing of Spells, and Right to Your Feelings, which was a Sundance in Chicago finalist. His work has been commisioned by the Steppenwolf Theater and performed in venues including the New York Fringe Festival, the Chicago Cultural Center, Cabaret Metro, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and London's White Bear Theatre. Bryn is author of the novels The Manipulator and The Big Promise.
    Jenny Magnus is a playwright, performer, musician, singer and songwriter whose work has appeared nationally and internationally with Curious, Steppenwolf Studio, Cleveland Public Theater, and The Chimney in Berlin. Her plays include Still in Play, The Trips, The Nowhow (and How to Now It), and Round & Round: a sexfarcetragedy, which was successfully remounted at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2008. A co-founder of the Curious Theatre Branch, she also teaches theatre and writing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, The University of Chicago, and Columbia College. She has released four CDs, including 2008's Songs From Shows, available on UvuLittle Records.
    Michael Martin began working with Curious in 1994, replacing an actor in Beau O'Reilly's Let the Dolly Do the Work. Since then his principal involvement has been via the annual Rhinofest, over the years fulfilling duties in press and promotion, house management, and assistant curating/artist relations. For Curious's Beckett Festival he played the title role in Krapp's Last Tape under Beau's direction, and more recently originated the role of Charles in No Longer the Rock of the World. On his own, Michael founded and directed Chicago's Great Beast Theater (1996–2002), where he birthed several original shows that still run today (including Beast Women and Verbatim Verboten) and New Orleans's Four Humours (2005–present).
    Guy Massey holds a BFA in Acting from the University of Southern California. He has been acting in Chicago for twenty years, performing in plays with the Steppenwolf Theater, Curious Theatre Branch, Theater Oobleck, Rivendell Theater, Eclipse Theater, Greasy Joan & Co., A Red Orchid Theatre, Prop Thtr, Teatro Vista, Next Theater, and Wisdom Bridge, among others. In 2007 he received an After Dark Award for his performance as George W. Bush in Theater Oobleck's The Strangerer. Film and TV credits include the 1980s cult classic Three O'Clock High, The Promotion, Stranger Than Fiction, Fred Claus, and The Beast.
    Kat McJimsey has acted in Beau O'Reilly's plays One Boppa, The Turtle at Play, The Dorothy Project, and Whiskey in Blue, among others. She also performs with Theater Oobleck, appearing most recently in Strauss at Midnight and Letter Purloined. She is a high school English teacher at Curie Metro in Chicago.
    Beau O'Reilly is a founding member of the Curious Theater Branch, the Crooked Mouth String Band and Maestro Subgum and the Whole. He is co-curator of the Rhinoceros Theater Festival, a frequent contributor to This American Life and a professor of playwriting at the School of the Art Institutes of Chicago. The author of over 75 original plays, he is also a working actor who appeared most recently with Victory Gardens Theater and Stillpoint Theater Collective. Beau was named producer of the year in 2006, and his production of No Danger of the... Spiritual Thing was awarded best ensemble by the Orgie Committee. He has produced, curated and directed work at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Steppenwolf Studio and Links Hall.
    Colm O'Reilly, called “one of the Fringe's best and oddest miracles” by Centerstage, has appeared in more than 30 Curious productions, including Still in Play, Waiting for Godot, The Caretaker, Whiskey in Blue, Love Horse, and Round & Round: a sexfarcetragedy. He is also a graphic designer and company member of Theater Oobleck, where he appeared most recently as Jim Lehrer in The Strangerer and Faustus in the tenth-anniversary production of An Apology for the Course and Outcome of Certain Events Delivered by Dr. John Faustus on This His Final Evening.
    Kathleen Powers has performed in No Danger of the... Spiritual Thing, The Other Side of the Elephant and many other Curious productions. She is also a company member of Greasy Joan & Co.
    Shawn Reddy is a writer, director, designer and educator whose plays include White Suit Science, My Name Is Mudd, and The Art of Unbearable Sensations. He holds a BA in both Anthropology and Philosophy from the University of Chicago and an MFA in Studio Art from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Shawn is also a co-founder of The Magpies, an arts collective. His work has appeared in over thirty venues throughout the city of Chicago, including Steppenwolf Theatre, Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Science and Industry, and Chicago Cultural Center.
    Matt Rieger, a writer, filmmaker, director and actor whose work includes Misplaced Son, Trash, The Skyway is Falling, and So Much I can't bring myself to say.... He has produced plays in Chicago and Ohio and is also a founding member of Illegal Drama Theatre Company. He teaches acting and theatre at the Center for the Gifted.
    Adam Rosenberg is a writer and performer whose plays include Prevention, The Test, and Big Fat Duck. He has appeared in Curious productions of The Madelyn Trilogy and The Other Side of the Elephant, and was heard in Round & Round: a sexfarcetragedy at the MCA. He is also co-founder and co-artistic director of Illegal Drama.
    John Starrs is a poet, actor, spoken-word performer and teacher. He has appeared in numerous Curious productions, including The Madelyn Trilogy, The Turtle at Play, Hit Me Like a Flower, and Discovery Tales. On many occasions he has embodied Walt Whitman, opposite Beau's Allen Ginsberg, in The Boho Dance.
    Kate Teichman is an actor and director who has appeared in Curious productions of The Madelyn Trilogy, The Turtle at Play, Jet Black Chevrolet, The Other Side of the Elephant and Hit Me Like a Flower. Directing credits include The Maids at Acme Art Works and Whoops, That Came Out Wrong with the Mudlark Theater.
    Matt Test is a writer, musician, and actor whose plays include ElvisBride, A Minor Loss of Fidelity, The Jesus Fields, Bad Action Project Course, and Carolinas. He has provided music and sound design for Curious, American Theater Company, The Mill Theatre, and Speaking Ring Theatre, among others. He is a multi-instrumentalist for Beau O'Reilly & the Crooked Mouth String Band and chief songwriter/banjo player for ElvisBride: A Band.
    H.B. Ward has appeared in Curious productions of Hit Me Like a Flower, The Turtle at Play, No Danger of the... Spiritual Thing, and Waiting for Godot. He has also appeared on various Chicago stages with Collaboraction, Teatro Vista, and the Magpies.
    Teresa Weed has appeared in Curious productions of Hit Me Like a Flower, Don't Tell Us We're Here, The Turtle at Play, Endgame, and The Madelyn Trilogy. A frequent collaborator with the Stillpoint Theatre Collective, she is also a playwright and fiction writer whose work includes The Hermit in New York, Deep Listening, and Trap Door Dream Dogs.
    Matthew Wilson is the author of In the Wreckage, Drowning of Thirst, The Wolf Hunt, Triad, and Radio Hysteria, all produced in Chicago. In the Wreckage is published by Playscripts, Inc. and a monologue was included in Smith & Kraus's Best Women's Stage Monologues of 2004. Matt has appeared in numerous Curious productions, including Hit Me Like a Flower, Endgame, Don't Tell Us We're Here, and The Turtle at Play.
Board of Directors
    Julie Berggren, President
    National Geographic School Publishing
    Jodie Taggett, Vice President
    Chicago Loop Alliance
    Janet Sayre, Secretary
    Old Town School of Folk Music
    Ira Glass
    This American Life, WBEZ Chicago Public Radio
    Natasha Kesaji-Rosenberg
    Beau O'Reilly
    School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Friends of Curious
    Illegal Drama