Chicago Stage Review

By Venus Zarris

Phineas X. Jones created 2009’s first truly standout play illustration with his striking postcard design for BEER. - see feature here - Illustrating Beer - Chicago Stage Review

He is following up this exceptional design with something even more remarkable! I have seen a LOT of illustrations and graphic designs that capture the atmosphere of Halloween seasonal shows. Many have been excellent but none as striking as Mr. Jones delightfully wicked design for the Neo-Futurists new production of FEAR. - see review of production here - FEAR - Chicago Stage Review

By incorporating the actual entrance to the Neo-Futurarium with a whimsical incarnation of evil, he not only creates something truly eye-catching but also captures the transformative nature of the Neo’s new production. They take the already unusual location and create a macabre tour through the twisted mind of Edgar Allen Poe. Jones takes the almost iconically recognizable Neo entrance, complete with the T.M.L.M.T.B.G.B. sign, and transmogrifies it into a monstrous manifestation that dears you to see the show!

If more theater companies used illustrative talents such as Jones, they would have more tickets sold and more seats filled. Congratulations to the Neo-Futurists for recognizing Jones’ talent and to Mr. Jones on another extraordinary creation!

Strange Tree Group is also capitalizing on Jones’s brilliance for their current production of Hey! Mr. Spaceman!, now playing @ The Building Stage. See the poster art and info on the show here:

Hey! Mr. Spaceman! opening at The Building Stage - Chicago Stage Review

You can view more remarkable work by Phineas X. Jones at octophant[x]us | original posters by phineas x. jones and also on his website, This is the Portfolio of Phineas Xavier Jones, an Interactive Designer.

Neo-Futurists - Home

By Venus Zarris

The joys, delights and gifts of theater are truly incalculable. Incalculable because the impact of art on your life lasts as long as you are conscious.

About 30 years ago I was in my first high school play. It was the end of my freshman year and we were working on a production of The Happiest Millionaire. My best friend, still to this day, Bob Andersen was playing the title role. Another dear friend, Michael DeJong, was asked to paint a portrait of Bob in costume that was to hang over the mantle of the set.

Even as a senior in high school, Michael was an award-winning artist with remarkable talent. His portrait not only captured Bob, but also captured Bob in character for the play. Everyone loved the painting and it elevated the production, lending visually exceptional class, style and detail.

When the set was struck, the painting vanished. We thought that Bob took it, but he didn’t. Some people thought that I had it, but I didn’t. It should have been Mike’s but he didn’t have it. For the last 30 years, every time The Happiest Millionaire comes up in conversation we end up mourning the loss of this wonderful portrait.

A couple months ago I got a call from Mike. He said, “You won’t believe what I found!” While looking in his old clarinet case (he was also in band) he saw that there was something stuck in the lining. It was a slide of the portrait that, for so long now, has only existed in our memories!

I asked Mike to send me a high-resolution scan of the slide. I woke up Saturday before last to find the scan attached to an e-mail. The portrait was better than my memory of it. But the condition of the slide was not very good, having been ravaged with time perhaps more so than the rest of us.

I immediately started to retouch the image using Photoshop. I spent about 5 hours that first day, restoring the color saturation, contrast and cleaning every inch from the dust and scratches. It was detailed work but far from painstaking. I was able to intimately enter the world of this portrait, that had been painted by someone who I love OF someone who I love, stroke by stroke.

I was staggered by Michael’s talent, even as a high school senior. I was drawn into the depth of Bob’s character, even as a high school junior.

This painting, and its subsequent restoration, was a labor of love, born so long ago in the theater. These are some of my dearest relationships, also born so long ago in the theater.

Today is Bob’s birthday. He had no idea this masterpiece, that he had thought about and missed for 3 decades, had resurfaced. Last night I took it to his house and surprised him. The look of sheer joy on his face was just another gift, the seed of which was planted in the theater so long ago.

This year, on Bob’s birthday, he is happier than the happiest of millionaires.

(original scan of slide)

(portrait after restoration)

Michael DeJong has been living in New York for the past two decades. Along with being a world class fine artist, he is also the writer of Clean: The Humble Art of Zen-Cleansing and Clean Body:The Humble Art of Zen-Cleansing Yourself, available at Barnes & Nobles stores or on-line at Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com.

His writing can also be found on-line at

Organic Cleaners - Natural Household Cleaning Supplies - thedailygreen.com

and Michael DeJong: Huffington Post

Robert Andersen is a Chicago Writer and a Chicago Fireman. When not extinguishing burning buildings and saving lives, he is reviewing Children’s, Young Adult and Family theater. His theater reviews can be found here on

Chicago Stage Review.com

By Venus Zarris

Once again, illustrator Charlie Athanas renders the intended horror of WildClaw Theatre’s stage production to lovely and chilling effect. The marriage of exceptional illustration to theatrical creation can create excitement about a production long before opening night, set the mood for the chosen material, draw us into the world of the drama, and visually define the play as well as the theater company. 

With his minimal yet morbidly enchanting poster design for The Revenants, Athanas has set the bar high by delivering a vision of terror that transcends the typical impressions of flesh eating zombies. His use of color is simply magnificent and his use of negative space suspends the illustration in a realm all its own. 

From WildClaw’s inaugural production of The Great God Pan,

to their second offering of The Dreams In The Witch House,

to their current production of The Revenants, 

Athanas has consistently captured the feel of WildClaw Theatre’s work masterfully, with both visual economy and opulence. Together with production photographer Kirstie Shanley, WildClaw Theatre’s macabre machinations are imagined, creafted and rendered as powerfully off-stage as they are on-stage.

WildClaw Theatre - Bringing Horror and the Supernatural to the Chicago Stage

By Venus Zarris

As consistently as Trap Door Theatre creates and captures otherworldly absurdity, (on delicate, bombastic, poignant and profound levels) Graphic Designer and Photographer Michal Janicki captures Trap Door.

He portrays the garishly macabre, intimately haunting, lusciously lusty and preposterously whimsical kaleidoscope that is Trap Door Theater with a visual esthetic and palate as chaotically deliberate and emotionally evocative as the company itself. Seldom has the collaboration of visual artist and theatrical company been so completely in sync. It is as if his art is an organic extension of their theater and their theater is an organic extension of his art.

Production after production, this artistic relationship has created a creative dialogue that brilliantly and beautifully informs, illuminates and inspires both parties.

It seems a daunting task to visualize the feel and themes of productions that are so ambiguously thought provoking. Yet time after time Janicki’s visual realization is dead on.

Michal Janicki provides incredible visual keys to these chaotically spellbinding stories and his work is as uncanny and unique as the Trap Doors that they unlock. 

michal janicki               Trap Door Theatre

By Venus Zarris

Phineas X. Jones creates 2009’s first truly standout play illustration with his exceptionally striking postcard design for BEER. (The Neo-Futurists new production, playing through March 7 at the Metropolitan Brewery.) Beer - Chicago Stage Review

Jone’s design simply and beautifully captures the enthusiasm behind the craft beer brewing community and exemplifies how the extra level of visual artistry, that wonderful illustration and design add to theatrical productions, helps to set the mood of a show as well as generate peripheral interest in the project.

You can view more remarkable work by Phineas X. Jones at octophant[x]us | original posters by phineas x. jones and also on his website, This is the Portfolio of Phineas Xavier Jones, an Interactive Designer.

One More Henry Darger Chicago Homage

By Venus Zarris

There are literally hundreds of images of Henry Darger’s paintings and drawings available that could have been used as an illustration for Dog & Pony Theatre Company’s production of As Told By The Vivian Girls.

Instead, his entrancing work and this captivating theatrical conception inspired Chicago designer Rod Hunting to create this brilliant illustrated homage. A tribute to Henry Darger’s intricate and convoluted written and visual storytelling, Hunting’s beautiful creation was the perfect finishing touch to this grand artistic adventure. 

|Rod Hunting|

By Venus Zarris

A wonderfully created poster illustration can conjure a vividly realized atmosphere before you even stop foot into a theater. This is the case with the poster design created by Charlie Athanas for WildClaw Theatre’s production of The Dreams In The Witch House. 

The play’s director, Charley Sherman, wanted something dark and nightmarish and he got it with Athanas’s hauntingly eerie graphic design. Athanas captured the forbidding world detailed in H. P. Lovecraft’s frightening story and set the perfect mood for WildClaw’s, Chicago’s very own Horror Theater Company, freakish adaptation of these things that go bump in the night. 

Too seldom is recognition given to the exceptional peripheral and supportive artistry that goes into in the making of theater. This most collaborative of arts depends on the visions of all involved and Charlie Athanas created a marvelously macabre setting that stands as a haunting reminder of how frightening the telling of horror stories can be.

Fortunately, he has detailed the fascinating step-by-step process by which he came about capturing this vision of otherworldly foreboding. You can trace his creative process at WildClaw Theatre - Backstage - Bringing Horror and the Supernatural to the Chicago Stage.

Notes on the Radium Girls play poster:

I love stumbling upon treasure. Although a pot of gold would really come in handy, I’ll happily take treasure in many forms. I first stumbled upon the production of Radium Girls, by way of their window poster at the Side Project Theatre, while walking the dogs. (Thanks girls!) I live around the block from the theater and check out the window whenever we walk past.

I was struck by an example of the remarkable artistic collaboration of theater. Not just on or back stage, but rather the peripheral collaboration as Brent Walker’s poster art was immediately captivating. It behooves any endeavor to realize the power of excellent illustration and graphic design. Good artwork indicates a well thought out enterprise. It prioritizes the venture. This poster sparked enough interest for me to seek out information about the production and then fit it into a week where I am already reviewing five other plays.

When a graphic design or illustration is striking, it can create immediate validation for the project it is connected to. Sometimes this is deserved and sometimes it is false advertisement.

I was renting DVDs earlier this year and a case caught my eye. I enjoy horror films and the cover art of this film really drew me in. Great use of color, nice balance and strong images made me pick up the box. My first clue that this might not be totally representative of the film itself was the quote on the back. “nothing says Wicked Awesome better than paring a WWII movie and Nazi Zombies - Kevin Smith’s MoviePoopShoot.com” A sensible person would have quietly set the case back on the shelf. Because it made me laugh, I showed this to my girlfriend while slightly squealing with delight.

“When we got together I didn’t realize that I would be sharing my life with a 13-year-old boy” She said.

I knew it was a gamble. And it took several visits before I was able to successfully add ‘Horrors of War’ to the movie stack. I was hoping for a miracle. I was hoping the film would live up to the illustration. Instead, it lived up to the back cover quote. It was barely good enough for slight camp value.

This is what drew me in.

Had they used this design instead,

a more truthful representation of the film, I NEVER would have rented the movie.

I tell this to illustrate the sheer power of design.

Brent Walker’s Radium Girls poster design achieved three things. It captured my attention. It captured an authentic aspect of the project that it represented, that is to say it is an example of TRUTH in advertising. And it is quite simply a compelling and well-executed illustration; a dying talent that has too often been replaced with sloppy clip-art or mediocre photography. 

Congratulations to Mr. Walker for creating a completely successful piece of artwork that portends a completely successful piece of stage work. And congratulations to Point of Contention Theatre Company for recognizing the value of excellent artwork and thereby collaborating with Brent Walker.