Danny Ahlfeld just finished filming " Margarine Wars" where he played Judge Carroll Trumball and " Return to the Hiding Place" where he played Smit in 2011; slated to be released this winter. He recently played Dan Enright in " Night and Her Stars." at The GIft. Other Gift credits include " Lonesome West" " Sucide, Incorporated" and " Summer People." He was invited into The Gift Ensemle after he acted in " Orestes 2.0" other Gift credits include " 6" " County Fair" " A Young Man In Pieces." and " Language of Angles" His Directing credits are " Streamers" and " The Executioners Daughter." Danny served as Executive Director of The Gift from 2004 to 2009 and led the charge to build the space at 4802 N. Milwaukee Ave with help of many friends and neighbors. Danny is a Chicago Firefighter,and dedicates the rest of career as an actor to the memory of his brother Jimmy Ahlfeld who passed to the other side June 5, 2011.

Maggie Andersen is a Chicago native and a founding ensemble member of The Gift.  Favorite roles with The Gift include Allison in Language of Angels and Molly in A Young Man In Pieces. She holds an MFA (Creative Writing) from Western Michigan University and is currently working on her PhD at the University of Illinois-Chicago, where she teaches Creative Writing and Literature. She was recently published in the New Delta Review and the Southern California Review. She loves records and red wine.

Brittany Burch was born and raised in Seattle and was living in Portland, OR before moving to Chicago in 2010. She is very excited and honored to be an ensemble member of the Gift where her favorite roles include Girleen in The Lonesome West directed by Sheldon Patinkin and Rayna in Northwest Highway written by Will Nedved. Other local credits include Midsummer Night's Dream and Macbeth with Lakeside Shakespeare Theatre and Carmilla with WildClaw Theatre. Brittany has a BA in Theatre from Willamette University and is a graduate of the School at Steppenwolf. She is extremely grateful for her wonderful family who have been a constant source of love and support.

 

Hillary Clemens joined the ensemble in 2007, along with Sheldon Patinkin (they do everything together). Her Gift roles include Donna in *Hurlyburly*, Elvira in *Blithe Spirit*, Irina in *Three Sisters*, Linda in *Talk Radio*, and Ellen/Mrs. Saunders/Victoria in *Cloud 9*. She also serves as the Gift's casting director. Elsewhere, she has worked with Chicago Shakespeare, Court Theatre, Steppenwolf, Writers' Theatre, Lookingglass, Apple Tree, American Players Theatre, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, and Kansas City Repertory Theatre. She is a graduate of Loyola University Chicago and the School at Steppenwolf, and she spends most of her money on books and Dr Pepper.

Jenny Connell has been an ensemble member since 2001.  Favorite roles with The Gift include Effie Ruskin in The Countess, Olga in Three Sisters, and author of Summer People.  She received her MFA in playwriting at UT Austin, where she performed in Red Light Winter (displaced theatre), Foodstuff, I've Never Been So Happy (Rude Mechs), and countless workshops of new work.  She's also trained and performed at Court Theatre and Steppenwolf in Chicago.  She now lives, writes and teaches in Brooklyn, NY, where she is a member of Ars Nova's Play Group.

John Kelly Connolly became a Gift ensemble member somewhere at the start, it's kind of fuzzy there was a blood pact involved. Most recently he has directed One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which brought more joy to him then he ever thought possible. Loved being Martin in The Ruby Sunrise, loved being Martin in White People and would some day like to play Martin in a production of Marty. You will always know he is in a show when you think; "that big headed guy is really loud". Hurlyburly was a high experience, Last Days of Judas Iscariotwas heavenly and Three Sisters was estrogen-y...okay. John's writing, but he always says that. He loves comic books, the Cubs, Yes, Lost/Evangaline Lilly, Dr Pepper and Joe's Pizza. Please put Ron Santo in the Hall of Fame.

Paul D’Addario became a Gift ensemble member on September 28th, 2003. Favorite roles with The Gift include Randall P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Eddie in Hurlyburly (Non-Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Leading Role directed by Michael Patrick Thornton) and Seth in Language of Angels. When challenges arise as Associate Artistic Director he simply asks himself, "WWLD?" Born and raised in Queens he is a lifetime New York Yankees fan. Thankfully, he doesn't suffer the plight of being a Cubs fan with many of his ensemble members. However, he roots for the Philadelphia Eagles, which would be a complete disaster if not for his fondness for bourbon.

Mary Fons remembers when The Gift was Will Nedved, herself, and a mutual friend doing Gratowski (sorta) in a dirty building on Lincoln Avenue with Mike. A proud ensemble member seen in Boys’ Life, Orestes 2.0, Language of Angels, and Hurlyburly, The Gift will always be Mary's first Chicago home. A nationally ranked slam poet, full-time freelance writer, co-host of PBS's "Love of Quilting" show, and Neo-Futurist to the death, Mary graduated with a B.A. in Theatre Arts from the University of Iowa in 2001. (That's where she met Mike and Will, by the way.) Mary has toured the country performing her solo work, including poetry, plays, and even a few songs, for something like 8 years now. She's a Green Mill slam champion, author the popular blog, “PaperGirl”, an occasional poetry workshop leader in Illinois high schools, and all this put together makes it possible for her to purchase her own health insurance, so hey-o. Mary writes, directs, and performs approximately 30 weeks a year in Chicago’s longest-running late-night performance art extravaganza, “Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind.” And she met her husband Steve doing Hurlyburly, so there are lots of gifts. Visit Mary at maryfons.com.

Brendan Donaldson

Upcoming projects:
"The Servant" by Robin Maugham with Horizon Theatre Rep

Last five projects:
A Reading of "Prophecy" at the Public; Moving to New York; "Streamers" with The Gift; The short film "Audience Award Winner" by Storyboard Productions; "Three Sisters" with The Gift

Three favorite projects:
"Hurly Burly" with The Gift; "The Wooden Breeks" with Lookingglass Theatre; "The Violet Hour" with Steppenwolf Theatre

Recent Books:
"Brendan Behan's New York" with drawings by Paul Hogarth, "Audition" by Michael Shurtleff, "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville, "Dreams From My Father" by Barack Obama, "A Moveable Feast" by Hemingway, Currently: "For Whom The Bell Tolls" and "Yeager" by Chuck Yeager and Leo Janos

Training:
The School at Steppenwolf; Meisner with Mary Ann Thebus; Improv at IO; Indiana University; Trinity High School

Special Thanks:
Lauren, Brian and Gerry, Ellen and Carl, Nora, RPG3, Tha Gift. 

Andrew Hinderaker is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and an ensemble member of the Gift Theatre Company. His play, SUICIDE, INCORPORATED, was developed at Steppenwolf's First Look Festival and the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, and subsequently premiered at the Gift in June 2010 to critical acclaim. The twice-extended, sold-out production was nominated for multiple Jeff Awards, including Best New Work, and will be remounted in New York in November 2011 at the Roundabout Theatre. Hinderaker's follow-up, KINGSVILLE, premiered at Chicago's Stage Left Theatre in October 2010. It was featured in American Theater Magazine and named a finalist for the Woodward/Newman Drama Award. Hinderaker's newest play, I AM GOING TO CHANGE THE WORLD, will premiere at Chicago Dramatists in June 2012. His work has produced and developed by such theater companies as the Araca Group, the Roundabout, Rattlestick, Steppenwolf, Victory Gardens, American Theater Company, and many others. www.andrewsplays.com
 

James D. Farruggio loves being an ensemble member at The Gift. For the first time he has a theater to call his home and an amazing group of artists to call his family. After eight amazing years in Chicago, he feels that the best is yet to come! Previous plays with The Gift include: Streamers, Stop/Kiss, The Ruby Sunrise, Suicide Incoroprated and Northwest Highway. Other credits: Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird (Steppenwolf Theater); The Kentuckey Cycle (Infamous Commonwealth Theater); Seven Blowjobs (Mary Arrchie Theater); Stage Door (Griffin Theater). Film and Television credits: Batman Dark Knight, The Beast, Prison Break and The Playboy Club.
 

Ed Flynn is the Artistic Director of Late Night Programming at the Gift. Acting credits include The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Talk Radio, Almost Maine, Suicide Incorporated, Night and Her Stars and an uncountable number of improv performances with Natural Gas. Ed is a graduate of Steppenwolf, The Second City and iO. He is not a graduate of Ohio State.
 

Gabriel Franken's first line was "Then I knew this could not do." Memorizing it was difficult but he managed while attending his mother's preschool in Iowa. He does not remember the play. Since then, he has said and directed others in saying many more lines. He studied at Northwestern College in Iowa and was in the 2010 School at Steppenwolf pack. His debut at The Gift was cleaning up the gelatin used to emulate melted saints during intermissions for Lonesome West. Then he played seven characters in Night and Her Stars. As he writes this, lines written by William Nedved (which have allowed him to pretend he grew up on Northwest Highway) float through his head. He has an easier time memorizing now.
 

John Gawlik-- John has appeared with or helmed productions for many Chicago companies. John became a member of The Gift in 2005. Some of his favorite Gift projects include: directing The Ruby Sunrise which was named one of the Top Ten shows of 2009 by TimeOut Chicago Magazine. Additional directing credits include W;t, Blithe Spirit, The Good Thief and The Pavilion. As an actor, some of John's favorite productions include Beauty Queen of Lennane with the Gift Theatre, A Skull in Connemara at Northlight (After Dark Award, Ensemble), The Great Society with Famous Door,  and The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild with Collaboraction (Jeff Award for Ensemble),  Additional directing credits include A Christmas Story for Noble Fool Theatricals, Dated: A Cautionary Tale for Facebook Users for Collaboraction’s Sketchbook Festival (Festival Best Director),  Sylvia at the Metropolis Performing Arts Center,  Glen Berger's Underneath the Lintel for Noble Fool Theatricals, the Midwest premier of Every Christmas Story Ever Told, The Complete History of America: Abridged, Western Civilization The Complete Musical: Abridged and Vikings! A Musical in Two Axe for Noble Fool. John also created and directed Kerouac Jack about the creation of "On the Road”. John is the Artistic Director of Noble Fool Theatricals.

Alexandra Main is a Great Lakes denizen having lived on the shores of Lakes Huron (MI), Erie (OH), Superior (MN), and Michigan (IL) at one time or another.  (Never got around to Ontario except on vacation.)  She began to trot on the boards with The Gift in the summer of 2002 and joined the ensemble in 2003.  Her work with The Gift has ranged from good witch to bad witch to bad, bad witch with roles such as Mary Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey Into Night; Vivian Bearing in W;t (Jeff Award Nomination – Actress in a Leading Role); and Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.  The Gift adheres strongly to the commitment of casting against type.  Hmmmmm . . . Well, okay, other Gift shows include The Clearing, Blithe Spirit, and The Ruby Sunrise among others.  She holds an MA in performance studies from Northwestern University.  “Special kudos to David, my long-suffering husband and, coincidentally, technical director of The Gift.”

Benjamin Montague is a proud founding ensemble member of The Gift.  Some of his favorite roles include John Ruskin in The Countess,  Robert Preston in The Clearing, El-Fayoumy in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and the lead producer of The Pavilion.  Though his heart belongs to Chicago, Ben has also lived in Puerto Rico and London, England for extended periods of time.  He's currently residing in Los Angeles seeing what what it feels like to never have to wear a huge winter coat.  So far, so good.

Kenny Mihlfried has been a member of The Gift since its very first production. Starting out humbly as one of the company's photographers, Kenny soon began to appear onstage in supporting roles (Phrygian – Orestes 2.0, Crawley – The Countess, Tommy/Michael – Language of Angels). Working closely with his brother, Bob—a.k.a. AudioBob—Kenny designed sound and composed original scores for eleven consecutive Gift productions (Language of Angels through Beauty Queen of Leenane). During that time and shortly thereafter, Kenny continued to perform onstage, tackling roles that were somewhat larger than before (Sir Charles Sturman – The Clearing, Tuzenbach – Three Sisters, Freud/St Thomas – The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Dr Jason Posner – Wit, Richie –Streamers, Dr Spivey – One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). Sometimes, Kenny thinks he would rather be a florist, or he wanders away for months at a time. But he always comes back. Kenny is a part of the Gift as much as the Gift is a part of him.

William Nedved is co-founder of The Gift Theatre Company. Full-length plays include Northwest Highway (The Gift), Fact & Fiction (Elephant Theatre, LA), Crying, Waiting, Hoping (Blank Theatre's Living Room Series), A Young Man in Pieces, County Fair (The Gift), The Three-Way (The Gift Sydney), The Two of You (The University of Iowa), and See Through You (Nuffield Theatre, England.) He also adapted Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author as '6' for The Gift Theatre Company. His short play Kid was awarded "Best Production" at Collaboraction's Sketchbook 2009. WilliamNedved.com

Lynda Newton has appeared in The Gift productions of Boy‘s Life, Orestes 2.0., County Fair, Language of Angels, The Pavilion, Beauty Queen of Lenanne, 365 play in 365 days, Summer People. In Chicago, she also appeared at Griffin Theater in 5th of July, Understudy w/ performance “theatrical essays” at Steppenwolf, Glory of Living at Profiles. School of Steppenwolf alumni 2001.  Lynda is from Massachusetts.

Sheldon Patinkin

Chair of the Theater Department of Columbia College Chicago, Artistic Director of the Getz Theater of Columbia College Chicago, Artistic Consultant of The Second City and of Steppenwolf Theatre, and Co-Director of the Steppenwolf Theatre Summer Ensemble Workshops.  Among recent directing projects outside of the College have been the world premiere of Cormac McCarthy’s The Sunset Limited at the Steppenwolf Garage Theatre, which was then moved to a limited run at the 59E59 Theatre in New York, and to the Galway Arts Festival in Ireland; The Glass Menagerie and The Beauty Queen of Leenane for the Gift Theater Company; South Pacific at the Metropolis Art Center; Uncle Vanya at Steppenwolf; Long Day’s Journey into Night at the Irish Rep and at the Galway Arts Festival and "Krapp's Last Tape" for the Buckets of Beckett Festival, both starring John Mahoney; as well as concert stagings of opera scenes and excerpts for the Lyric Opera Center at the Grant Park and Ravinia Festival Concerts.  He received a Jeff Award for directing his Irving Berlin revue Puttin’ on the Ritz, and a special Jeff for his contribution to Chicago theater.   His translation of Brecht's The Good Person of Setzuan was directed by Frank Galati at the Goodman Theatre.  His book The Second City: Backstage at the World's Greatest Comedy Theater was published by SourceBooks in 2000, and No Legs, No Jokes, No Chance, his text book on the history of the American musical, was published by Northwestern University Press last summer.

Maureen Payne-Hahner,

Up Next: Cloud 9 by Caryl Churchill, The Gift Theatre and a re-mount of Caryl Churchill's A Number, Northwestern University both 2011

An ensemble member since 2001,most recently directed the off-Broadway remount and Los Angeles production of A Number by Caryl Churchill i/a/w NAATCO (2011) . Other directing credits include: Chicago premiere of "QED" by Peter Parnell for ETOPiA productions at Northwestern University (2010). Talk Radio by Eric Bogosian at The Gift Theatre Company, Chicago. Copenhagen by Michael Frayn for ETOPiA productions at Northwestern University, The Countess (Chicago Premiere) at The Victory Gardens Theatre i/a/w The Gift Theatre Company, and (Assistant Director) Summer Cabaret at Yale University.

Directing credits in Europe include: Copenhagen (Munich, Vienna, Zagreb) Sweet Phoebe, Two Conversations, Dark Pony, Litko and Epilogue (Munich). Other credits with The Gift include: Boys Life, Orestes 2.0, Six Characters in Search of an Author; She attended The School at Steppenwolf (2001) with New York credits including: Naked Angels Theatre and The Ensemble Studio Theatre. Maureen holds a BA with distinction and teaches the Sanford Meisner method through a variety of venues.

Michael Patrick Thornton (artistic director/co-founder) born & raised in Jefferson Park, Michael has directed and acted in a blizzard of plays at The Gift, most recently The Ruby Sunrise, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, and The Good Thief(Joseph Jefferson Award--Solo Performance). Michael teaches at Columbia College, Second City, The School at Steppenwolf, and plays Dr. Gabriel Fife on ABC's "Private Practice." He lives in Jefferson Park and eats lots of pizza. In his spare time, he chills with his fiancé  Lindsey, reads, improvises, cooks, drinks wine and beer, and writes about himself in third person. He does not have a pet goat. He makes a mean New York strip. He has made a canary sing like a canary.
 

Jay Worthington's lifelong love affair with The Gift began in the winter of 2010 when he appeared as Billy Bibbit in The Gift's production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, an experience which not only gave him one of his dream roles but also the love of his life. The Gift's critically acclaimed World Premiere of fellow ensemble member Andrew Hinderaker's Suicide, Incorporated followed quickly after, in which Jay appeared as comely and wanton office aid Perry. After two consecutive shows in which Jay played characters who committed suicide Artistic Director Michael Patrick Thornton decided to really challenge Jay by casting him as a character who actually survives the play, this led to an all time favorite Gift appearance as Charles Van Doren in Richard Greenberg's Night and Her Stars. Jay was then asked to join the ensemble on August 6th 2010, and ever since then he's been on Cloud 9. When not acting with his beloved Gift family Jay spends his time secluded in the dark shadows of his apartment, hanging out with the aforementioned love of his life Katie, playing far too many video games, reading, watching motion picture films, and sampling various cheap wines and Belgian ales; he's addicted to the present, ecstatic for the future, and so, so glad, after so many lifetimes, to have finally found home.