Mickle Maher
Chicago, IL
Mickle Maher is a cofounder of Chicago’s Theater Oobleck and the author of numerous plays, including An Apology for the Course and Outcome of Certain Events Delivered by Doctor John Faustus on This His Final Evening,The Hunchback Variations, The Strangerer, Spirits to Enforce, There is a Happiness That Morning Is, Cyrano (translator) The Cabinet, Lady Madeline and An Actor Prepares (an adaptation of Stanislavsky’s seminal book). His plays have appeared Off-Broadway and in numerous theaters around the world, and have been supported by grants from the NEA, the Rockefeller MAP fund and Creative Capital. He currently teaches play writing and related subjects at the University of Chicago and Columbia College. His plays are published by Hope and Nonthings.
The Strangerer
As enthusiasts may recall, one of the titles on President George W. Bush’s 2006 summer vacation reading list was Albert Camus’ absurdist tale of senseless murder, The Stranger. In hopes that the French philosopher might shed some light on the Bush era’s political climate (or vice versa) The Strangerer collides several of Camus’ works with the first Bush/Kerry Presidential debate in 2004. The formalities of the debate are overturned as Bush and Kerry struggle with the question of not if or why an innocent man should be killed (the man in question being moderator Jim Lehrer), but rather what the proper manner is to go about killing him. The Strangerer is part political satire, part classical drama, part contemporary debate, and a murder mystery with the murderers in plain view.
David Isaacson
Chicago, IL
David Isaacson is a founding member of Chicago’s seminal Theater Oobleck, for which he has written fourteen plays, including Letter Purloined, Rumsfeld’s Attic, Isak Dinesen’s Babette’s Feast, The Making of Freud, The Spy Threw His Voice: A Plagiarism in Two Acts, and Three Who Dared: A Play on the Movies. He is also the co-author of Embrace the Serpent, The Campaign by Marilyn and The Golden Election by Marilyn Quayle and her Sister and Theater Oobleck. Isaacson is also an actor and has appeared in thirty Theater Oobleck shows. He has also performed in Chicago with the Curious Theater Branch, Red Moon, the Splinter Group, Theater for the Age of Gold, and in Ann Arbor, Michigan with The Performance Network and the Brecht Company.