The Terror Cottas Experimental Theatre Group Presents THE OSTRICH

Last week, we photographed The Ostrich, by Wendy A. Schmidt, and directed by Eileen Tull, for The Terror Cottas experimental theatre group.

I’m going to blather on as usual, but first, let’s cut to the chase: you can learn about the show and get tickets here!

The Terror Cottas website’s summary of the play reads as follows:

Orville and Wilbur Wright, the Wright Brothers, have arrived in present-day Ostrich, Indiana, to build an airstrip. The people are overjoyed! Can technological progress finally get Ostrich off the ground?

Chuck, a farmer, and his sister, the proprietor of The Ostrich Feather, must grapple with tradeoffs in the effort to do what’s best for the place they love in this dark comedy about the human cost of invention hitched to capitalism.

Donaldson Cardenas and Pete Wood as Wilbur and Orville Wright.

This is the second show I’ve photographed for The Terror Cottas, after summer 2024’s This Music Should Not Be, which was prepared for Chicago’s Rhino Fest but unfortunately did not run due to illness and scheduling obstacles. I felt awful for Wendy after having created, produced, and rehearsed that show only to lose the performance of it before an audience. That’s why I was especially excited to photograph The Ostrich; I wanted to see Wendy achieve her goal.

The Production

I’ve always enjoyed promenade theatre and theatre with immersive elements for the way the uniquely theatrical aspects of physical movement and personal interaction separate the art form from film, television, radio, and other media.

The Ostrich takes place between several rooms within the Berger Park mansion, so the audience travels from location to location to watch the action unfold (and sometimes becomes a part of it). While we had initially scheduled our production photos for two weeks prior, changing schedules meant that we instead captured the production photographs the night of an audience preview. In hindsight, with the number of fun audience interactions in The Ostrich, this feels like the only way the should could truly be captured in photographs, and I was fortunate to catch moments of audience reaction and interaction during the preview.

The audience having a blast as they become part of the zany world of *The Ostrich*.

The Cast

It’s strange to think The Ostrich only has a cast of six, since the world of The Ostrich contains so many characters. Four actors play consistent roles throughout the play—Donaldson Cardenas and Pete Wood play the Wright Brothers, and Jorge Salas and Shellie DiSalvo play the brother-sister duo we follow as the play’s protagonist(s). But Jonathan Crabtree and Ellen Adalaide play every other role, leaping into scene after scene with lighting fast characterizations that reminded me of Laughing Stock’s commedia performances. Even while photographing the performance, I couldn’t help laughing out loud at their antics, and I appreciate the Terror Cottas (Wendy’s writing, Eileen’s directing, the cast’s performances, the creative team’s production) for inspiring some much needed levity in this world. Kudos also to the production team for keeping up with all these costume changes, set pieces, and sound cues.

The Ostrich is performed at Berger Park in Edgewater and runs Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, starting Friday, May 2. The final performance is May 17.

Jonathan Crabtree and Ellen Adalaide clowning around as multiple characters in *The Ostrich*.

A Shout Out to Shellie

For the sake of collaboration and many years of friendship, I want to give a special shout out to Shellie DiSalvo, who plays Incandescence Groane in The Ostrich. Shellie’s appeared many, many times in The All Worlds Traveller, most with Idle Muse Theatre Company, where Shellie has headed up production photo calls for time out of mind. Most prominently, Shellie appeared as “The Morrigan” in Distant Era’s The People of Light and Shadow series, and around this time last year I showed off Shellie’s headshot and portrait session. I even photographed Shellie’s wedding last December. We’ve worked together a lot over the years, in many capacities, and I’m proud of Shellie for branching out this past year and doing big, bold, new things, from poetry to art to acting to healing to marriage.

TOP LEFT: Shellie DiSalvo as “The Morrigan” in Distant Era’s *The People of Light and Shadow*. TOP RIGHT: Headshot of Shellie DiSalvo from our May 2024 session. Bottom: Shellie DiSalvo as Incandescence Groane in *The Ostrich*.

Photography

I know Berger Park. Distant Era MVP Elizabeth and I met and rehearsed Twelfth Night there with Theatre Hikes in 2003. I’ve attended many shows there, from Babes With Blades’s Horror Academy to Birch House Immersive’s Cursed: An American Tragedy. I know people who’ve gotten married there. I also know it’s a house filled with very yellow tungsten lights and lots of warm, murky shadows.

Wendy Schmidt invited me to check out a rehearsal three days before our production photos. I live close by, so I took a two-mile walk along the lakefront on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in April and hung out for the rehearsal. I noticed the ceilings in Berger Park are low and white, which meant I could likely fire a bare flash straight up and bounce light off the ceiling, which would serve as a giant, soft source to pleasingly illuminate the scenes of the play. The alternative would have been to rely on Berger Park’s ambient light, fighting with different color temperatures from nearby windows and the warm, wood interiors.

I arrived early and tested my old Canon flashes, and everything worked as I had hoped. I had a blast shooting the show, met a lot of great people, and then took a few character portraits afterward, using some portable studio lights with MagMod modifiers.

A couple creative edits of the Wright Brothers.

I had such a great time both watching and photographing The Ostrich; some of the cast’s antics are so hilariously bizarre that I laughed out loud while taking pictures. A great way to spend an evening. I wish the cast and crew the greatest success in their run!

Cast and Creative

(From the program on the Terror Cottas website.)

Jorge Salas………………Chuck Spenders
Shellie DiSalvo………….Incandescence Groane
Pete Wood……………….Orville Wright
Donaldson Cardenas…Wilbur Wright
Ellen Adalaide……………Gidgitomy Groane/Ensemble
Jonathan Crabtree…….Hasty Morgan/Ensemble

Paul Kaufmann…………..U/S, Chuck and Orville
Debra FitzGerald………..U/S, Incandescence and Gidgitomy/Ensemble
Ted Dayton………………..U/S, Wilbur and Hasty/Ensemble

Prop and Set Designer: Mary Aurora Moore
Costume Designer: Annie A.
Assistant Director and Performance Stage Manager: Taz Stahlnecker
Assistant Stage Manager: Lou McNaughton
Rehearsal Stage Manager: Sallie Anne Young
Graphic Design: Wendy Schmidt
Photography: Steven Townshend – Distant Era
Videography: Josh Sparks and Kirsten Byers – microbird productions
Publicity: SHOUT Marketing and Media Relations

Assistant director/performance stage manager Taz Stahlnecker and Jonathan Crabtree.

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Steven Townshend is a fine art/portrait photographer and writer with a background in theatre, written narrative, and award-winning game design. As a young artist, Steven toured the US and Canada performing in Shakespeare companies while journaling their moments on paper and film. In his transition from stage to page, Steven continued to work as a theatre photographer, capturing dramatic scenes while incorporating elements of costume, makeup, and theatrical lighting in his work. Drawn to stories set in other times and places, Steven creates works through which fellow dreamers and time travelers might examine their own humanity or find familiar comfort in the reflections of the people and places of a distant era.