Congrats to my brother Joe Griffin for taking home the Non-Union Jeff Award for Best Sound Design for STRANGE CARGO – The Doom of the Demeter at City Lit Theatre!
Plus, you can now hear Strange Cargo’s award-winning sound design on Joe’s new album – BLOOD VESSEL: Music from and inspired by Strange Cargo – the Doom of the Demeter! Go get it HERE ON BANDCAMP!
Ahoy, you lot!
I am overjoyed to announce that the World Premiere of STRANGE CARGO – The Doom of the Demeter at City Lit Theatre has received FIVE Jeff Award Nominations! For those of you not hip to the Chicago theatre scene, the Jeffs are Chicago’s biggest theatre awards, akin to the Tonys in New York – so it’s a big deal!
Here’re our nominations:
Best Ensemble
Best Scenic Design – Ruby Lowe
Best Projection Design – DJ Douglass
Best Artistic Specialization – Puppet Design – Jeremiah Barr
Best Sound Design – Joe Griffin (my brother Joe! – Also nominated for Best Sound Design for his work on Lifeline Theater’s War of the Worlds!)
The full list of nominees can be found HERE. The Jeff Awards Ceremony will be held Monday, March 23rd, 2026 – stay tuned to find out if we won!
Thats’s right, folks! The Jeff Recommended World Premiere of my play Strange Cargo: The Doom of the Demeter closed with terrific reviews and record-breaking audiences! Strange Cargo is the best-selling show ever in the 99-seat theatre space in City Lit Theater’s 45-year history!
Here’s what folks had to say!
“5 out of 5 stars. Timothy Griffin has created a fascinating tale of murder and mayhem on the high seas….” – Around the Town Chicago
“Highly Recommended – A moody, macabre horror tale…laced with streaks of black humor…evocative storytelling. ” – Chicago Reader
“3 out 4 stars – A Worthwhile Way to Kick off spooky season…” – Chicago Tribune
“Joe Griffin’s sound design and Liz Cooper’s lighting put us on a stormy sea so believable that we almost feel the pelting rain…” – Theatre Raves
“Highly recommended – …imaginative, intelligent, and well-acted. ” – Stage and Cinema
“I adored it… thrilling…satisfyingly spooky and creepy…magnificently done…philosophical debates rise through the ghostly ghastliness…” – The Arts Section, WDCB Radio Chicago
“Without a doubt, this horrifying legend of Dracula will forever be remembered as one of City Lit’s finest productions.” – Chicago Theatre Review
“Now THAT was theatre!” – Real Live Audience Member
For more info, check out the play’s listing on my New Play Exchange Page HERE
Thanks to everyone who came out to see the show and make history with us!
Ahoy, you scurvy lot!
We’re full speed ahead toward Opening Night of the World Premiere of Strange Cargo: The Doom of the Demeter at City Lit Theatre, this Saturday, 10/18/2025! In spreading the word, I got a chance to chat with Dean Richards at Chicago’s WGN Radio on Sunday 10/12! You can hear the interview RIGHT HERE (starting at 1:01 and running to 1:09). Dig it! And get your tix fast – presales are hopping!
BE THERE OR BE ABSENT!
Ahoy, you lot!
It is with great joy and excitement that I direct you to the official cast announcement of the World Premiere of STRANGE CARGO: The Doom of the Demeter, playing this fall at City Lit Theatre!
BE THERE OR BE ABSENT!
Hey you lot! I can now officially announce that my new play, STRANGE CARGO: The Doom of the Demeter will World Premiere this fall as part of City Lit Theater’s 45th Season in Chicago, Illinois!
Based on Chapter Seven of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this gothic horror high seas adventure tells the shocking events aboard the cargo ship transporting Count Dracula’s belongings from Transylvania to England. Suspicion, paranoia, and madness infect the crew as the harried sailors disappear one by one. Full of creeping mystery, vibrant language, rich characters, sinister vanishings, violent sea storms, swashbuckling action, monstrous puppetry, and, of course, a boatload of terrors, this is the Dracula tale you’ve never seen.
Here’s the link to the lit to the City Lit page: https://www.citylit.org/ A co-production with Black Button Eyes Productions, the play will be directed by the amazing Ed Rutherford and Sound Designed by my criminally talented brother Joe Griffin! Watch this space for ticket info!
BE THERE OR BE ABSENT!
Hey gang – It thrills me to tell you that as part of their Junior Play Festival, Chagrin Falls Academy for the Performing Arts (Chagrin Falls, OH) will be performing my short play – Once Upon a Time… In Denmark! Performances are March 11th & 12th. Anyone in Ohio – go check it out!
Get tix here: https://www.chagrinacademy.org/
Tuesday, February 11th at 7:30 PM, at City Lit Theatre, 1020 W Bryn Mawr Ave, Chicago, IL.
Twenty-three years before the events of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Yorick, a brilliant young jester, infiltrates Elsinore on a quest for revenge against Denmark’s Lord Chamberlain (and deadly spymaster), Polonius. Full of comedy, sword fights, romance, juggling, heartache, horror, and an array of Shakespearean touchstones turned slightly askew, this love letter to the Bard is akin to such Shakespeare-adjacent plays as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and The Book of Will.
ONE NIGHT ONLY! FREE ADMISSION!
FEATURING
Courtney Abbott Caty Gordon
Douglas Bryan Bean Timothy Griffin
Ross Compton Jamie Redwood
Shelley DeHosse Troy Schaeflein
Michael Dias Chad Wise
AND
Dan Hitzemann
BE THERE OR BE ABSENT!
Get your tickets ASAP here: YORICK
Happy October!
To celebrate the Halloween season, here’s a blast from the past, a wistful look back on a little thing I wrote for Wildclaw Theatre’s late lamented Deathscribe Horror Radio Play Competition. This live performance was at Lincoln Hall in Chicago, IL, December of 2016, and features actors Darren Hill, Lee Brophy, and David Fink, Foley Team Ele Matelan and Kevin Alves, and was directed by Aileen McGroddy.
Also, If you’d like to see it (or, rather, listen to it) audio-only, like a proper radio show, you can do so here.
Enjoy!
Hey Gang,
The mighty mighty Monstrous Books is coming out with another exciting short story collection, “Shakespeare Unleashed” – all horror stories based on Shakespeare plays! I submitted a sonnet to them, a nasty little piece based on Richard III. While they didn’t choose it for their collection, I thought I might post it here for your enjoyment.
The sonnet tells the fates of Richard’s young nephews – whom he arranged to be murdered so as to clear his path to the throne. Told from the point of view of the younger prince, the sonnet’s closing couplet reveals the boys’ ghosts tormenting Richard on the eve of the battle at Bosworth Field.
I hope you dig it! I had a lot of fun writing it, and it might spawn more Shakespeare Horror stories or sonnets that I post here – watch this space!
So, here’s a little bit of chilling verse for you called…
To Worry Lambs and Lap Their Gentle Blood
by Timothy Griffin
My brother Edward’s twelve; I, only nine;
Yet no more years shall either of us gain;
White, wriggling worms anon on us shall dine.
Our killers’ tears imply ‘twill be some pain.
“Condemn us not; we two are merely pawns,”
Implores the villain pinning Edward down.
“We must deprive thee both of further dawns,
For thou standst ‘twixt thine Uncle and the crown.”
Then Edward lieth still, in murdered sleep.
My knave doth blench, beseeches me for grace,
Then blubbers sobs; he hath the gall to weep
As he doth press the pillow to my face.
Now shades, we stare with bleak, transparent eyes.
At ‘G’ we glare, and shriek – “DESPAIR AND DIE!”
© Timothy Griffin 2022
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