Aly Renee Amidei Joins Lifeline's Artistic Ensemble

Lifeline Theatre will welcome WildClaw Theatre Artistic Director Aly Renee Amidei to its artistic ensemble.

Entering its 30^th season, Lifeline Theatre specializes in original literary adaptations. Its ensemble of artists uses imaginative, unconventional staging to portray sprawling stories in an intimate space. Lifeline is committed to promoting the arts in its Rogers Park neighborhood and is an anchor of the Glenwood Avenue Arts District.

Founded by five Northwestern graduates in 1982, the theater now employs over 150 artists per year. In addition to the Amidei, Lifeline’s artistic ensemble is led by Artistic Director Dorothy Milne, and consists of Patrick Blashill, Christina Calvit, Victoria DeIorio, Alan Donahue, Kevin D. Gawley, Peter Greenberg, James E. Grote, Chris Hainsworth, John Hildreth, Paul S. Holmquist, Elise Kauzlaric, Robert Kauzlaric, Frances Limoncelli, Katie McLean Hainsworth, Dorothy Milne, Shole Milos, SAndy Snyder Pietz, Suzanne Plunkett, Phil Timberlake, Jenifer Tyler, Christopher M. Walsh, and Elizabeth Powell Wislar. Lifeline’s ensemble determines the company’s artistic programming and provides leadership, support and counsel in the play-development process. 

Aly Renee Amidei has been designing and writing in Chicago since 2000.  Amidei's first collaboration with Lifeline Theatre was designing costumes for Watership Down in 2011. She since designed The Count of Monte Cristo, for which she received a Non-Equity Jeff Nomination for Costume Design, and is designing costumes for The Woman in White this fall and Bridge of Birds in the spring. Amidei is a founding member and the Artistic Director of WildClaw Theatre, which is dedicated to bringing the world of horror to the Chicago Stage. She has designed costumes for their productions of The Great God Pan, The Revenants, The Dreams in the Witchhouse,Legion, Kill Me, and the upcoming Life of Death.  She also designed the costumes and wrote the adaptation for WildClaw's 2010 production of Carmilla, and helped create WildClaw's Annual Deathscribe Horror Radio Play Festival, where she performs as a foley artist. Amidei has also been an ensemble member of Strawdog Theatre Company since 2003, where favorite costume designs have included Detective Story, Red Noses, Old Times, Uncle Vanya, Marathon '33, Cherry Orchard, Tooth of Crime: Second Dance,True Ballad of Fall's Blessings, and Petrified Forest. She also designed the scenery for Lie of the Mind and her makeup design forThe Master and Margarita earned her a Non-Equity Jeff Nomination for Artistic Specialization. Amidei is a regular writer for the Strawdog Hugen Hall Late Night series Hit Factory Presents, where her radio plays have included: The Stella Stargirl Series, The Jazzman of Jackson Square, Schrodinger's Box, and Full Upright Positions. Amidei works as the Costume and Makeup Coordinator at the College of Dupage where she teaches and designs for the professional companies in residence: Dupage Opera Theatre and Buffalo Theatre Ensemble.  Amidei's design work has also been seen at Piven Theatre Workshop, Uma Productions, Artistic Home, Lakeside Shakespeare, Vitalist, House Theatre of Chicago, Teatro Vista, Collaboraction, Seanachaí, Silk Road Theatre, Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, and Emerald City.  She did her undergraduate work at Knox College in Galesburg.  Her MFA in Costume Design is from Carnegie Mellon and she is currently studying fashion design at the College of Dupage.