Theatre News Wire

Northlight Theatre, under the direction of Artistic Director BJ Jones and Executive Director Timothy J. Evans, announced casting for Steven Dietz's Gaslight, based on the original play by Patrick Hamilton and directed by Jessica Thebus. Gaslight runs November 28 - December 28, 2025, at Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Blvd in Skokie.

Gaslight at Northlight Theatre

In this turn-of-the-century Victorian mystery, strange things start to happen as the seemingly perfect marriage of Jack and Bella devolves into something sinister. Why is the attic door locked? Whose footsteps wander the halls at night? And is that light really flickering... or not? Bella's reality is twisted into an indistinguishable tangle of truth, manipulation, and her husband's intentions, where certainty is uncertain for characters and audience alike.

The cast includes Janyce Caraballo (Nancy), Cheyenne Casebier (Bella Manningham), Lawrence Grimm (Jack Manningham), Timothy Edward Kane (Sergeant Rough) and Kathy Scambiatterra (Elizabeth).

The creative team includes Steven Dietz (playwright), Jessica Thebus (director), Collette Pollard (set design), Raquel Adomo (costume design), JR Lederle (lighting design), Andre Pluess (sound design), and Jim Guy (props design). The stage manager is Katie Klemme.

About the Artists
Steven Dietz (Playwright) was once again named one of the "20 Most Produced Playwrights in America" by American Theatre Magazine (2024-25). His 40-plus plays and adaptations have been seen at over 100 regional theatres, as well as off-Broadway and in 25 countries internationally. Recent premieres include new adaptations of Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton and Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie, as well as the serio-comic thriller How a Boy Falls. Other recent work includes Vineland Place, Mirror Lake and Vial Man (The Apothecary's Story). His widely-produced play Shooting Star was adapted by Dietz, Kirk Lynn and Meg Ryan into the movie What Happens Later, starring Ms. Ryan. Awards include the Steinberg New Play Citation for Bloomsday, the Kennedy Center New American Plays Award for Fiction and the Edgar Award for Best Mystery Play for Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure. He lives in Seattle and Austin.

Jessica Thebus (Director) is a theater artist, director, and educator. She holds a PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, and is currently Director of the Northwestern MFA Program in Directing for the Stage. She has directed and adapted plays in Chicago and nationally for twenty years, and has long associations with many Chicago theaters. At the Goodman Theatre she has directed A Christmas Carol, Buzzer by Tracey Scott Wilson, and both The Clean House and the world premiere of Stage Kiss by Sarah Ruhl. At Steppenwolf Theater Company she directed four large spectacle evenings at Millenium Park, the plays Sex With Strangers by Laura Eason, Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage, Dead Man's Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl, When the Messenger Is Hot by Laura Eason, No Place Like Home devised by the company, Lady Madeline by Mickle Maher, Sonia Flew by Melinda Lopez, and the Youth Theater program (1998-2001). Northlight Theater is also an artistic home for Jessica where she has directed eight plays and where she adapted and directed Shining Lives: A Musical which received a Joseph Jefferson award nomination for best new work. Other Chicago projects have been at Lookingglass Theater Company (In The Garden, a Darwinian Love Story by Sarah Gmitter, All Fall Down adapted from Richard Cahan's book, and Our Town by Thornton Wilder). Favorite others include: Richard III at The Gift Theater, The Turn Of The Screw by Jeffrey Hatcher at Writer's Theater, SALAO: The Worst Kind Of Unlucky and The Feast (Jeff award nomination for best new work) at Redmoon Theater, LATE : A Cowboy Song by Sarah Ruhl and Abingdon Square by Maria Irene Fornes at the Piven Theater, as well as the Joseph Jefferson award-winning plays Pulp by Pat Kane and Winesburg, Ohio adapted by Eric Rosen at About Face Theatre. Favorite projects nationally include: As You Like It at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Civil War Christmas by Paula Vogel at The Huntington Theatre, Harriet Jacobs by Lydia Diamond at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, The Oldest Boy by Sarah Ruhl at The Marin Theater Company, as well as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's world premiere of Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter by Julie Marie Myatt, which then moved to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Jessica is also involved in Outdoor Spectacle projects that celebrate community, joy and environmental justice-these include The Persephone Project and Art of Spontaneous Spectacle.

Janyce Caraballo (Nancy) has previously appeared at Northlight as Meg in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and Georgiana in Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley. Select Chicago: A Christmas Carol (Drury Lane); Shakespeare in the Parks (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); Romeo and Juliet, Hope: Part 2 of a Mexican Trilogy (Teatro Vista); Seussical (Marriott); Suddenly, Last Summer (Raven Theatre); Hot Pink (New American Folk Theatre); The Full Monty (Theo Ubique). Regional: Peninsula Players, Indiana Repertory Theatre, American Players Theatre, First Folio Theatre, TheatreSquared. She received her Master of Fine Arts from The Theatre School at DePaul University.

Cheyenne Casebier (Bella Manningham) is making her Northlight debut. Broadway: The Glass Menagerie (u/s). Off-Broadway: Can't Let Go (Keen Company). Select Regional: The Great Gatsby, Othello, Pride and Prejudice, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Guthrie, Seattle Rep ); Indecent, The Comparables, Boeing, Boeing, This, Dancing at Lughnasa, Betrayal (Seattle Rep); Annie, (The 5th Ave); Old Times, Celebration (ACT). TV/Film: John Adams, Two and a Half Men, Three Busy Debras.

Lawrence Grimm (Jack Manningham) has been an actor and teacher for over 30 years. A founding ensemble member of A Red Orchid Theater, Lawrence is a Jeff Award-winning actor who has worked extensively at Chicago's most prominent theaters, including Northlight (Prayer for the French Republic), Goodman, Chicago Shakespeare, Steppenwolf, Lookingglass, Victory Gardens, Raven, Next, Timeline, Shattered Globe, Court, Collaboraction, and Piven Theater Workshop. With a Masters in Education from DePaul University, Lawrence was a high school English and Drama teacher at Stevenson High School and Chicago's public high school for the arts, Chi-Arts. Film credits include Eric Larue, Captive State, Welcome to Me, Night's End, Murphy's Law, Cicero in Winter, A Perfect Manhattan. TV credits include: Somebody, Somewhere, Chicago PD/Med/ Fire, The Red Line, Unsolved Mysteries, Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Timothy Edward Kane (Sergeant Rough) is pleased to return to Northlight, having previously appeared in Birthday Candles, Faceless, Lost in Yonkers, The Miser and She Stoops to Conquer. Other Chicago credits include work with Court Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Writers Theatre, Rivendell, TimeLine, Goodman, Steppenwolf. Regional credits: The Mark Taper Forum, Notre Dame Shakespeare, Peninsula Players, and the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. TV: Chicago P.D. (NBC), Chicago Fire (NBC), and Empire (FOX). Awards: Jeff Award, AfterDark, Chicago Magazine. Mr. Kane is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Loyola University Chicago.

Kathy Scambiatterra (Elizabeth) returns to Northlight after Prayer for the French Republic. As artistic director and co-founder of The Artistic Home, she has helmed 25 seasons, is director of the AH Acting Studio and was most recently seen there in Dying for It for which she received a Jeff nomination. In Chicago, she has worked at Steppenwolf, Drury Lane Oakbrook, Chicago Shakespeare, Goodman Theatre, Rivendell, Raven among many others and was a longtime ensemble member at Center Theater. In LA, she was an ensemble member at Pacific Resident Theatre. TV/Film credits: recurring role on Chicago PD (NBC Dick Wolf Productions), Mr. Throwback (Peacock), Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams (Amazon), Good Guy with a Gun (One Shot Productions), Monuments (Zaxiefilms), Into the Wake (Diesel Brothers) among others.