When Guy Van Swearingen co-founded A Red Orchid Theater with his pal and fellow actor Michael Shannon, he couldn’t have known that 25 years later they’d still be at it, still taking on challenging and uncompromising material in that same thrillingly intimate space. There may be better known theaters in Chicago, but none more exciting to watch. And if the excitement of the theater isn’t enough, Guy always has another adrenaline pumping career to fall back on. For as long as the theater has existed, Guy has also been a Chicago firefighter. How he has managed to balance two such demanding jobs (more when you consider that at various times he’s also been a director, artistic director, film and television actor…) is a mystery. On this episode of the Hog Butcher Radio Hour, Guy talks about the youth he barely survived, the days on the street that the theater saved him from, living in his car with nothing but a cello and a box of old love letters, founding A Red Orchid, working with his friend Shannon, balancing life as an artist and a firefighter. He’s a no-bullshit guy who only calls us out for asking one “bullshit question” and offers some pointed advice on how “people need to get their heads out of their asses.” They don’t come much more Chicago than Guy Van Swearingen. He’s truly one of a kind.
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When Guy Van Swearingen co-founded A Red Orchid Theater with his pal and fellow actor Michael Shannon, he couldn’t have known that 25 years later they’d still be at it, still taking on challenging and uncompromising material in that same thrillingly intimate space. There may be better known theaters in Chicago, but none more exciting to watch. And if the excitement of the theater isn’t enough, Guy always has another adrenaline pumping career to fall back on. For as long as the theater has existed, Guy has also been a Chicago firefighter. How he has managed to balance two such demanding jobs (more when you consider that at various times he’s also been a director, artistic director, film and television actor…) is a mystery. On this episode of the Hog Butcher Radio Hour, Guy talks about the youth he barely survived, the days on the street that the theater saved him from, living in his car with nothing but a cello and a box of old love letters, founding A Red Orchid, working with his friend Shannon, balancing life as an artist and a firefighter. He’s a no-bullshit guy who only calls us out for asking one “bullshit question” and offers some pointed advice on how “people need to get their heads out of their asses.” They don’t come much more Chicago than Guy Van Swearingen. He’s truly one of a kind.
Chris Stolte comes from St. Louis. But he’s a Chicago actor if ever there was one. Since the early nineties, he’s been a veteran of theaters like Steppenwolf, A Red Orchid, Goodman… For years, he seemed to appear in every movie that was shot in Chicago- “Road To Perdition”, “Stranger than Fiction,” “Public Enemies “…. And maybe most memorably, “Law Abiding Citizen” where he played the horrible son of a bitch who pissed off Gerard Butler. Then after two decades of somehow making it work here in Chicago, Dick Wolf rolled into town and Chicago turned out to be the perfect place to be. Stolte landed the role of Mouch on the hit series, Chicago Fire and “all of a sudden,” he’s a network television star. But don’t tell him that. He’ll give you that look. On this episode of the Hog Butcher Radio Hour, we talk to Chris about all of this and more. So much more, in fact, that this will be Part 1 of 2. And, oh yes, we close it all out with a great and somehow timely song by Oak Park’s own Terry White.
Hog Butcher Radio Hour
When Guy Van Swearingen co-founded A Red Orchid Theater with his pal and fellow actor Michael Shannon, he couldn’t have known that 25 years later they’d still be at it, still taking on challenging and uncompromising material in that same thrillingly intimate space. There may be better known theaters in Chicago, but none more exciting to watch. And if the excitement of the theater isn’t enough, Guy always has another adrenaline pumping career to fall back on. For as long as the theater has existed, Guy has also been a Chicago firefighter. How he has managed to balance two such demanding jobs (more when you consider that at various times he’s also been a director, artistic director, film and television actor…) is a mystery. On this episode of the Hog Butcher Radio Hour, Guy talks about the youth he barely survived, the days on the street that the theater saved him from, living in his car with nothing but a cello and a box of old love letters, founding A Red Orchid, working with his friend Shannon, balancing life as an artist and a firefighter. He’s a no-bullshit guy who only calls us out for asking one “bullshit question” and offers some pointed advice on how “people need to get their heads out of their asses.” They don’t come much more Chicago than Guy Van Swearingen. He’s truly one of a kind.
