Cast and Crew

The Toxic Bag Players


Steve Baldwin

 Steve is a founding member of Toxic Bag Productions. In 1996 he was instrumental in developing the first commercial sound effects for role-playing games. His script, “Please Stand By” was a finalist in Deathscribe 2014, Wildclaw Theatre’s annual festival of short horror plays. He also created and designed the sci-fi/horror board game “Specimen.”

Robert Cornelius

 Robert Cornelius has been an actor, singer, and educator for over thirty years. He was most recently seen as Polonius and the Ghost in Hamlet at the Gift Theatre. He has been performing and recording with Poi Dog Pondering for over two decades, and recently finished up an 11 year tenure as Arts Education Director at Victory Gardens Theater, where he will be performing this fall in the world premiere of Rightlynd by award winning playwright Ike Holter. Robert is pleased to join this merry band of voices for this very cool project.

KATKat Evans

 Kat Evans’ recent theatre roles have been in Nightmares & Nightcaps and Shockheaded Peter with Black Button Eyes, Prometheus Bound (Io), & London Assurance (Grace) with City Lit, Gross Indecency (Harris/Parker) with Promethean, and Thespis (Mercury) with the Savoyaires. You can see her live every month with Starlight Radio Dreams, or on screen in web series Lucky Jay (Seasons 1 & 2), Why Don’t You Like Me?, Geek Lounge, and the feature film NONTRADITIONAL. Kat is represented by Hayes Talent. Kat teaches yoga and spends a lot of time upside down practicing Acroyoga. Other podcast work includes Starlight Radio Dreams, Our Fair City, Alcohollywood, and Blastropodcast.

Derrick Gaetke

 Actor, author, director, cat-herder… Derrick Gaetke is many things, and he’s thrilled to break out his bag of skills whenever he gets the chance. You can usually hear him on the Internets through the ongoing comedy podcast Starlight Radio Dreams, either through his own vocal performance or the jokes he’s written for others to try and make funny. When not performing, Derrick’s at home typing away on his latest fictional prose work, and hopes one day everyone else will see it as vividly in print as he does when his HP All-In-One decides to work. He’d like to thank Steve and Joe for bringing him aboard the Toxic Bag train, as well as the rest of the cast for making this post-apocalyptic soiree more enjoyable than a barrel of Mad Maxes. Jolly good!

Kevin Gladish

 Kevin is an actor, writer and storyteller who has always been thrilled to be part of Toxic Bag’s audio dramas, even if they sometimes have to explain the jokes to him. He’s been onstage a bunch in Chicago, most recently with Artistic Home and City Lit, and been part of the live lit scene with venues such as This Much Is True, Story Sessions, Story Club, and The Moth. He has also voiced characters on WBEZ’s Pleasuretown Podcast. When he’s not proofing medical journal articles by day, he’s working on solo pieces by night. He has a cat named Gracie and he really likes dreamsicles & milkshakes.

Hillary Gokenbach

 Having made Chicago her home for the last 7 years, and worked all over the city in theatrical, film, print, voice over, and various soul sucking money making schemes–er “day-job” settings, Hillary Gokenbach is excited to be combining talents with such a great cast and crew of incredible humans.

David C. Hayes

 David C. Hayes is an author, performer and filmmaker. His films, like A Man Called Nereus, Bloody Bloody Bible Camp, Dark Places, The Frankenstein Syndrome, Vampeggedon, Machined, Reborn, Back Woods (and approximately 60 more) can be seen worldwide. He is the author of several novels, collections and graphic novels including The Midnight Creature Feature Picture Show, Cherub, Cannibal Fat Camp, Pegged, American Guignol, Scorn and Muddled Mind: The Complete Works of Ed Wood, Jr. His graphic novel Rottentail is coming out in April 2019 as a feature film and the mini-series The Rot has debuted to critical acclaim. As a playwright, David’s full-length and one-act plays have been produced from coast to coast with a run Off-Broadway for the comedy Swamp Ho and sell-out performances in Phoenix for Dial P for Peanuts. His stand-up comedy and professional wrestling pasts are well hidden, though.


Dan Hitzemann		 Dan Hitzemann is a sometimes actor living in Carol Stream. He is a member of Wheaton Drama and can often be found in or around that theater either onstage or helping out with the current production. Most recently he appeared as Mr. Pinky in Hairspray and was the assistant director for A Piece of My Heart. He is the proud father of two teenage daughters and matrimonially ensconced to Chris Henkel. Thanks to Steve and Joe and everyone for a great time.

Daniel Houle

 Daniel is excited to be working with Toxic Bag Productions on The Richard Series. He received his BFA in acting from the University of Rhode Island in 2000. Since Moving to Chicago in 2002 Daniel has worked with Bohemian Theater Ensemble, Prop Theater, Oak Park Festival Theater, Teatro Vista, Speaking Ring Theater Company, American Theater Company, Step Up Productions, City Lit, Timeline Theater Silk Road Rising, and Drury Lane. Daniel also works in the Commercial and Voice Over worlds representing a variety of products. His network television credits include Chicago PD. Daniel would like to thank his family and friends for their continued love and support.

Stephanie Lewis

 Stephanie is a fitness and wellness professional by day, theater nerd by night. She’s played onstage for the last 8 years and more recently, stepped behind the scenes to flex her muscles in assistant directing. Her favorite shows include Machinal, The Tempest, Private Lives, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Bus Stop, Macbeth, Hand to God, and The Merchant of Venice. She’s collaborated with the Toxic Bag gang on previous projects like Ghosts in the Graveyard and Specimen. In her spare time, she enjoys Dungeons and Dragons, playing ukulele, and lifting heavy sh*t.

Ele Matelan
Ele (She/Her/Hers) is probably most recognizable to audiences as WildClaw Theatre’s resident Foley artist. She has designed, choreographed, and performed Foley for their annual Deathscribe horror radio festival since 2011, as well as for companies including Hartlife NFP, Lifeline Theatre, Oak Park Festival Theatre, Columbia College Chicago, Otherworld Theatre, Starlight Radio Dreams, Festival 56, Stone Hearth Theatre, MCL, Locked Into Vacancy Entertainment, Columbia College, and The Second City Training Center. She is also a company member with The House Theatre of Chicago, and her native-Dallas’s Mr. Toad’s Theatre Circle. You can hear Ele’s voiceover performances as Cassie Wilkins, Switchblades Cobalt, and more(!) in Hartlife NFP’s award-winning, post-apocalyptic audio drama Our Fair City, and as part of the ensemble in their upcoming series Unwell.

Betsy Pennington Taylor

 Betsy Pennington Taylor has a BA from Stanford University and trained at Mountview Academy of Dramatic Arts, London. West End Credits include: Isabel in Pirates of Penzance, Peep Bo in The Mikado and Fleta in Iolanthe (all at the Gielgud Theatre). Other London credits include Jordan in Gatsby, Lina Lamont in Singin’ in the Rain, Woman 4 in Listen to my Heart, Annie Ross in Twisted (one-woman show) and Alaura/Carla in City of Angels. Tours include: Lulu/Betty Blast in Footloose (European tour), My Fair Lady (Cyprus and Singapore), Kate in Pirates of Penzance (USA/Canadian tour), Peep Bo in The Mikado (USA tour) and Barbara Cassidy in Over the Rainbow: the Story of Eva Cassidy (UK/Netherlands tour). Chicago credits include: Clara in The Vortex, Aunt Sylvia in The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue and Oh, Coward! (all with Dead Writer’s Theatre) and U/S Lady Gay Spanker in London Assurance at City Lit. Betsy co-wrote and performed her one-woman show, Luigi’s Ladies, at the Den Theatre. TV credits include: My Hero (BBC) and Let’s Roll! The Story of Flight 93 (Granada).

Alan Vuchichevich
Alan Vuchichevich was manufactured in a defunct cold war lab by a joint Swedish-Croation coalition. His programming has not aged well. Alan is a native Chicagoan who enjoys his intermittent forays into theatricals more than he lets on. Hint. Hint.

Brian Zinda

 Brian Zinda is thrilled to be a part of this wonderful project of Richard, Post-Apocalyptic Cabinet Maker. He has been around the storefront theatre scene for a couple years and is excited to trying his hand at podcasting. Brian is also lucky enough to be a founding member of Reutan Collective. He has been seen in Fight Night and Fight Fest with Reutan, as Launce in Two Gentlemen of Verona, Goose in The Unsupers webseries, and Zach in the upcoming Nerds Incognito! Brian also enjoys moonlit nights, rainstorms, and morning readings with coffee.

Production Team


Steve Baldwin – writer/producer

 Steve is a founding member of Toxic Bag Productions and accomplished foley artist and sound designer. In 1996 he was instrumental in developing the first commercial sound effects for role-playing games. His foley work includes Sigsaly Entertainment and Conjecture Media’s Market Value. His script, “Please Stand By” was a finalist in Deathscribe 2014, Wildclaw Theatre’s annual festival of short horror plays. Another script, “Unbound,” was one of two plays selected to be performed by Dashingly Quirky Voices at the 2019 London Podcast Festival in London, England. He also created and designed the sci-fi/horror board game “Specimen.”

Joe Griffin – sound designer/composer

 Joe has been a recording engineer/sound designer for 25 years, give or take. In the world of theatre, his sound design and music have been heard in Festival 56’s War of The Worlds; Dracula with The Hypocrites; and The Time Warp Trio with Lifeline Theatre Company. Other theatre work includes ten seasons of summer Shakespeare at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, IL, and These Shining Lives, Richard III, Harvest and Macbeth at Oakton Community College in Glenview, IL.

His film and animation work includes Nebula Creatives’ short film Out of Sight; Hot Diggity Productions’ feature Scary Normal; Sigsaly Entertainment and Conjecture Media’s Market Value; and the award-winning “Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists” and “Hemingway in 15 Seconds” series of animated videos. As a radio engineer Joe has been awarded gold and silver Lions from the Cannes Festival of Creativity.

His composition credits include seven albums with the experimental/avant duo Donny Who Loved Bowling, the official soundtrack for A Klingon Christmas Carol, and “Wrath and Glory,” the soundtrack for Ulisses Spiele’s Warhammer 40k RPG.

Joe is a founding member of Toxic Bag Productions.