The Company

Julie Levinson as Titania in A Midsummer Nights Dream, 2005

Managing Director

Pictured here as the crafty Titania in last summer's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Julie first worked with GroundUp members in the first installation of The Darknight Gallery at the Majestic Midway Theatre. With GroundUp, Julie has served as Co-Director, Dramaturg, Actor and various other invaluable positions. She was last seen with GroundUp as Ariel in The Tempst, and previously the Textile Worker in Slaughter City. She has also worked with other area companies including The Side Project and Awaken! Performances and is a member of Saint Sebastian Players. Recently, Julie co-Directed Burn This, bringing her worldly knowledge and movement background to broaden the piece. Wearing another hat, Julie debut her first translation/adaptation, Chekhov's The Seagull from the Russian, updating the reference to fit our productions hip late 70's/early 80's setting, as well as commanding the anchor role of the piece, Madame Arkadina, to which we say "Bravo, bravo".

Sabrina Lloyd - very old headshot

Artistic Director 1999 - 2007 on hiatus

Sabrina is a founding member of GroundUp Theatre. She received a BFA in Acting from Florida State University. Directing credits with GroundUp Theatre include Slaughter City, Court and Lovers for Midsummer Night's Dream, Zastrozzi, Letters/X, Patrick Marber's Closer, John Patrick Shanley's Women of Manhattan, and The Tortoise and Scorpion, which she adapted from the Aesop fable for the GroundUp production, Fast, Cheap, and Easy. She has directed with Collaboraction, Darknight Productions, The Artistic Home, Action Theatre, and Shoebox Theatre. Favorite Chicago roles include Natasha in GroundUp Theatre's Windy City Times Critics pick production of Three Sisters, Mindy in the Jeff nominated ensemble of Five Women Wearing the Same Dress at the Artistic Home, Julia in Two Gentleman of Verona, Electra in Electra, and Collette in Four Dogs and a Bone. Sabrina splits her time between theatre and film, performance and production. She was last seen as Stephano (Stephanie) in our touring the Tempest, and as Anna in the Windy City Times Critic's pick production of Burn This. She will be rounding out her tenure with the company in 2007 prior to leaving for Graduate School (MFA Directing program at Indiana University) with back to back directing gigs: Chekhov's The Seagull and co-directing with Associate Member Emily O'neill for the summer Circus Spectacle, The Taming of the Shrew, free in Chicago City Parks.

Don Aric Johnson

Technical Director

Don joined GroundUp in August of 2004 and has training from University of Alaska in Fairbanks where he performed and directed traditional plays as well as co-creating ritual performance pieces with TUMA Theatre. Some favorite roles are Moon and Spirit-helper w/ TUMA Theatre; Moliere's La Fleche; Much Ado About Nothing's Benedick and Dogberry (separate productions, of course: it's just a great play!); Jeaques Roux from Marat/Sade; the melodrama villain Sir Percival Glyde; and, here in Chicago, Phaedra's husband Theseus with Keyhole Theatre. He is a 1997 recipient of the Phipps Center for the Arts Namdre Award for Outstanding Performance as Geoffrey in The Lion In Winter. He played such roles with GroundUp as Verrezzi in Zastrozzi, and The Sausage Man in Slaughter City. Most recently he has donned the directors hat having directed the workshop production of F!, directed the Tempest, and co-directed Burn This. He was last seen as the bookish swinger, Boris Trigorin in The Seagull. His next project is cutting Shakespeare's Shrew down to a bite sized, reverse gendered spectacle.

Todd Wojcik - Company Manager

Todd Wojcik is a proud member of the GroundUp theatre. GroundUp credits include Slaughter City, Letters X, part 3, part 3 and part 4 , Burn This and A Midsummer Night's Dream. He was last seen as Constantine (CJ) Treplev in The Seagull. He holds a BA in theatre from Rhode Island College, and is also a Graduate of the Second City School. Todd can also be seen performing with the "Tigers of Macedonia" improvisational team at the Playground Theater.