Brian Bell
Artistic Director

Director, actor, and cabaretist with a penchant for monologues and telling stories about Germany; Texan by birth, Chicagoan by choice Brian continues to put the ´soul´ in solipsism, while engaging audiences all over Chicagoland. He´s worked around town with Collaboraction, Apple Tree, Piccolo Theatre and Adventure Stage to name a few.

Brian´s pet project is his solo show: “In Vino Veritas” - an evening in which he tells stories about all the quasi-interesting things that (may) in fact have happened to him.

In addition to appropriating crusty old German sayings into the common vernacular, he also enjoys puppets, wine, books (the longer the better), Faust I, Beowulf, French press coffee, talking in funny voices, and melancholy acoustic guitar songs.

Brian also loves to travel. Like to Maine last summer for some Shakespearean Kunst, or at the moment back to Germany to assitant direct on a production of Danton’s Death at the Staatstheater Stuttgart.

Hoppla, wir leben!

Dani Bryant
Managing Director
[DANI at CABARETVAGABOND dot COM]

Performer and teaching artist who hails from Gatlinburg, Tennessee but has called Chicago home for almost two years, Dani got ÜBER talented at The North Carolina School of the Arts, The Hartt School of Music and Stagedoor Manor.

While in Chicago, Dani has worked with local gems like: Grey Zelda Theatre, Adventure Stage Chicago, Apple Tree Theatre, Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble. Dani is very proud to have helped mount premeire productions of Quick and Dirty by Braden LuBell and Dragon´s Tale by Brianna Sloane.

Dani´s pet project is her one woman show, “Binge”. Watch out: it may get messy! Part cooking show, part confessional, this thoughtful and funny piece will remind you: why not to date on an empty stomach; that you don´t always need to save room for dessert; and that - after the first meal - jumping into bed for a swim will indeed give you cramps.

Dani enjoys such pleasures as: National Public Radio, amusing things, brunch, hats, kitsch, hummus, talking in funny voices with her big tall roommate, body jam and wearing summer dresses all year round. Dani makes a mean frittata and thanks Chicago for being kind.

Austin Campion
Associate Artistic Director

Austin considers himself a vagabond at heart: the call of the unfettered road is inborn, and somewhere deep in the native tracts of his nerves and proteins the song is still humming.

Tragically, as a youth Mr. Campion was inculcated – nay, maliciously infected – with that with that wretched pattern set, that greatest of dis-eases: civilization. One symptom of his being made acceptable is a ferocious need for others to acknowledge him as acceptable.

Manifestations of this include: the obnoxious diction herein displayed; doing REAL plays at REAL theatres; improv. Don´t mess with Austin: he's been acting consistently for almost no money since he got to Chicago in August of 2007. Before that, he went to school in Providence, Rhode Island, but you have to specifically ask where before he'll come out and say it. It's no big deal. Honestly.

Chelsea Marcantel
Curator and Resident Director

Chelsea grew up in Louisiana, which is a wonderful place to be (you should visit) and moved to Chicago after finishing graduate school to find out if she could make a living writing words for people to say. It´s working out so far.

In Chicago, Chelsea has worked with The Hypocrites, Collaboraction, The Side Project, The Mercury Theatre, The Bailiwick Director´s Festival, The Women´s Theatre Alliance of Chicago, Gorilla Tango, and Renegade Seven Company (of which she was a founding member). You may have seen her original plays Beatrice & Beau, STUNT, The Equestrian, Happy, The Tiniest Sound in Recorded History, or Round Earth´s Imagined Corners somewhere around town, or caught something she directed at The Side Project or Apple Tree Theatre.

Her life is a cross between “Sex and the City” and “The Muppets Take Manhattan”, which is an awfully swell way to have it. Chelsea is a pescetarian and thinks making art with the Vagabonds is more fun than monkeys. C´est beau, le monde.

Jon Butts
Funny Man and Jokester Extraordinairé

Jon Butts was born in the city of swirling sin, where dreams and futures are swallowed up by the mysterious sewers that lead to even more mysterious swamps. The city is in a constant state of brooding and decay. It longs for him. It aches for him. It shows up drunk and sweaty at 3 in the afternoon. New Orleans is a lover that calls him every night; that hangs up when he answers, and sex-ts him constantly...

Jon Butts moved to Chicago, just to make New Orleans jealous. He posts pictures on his facebook, because he knows she will see. He is unapologetic but lies awake at night thinking of her.

If New Orleans is reading this, stop: you´re fucking crazy and he misses you, terribly.

Jon Butts drinks on stoops. He cooks. He naps. He makes fun of your alzheimerific grandma. When you think of something awful, he is ready to top you. He will buy you a beer to make you stay out. He doesn´t care if you have to work at 9 in the morning, so does he - at 7. Jon Butts is not good nor evil, he treads on both sides from minute to minute.

He has done standup, but did most of it sitting down. He improvises with various groups of amazing skill and lethality. He believes you always have a choice and that choice is yes. He believes in making mistakes. If you hit him in the face, there is a good chance he will laugh. He has poor math skills but he gets along with your parents. If you are ever thinking about kissing him, you should. One day his children will be born with laser eyes.

Jeremy Guidry
Founding Member and Maverick of Kunst

Teacher, actor, director, chairman, and proud gun owner, Jeremy´s roots are buried deep within the rocky desert of El Paso, Texas. But just as the tumbleweed withdraws and moseys on, so too has Jeremy had the good fortune to call many cites his home. He was schooled at the famed University of North Texas to be pronounced a Bachelor, and then again at Emerson College in the beautiful city of Boston where, to some, he is known as Master. His all too brief stay in Chicago was cut short by an intense desire to not be cold or excavate his truck from underneath snow.

Although he misses the good people he knew and loved in Chicago, he feels that he is doing an artistic service to the warm city of Waco Texas where he now resides. You can catch him in his 191 day long run of his one man show, entitled “Intro to Theatre Arts: Grades 7 and 8 - or How to Survive When You're Surrounded By Crazy People.”, which plays at two middle schools from 8am to 4pm. His current projects include creating a 5 year middle school Theatre Arts curriculum for the the district, writing / directing a modern tragedic form of Christmas Carol for his 8th period class, fighting the good fight, keepin on keepin on, and of course riding his motorcycle to as many remote small Texas towns as time allows.

Lastly, he is proud to say that his great great grandmother was a gun runner for Pancho Villa.