Joseph Stearns

Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department alumnus Joseph Stearns (BA ’98) is featured in the U.S. premiere of Butcher, by Canadian playwright Nicolas Billon. The show runs  September 17-October 24 at Signal Ensemble Theatre, where Stearns, a graduate of Columbia’s BA Program in Acting, is co-artistic director. Stearns, a graduate of the Columbia College Theatre Department’s BA Program in Acting, plays a lawyer called into a police station late on Christmas Eve because an elderly man in a European military uniform was found tied up with a butcher’s hook and his business card tied around his neck. This thriller confronts questions of justice, revenge and humanity’s darkest capacities.

Signal Ensemble Theatre, co-founded by Stearns in 2003, is located at 1802 W. Berenice, in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. Tickets for previews on Sept.17-18 are $12. Following the show’s opening on Sept. 19, discount tickets for students are $15. For tickets, call 773-698-7389 or click here.