Meet the Sweat Girls! Read our
Sweat Girl Bios

Jane Blass
Jane is a founding Sweat Girl member and is currently living in New York city where she appeared off Broadway in Nancy Friday's My Secret Garden. In Chicago, her world premiere roles included Winnie in Pulp (About Face Theater); Elizabeth Willard in Winesburg, Ohio (About Face Theater/Steppenwolf); Creon in God And Country and Sally Oglesby in Blissfield (both with Victory Gardens Theater); and Elaine in James Lapine and William Finn's Muscle (Pegasus Players). She also played Cynthia in the long-running hit A Girl's Guide To Chaos at the Royal George/Halsted Theater Center. Touring roles include the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz (Starlight Theater), the Female Authority Figure in the first national tour of Broadway's Hairspray, the Beggar Woman in the 2005 holiday tour of Scrooge The Musical with Richard Chamberlain (Blood Brothers), the Baker's Wife in the second national tour of Into The Woods (Big League), and the Middle Eastern tour of Side By Side By Sondheim (Pegasus Players). Jane is an accomplished cabaret singer and sang and played keyboards with the popular rockabilly band Flapperjack. She can be heard on their CD Andersonville. Jane created the cover art for the Sweat Girls' spoken word CD.

Cindy Hanson
Cindy has been with the Sweat Girls since the collective was founded. As the co-writer of Cooking With Lard and co-adaptor of Hen Lake, her plays were both first produced at Lifeline Theatre. She was also a teaching artist for Lifeline's education program and worked with youth at various sites for Chicago's Hull House programs. She has written and performed Evelyn Dances in Chicago, Louisville, and San Francisco, where she was nominated for a Bay Area Critics Award. Cindy's recent play Henry & Helen was nominated for the Cherry Lane Theatre Mentor Project. She will soon be performing her performance piece, Me and My Chakras - One Woman's Search for Her Divine at ART/New York's South Oxford space in Brooklyn and is currently writing How Margaret Got Home, a performance piece loosely based on Homer's The Odyssey. Regionally she has acted at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, The Hartford Stage, and the Huntington Theatre in Boston. She attended Circle in the Square Theatre's two-year conservatory actor training program. Most recently, Cindy was an Associate Director for White Bird Productions in Brooklyn, New York. There she helped to run the wildly popular Creative Theatrics Summer Theater Programs.

Dorothy Milne
Dorothy is a founding member of Sweat Girls, has written and performed in most of the shows and directed several as well. She is also the artistic director of Lifeline Theatre, where she has directed numerous Jeff citation and After Dark award-winning productions including Around the World in 80 Days, Jane Eyre, Pistols for Two, The Talisman Ring, Gaudy Night, Strong Poison and A Room with a View. Dorothy and Lifeline are also part of the Glenwood Avenue Arts District, where she serves as one of the organizers of the Glenwood Avenue Arts Fest, an annual Rogers Park free arts/music/theater festival.

Clare Nolan
Clare has been a Sweat since the beginning. Her theatre credits also include acting work in a range of other places, including Body Politic, Lifeline, the Organic, Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, New Tuners' Theater, Columbia College, and Blind Parrot Productions. She served as Artistic Director of Blind Parrot and also as a writer/composer for the company's productions of American Gothic and Exploits Of A Living Newspaper. She is a recipient of both a Jeff Nomination and a Jeff Citation. Clare is a longtime member of the theatre faculty at Columbia College. Additionally, she teaches preaching at Seabury Theological Seminary and through the Association of Chicago Theological Seminaries' Doctor of Ministry in Preaching Program. Her work in preaching also includes workshops and private coaching. In a parallel life, Clare has appeared as a singer in local music venues, including the Gaslight Club, Seasons at the Penthouse, and the Zebra Lounge. She treasures her time as a mom and a wife, as well as her 20-year gig serving the youth in her church as an adult advisor. Clare received her BFA from Illinois Wesleyan University and hopes never to stop learning.

Martie Sanders
Martie is a founding Sweat Girl performer who also serves as the company's marketing director. Martie's favorite credits on Chicago and regional stages include: Ata in Criminal Hearts at Apple Tree Theatre; Haley in the one-woman play Bad Dates and Mae West in Dirty Blonde (both at Madison Repertory); the nasal-voiced Lina LaMont in Singin' In The Rain (Theatre at the Center); Janis Joplin in Love, Janis (Royal George); Jenny Diver in Three Penny Opera (American Theatre); Hero in Much Ado (Chicago Shakespeare); five gals in Cooking with Lard (Lifeline); three male archetypes in Anton In Show Business (Human Race); and the title roles in both Little Joe Monaghan (Thirsty Theatre); and Lapin! Lapin! (Bailiwick). Aside from Sweat Girls productions, Martie's solo monologues have been featured in Live Bait's Fillet Of Solo, at Estrogen Fest, and at American Theatre's Big Shoulders. On film, Martie is the romantic lead of The Unspoken (Warrior Productions). Martie has directed storytellers for 2nd Story Festival (Serendipity Theatre) and developed interdisciplinary arts programs for children with the Chicago Park District, Freestreet, and Gallery 37.

Jenifer Tyler
Jenifer is a graduate of The Goodman School of Drama, now known as The Theatre School of DePaul University. A founding member of the Sweat Girls, she has performed with the Sweats from Manhattan to San Francisco. Jenifer is also a member of the artistic ensemble of Lifeline Theatre. In 2001 she was awarded a Joseph Jefferson Citation for "Outstanding Actress in a Principle Role" for her performance as Jane in Lifeline's original adaptation of Jane Eyre. In addition to roles at Lifeline, she has also been seen in Chicago at greasy joan & co., and in many Touchstone/Organic productions including Into The Woods, The Seagull, and Hedda Gabler. Jenifer also teaches drama in the Chicago Public Schools through Lifeline's Artists in Residency Program. In December 2006 she made her directing debut with The Velveteen Rabbit in Lifeline Theatre's award-winning KidSeries. This June she will reprise her Jeff-nominated role as Harriet Vane in Lifeline Theatre's Gaudy Night at Theatre On The Lake.

Pamela Webster
Pamela is a founding member of Sweat Girls. Her "non sweat" credits include a Jeff Award for Artie in Eleemosynary at Interplay, a Jeff Citation for her performance in Noises Off at Pegasus Players, and a Jeff Nomination for best supporting actress for Interplay's Les Liaisons Dangereuses. With a fellow Sweat Girl, Pamela co-adapted a children's musical, Hen Lake, which premiered at Lifeline Theatre. She currently teaches in the After School Arts Program in her hometown of Oak Park, working with 2nd to 5th graders on storytelling and story acting. For adults, she teaches a variety of bead and jewelry-making classes and also is a certified LAMAS Qi Gong instructor.

Joe Winston (filmmaker)
Joe is a lifelong Chicagoan who departed briefly to Yale University to earn a B.A. in Psychology. Upon returning to Chicago, he began a filmmaking career and for five years he produced and hosted a documentary/comedy TV series, This Week In Joe's Basement, winning a Can Fest '90 Award and The Chicagoland Cable Award. Joe produced and directed a 1996 documentary, The Burning Man Festival, which won rave reviews, festival prizes, and sold to European television and domestic home video. In 1998, he produced a sequel, Burning Man: Just Add Couches. Both films are available on DVD. In 1999, Joe teamed with the Sweat Girls to create The MotherLode, their offbeat blend of documentary video and live performance. He has also produced live performances which incorporate video at Organic Theatre, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Mary-Arrchie and other venues. Joe was nominated for an Emmy award for his work on the PBS documentary Lost In Middle America (And What Happened Next). Currently, Joe keeps busy editing for Harpo, Focal Point, Mr. Big Film, and Towers Productions.

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Credits: All face photos of Sweat Girls are details from a black and white group photo by Suzanne Plunkett.