Patrick Shanahan is the youngest of five children in a big old-fashioned Irish Chicago family. His family's support, while unwavering, has always been tinged with a suspicion that he is a changeling and secretly a leprechaun. Primarily a production designer, Shanahan's work has been seen around the country; and his costume designs were part of the Coterie Theater's productions of Oliver and The Hobbit. Over the course of his career, he has adapted and "doctored" many scripts, and as he is getting much too old, tired and hungry for design work, he is planning much more writing. Shanahan hopes his play Oz will cause you to take a fresh look at the Oz books and assures everyone that any magic in his script comes from the original wizard, L. Frank Baum.
