Meet the Board of Directors
Luke Janchenko - Executive Director
Luke began his theatrical history his freshmen year at Argo High School, acting as a last minute fill in for an ensemble pirate in Peter Pan. Since then he has been part of more than 40 productions between Argo, Moraine Valley Theatre, The Gumball Players, Illinois State University and Limestone Stage.
After living in Lockport for five years, he and his wife, Alissa, founded the Limestone Stage in an effort to bring the arts to a community that sorely needed a creative outlet for the wonderfully talented people in Lockport and the surrounding communities. He is exceedingly happy to see how the company has grown from a one-off group of 12 people to an active membership of over 100 since 2014.
Luke has directed Good Humor I (2014), A Christmas Carol (2014), Nightfall with Edgar Allan Poe (2015), Miracle on 34th Street (2016), It’s a Wonderful Life (2017), Humbug (2018), A Midsummer Night's Dream (2021), tech directed and designed set/sound for The Taming of the Shrew (2016), Beyond the Grave (2018), I Hate Shakespeare (2019), The Fall of the House of Usher (2019), Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus (2019), The Local Playwright Festival (2022), Clue (2022), A Christmas Story (2022) Much Ado About Nothing (2023) and acted as producer for Good Humor II (2016).
Luke attended Illinois State University on a partial theatre scholarship and holds a BS with a minor in Theatre.
Alissa Raschke-Janchenko - Managing Director
Alissa Raschke-Janchenko has been actively involved in theatrical pursuits for almost 20 years. She’s done everything from acting in a lead to sorting screws in the workshop. By day a children’s librarian, her passion for performing arts was apparent as a child, when she insisted on putting on one-woman shows for her parents (sorry, Mom and Dad).
Alissa laid the foundation for Limestone Stage in 2012, when she penned and directed Murder Mystery on State for the White Oak Library. Prior to Limestone, she’d worked with high school and college theatre, as well as the Gumball Players in Summit and Moraine Valley summer productions.
Onstage, she has been seen in Limestone’s Taming of the Shrew (2016) and The Importance of Being Earnest (2017), I Hate Shakespeare (2019), The Local Playwright Festival (2022), Clue (2022) as well as with Limestone’s improv group, Quarried Away. She prefers the off-stage fun of managing/producing and working with actors. She is never allowed to run tech, but she did design much of the stage for 2022's Clue. Her goal is to create a fun, safe space for people of every skill level to enjoy theatre.
Christopher "Kit" Lindblom - Artistic Director
Kit is a founding member of the Limestone Stage and hails from Detroit MI, where he developed his interest in theater at an early age. His first role was in a school production of The Brahman and the Tiger where he won the role of The Tiger. His directorial debut came while still in High School, he directed one act plays while a member of the Thespian Society.
He has since acted in and directed shows for The Civic Theater of Greater Lafayette and The Sugar Creek Players of Crawfordsville while living in Indiana. His directorial debut for the Limestone Stage was The (Female) Odd Couple. He has since been directing the Spring Classic series and various other shows including The Importance of Being Earnest, Taming of the Shrew and Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.
Kit has also worked on video production in the educational and corporate sectors. He studied Theater at Schoolcraft College and Wayne State University in Michigan and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech Communication-Theater from North Central College as well as his MFA in Theater from Western Illinois University.
Callie has been working in stage production, acting, dance and choreography for more than 20 years, starting at Argo Community High School, earning multiple International Thespian Association honor bars in her time there. During and after high school, she worked with The Gumball Players (Summit, IL) and was elected as their treasurer.
Callie was one of the driving forces in the development of Limestone Stage, having been involved as head stage manager for 19 of the company's productions as of 2022. She was the assistant director for 2018's Humbug. In total, Callie has been involved with more than 40 productions and brings an insane wealth of knowledge and leadership to the Limestone Stage board. In 2022, Callie made her directorial debut, presenting the much acclaimed Clue to five sold out houses.