Walkabout Theater Announces THE RAVELING; Full Spring/Summer Schedule

Walkabout Theater Company is pleased to present the world premiere of THE RAVELING, co-created with Delhi-based theater Guild of the Goat and Toronto vocalist Fides Krucker. Presented in partnership with Links Hall, Physical Theater Festival Chicago and Chicago's Night Out in the Parks, THE RAVELING is an avant-garde family history drama that teases apart the knotted expectations of coming together for dinner. In a surrealist interweaving of personal narratives, song, fairy tales, and food preparation the cast grapples with the dissonance between the need to belong and the agitation of organizing one's life around other people.

This spring/summer, THE RAVELING will be presented in a rare, public process of development with first showings May 19 - 21, 2019 at Links Hall, 3111 N. Western Ave. in Chicago and as part of the Physical Theater Festival Chicago from June 2 - 3, 2019 at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are currently available at walkabouttheater.org.

Later this year, THE RAVELING will make its world premiere run though the Chicago Park District's Night Out in the Parks (September 10 - 21, 2019) with performances at Seward Park on the North Side (September 10 - 11), Independence Park on the West Side (September 13 - 14), Tuley Park (September 19) and Sherman Park (September 21) on the South Side. The project will culminate for three weeks of performances at The Prince Charitable Trust Hall at Victory Garden Theater (September 25 - October 13, 2019). Additional details to be announced shortly.

Directed by Walkabout's Artistic Director Thom Pasculli, in collaboration with vocal specialist Fides Krucker, THE RAVELING is created and performed by Walkabout ensemble members Nigel Brown, McCambridge Dowd-Whipple, Cooper Forsman, Dana Murphy and Katie Mazzini, with Anastacia Narrajos and Guild of the Goat ensemble members Anirudh Nair and Amba-Suhasini Jhala, with original text by Morgan McNaught.

In THE RAVELING, each family member follows the thread of an old story, an inherent lie, a childhood promise, or a shared fantasy that leads them from homeleaving to homecoming and back again. The family's reality is stretched across decades of myth and misadventures. Inspired by true personal narratives of the performers, there is a living question for the ensemble in tracing something of where they each come from and asking what is needed for them to come together. What is the work of coming undone?

THE RAVELING production team includes: Fides Krucker (vocal specialist), Dina Marie Saubert (lighting design), Myron Elliott (costume design), Dominique Zaragoza (scenic design), Sonya Madrigal (asst. director), Shanyn Strub (stage manager), Nyssa Lowenstein (operations manager), and Rose Mozier (Walkabout intern) with Corey Smith (sound design consultant).

Spring/Summer Performance Schedule:

May 19 - 21, 2019

Work in Progress Showings at Links Hall

3111 N. Western Ave., Chicago

Curtain times: Sunday, May 19 at 1 pm, Monday, May 20 at 7 pm & Tuesday, May 21 at 7 pm

June 2 - 3, 2019

Fresh Look Showings at Physical Theater Festival Chicago

Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. Chicago

Curtain times: Sunday, June 2 at 8:30 pm & Monday, June 3 at 9 pm

Tickets: $15 general admission; $10 students/seniors. Tickets are currently available at walkabouttheater.org.

June 4, 2019

Workshop with Walkabout Theater and Guild of the Goat

Action Group Body and Song

Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. Chicago

Workshop times: Tuesday, June 4th 10am to 1pm

Tickets $50. Tickets are currently available at www.physicalfestival.com.

Full details regarding the fall schedule at the Chicago Park District's Night Out in the Parks and The Prince Charitable Trust Hall at Victory Gardens Theater will be announced shortly.

About the Creative Team

Thom Pasculli (Director) is the Artistic Director of Walkabout Theater and specializes in developing physical and laboratory theater, actor training and exchange. Past projects include creating a performance tour and international symposium in South Africa, an intensive street performance program for high school students in Colorado, and most recently a festival of innovative new works-in-progress for theater professionals at Dartmouth College called VoxFest. Recent directing credits include Walkabout's international touring performances, The Brink! Or Nobody's Ever Kissed Me Like That and The Wild, both of which were presented at Links Hall, Steppenwolf, and the National School of Drama in India. Recent outdoor spectacles include Monuments, Tall Girl and the Lightning Parade, and A Persephone Pageant, co-directed with Jessica Thebus. Other Chicago directing credits include Mother of Smoke with Walkabout and Red Tape Theatre, Core of the PUDEL at Trap Door Theatre and Circle-Machine at Oracle Productions. Thom's work has been greatly influenced by his time working and studying at Double Edge Theatre in MA, The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards in Italy, the Odin Teatret in Denmark, Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Redmoon Theater in Chicago. Thom teaches acting and movement at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Chicago.

Fides Krucker (Vocal Specialist) is one of Canada's most innovative interpreters of vocal music. As a singer, composer and vocalographer, her work has been heralded internationally for its 'feminist jolt,' 'avant guard' sensibility, and 'heartbreaking descant.' Thirty years of experience as a contemporary opera singer, interest in a wide and catholic palate of non-verbal human sound textures, and a strong belief in and pedagogical practice of sustainable vocal practices underpin Krucker's work and produce 'extraordinary' vocalizations. Her company, Good Hair Day Productions, premiered the electroacoustic sexual-catastrophe opera Julie Sits Waiting (Walmsley/Dufort), receiving five Dora Nominations. Simultaneous to finishing writing a book on voice, Krucker joins writer/curator Dennison Smith to co-create the Three Waters Project.

Photo by Nathanael Filbert

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