WELL-BALANCED DADS Will Bring Circus-Infused Comedy to Edinburgh Fringe

Whisper Theatre Collective are set to bring their family-friendly character comedy Well-Balanced Dads to Edinburgh Fringe this August.

Join Dick and Dale, two suburban American dads and best friends, who take the audience on a camping adventure in their trusty man-van. Grab your finger guns, comb your 'stache, and brace yourselves as they take the audience on a camping trip full of dad jokes, dance moves, acrobatics, movie references, and unthreatening audience participation.

This hilarious duo balances levity with deeper themes like finding your inner child, hypermasculinity, and navigating life after the kids have flown the nest. This is the perfect show for anyone who is a dad, has a dad, or wants a dad.

Well-Balanced Dads are two characters co-developed and performed by Richie Schiraldi and Britt Anderson. The Dads were born from a cabaret act in Broken Planet Show, which toured for 2 years in Chicago and the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In 2025, the longer show was developed in the Body Passages Residency by Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble and premiered at Made in Chicago by Physical Theater Festival. Since its inception, both the cabaret act and the full length show have toured to several locations in the US (Green Bay Fringe, Borderlight Fringe in Cleveland, Chicago, IL, and Philadelphia, PA) and will continue to tour through 2026 and into 2027.

Britt Anderson is a DIY theatre maker, movement director, and physical comedy nerd that has been Chicago-based since 2012. They have worked with Aloft Circus Arts, The Artistic Home, DePaul University, the Second City Training Center, Columbia College Chicago, Theater Unspeakable, and is the Co-Artistic Director of Whisper Theatre. Some of their favorite touring locations have been Lincoln Center Education, the Kennedy Center, and Berlin. They earned their MFA in Devised Performance Practice at Columbia College Chicago/Arthaus Berlin and completed the Professional Circus Training Program at Actors Gymnasium in Evanston, IL. This will be their fourth year bringing original work to the Edinburgh Fringe, after successful runs of Arachne in 2025, Broken Planet Show in 2024, and Wild Women/Oneironauts in 2019. Britt is drawn to feminist adaptations of classic tales, bouffon clowning, cats, and fiber arts.

Richie Schiraldi is a circus and devised physical theater performer based in Chicago and the Co-Artistic Director of Whisper Theatre. He specializes in physical comedy, Cyr wheel, partner acrobatics, character work, and movement, and focuses on blending circus, movement, and character work to create interactive pieces that playfully embrace the darker things in life. Richie is inspired by his own vivid, lucid dreams, as well as a fascination with cryptic creatures, old surrealist films, and 60s/70s performance art. This has led him to create strange and absurd pieces aimed to share similar experiences with audiences. He aspires to generate a sense of magical realism in his art, and hopes to use interactive character theater to build community while making vulnerable things less scary.

Whisper Theatre Collective is a Chicago-based company that specializes in experimental, original, and physical theatre. Created by five graduates of Arthaus (formerly LISPA) and Columbia College Chicago, Whisper has produced 8 original works that have been presented in Chicago, IL, the US, the UK, and Europe. Their most recent works include The Mothman Cometh, Arachne, and Well-Balanced Dads. Whisper's mission is to produce works that challenge theatrical conventions, encourage connection between the artists and the audience, and engage with innovative, interdisciplinary techniques engrained in physically devised storytelling.

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