Walkabout Theater to Present THE RAVELING

Walkabout Theater Company will present the world premiere of THE RAVELING, co-created with Delhi-based theater Guild of the Goat and Toronto vocalist Fides Krucker, playing September 25 - October 13, 2019 at Victory Garden Theater's Prince Charitable Trust Hall, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are currently available at walkabouttheater.org, victorygardens.org, by calling (773) 871-3000 or in person at the Victory Gardens Box Office. The press openings are Thursday, September 26 at 8 pm and Friday, September 27 at 8 pm.

Prior to opening at Victory Gardens Theater, THE RAVELING will tour Chicago neighborhoods with free performances through the Chicago Park District's Night Out in the Parks from September 10 - 21, 2019 (see detailed schedule below).

Directed by Walkabout's Artistic Director Thom Pasculli, in collaboration with vocal specialist Fides Krucker and with original text by Morgan McNaught, 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.

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 Dina Marie Saubert (lighting design), Myron Elliott-Cisneros (costume design), Dominique Zaragoza (scenic design), Sonya Madrigal (assistant director), Shanyn Strub (stage manager), Nyssa Lowenstein (operations manager) and Rose Mozier (Walkabout intern) with Corey Smith (sound design consultant).

THE RAVELING was developed in residence at the Chicago Performance Lab at the University of Chicago (2018) and at Links Hall (2019), and was presented in the Chicago Physical Theater Festival in 2019. Walkabout programming is funded in part by the The MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events CityArts, and the Illinois Arts Council.

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 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, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern University.

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.

Morgan McNaught (Original Text) is a performer/playwright brewing new worlds/futures/identities into existence by redefining convention through queer interpretations of familiar narratives. Ensemble driven, McNaught works collaboratively with creative and design to collectively create a theatrical work, inclusive of all intelligence and talent within the room. Morgan's short plays have performed at the Victory Gardens One Minute Fest, First Floor Theater and their first full length play The Terrible, was produced at the New Colony. Morgan is also a contributor to The A.V. Club's Podmass. They have a BFA in performance and studied playwriting under the late and great Esiba Irobi at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Morgan is currently an MFA candidate in Playwrighting at Columbia University.

Photo: (left to right) Nigel Brown, Cooper Forsman, Katie Mazzini, Anirudh Nair, Amba-Suhasini Jhala, Dana Murphy, McCambridge Dowd-Whipple and Anastacia Narrajos in Walkabout Theater Company's world premiere of THE RAVELING. Photo by Matthew Gregory Hollis.