HISTORY
FORMATION
The artists of WENDER COLLECTIVE first connected through a 2012 residency at Chicago’s Links Hall, building an emergent laboratory ensemble committed to devised performance, shared authorship, and long-term collaboration. In 2014, this ensemble joined forces with Walkabout Theater Company, serving as its core artistic leadership and the collective authors of several years of original devised works. During this period, the ensemble developed a signature practice of physical theater & performance research and toured internationally as one of Chicago's premier laboratory ensembles.
NAME CHANGE
By 2019, internal discussions arose around changing the company name. The term “walkabout” is rooted in colonial misinterpretations and dismissals of Indigenous Australian cultural practices (dismissals that Aboriginal scholars and artists have long identified as harmful and ongoing). Working within nonprofit theater structures shaped by historically white leadership and colonial frameworks, the ensemble determined that continuing to use this name was incompatible with their values.
These discussions deepened during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside the ensemble's own efforts to re-examine hierarchy and sustainable practice in theater-making. After reaching a consensus, Walkabout Theater Company formally adopted the new name "Wender Collective" (to wend: to find one's way by indirect route), publicly announcing this transition during its production of Still A Quiet Afternoon at Steppenwolf in 2022. The work of this period evolved towards co-productions, interdisciplinary collaborations, and site-specific ecological theater.
In 2026 Walkabout Theater Company resumed use of its original name to create work with a new group of artists led by its founding artistic director, Kristan Schmidt. At the same time, Wender Collective formally separated from the company to continue its work independently.
Wender Collective is not affiliated with the current iteration of Walkabout Theater Company, and is a group of independent artists working through shared artistic frameworks (learn more).
