Credits
PERFORMERS
Katie Mazzini & Gabriel Thom Pasculli
DIRECTORS
Guilherme Kirchheim & Tara Ostiguy
DRAMATURGS
Tara Ostiguy & Desiré Graham
ORIGINAL TEXT BY
Katie Mazzini & Gabriel Thom Pasculli
MUSICAL DIRECTION
Guilherme Kirchheim
STEPPENWOLF LOOKOUT TECH DIRECTOR & LIGHTING DESIGN
Matthew Chapman
STEPPENWOLF LOOKOUT PRODUCERS
Lauren Steinberg & Patrick Zakem
STEPPENWOLF LOOKOUT PROD INTERN
Victoria Pekel
POSTER DESIGN
Alex Benito Rodriguez
ADDITIONAL CREDITS
Recognition and gratitude to Antonin Chambon, Felipe Salazar Montoya, Lynda Mebtouche and the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards for their invaluable contributions to the piece’s development. Costume elements were designed by or in collaboration with Myron Elliott-Cisneros.
TEXT EXCERPTS
Excerpts of text were used with permission from Nathalie Handal’s Love and Strange Horses, University of Pittsburgh Press, and Radiolab/WNYC Studios. Additional texts were inspired by the writing of Italo Calvino, Anne Carson, and Ellen McLaughlin.
PRODUCTION HISTORY
Work on the production began in 2019 in a special month-long collaboration with the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski in Pontedera, Italy. Development continued over the next year with separate workshops at the Workcenter and with Walkabout Theater in Chicago. Work-in-progress presentations were made at Prop Thtr's Rhino Fest in Chicago and at the Hinterlands in Detroit. The creative team returned to working in person in 2022 at Post Farm in WI before premiering at Steppenwolf’s LookOut Series.
SPECIAL THANKS
Especially to those who have hosted us in our development process including Marina and Roger Post, Maggie Kast, Nigel Brown, Jan and Len Pasculli.
To the Walkabout Board for their incredible continued support in this time of transition including Kristan Schmidt, Anna Minkov, Joe Vlahovic, Michael Karrys, and Alex Aixala.
To the Walkabout ensemble / now Wender Collective including Alex Benito Rodriguez, Amba-Suhasini Jhala, Ana Narrajos, Dana Murphy, Cooper Forsman, Gabriel Thom Pasculli, Katie Mazzini, Nigel Brown, and Rudy Nair.
To Steppenwolf Theater and especially to the incredible LookOut team including Lauren Steinberg, Matthew Chapmen, Patrick Zakem, and Victoria Pekel.
FOUNDATIONAL SUPPORT
This project was made possible in part through the support of the IL Arts Council, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and the Donnelley Foundation.
Creative Team bios.
Guilherme Kirchheim (co-director) is a Brazilian actor, singer, theater teacher and director. He is a graduate of the FUNCART (Artistic Culture Foundation of Londrina) in Brazil, and became an educator at this same institution, teaching drama and vocal technique from 2010 to 2012. Guilherme’s creative and pedagogical work is based in acting and song. He has worked since 2008 with different ensembles and communities in Brazil, culminating in spectacles, concerts, short-films and music albums, being recognized with national prizes for his work. He is the co-founder of the Núcleo Ás de Paus, a theater collective based in Londrina, with whom he traveled to major festivals and artistic circuits in Brazil, teaching and performing at public spaces until 2013. He was a member of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards (partner of the National Theater of Tuscany) from 2014 to 2021, collaborating on the research initiated by Grotowski, called Art as Vehicle, based on work with songs of tradition. At the Workcenter, Guilherme collaborated with artists of nine different nationalities on the co-creation of The Living Room, Sin Fronteras, and The Underground, directed by Thomas Richards, those of which were performed at venues and international festivals in over ten countries. Guilherme was an integral part of the international pedagogic work at the Workcenter, mentoring and directing individuals through practices based on singing and creation of authorial pieces. He is currently partnering with a few artistic collectives, continuing long-term investigations on performance and community. Along with artists from Brazil, Italy, USA, Canada and India, Guilherme is developing works based on storytelling, song and theater.
Tara Ostiguy (co-director, dramaturg) is a performer, director, teacher and dramaturg currently based in Toulouse, France. She received her formative training at the National Ballet School of Canada as a classical dancer and went on to complete a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and International Development Studies at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) and a Master’s degree in History at York University (Toronto, Canada). Tara has worked with diverse communities for over a decade, combining in her work autoethnographic reflection, storytelling, performance and song. She was a member of the company Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards (partner of the National Theatre of Tuscany) from 2013 to 2020. During this period she was both co-creator and performer in The Living Room and The Underground: A Response to Dostoevsky which were performed in festivals and venues internationally including Théâtre de la ville (France), Wuzhen Theatre Festival (China), Seoul Performing Arts Festival (Korea) and the Baltic House International Festival (Russia). Tara was a key member of the pedagogical program at the Workcenter where she developed original devised pieces with artists from around the world. She has taught at leading institutions including Ecole Supérieur d’art Dramatique - Théâtre Nationale de Bretagne, Yale National University of Singapore and Scuola del Teatro Stabile in Italy. She is currently involved in two collaborative projects in France : Hic Sunt Leones which sets out to investigate the meaning of community and narratives around climate change action and l’Empise, a one-woman show that documents gender-based violence in the performing arts world.
Desiré Graham (dramaturg, she/her) is a performer, director, dramaturg and arts administrator from Harlem, New York. She graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts and African American Studies, focusing on how the sociology of race has and continues to influence the American theatre scene, while unearthing the universality of ‘the black artist.’ Over the past few years, she’s had the pleasure of working in various productions with Speakeasy Stage, New Repertory Theatre and Yo Soy Lola in Boston, MA. She has also participated in a residency with Double Edge Theatre as part of their Artistic Internship Program, specializing in music and technical production. She was a company member at the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards from 2019-2021, performing in The Underground and Songs of Tradition, as well as facilitating workshops and mentoring visiting artists. She continues to collaborate with former colleagues on the development team for Still a Quiet Afternoon and On the Table. Currently based in New Haven, CT, Desiré is looking to develop her performance work and make ground in the cultural equity movement, committing to aid POC artists in gaining work across all artistic disciplines.
Katie Mazzini (performer, writer, she/her) was born on Long Island, New York. She graduated in 2012 with a B.F.A in Musical Theater from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Shortly after, she moved to Chicago, Illinois where she began work as a professional actor in Tracy Letts’ adaptation of Three Sisters (Steppenwolf Theater Company). She also appeared in Singin’ in the Rain (Drury Lane), and Erica Mott Production’s devised opera, 3 Singers, where she first met master vocal technician and formative mentor, Fides Krucker. In 2013, she joined Chicago’s Walkabout Theater Company. As part of the core Walkabout ensemble, she co-created and performed in numerous original pieces across the United States, India, and Poland. In 2021, Katie spent a year as a member of the Focused Research Team in Art as Vehicle at the Wokcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards in Pontedera, Italy. As part of the Workcenter, she performed in The Underground and Songs of Tradition in theaters across Colombia, Chile, and Argentina. She is currently working on two international collaborations: in Still a Quiet Afternoon and On the Table. Katie is fat. She loves research, singing, and building creative bridges across different fields and forms.
Gabriel Thom Pasculli (performer, writer, he/they) is a US/Turtle Island-based performance artist, teacher, and theater director. Exploring the intersections of performance and decolonial praxis through body, change and belonging, Gabriel Thom’s multi-linear approach to narrative embraces an interdependent process of making meaning and engaging with the unknown. For eight years, Gabriel Thom was the artistic director of Walkabout Theater in Chicago, with whom Gabriel Thom directed a series of outdoor public stilt spectacles as well as internationally-touring ensemble performances acclaimed as “surreal,” “sublime,” “gorgeous and exhilarating.” Gabriel Thom teaches acting and actor training at the University of IL in Chicago, the University of Chicago, and SUNY Purchase in New York. Gabriel Thom is currently a student of Fides Krucker in her approach to Emotionally Integrated Voice, and recently graduated from Goddard College’s MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts program with a concentration in Decolonial Arts Praxis and Performance Creation. www.gabrielthom.com