A post written for the UChicago Theater blog, hooray!

For the last month, I have spent most nights running in circles in a small, dark room, ripping up pieces of paper. This is the culmination of my college career and, oddly enough, it is far more authentically so than any purely academic work would be. This quarter we are in rehearsals for my Theatre and Performance Studies B.A. project, an (as-yet-unnamed) improvisational ensemble physical theatre performance that will be accompanied by a critical paper. By "we" I mean myself, Andrew Cutler, James LaRocque, and Elle Riley-Condit. This project is fundamentally about ensemble-building, about discovering the process through which I want to work with others to make art happen. What I have learned with the most certainty is that there some incredible, talented, and open-minded people in the University of Chicago theatre community. They have dared to trust me, to trust each other, to create an environment and a dynamic in which we can safely take risks in generating genuine and compelling material. They have trusted that, even while not every moment works, even when we are unsure, we are doing work that is worthwhile. Forgive the masturbatory language; I am very enthusiastic about this, and I want everyone else to be super pumped about it too.

So, my project in list form!: death, deception, wolves, clowns, resurrection, more death, nest-building, flower-picking, book-burning, training, rivers, Red Riding Hood, fortune-telling, darkness, death (again), touching, hunting, music, masks, confetti, and slow-dancing. Yes.

[James LaRocque and Andrew Cutler]

This unnamed project on the subjects of death and deception will be performed in the Design Lab (on the third floor of the Reynolds Club) at the following times: Feb. 26th at 6pm, Feb. 27th at 7pm, and Feb. 28th at 5pm. Those interested in sitting in on a rehearsal should email sid.branca at gmail.com. More rehearsal photographs can be found here.